vmwareuser.exe cpu 100%

[juliangall]

Since upgrading to Fusion 2.0, I have had a couple of times when the Mac has slowed to a standstill. The culprit has been the vmwareuser.exe process in the running VM consuming 100% CPU. Windows XP SP2. OSX 10.5.5.

Restarting the VM cures the problem for a while, but it comes back.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Julian

[JeFurry]

I concur that it happens only in Unity. I also have multiple screens - one 30" surrounded by 2 21" screens in portrait mode on a separate graphics card. This exceeds the maximum hardware-accelerated texture size, and VMWare Fusion should therefore be using software rendering... but I have turned off "Use all displays in fullscreen" and it seems happy to use what seems to be full speed on the central display in fullscreen mode.

I upgraded to 2.02, and turned off all folder sharing and mirrored folders completely, and also deactivated "allow your mac to open applications in the virtual machine", and switched back to Unity.

The vmwareuser.exe 100% CPU problem has not happened to me in the six or so hours of use I've had since then, whereas it used to happen after about fifteen minutes of Unity usage (I'd given up on Unity as a consequence). It's early days yet, but something appears to have at least improved, if not been fixed properly.

[topgunli]

Thanks for feedback. I guess maybe VMwareUser inside the

guest un-registered all callbacks. Can you follow the instruction to

collect guest log?

To do that go to:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Tools, Then open the tools.conf file.

Add two entries:

log = "TRUE"

log.file = "C:\vmtools.log"

Then log out and log back in to your VM Wait for vmwareuser.exe to start using 100% of your cpu and upload the resulting log

files. There should be one at c:\vmtools.log and possibly more than one

at c:\vmtools.log.<process id> where process id is just a number.

Once you are done, make sure to turn off logging by removing the two entries because they can take up a lot of space over time.

[topgunli]

Thanks for feedback. I guess maybe VMwareUser inside the

guest un-registered all callbacks. Can you follow the instruction to

collect guest log?

To do that go to:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Tools, Then open the tools.conf file.

Add two entries:

log = "TRUE"

log.file = "C:\vmtools.log"

Then log out and log back in to your VM Wait for vmwareuser.exe to start using 100% of your cpu and upload the resulting log

files. There should be one at c:\vmtools.log and possibly more than one

at c:\vmtools.log.<process id> where process id is just a number.

Once you are done, make sure to turn off logging by removing the two entries because they can take up a lot of space over time.

[frases]

Guys,

I had the same problem. On my MacBook Pro 17" (dual core 2.4Ghz, 2GB RAM) running OSX 10.5.6, I was running an XP SP2 VM running one processor under Fusion 2.0.2. The one dedicated CPU would spike to 100% and my mouse disappeared. Thus, I had to control XP via the keyboard, always an exciting task. Of course, the display was really sluggish as others have reported. I did try the reinstall of VMware Tools, but that didn't work. Two things in conjunction did work:

1) under Settings -> Sharing -> Shared Applications, I disabled "Allow your Mac to open applications in the virtual machine"

2) in the same dialog box, select "Never" for "Show running virtual machine applications in the dock"

Update 2009/02/16: Shutdown your vm and restart Fusion to make sure the changes are effective.

Update 2009/02/18: I should clarify that my MacBook was upgraded to OSX 10.5 Leopard recently. I believe the DVD upgraded it to 10.5.4, and then I did another interim upgrade via Internet download to 10.5.6.

When you read the list of caveats in the VMware Fusion Release Notes, it is quite a litany of troubles. I guess this is where complexity gets us..too many combinations of guest and host OS versions for the company to adequately QA their products.

'sodo

[neilinnz]

I've tried what the last poster suggested and it doesn't fix the problem for me when in Unity on a dual screen iMac.

And, I don't have a C:\Documents

and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Tools folder

within my VM and therefore don't have a tools.conf file to open. (ignore this, found it, t'was hidden!)

[neilinnz]

I have the log files, do you have an email address at vmware I can send them to rather than uploading them here for everyone to see? Or I can cut n paste any you wish me to searchfor within them?

Also, which ones do you want it seems to have created 4 files, vmtools.txt, vmtools.log.1952, vmtools.log.2024, vmtools.log.old

I can recreate the problem now at will, here's how you can re-create it (hopefully).

I have an iMac with an external 2nd screen. I open up the Windows XP SP3 VM on the external screen in full-screen mode, I then hit CRTLCMDU to switch to Unity mode. I open up IE7 and move it to the internal iMac screen. Then hit CMDSHIFT4 to take a screen grab and then drag n drop the screen grab into a shared VM Shared Folder that I have in my Mac dock - THEN we get 100% CPU.I have NO mirrored folders just a single shared folder. I am running the latest just released version of Fusion 2.0.2 and Leopard 10.5.6.

I'm not sure if you need to do all that to re-create the issue but if I do if deffo happens again.

[neilinnz]

Further information if anyone is still listening....

This problem only seems to occur for me when I run Unity with Shared Folders and when I drag n drop a file from Mac to a shared folder. Using shared folders in full screen mode works fine.

I have now stopped using shared folders and am now accessing an AirDisk from Mac and Windows in order to share files. So far (fingers crossed) this setup has now stopped the 100% CPU annoyance.

[topgunli]

Can you email the log file to lingli@vmware.com? If they are not huge files, can you email me all 4 files? Thanks

Also I am not quite sure about your description. Which side you took the screen grab? Host side or guest side? You first saved it into local disk? The shared VM Shared Folder is another guest Unity window? You drop into the Unity window itself or dock icon?

[neilinnz]

Logs have been emailed.

