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bartgrefte
Contributor
Contributor

Workstation 10: Windows 8.1 not recognized and beeps from pc speaker after starting VM?!

Earlier today I upgraded Workstation 9.0.0 to v10, one of the reasons is that Windows 8.1 is supposedly supported as guest.

The Windows 8.1 ISO's I got from MSDN ( and are NOT recognized plus 8.1 is not even mentioned in the list with operating systems.

And after manually selecting 8(.0) x64, the VM started sending beeps through the speaker in my computer case after I hit the power-up button.. I disabled the beeping by adding mks.noBeep = "TRUE" to the VMX file.

What's up with that?

17 Replies
avanish321
Expert
Expert

Windows 8.1 does indeed work fine under Workstation.

Ensure that the downloaded iso image sizes matches to that mentioned in website.

If you want to try windows 8.1 under workstation try using the iso image from below MS website

Download Windows 8.1 Preview ISO files - Microsoft Windows

Cheers! Avanish
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UnitUniverse2
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

i met the same experience days before, but i can sure that the beep will gone after you pressed the F2 and entered the bios(of the vm, of course) setup and save configuration then restart the vm again.

The function Beep is what i need because i'm using windows 7 which has no direct support of the system speaker and the OS redirect the beeping requestings to the sound card output, which is what i don't have expected. so it's not the big deal.

But i can sure that the windows 8.1 will Install and run just fine in VM 10 except for a little video issues in a few of Modern UI games. The key is to make sure that the VM being created regularly, choose the 'I will install the operating system later' rather than specifies the iso or a CD drive with os installation CDrom preloaded during creating the vm with the New Virtual Machine Wizard. After the VM template folder and files created successfully then you can load the installation disc or image file with 'VM'->'Settings ...' options then do whatever you have planned to do.

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lakshya32
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

<p>Hi Mark</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Welcome to the communities. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p> After manula selection hope you are able to run windows 8.1.</p>

<p>About beep you have already disabled that option so noting need to worry.

</p>

  

  <p></p>

<p></p>

<p></p><div style="border-top:1px dotted #ccc; padding-top:10px; color:#666;

font-size:0.8889em;">"Look for your choices, pick the best one."<img

src="http://imagicon.info/cat/5-59/vbsmile.png"/></div></body>

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bartgrefte
Contributor
Contributor

It works indeed, I've got 8.1 running without problems. But if VMware says in the releasenotes it's supported, I expect it to recognize the ISO's or at least list 8.1 in the list of supported operating systems. Neither of which is the case. Plus I noticed a topic from someone else noticing exactly the same: Windows 8.1 Easy Install on Workstation 10

The SHA1 hashes of the ISO's match, so no problem there.

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UnitUniverse2
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It's not their fault i think. The kernel of the windows 8.1 is actually the same with windows 8 and you can treat it as the windows 8 SP1 update. It is not needed to list it out individually(nothing wrong either if it had been done. just technically unnecessary).

Actually i hope that the developer of the VM may let the New Virtual Machine Wizard leave the beeping option 'mks.noBeep = "TRUE"' listed in VMX file when a new virtual machine is created. Since there may(generally. I don't know how the vm project is organized but generally it should be) be more convenient to make and less side-effect caused, by modifying the text outputing of the Creating Wizard rather than remove the Beeping function from the vm core drivers (i'm a developer either, not one of the VM but else stuffs). Many people don't like the Beep sound but when you needed it again then you got it(personally i don't hope the Beeping function being removed totally), so it's more reasonable.

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mdunn-vmware
Expert
Expert

I downloaded nl_windows_8_1_x64_dvd_2707297 and selected it in the new VM wizard, and Workstation identifies it as 8.1.  If you install the guest from your ISO, does it install correctly?

Can you check the hashes of your ISO?  The hashes of my file are:

MD5: d16d0fa8eefba437f89e7dc2b5d3ea80

SHA1: 67f6a64d7a9c3671baa663f03bc513f2548d7e08

We treat Windows 8 and 8.1 the same in other areas of Workstation, so it's correct that the list of guest OS types only mentions Windows 8.

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bartgrefte
Contributor
Contributor

The hashes match, still not recognized but installs without problems if I manually set 8.0.

