New MSP FET not getting along with tools

My MSP-FET430UIF appeared to stop working, so I bought the new MSP FET.  Now I'm wondering if something else is going on.  I've tried both Elpotronic FET-Pro430 ver. 3.2 and MSP430Flasher ver. 1.3.1.0.  In both cases they appear to be using MSP430.dll version 3.4.1.0.  I'm running Windows XP in a VMWare Fusion virtual machine, as I have been for a number of years with no problems.  The MSP FET installed fully and automatically the first time I plugged in the USB cable.  In Device Manager it shows up as a pair of COM ports, called Debug and UART1.  Both of the tools find its Debug port, which happened to be COM34 when I was trying it.  There were no apparent device errors.  The MSP FET has a green light.

The problem comes when the application (FET-Pro430 or MSP430Flasher) tries to talk to the MSP FET.  The latter's red light turns on (green stays on) and stays on, and the application hangs until I kill it.  I've tried this multiple times.  For instance, MSP430Flasher says:

Found USB FET @ COM34 <- Selected

Initializing interface @ COM34...

And there it sits.  I realize it could be some sort of WIndows problem, but if it is, I have no idea how to address it. Other applications using USB-to-UART cables communicate with other external devices quite happily. 

What further diagnostics can I perform?

Thanks,
Scott