I screen grab in Leopard using CMDSHIFT4 which creates a file on the desktop. I then drag that file into the shared folder within Mac which has a link in my dock (ie. I've put 'Shared Folder' which is in my Documents on Mac side in my dock - I then drag the file from the desktop onto 'Shared Folder' on the dock - this seems to trigger the 100% CPU). I can then access that shared folder from within Windows to use the screen grab.

I hope that makes more sense.

I think it does it for all files, it's just I do screen grabs quite a bit.

[topgunli]

Thanks for the log files. From log file I did not see anything wrong, so can you provide more information?

1. Please check inside the guest which application took 100% cpu. Is it VMwareUser.exe?

2. All what you did were in Unity mode, right?

3. Can you explain more about 'Shared Folder' which is in my Documents on Mac side in my dock? This 'Shared Folde' is inside the guest, and it is a Windows folde? Or it is in host side and it is a Mac folder? How you create the link on Mac dock? By dragging the 'Shared Folder' into Mac dock? Where is original 'Shared Folder' located?

[neilinnz]

1. It is the VMwareUser.exe that takes 100% of CPU.

2. Yes, I don't have a problem when in full screen mode, only when running Unity on my dual screen iMac.

3. In Finder on the Mac I created a folder within my Documents folder called 'SharedFolder' (so /Users/xxxx/Documents/SharedFolder) I then share this folder 'SharedFolder' from my Mac with the Virtual Machine on the Sharing tab of the VM Settings. I DO NOT mirror any folders at all.

In Finder on the Mac I drag my 'SharedFolder' to my dock so I have easy access to it. I can then drag n drop any files I want to see within Windows to my 'SharedFolder' in my Macs doc.

One thing which may affect it??? I have the Windows taskbar on my external screen when running in Unity and my dock on my iMac screen - not sure if that would make any difference.

Also, I just tried to re-create the problem again and it looks like I also have to open Internet Explorer and have that on the iMac screen too in order for the 100% CPU.

So, iMac screen plus external screen - Windows in Unity mode running with taskbar on external screen - Mac dock on iMac screen. Open IE7 and move that to iMac screen - drag n drop a file into SharedFolder in the dock then 100%CPU issue occurs!

[topgunli]

Thanks very much for your detailed description. I will try to reproduce it sometime tomorrow when Iam back to office. And if you got time, can you do more test? I think the reason is that when you drag something over the Unity window, our internal DnD is triggered, but does not do cleanup gracefully enough. So can you try this? If you DnD the file carefully enough not to hit the IE7 window at all, can you still reproduce the bug? With other Unity window can you still reproduce the bug? I guess any Unity window will trigger the bug. Also if you put all window into iMac screen, can you still reproduce the bug? Your feedback and help is highly appreciated. I will keep you updated with my investigation.

[neilinnz]

Can I just add that Shared Folders isn't the only cause of the problem.

I have been running for about 4 hours today with Shared Folders switched off and the 100% CPU has just surfaced again!

I am now going to try using Unity with the 'Show running virtual machine applications in the Dock' set to Never (it was set to In Unity this morning when the problem happened).

[jarome]

How about fixing SR# 1139197970? You acknowledged that it was a real bug. It pins my cpu to 100% if I turn on my Cisco VPN. Yet this has not been fixed, and it is not listed on the latest release notes "known issues". Something is very rotten in the VM.

[jarome]

How about fixing SR# 1139197970? You acknowledged that it was a real bug. It pins my cpu to 100% if I turn on my Cisco VPN. Yet this has not been fixed, and it is not listed on the latest release notes "known issues". Something is very rotten in the VM.

[topgunli]

I think we have difficulty to reproduce the bug. One of our QA spent almost 1 day with several setups and still unable to reproduce. I said this just to let you know that we did not ignore the SR, but please understand that it is not an easy one.

[jarome]

You said you had found the bug:

Based on your Support Request, we tested your problem description in our lab. After detailed analysis, we believe we have identified a 'bug' with the software. We are unable to provide you with an immediate solution at this time and there is no workaround feasible for this current release.

 And it has only gotten worse with succeeding releases. I must still use the 2.0RC. 

[topgunli]

I tried today with my setup, and can partially reproduce the bug. When I drag some files over IE7 in Mac screen I noticed that some area is high-lighted, which is weird, and may cause problem. But I never see VMwareUser took 100% CPU. I guess what happened here is that when you drag some files over IE7, we take it as a host->guest DnD, and will do some mouse simulation inside guest. But for some unknown reason in dual-screen mode we updated the mouse in wrong places, and VMwareUser may be confused with wrong mouse updates. So I think the workaround is that if you only do host DnD, try not to drag over any guest Unity window. Also can not confirm if you can reproduce the bug by dragging some files over any Unity Window?

We will do more investigation about mouse update in dual-screen mode and try to get a fix. Thanks for your feedback.

[JefferyRPrice]

I've tried every suggestion in this and other similar threads, but other than resorting to full screen mode, I always encounter this debilitating bug. As this has existed since the first betas of 2.0 and has yet to be fixed, I have to say I'm very disappointed. At this point, being the "long time Mac user" amongst several people who have switched, are switching, or are planning to switch to Macs, I've had to point them all to Parallels.

[coppit]

Have you tried the 2.0.2 that was just released? I noticed in the release notes some comments about fixing bugs related to CPU consumption. They mentioned coherence mode, transferring files between guest and host, etc. -- all of which seemed to be related to this problem for me. After I installed it I turned sharing of "My Documents" back on and so far I haven't had a problem (a week or so).