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twin_real
Contributor
Contributor

Slow mouse movement and display performance W2K8x64

After having those well known problems with slow mouse movement and bad display performance in Windows 2008 x64 and Windows 7 x64 VMs and reading here a lot without solving the problem, i finally found a solution.

Trying the following things didn't succeed:

- Display Hardware Acceleration set to full (already the default under W2K8 and Win7)

- Change mouse driver from VMware to Microsoft Mouse or vice versa.

- Installing other Display driver as Standard VGA not possible because VMware Tools comes without any Display driver in the Drivers Folder by default.

- Uninstalling Vmware Tools / Reinstalling.

So, i did the following:

- In VI Client rightclicked on the VM and choosed "Install/Upgrade VMware Tools"

- In VM opended Windows Explorer and browsed to the CD-Drive with the VMware Tools setupfiles.

- Copied out the complete \program\drivers Folder to any local location (you don't have to do this, but it's not bad to see what drivers come with VMware Tools, since not all of them are installed or copied by default.

- Do a Display Driver Update and choose have Disk and browse to the Drivers\video\2008\64bit Folder. Now the VMware SVGA II Driver will be installed.

- Reboot the VM and have fun with smooth mouse moving.

I think this will work with Windows 2008 / Windows 7  32Bit, too.

I really don't understand why VMware is not fixing this, since it seems to be the same problem in vsphere 4.1

VMware Tools definitely install the wrong or no Video Driver at all.

A Knowledgebase article even would help !

Best Regards

Thomas

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MauroBonder
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

- set the Video RAM to 32MB

- Install the following driver for the Video-Card: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\wddm_video

same problem - follow link of this forum http://communities.vmware.com/message/1592228

One reboot later the mouse will be working fine

hope the ask

*Please, don't forget the awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers. *Por favor, não esqueça de atribuir os pontos se a resposta foi útil ou resolveu o problema.* Thank you/Obrigado
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twin_real
Contributor
Contributor

For us there is no VMware folder under Common Files and in the \Program Files\VMware folder there is no video folder.

So maybe this is different in ESX 3.5 and 4.1

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MauroBonder
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

check in hcl, put all informations of your environment. ESX3.5 UPDATE ???

http://www.vmware.com/go/hcl

*Please, don't forget the awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers. *Por favor, não esqueça de atribuir os pontos se a resposta foi útil ou resolveu o problema.* Thank you/Obrigado
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twin_real
Contributor
Contributor

VI2.5 ESX3.5 Update5 incl. latest Patches

What is the reason for searching in hcl ?

Our systems (HP ProLiant DL380G5) are fully supported by vmware.

However, the solution posted from me, worked for us and maybe others who don't have the above vmware and video folders.

UPDATE: The svga-driver seems to freeze the console when in VM and scrolling somewhere in Explorer i.E. That's reproduceable.

Again i searched for the WDDM driver and mounted the VMware Tools ISO, but on whole CD there is no WDDM Driver. Why ?

Where can i get this WDDM ?

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satishchirala
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

HI Please updrade the fireware to resolve this issue

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twin_real
Contributor
Contributor

I think you meant firmware. What firmware ?

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JMWTech
Contributor
Contributor

We're operating in a 4.1 environment here so I'm not sure how much help I can be to you but two things as I understand it have to happen.  The Virtual Hardware needs to be at version 7 and you need to switch the display drivers (which you already know).

I've outlined what worked for us in this post: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/296318

I'm not positive what hardware version is supported in 3.5 so using the driver below may not work for you on a different hardware version.

The vmware tools ISO is located here: http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/4.1latest/windows/x64/index.html

I wouldn't install this on a production server right off the bat because I don't know how 4.1 tools would impact a 3.5 environment (shouldn't right?).  If you have a dev server to try it on just mount the iso to the VM and install the tools.  The WDDM drivers should be located in the directories created by the tools install.

Good luck.

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TerryOdom
Contributor
Contributor

You said, "In VM opended Windows Explorer and browsed to the CD-Drive with the VMware Tools setupfiles."  You're accessing a CD or thumb drive, right?

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twin_real
Contributor
Contributor

@TerryOdom

When using Virtual Infrastructure Client, you can install/upgrade VMWare Tools without having the source files on a disk. After choosing install/upgrade via rightclick on the VM, a drive is automatically mounted in the VM OS. And in this drive  you can find all the needed driver files.

Regards

Thomas

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aguarneri
Contributor
Contributor

Hi there and thanks for good input.

My Win XP guest was running smoothly in my VM Ware Fusion (MacBookAir) until I did a last VM Ware Tools upgrade 2-3 days ago... Then I got no VGA adapter installed and unusable mouse - actually touchpad quite good, but magic mouse just too slow, and no ability to get mouse pointer outside guest window w/o CTRL-ALT or CTRL-CMD...

So I followed twin_real suggestion and installed VGA driver manually. Posting here now 'cause path (and configuration as you might guess) is a bit different:

in ITALIAN OS: C:\Programmi\File comuni\VMware\Drivers\video_xpdm

which in ENGLISH OS would be: C:\Program FIles\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\video_xpdm

Don't forget to reboot.

Cheers,

Alex

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