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darkman088
Contributor
Contributor

TOTALLY DESPERATE - VMware workstation not working

Dear Experts,

PLEASE help me, I am in such a desperate situation as NEVER before !!!!!!

I have 2 VMs, which I haven't run for quite a while.

Yesterday I needed to work again with them, however it turns out to be

impossible to load or start a VM.

When I click on the VM file, nothing happens. I see the hard drive spinning

and even after 30-40 minutes, the VM didn't load !!!!

This was with VMware Workstation 11, I had quite unpleasant trouble with

the VMware Authorization service there.

Now I've seen, that there is VMware Workstation 14 already. So, enough

time to iron the bugs out, hmmm...

So, I uninstalled version 11 completely, then I installed version 14, but

unfortunately it doesn't work AT ALL !!!!!!

One of the VMs opens and it appears as a tab, however, it's not possible

to boot it. After a lot of waiting on a black screen, I am getting the following

error:

Unable to connect to the MKS: too many socket connect attempts, giving up

I found the following thread, providing a solution:

Workstation 14 Player MKS: too many socket attempts

However, when I try to start the VM again, it shows a VMware logo and a

small circling square below and after very long time... maybe 20 minutes,

it comes back with the following error:

Failed to connect pipe to virtual machine: all pipe instances are busy

I tried to kill all the VMware processes, restarting all the services. I also

tried to run VMware workstation as Administrator - NOTHING helps !!!!!!

It SIMPLY doesn't work !!!!!!

And I NEVER EVER had any problems with VMware workstation - I've been

using it since version 4 or 5, it had ALWAYS been working flawlessly !!! And

now this !!!!!

The host OS is Windows 10.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help me !!!!!! I am really desperate !!

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20 Replies
wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,


Are you using an antivirus product?

If so which one?

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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diegodco31
Leadership
Leadership

Go to the Windows Defender Security Center - Device Security - Core Isolation and make sure that Memory integrity is set to "Off" (see screenshot below).

pastedImage_0.png

If not working, try create one new VM. We go to try discovering if problem is the VMs (olds) or VMware workstation.

Diego Oliveira
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dcodiego
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darkman088
Contributor
Contributor

Many many thanks for your replies!

I am using Avast as antivirus.

From what I could see, Windows Defender is turned off.

I could not find the settings, shown in Diego's screenshot.

I have been searching a lot and I don't have anything called

Windows Defender Security Center.

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diegodco31
Leadership
Leadership

Windows 10 Help Forums

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-enable-memory-integrity-protection-windows-10-april-2018-update

Disable the windows firewall too.

Diego Oliveira
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dcodiego
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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

There's been some problems reported with Avast in the past and they way you described the problem did make me think about those issues.

See also:

XP VM suddenly slow, Win 7 fine

for a solution on using both antivirus products along with VMware

TL;DR

In Avast Settings, troubleshooting you should uncheck the "Enable hardware-assisted virtualization" feature.

Note that you will have to reboot to apply the change.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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darkman088
Contributor
Contributor

@Diego - thanks, I have checked the link you sent me. They provide a second option there - to edit the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceGuard\Scenarios\HypervisorEnforcedCodeIntegrity

I don't have this. For me, the registry path ends here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceGuard

There I've got 2 keys:

Default

RequireMicrosoftSignedBootChain

@wila

I have disabled that option in Avast and rebooted. Nothing changed. Again VMware Authorization service not running.

Restarted it. Again Cannot connect to KMS... Blah blah, all the same cr** over and over again.

@Everyone

This has been working before !!! I didn't change nothing on the computer, I just had a busy life and didn't have time

for anything than using the internet a bit. And now it doesn't work at all anymore :-(((

PLEASE tell me what I can do...

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darkman088
Contributor
Contributor

And after trying again the steps which I described above, I finally got the following message:

"Internal error"

Really really nice !! Thanks a LOT, VMware !!!

