Workstation 11 .0.0 Build-2305329 hangs - Win 8.1 host

[TkPk]

Hello.  I have a new Dell Inspiron 3847 (i5-4460) with 16G RAM, Intel HD Graphics 4600 with 10.18.10.3960 driver, Windows 8.1 and am trying to run Workstation 11.

The only other applications installed (other than the bloatware that came on the box) on the host are Norton Security, Chrome and CrashPlan, which has backup of the Virtual Machine directory excluded.

The problem is that the Workstation app shows "not responding" often and the guests hang.  After a couple minutes, it all comes back to life.  I'm running between 1 and 3 guests, all either win 7 or win 8.1.

Where should I look to begin to troubleshoot this.  I would have expected this setup to be somewhat responsive.  I've looked at other posts and have disabled "Accelerate 3D graphics" on all 3 VMs.

Thanks

[tzimme]

I am also experiencing this same issue, and support or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[yanw]

Does your Workstation app always shows "not responding" if you are running just one guest at the same time?

[TkPk]

I'll have to double check, but I believe I get the "Not Responding" whether running one guest or two.

[TkPk]

It doesn't matter if there's one guest running or two...  :smileyplain:

[TkPk]

Just a note:  Despite having excluded the VM directory from Crashplan, I'm concerned that it is part of the problem. 

I've now set Crashplan on the host to backup only during the middle of the night.  So far, I haven't had a hang during working hours.  We'll see.

[WhiteKnight]

I'm experiencing the same problem here.

My setup didn't change. After updating to Workstation 11, about once every hour my guests keep hanging for about 10-15 secs. while I'm working in Fullscreen mode.

Can't do anything within the guest, nothing works, not even Workstation keyboard shortcuts.

Only thing I can do it to move the mouse to the Workstation toolbar to exit fullscreen mode. But even then, the guest screen is not updated. But shortly after having left Fullscreen mode, the hanging stops and the guest operates as usual.

Performance monitor in the host shows no extraordinary activity whatsoever while the hanging occurs.

This is a serious problem with Workstation 11.

Host: Windows 7/64

Guest: Windows Server 2008 R2, Workstation 10 hardware setup

Machine: Fastest on the face of the earth: Intel i7-5960 Extreme Edition, 32 GB RAM, 3 SSD drives, 2 HDD drives (Archive, almost constantly in standby mode, supposed not to be used by Workstation)

[shellycat]

Very similar issues here.  Workstation 11, same build.

Host Windows 8.1 64 bit, HP Envy Laptop, Intel Core i5-4200M CPU 8G Ram.  Virtualisation enabled in BIOS.

Guest Windows 7 64 bit.

Sometimes hangs for a few seconds.  Last night twice it hung for several minutes, and I had to shut down the host with the power button twice.

It seems to hang in full screen mode mostly.

Are there any VMware logs I need to look at? There are no Windows logs that seem useful, except "Previous shutdown was unexpected".

Edit: And again, lock up for 10 minutes, eventually came back.  Disk was at max activity from task manager,  and had been throughout (going by the LED indicator).

[admin]

A shot in the dark...

Try the following configuration option:

monitor_control.disable_hostedIPI = TRUE

[shellycat]

Tried that.  Did not find any error messages about it in vmware log. But I don't know if

that is right place to look for error messages.  I edited

C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation\config.ini  - is that the right file?

Also adjusted guest to have 4G memory, and fixed paging file.

Froze again.  This time definitely not disk activity, since not in full screen mode

and I had a resource monitor open

VMware stopped responding,

other windows processes still working.  The wait chain analyser said

"One of more threads of vmware.exe are waiting to finish network IO"

Hung for about 2 mins.

Attaching vmware log

[admin]

One thing that I noticed is that your CPU has microcode patch level 0x1a.  The current microcode patch for this CPU is 0x1c. It might not be relevant, but I would recommend checking for a BIOS update.

[shellycat]

There are no bios upgrades according to HP support tool.

Still checking for causes, but not used it a lot in last few days.

[shellycat]

Hang again.  This time using a linux VM.  Had to do a hard reset on the machine after 40 minutes.

I do have a clue though - after last time I have windows updates set to "download but don't install".  I just

had a windows defender update download I think.  There are various errors in the system error log

Event Type:	Information
Event Source:	Service Control Manager
Event Category:	None
Event ID:	7040
Date:		01/02/2015
Time:		17:12:05
User:		NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer:	thrush

Description:

The start type of the Windows Modules Installer service was changed from demand start to auto start.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Event Type:	Error
Event Source:	DCOM
Event Category:	None
Event ID:	10010
Date:		01/02/2015
Time:		17:13:23
User:		thrush\roger
Computer:	thrush

Description:

The description for Event ID ( 10010 ) in Source ( DCOM ) cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer, or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer, or contact the component manufacturer for a newer version.

