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TomFilliman
Contributor
Contributor

All VMs Start with Black Screen

Recently moved all my VMs from Host Win7-64bit to Win8-64bit.

Fresh install of Player v 5.0.2 build-1031769

Computer is Acer Aspire M Intel i5 @ 1.8Ghz

Graphics is Intel HD 4000

When any of the various VMs are started from the Powered Off state, the player window will open and a big black screen will appear where the guest display should be shown. The guest OS does indeed boot, right up to the login screen although with no display visible. If I try to click on the close button in the upper right corner, I get a dialog box that says "The Virtual Machine is Busy". My only option is to end the vmplayer.exe task using task manager. Once I do that, the VM shows state as Powered On in the Library. If I Play it the 2nd time, the VM will resume operating correctly with the proper display at the immediate point where I expected it to be when I ended the vmplayer.exe task earlier.

Presence or absence of Tools in Guest does not affect the problem.

All 3 of my VMs have the exact same behavior. Guest operating Systems are: WinXP-SP3-32bit, Win7-64bit built from the VMware Converter, and Server 2008 from the MS eval ISO.

Any ideas? Once the play/end task/play sequence is performed the VM works correctly. Until it is shutdown or hibernated. A VM restart does not exhibit this symptom. The problem is reproducible with all VMs every time.

Provided vmx for the XP VM and a few logs.

Thanks in advance. I'm so close to having this work it's even more frustrating than if it didn't work at all.

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24 Replies
funmbna1
Contributor
Contributor

Tom - were you able to get a resolution to this problem?   If so, can you tell me what it is?   I'm getting the exact same behavior and don't know how to fix it.   Thanks so much!!

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TomFilliman
Contributor
Contributor

Yes...sort of found a workaround that gets past the problem. Wish VMware would acknowledge the underlying problem or provide a fix.

I have found that no matter my VM settings, I have problems if there are no errors with the VM configuration. The VM starts and the guest OS boots normally, but the screen remains black and the task needs to be terminated.

If however, I configure the VM such that there is some sort of configuration error (non-existent device, CD-Rom mapped to missing ISO, etc...) that Player throws a warning dialog about the configuration problem on VM boot and whatever that does to the video it is enough to get the VM to boot correctly with the display active. So as my workaround I added a floppy drive to all the VM's (which doesn't really exist on the host) and that is enough to generate a "Cannot connect the virtual device floppy0 because no corresponding device is available on the host." dialog on start that you have to click Yes on (to prevent Player from "fixing" the config issue) and that works around the video problem for all of my VM's. (XP, 7Ultimate, 😎

Hope this helps you out.

Tom..

Coach300
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

What I've done is to pass CTRL-ALT-DEL to the VM and let the screen pop up and select "change user" and manually select the user as appropriate. Yes, it's an extra step, but it serves the purpose.

I haven't used the VM long enough to know if this behavior goes away after more restarts, or if it will be the norm. I'm setting this up for my parents to be able to use their old Vista machine on their new Windows 8 machine (which they can't stand).

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joulem
Contributor
Contributor

Tom's method for getting around the black screen worked for me.  Thanks!

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nkoszyk
Contributor
Contributor

I ran into this same issue. I created a brand new XP VM, created a snapshot, and then the next time I booted, it started up and then ended at the dreaded 'black screen'.

Fortunately, the answer to this question: http://superuser.com/questions/842598/black-screen-on-xp-guest resolved the issue for me:

"In the Virtual Machine Settings of the guest that is blank, under Hardware, Display, try turning off Accelerate 3D graphics."

VMWareDisplaySettings.png

Virtrium
Contributor
Contributor

nkoszyk solution of disabling 3D graphics worked for me. This problem seems to be new with v12 of workstation.

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nzi95001
Contributor
Contributor

I too am having this same problem with workstation 12. Happens every time with my Win 7 VM after the host has been rebooted. Occasionally happens with my Xubuntu VM. Only way I've figured to get into the VM is kll it in taskmgr then start Vmware again. When application starts up again my VM is there already powered on. Has VMWare acknowledged this problem yet? I may go back to workstation 10.

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Schorschi
Expert
Expert

I too have the exact same problem, and one additional problem randomly, when creating an new VM and using bridged networking, the VM boots, NIC works for PXE, DHCP, etc.  But once the OS is up (Windows 10 or Debian Stretch 9.1 in this case), I can ping the VM from other devices, and the VM can ping its self, it own IP, but it can't ping any other IP or name.  The odd thing is DNS lookup still works.  Both of these issues have been significant in version 12, something has definitely changed.

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techgopi
Contributor
Contributor

Hi, i'm facing similar issue while opening HDP ISO Image on VM workstation Player 14 version. it boots, shows a progress bar at 100% (CentOS Linux 7 core. i tried change settings as suggested in earlier threads, but no luck. I have downloaded HDP from Hortonworks site and VM workstation player 14 version and above was suggested. Any help is appreciated much.

thanks,

gopi.

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LukeKuss
Contributor
Contributor

All,

I ran into the same black screen issue on my Windows vm's while moving from VMware Workstation version 12 to 14.   I was able to resolve by following the resolution highlighted in VMware KB 2034627  - VMware Knowledge Base

Resolution


To resolve this issue:

  1. Boot the virtual machine into Safe Mode.
  2. In the Device Manager, change the driver for the VGA card to the standard MS VGA Driver.
  3. Reboot the virtual machine.
  4. Uninstall the wrong version of VMware tools.
  5. Install the correct version of VMware tools.

Luke Kuss

MikeButler
Contributor
Contributor

I tried everything I could find on the web and nothing solved the issue.  Days and still VMs opened with a black screen thought I could tell they were running.  I decided to format my laptop and start over.  I accidentally discovered that if I have NordVPN on when I start the VM, I get a black screen.  Turn off NordVPN and the VM works fine.  Then I turn on NordVPN and the VM and VPN work just fine.  In my case, it is the order of the programs starting.  Hope this helps someone.

achelaaca
Contributor
Contributor

Same problem here. I have to close the NordVPN before starting any VM.

achelaaca
Contributor
Contributor

I'm using VMware Workstation 14 PRO.

The problem began when I've upgraded NordVPN to version 6.10.8.

I've now downgraded NordVPN to version 6.4.8 and virtual machines run fine now.

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hyperion1961
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for this input.  I had the same problem and none of the previously mentioned fixes worked.  Although I have a different brand of VPN, shutting down my VPN solved the problem.  Never would have guessed a VPN on the host affected video on a VM.

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Nirmal3682
Contributor
Contributor

I have same problem, tried all the options including VPN.

Still facing same issue.

Any other options to try ?

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ASJenkins
Contributor
Contributor

It seems that my use of IVPN is causing the same issue. Wow, what a head-scratcher. I could not for the life of me figure out why I was only seeing a black screen when powering on my virtual machines. Now that I've disconnected, I have no problem.

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n1gg3rt1ts
Contributor
Contributor

Updating to VMware 15 seeing if that fixes the issue... sadly vpn programs mess with alot im using "WindScribe"... if thats the issue ill face palm hard XD

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mpayneNeedsHelp
Contributor
Contributor

I am having the same issue with my vm. I have tried all these i don't have the nord vpn i have one machine that is still black. does anyone know how to retrieve data from the machine?

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NadJ
Contributor
Contributor

In my case, prior to this happening I was playing around with my Nvidia Control Panel settings. I changed the option to have all my apps by default use the Integrated Intel VGA instead of my RTX graphics card. I changed it back to Automatic and it was fine but I guess I could've just as well have forced VMWare to use the RTX. No changes to VMware Workstation settings required.

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