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diegodco31
Leadership
Leadership

Please, create one new virtual machine for test. We go to try discovering if problem is the VMs (olds) or VMware workstation.

Diego Oliveira
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dcodiego
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darkman088
Contributor
Contributor

OK, I tried. It definitely doesn't work right 😞

After the VM booted, I only see a black screen...

And then... The usual suspects:

Unable to connect to the MKS: Too many socket connect attempts; giving up.

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diegodco31
Leadership
Leadership

You could try the following, it seems to have helped others:

power off the vm

open cmd prompt as administratir

run the following:

net start vmx86

net start hcmon

net start vmauthdservice

power on vm

try opening console

Diego Oliveira
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dcodiego
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Harwise
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi, darkman088,

Can yo upload the log files?

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darkman088
Contributor
Contributor

Diego, sorry, this didn't help at all:

C:\Windows\system32>net start vmx86

The requested service has already been started.

More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2182.

C:\Windows\system32>net start hcmon

The requested service has already been started.

More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2182.

C:\Windows\system32>net start vmauthdservice

The requested service has already been started.

More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2182.

I will now try to see how can I upload the logs. I never thought this would be such a complex

problem and won't be resolved in a couple of minutes !!!!!!!

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darkman088
Contributor
Contributor

Attaching 2 logs...

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darkman088
Contributor
Contributor

So, did anyone have time to have a look at the logs ?

No clue ?

How do I solve my probleeeeem ??? Smiley Sad

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darkman088
Contributor
Contributor

OK, seems that it's only me who is updating this thread now.

In the end I have UNINSTALLED VMware Workstation 14

and I've INSTALLED VMware Workstation 9 !!!!

AND IT WORKS !!!!

With 2 remarks:

1) When run as Administrator, when trying to open a VM,

after double-clicking the file, it takes FOREVER and the VM

never loads... So, I am running it as a normal user

2) Each time before starting a VM, it's necessary to restart

the VM authorization service. VERY annoying !!!

I had been complaining about this nasty bug in another thread.

No solution provided...

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Harwise
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Thank you for attaching the vmx logs. However, we need more log files to analyze this problem.

Please go to Help menu -> About VMware Workstation.

In the about dialog, you can see the path of the "UI log file". Thanks.

Or, you can go to Help menu -> Support -> Collect Support Data.

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Harwise
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Sorry for late reply. It seems there is some confliction with your software environment. Can you re-install VMware workstation 14 and collect the support data. Just go to Help menu -> Support -> Collect Support Data. And then attach the file to this thread. Thanks.

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darkman088
Contributor
Contributor

OK, yeah, it's a pity that your answer didn't come earlier.

Because I have completely uninstalled version 14 and now I am working with version 8.

And everything is quite normal.

I can install again version 14 and provide the logs that you asked me for. However, I would

kindly like to ask you, if I must uninstall version 8 before, or I can have them both installed ?

Not that it's a big problem, but uninstalling 8 will save a couple of precious minutes.

Many thanks in advance !!

AND - as you seem to be quite experienced - do you have an idea why I must restart the

VMware authorization service all the time ? I had posted a thread about this perhaps last

summer, but I think I didn't get any helpful reply. Could it be, that I am the only one on the

face of this planet, who is having this problem ??

Many many thanks !!!

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Harwise
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

> However, I would kindly like to ask you, if I must uninstall version 8 before, or I can have them both installed ?

I think you cannot have them both installed. (However, I didn't verify it by myself.)

> do you have an idea why I must restart the VMware authorization service all the time ?

Without any logs and other information, I am not able to tell the reason. But in general, if you encounter some problem with AuthD (VMware authorization service), very likely it is caused by the Win32 Socket setting or some 3rd party software in your environment.

You can run "netsh winsock reset" to repair, but please keep in mind that the "reset" may fail some 3rd party software in your system.

And the AuthD log located in "C:\Windows\Temp\vmware-SYSTEM" may give some clue.

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