If the event was saved from another computer or forwarded from a remote computer, you might have to include display information with the events when saving them or when setting up the forwarding s {1B1F472E-3221-4826-97DB-2C2324D389AE}.

Event Type:	Error
Event Source:	Service Control Manager
Event Category:	None
Event ID:	7009
Date:		01/02/2015
Time:		17:13:53
User:		N/A
Computer:	thrush

Description:

A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the Optimise drives service to connect.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Data:

0000: 64 00 65 00 66 00 72 00   d.e.f.r.

0008: 61 00 67 00 73 00 76 00   a.g.s.v.

0010: 63 00 00 00               c...   

Event Type:	Error
Event Source:	DCOM
Event Category:	None
Event ID:	10010
Date:		01/02/2015
Time:		17:13:23
User:		thrush\roger
Computer:	thrush

Description:

The description for Event ID ( 10010 ) in Source ( DCOM ) cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer, or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer, or contact the component manufacturer for a newer version.

If the event was saved from another computer or forwarded from a remote computer, you might have to include display information with the events when saving them or when setting up the forwarding s {1B1F472E-3221-4826-97DB-2C2324D389AE}.

Event Type:	Error
Event Source:	Service Control Manager
Event Category:	None
Event ID:	7009
Date:		01/02/2015
Time:		17:13:53
User:		N/A
Computer:	thrush

Description:

A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the Optimise drives service to connect.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Data:

0000: 64 00 65 00 66 00 72 00   d.e.f.r.

0008: 61 00 67 00 73 00 76 00   a.g.s.v.

0010: 63 00 00 00               c...   

Event Type:	Error
Event Source:	Service Control Manager
Event Category:	None
Event ID:	7000
Date:		01/02/2015
Time:		17:13:53
User:		N/A
Computer:	thrush

Description:

The Optimise drives service failed to start due to the following error:

%%1053

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Data:

0000: 64 00 65 00 66 00 72 00   d.e.f.r.

0008: 61 00 67 00 73 00 76 00   a.g.s.v.

0010: 63 00 00 00               c...   

Couple more dcom ones, last one before restart:

Event Type:	Information
Event Source:	Service Control Manager
Event Category:	None
Event ID:	7040
Date:		01/02/2015
Time:		17:17:07
User:		NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer:	thrush

Description:

The start type of the Background Intelligent Transfer Service service was changed from auto start to demand start.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

[WhiteKnight]

Mine is hanging occasionally, too.

Isn't there some kind of pinging mechanism in Workstation that's recognizing when the guest doesn't respond, say every second, to user input or clock?

The keyboard hook, for example, should be able to notice (and record) when a keyboard press hasn't been processed by the guest OS within a glimpse.

[admin]

shellycat wrote:

There are no bios upgrades according to HP support tool.

Still checking for causes, but not used it a lot in last few days.

You can try updating the microcode with the VMware Microcode Update Driver (https://labs.vmware.com/flings/vmware-cpu-microcode-update-driver).

[admin]

This could be Intel erratum HSM143.  I don't know which microcode patch fixes that one for the i5-4200M.  However, if you don't want to try the VMware Microcode Update Driver, you can also disable EPT on your guests (all running guests) by setting the preferred execution mode to "Intel VT-x or AMD-V" (the selection that doesn't mention EPT or RVI).

[WhiteKnight]

I've installed the tool and downloaded the suggested .dat files. No change:

"An update for this CPU was not found.  No update has been attempted."

[admin]

Based on the log you posted in another thread, there should be a microcode update for your CPU.  Did you download the 1/21/2015 microcode.dat file from Intel?  (The filename would have been microcode-20150121.tgz.)

Note that the example Intel microcode URL given in the VMware Microcode Update Drive instructions is no longer current.  At the risk of propagating another outdated link for future readers, the current microcode update (as of 2/3/2015) is https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=24661

[shellycat]

I'm looking at the fling driver (now figured out the teeny tiny tick box near the licence agreement), but in the meantime:

"setting the preferred execution mode to "Intel VT-x or AMD-V" (the selection that doesn't mention EPT or RVI)."

Where is that setting, and is it per-vm.  I cannot see anything in the BIOS, and I cannot see anything in the settings for the virtual machines, and I looked a config file

and could not see it.

(Workstation 11)

[admin]

VM->Settings->Processors->Virtualization Engine->Preferred Mode.