Plus it's not just me and not just this specific iso, the x86 is not recognized either and see the other topic I mentioned earlier. There it's en_windows_8_1_x86_dvd_2707392.iso that's not recognized.

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mdunn-vmware
Expert
Expert

Sorry for the confusion here, I just checked our bug about this issue, and it was not fixed in WS 10.0.  We got the Windows 8.1 RTM build after we finished WS 10, and the contents of the RTM disc are different enough from the preview build that our code does not recognize it as an install disc.  For the time being, you'll need to manually install 8.1, and choose Windows 8 as the guest type.

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bartgrefte
Contributor
Contributor

Okay, that explains it, I'm guessing that will be fixed in 10.0.1?

And now the beeps that started after upgrading to v10. Is there any way I can have that permanently disabled for all current and new VM's? Plus I'm curious what the reason behind it is. Unless I'm mistaking, I didn't read anything in the releasenotes about this.

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UnitUniverse2
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

@bartgrefte

  If you specify either the virtual CD-Rom ("CD/DVD") or virtual hard-drives as IDE mode("Virtual Machine Settings" -> either ['CD/DVD' -> 'Advanced ...' -> 'Virtual Device Node'] or [remove the 'Hard Disk n' and add a new one in IDE mode]) the beeps will go away during boot time. The bios of the vm for 32-bit virtual machines seems 'old-style' a little since the old PCs would compain about that 'error' state by beeping to remind the user that there is no primary disc for boot. Those pc won't accept the SCSI disk or SATA one as the primary boot device while there is no IDE drive exists.

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bartgrefte
Contributor
Contributor

I'm not running W8.1 x86 but x64, does the same apply? I already got rid of the beeps with W8.1 by adding mks.noBeep = "TRUE" to the VMX file and it's not the same with every VM. W8.1 played 3 beeps during startup, with a specific pattern I don't remember at this time, and did not show errors, IPFire plays one short beep during shutdown (none during startup), also without displaying an error. Haven't checked the other VM's (7x64 / XPx86 / FEL / WS2008x86) yet.

I'm still curious why the beeping started with Workstation 10.

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UnitUniverse2
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

The x64 virtual machine just beeps when all local-drives are SATAs. Change the CD/DVD drive to either IDE mode or SCSI mode will stop the beeps. In either x86 or x64 no message will appear on screen as error tip but only beeps.

I haven't IPFire installed so i can't tell you anything about it. IMO it's for something else than drive issues, perhaps power management of the VM is not compatible or even it's just the IPFire itself beeping for attended. See this linkage:

http://forum.ipfire.org/index.php?topic=2137.0

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mdunn-vmware
Expert
Expert

Thanks for tracking down the steps to reproduce the beeps. I've entered a bug in our system about it.

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bartgrefte
Contributor
Contributor

Then why didn't VMware Workstation 9 or earlier versions show this behavior?

I have a physical machine with IPFire. It plays a tune after completing startup and it plays a tune when shutting down. No single short beep like in the VM. So if VMware Workstation 10 gives the VM's access to the pc-speaker, shouldn't I hear the default startup/shutdown tunes? Guess it's something else then.

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OscarDavey
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hello,

Windows 8.1 is not in list, but when I customized Virtual Machine configuration

and mentioned Windows 8, it worked.

About beep, check BIOS settings, it maybe from there.

Hope will help.

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UnitUniverse2
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

@bartgrefte:

I can tell you why: Because there is totally no beep supporting in the WS9. I used several executable files like old MS-DOS game like Super Mario(Running under the MS-DOS) and other stuffs made by myself which call the Beep API of the windows(Running under the WinXP x86) and got no sound outputted. There is no beep can be output at all(actually i'm using it now coz i have bought the license for ver.9 only but not the 10, i just tested the ver.10 last month).

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dariusd
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

This issue is addressed in Workstation 10.0.2, which was recently released.

After updating Workstation, the VM should no longer issue PC speaker beeps when booting with an AHCI or SCSI controller which has an attached a CDROM drive but no hard disk drives.  If you have snapshots of running VMs, or if you have suspended VMs, those VMs will receive the fix when they next power off – restarting/rebooting is not sufficient, and they will continue to issue spurious beeps if they are rebooted before the next power off.

Cheers,

--

Darius

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