VMware Horizon View 7.4 with Windows 10 LTSB 1607 - Black screen after deployment

[johandijkstra]

We have Horizon View 7.4 on a vSphere 6.5 environment and Windows 10 VDI.
Windows 10 is deployed through MDT, works fine, even when composing a VDI, first start / logon works fine, after a reboot no screen anymore, via vSphere Console black screen with mouse pointer. VMware tools is running, i can do a graceful shutdown / reboot. Also remote registry works, eventviewer, file explorer, services etc etc etc. but no screen. also no screen as an administrator local / rdp does not matter.

It is always after the first "run" of Windows 10, after a reboot it does not work anymore..

Any thoughts?

[agalliasis]

What is your Windows 10 display driver configured as?  What does MDT configure it with, and is it getting changed after the fact?

[johandijkstra]

Thanks for your answer, no display driver installed through MDT....just VMware Tools with the VMware SVGA driver

[johandijkstra]

And nothing changes there...

[johandijkstra]

Still no luck,

Did a complete new deployment with:

- a new VM as basis for the entire deployment with newest VM hardware, VMware Tools etc

- Dedicated pool

When I start the gold image, I can reboot as many times I want, it works fine, when I do a recompose, 1st time works fine, after reboot...black screen

And when trying to connect though the Horizon Client:

[agalliasistju]

Are you refreshing or deleting or doing nothing, after logoffs?

Also, please reference this as it is similar to what we experienced one time after a recompose:

1. https://vmfocus.com/2013/10/25/horizon-view-5-2-resize-pcoip-desktop-black-screen/

2. VMware Knowledge Base

Essentially, this article tells you to shutdown the VM from the console window instead of the Start > Shutdown menu.  Check out the articles.

[sjesse]

Check this

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1028975?docid=1028975

If the userinit registry value is corrupted, this can happen, I've seen it on RDSH hosts. I've thought about using a deployment tool for creating these images, but for me at least doing them from scratch both lets me know the the complete process, and I can manually check these keys. Almost always this key is not in the correct format after installing all the agents I need.

[nettech1]

What version of VMWare tools do you have installed on the parent image?

Were VMWare tools installed before Horizon Agent?

Are you using linked clones?

What antivirus is installed on the parent VM?

Are you using persona management or UEM?

What hardware version is your parent VM?

Do you have "Wait for the network" GPO set?

Are you using Blast or PCoIP?

What client are you using to connect? Is it 4.8 or newer?

Is screen DMA enabled or disabled?

VMware Knowledge Base

[nettech1]

Next time you get a black screen, put your VM in maintenance mode in View Admin so it does not refresh if you reboot it.

To collect Agent logs remotely from the Connection Server, run this command in a command prompt

vdmadmin -A -getDCT -outfile file_name.zip -d pool_name -m virtual_machine_name

By default, the vdmadmin utility is located at C:\Program Files\VMware\Vmware View\Server\tools\bin in the Connection Server.

May want to open a case with VMware and have them review the logs

While you black screen VM is in maintenance mode check your event logs App / System / Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy/Operational

Search for event id 6005 see what happened before it

What log on scripts do you have for your VDI environment?

Enabling Logon script in GPO Makes Windows Login 10 Minutes Long w/ Black Screen - Spiceworks

[XSport]

I have been dealing with this issue for the past months and i couldn't figure it out.  I thought a windows update caused this.   It did not.  I thought it was a video driver, it was not.   I thought it had to do with upgrading tools and not removing and reinstalling the agent, Yes that is in issue google it.   You can also see in the documentation from VMWare it doesn't say - careful on the install order of agent and tools.

Install Horizon Agent on a Virtual Machine

But reviewing that link did help me find the answer.   When installing a windows 10 machine on the Webclient and you add a network adapter it installs it as a E1000 Nic.   Unfortunately you can't change that after the machine is powered up.  And if your tools change while the agent is installed, you have lots of black screen issues.  So here is my steps and it is fixed for my environment of over 850 desktops.

1. Remove View Agent from parent

2. Reboot

3. After it boots back up shut down the VM

4. Delete the Network Adapter

5. Install Network Adapter and press the little arrow to expand and change from E1000 to VMXNET3

6. Choose your network you need for your virtual desktop

7, Power on the VM

8. Install Agent

9. Reboot

10. release IP and shutdown

11. Take Snapshot

12. Present Snapshot to View Pool

13. Delete all available machines so that they all get the new image. 

14. Delete a machine and test.

Before making the change from E1000 to vmxnet3 ever time you reboot it would be at the black screen and then you would have to reboot it and hope that it comes back.   Now after the change and confirming that the computer is on the newest image, i have not been able to get the black screen to come back. 

I believe VMWARE should update there documentation, with 1. change from E1000 to VMXNET3 when deploying a VM.  Since Vmware got rid of the C# client you have to check web-client VM's because by default it chooses E1000.   and 2. update the documentation about this issue.  it has been a frustrating couple of months.

Happy to chat - email  - talk on the phone with anyone who had this problem.

-Judah

Judah@hawkeyet.com

[mchadwick19]

Don't forget VMware Tools if you customize your installation!