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46terherh
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Using VMware on Windows 1903 host machine cannot turn on guest machine

Hello, I got a problem after upgrade to Windows Insider Preview 1903 18362.30 x64 on host machine.

CPU : I5-8400

RAM : 16G

Host OS : Windows 10 1903 x64 18362.30 (Latest WIP)

VMWare Version : 15.0.4 build-12990004

Other Status :

"bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype OFF"  (Means that Windows Native hypervisor already turned off)

"Memory integrity guard OFF"

"Credential Guard OFF"

Before I upgraded to Windows Insider Preview 18362.30, I was using Windows 10 RS5 x64 as a host operating system.

I could run any VM guest machine without any problem.

But, after I upgrade to Windows 10 1903, I cannot run any VM guest.

Guest screen only shows a black screen, and nothing happens.

What I can do is just rebooting machine. Cannot terminate vmware-vmx.exe process.

Anybody has same issue like this? And if anybody has solution it will be very thankful.

Thanks.

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denisiglesias
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just try disable hyperv with  bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off  and then delete any device that you dont use, like printers, usb, cd, etc.   this worked for me with windows 10 1903 may update

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alank2
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This worked so far (disabling hyperv with the bcdedit instruction)

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alank2
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Nope, it is back to the problem.

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alank2
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I uninstalled 14 pro and the installed 15 Pro.  When I tried to start a VM, it told me to disable credential guard, and then after I was able to disable that, I had to disable the other thing with the bcdedit command above.  Finally it can boot VM's again, but it is on a 30 day trial.  My question is this - now that these two things are disabled at the same time, if I go back to the latest 14 pro version, will it work?  Did 15 pro just add warnings to tell you to disable these things, or did they have to make changes for it to be compatible even with these things disabled?

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vmnalknewlanvlk
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It took a bit of playing around with settings, but I think I finally got things under control for the most part.

First off, I was only able to convince Windows to update to 1903 by outright uninstalling Workstation14 and reinstalling after upgrading. Might be an easier way but that was the simplest.

The primary behavior I found was that a VM would begin starting up but before it reached the VMWare BIOS screen, it would lock up and just seemingly spinlock a CPU core. Two steps were necessary to get it working again on my system.

First: Disable HyperV via bcdedit. Running the following in an admin command prompt is sufficient to disable HyperV

     bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

This was enough to launch most VMs, but VMs with a bridged network interface would still lock up.

Second: Disable unnecessary adapters in the Virtual Network Editor for the Bridged network. In my case, I enabled bridging ONLY to my wired network card.

Once this was done, I was able to boot bridged VMs again as well.

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The only remaining problem is that many notification dialog boxes are of an improper size, requiring the dialog box to be moved several times in order to see the buttons to interact with them. This appears to mainly affect poweroff, restart, etc. guest operations. UIs for various features including snapshots, VM config editing, etc. appear to work just fine. It's a nuisance, but appears to work.

I hope this helps folks who are still using Workstation 14 which unfortunately includes me. Since my license came from one of these bundles, I'm not eligible for upgrades - I'd have to buy it fresh. Since this is for my home lab, I think I'll try to string this out a bit longer.

eSatie
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Tried all of these "workarounds" for my version 14 installation, from new graphic drivers, changed network editor settings, floppy drive, hyper-v settings, sandbox removed, etc.. and still get a black screen with full load on one core when starting any vm.

Since vmware got these things to work for version 15 it seems to be possible to get vmware running again in win 1903, but since there's no patch for version 14 it seems obvious that they want money for the upgrade to version 15.

Got it from another thread in that forum, that support for version 15 will run out in may 2020, - so the next coming up version of windows may again lead to the neccessary purchase of a new vmware workstation version, and so on, and so on, and so on....

you can get a refurbished business quad core machine including a windows 10 license for around 150,- €, - and this machine will run even the next windows version....

unbelivable, really.

formosabc
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Bit frustrating to search online for the longest time with very scattered and limited information, only to find out there are many folks who also subscribe to this same problem.  I'm running into the black screen during guest boot up then have to force killing the vmware.exe process to shut it down.  I have to reboot the machine to try again.  I used to have OpenVPN & NordVPN installed, but uninstalled them after reading some places online where people mentioned that was part of the problem.  I sometimes can boot up the guest after deleting the lck files, but then they auto-regenerate.

VM Name.vmdk.lck

VM Name.vmx.lck

xxxxxxxxxx-xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx.vmem.lck (randomly generates letters and numbers for the "x")

If I can boot up the guest then it runs, but then I have to eventually shut it down.  I power it off and it's a toss up as to if it will power up again or show just a black screen while powered on.  I'm not sure what else to do.  I have tried to clone the VM, but that resulted with the same black screen.  I have deleted all the .lck files, but I thought that worked before but other times it does not work.  Also, if one guest boots up, another guest may not boot up and gets stuck.  So I essentially have not been able to power up all my VMs I used to use together. I have ended up deleting one of my VM guest that has not booted up to desktop successfully even one time, but others I would prefer not deleting.

Host is Windows 10 1903.

VMWare Workstation Pro 14.1.7 build 12989993

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adza77
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eSatie​ said:

Tried all of these "workarounds" for my version 14 installation, from new graphic drivers, changed network editor settings, floppy drive, hyper-v settings, sandbox removed, etc.. and still get a black screen with full load on one core when starting any vm.

Since vmware got these things to work for version 15 it seems to be possible to get vmware running again in win 1903, but since there's no patch for version 14 it seems obvious that they want money for the upgrade to version 15.

Got it from another thread in that forum, that support for version 15 will run out in may 2020, - so the next coming up version of windows may again lead to the neccessary purchase of a new vmware workstation version, and so on, and so on, and so on....

Thanks for bringing this up. I was considering upgrading as we're on version 12 so I thought that might be fair enough, it'll fix the problem - but had no idea that those running version 14 were in the same boat.

After seeing your post I now realise if I had have upgraded to VMWare in June '18 I would have been on VMWare 14. Only 10 months later this thread was started with this problem, and there is (and appears as though there will be) no patch for that version of VMWare - and an upgrade purchase is forced upon users.

That means not even 12 months has gone by for some users and their product is out of date and not patched.

So upgrading now may fix the problem, but if I project again what has just occurred, it means that our purchased upgrade now to version 15 may be no longer supported or patched in another 10 months time when Windows releases there next big update. Smiley Sad

We're only a small company and can't afford to upgrade every 12 months, so this appears as though it may end up forcing us away from VMWare.

I hate that as I find the VMWare product brilliant - however it seems clear the direction that VMWare has chosen and for the few inconveniences that we have switching to VirtualBox vs being locked in to having to purchase upgrades every time they come out it's going to be difficult to stay with VMWare.

formosabc
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That's a bit shady for VMWare to be using this tactic to force people to pay for an upgrade to fix a problem that was caused by a free update from Microsoft. 

toussaint1776
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Posting this reply in the hope that others may find this useful.

After Windows 10 was updated to 1903 on my system, I noted the same issues with VMWare Player 14 that other posters have noted above (black screen, unresponsive, .lck files, etc.)

I installed VMWare Player 15.1.0 build-13591040 and that appears to have resolved the issue.

I think it should be noted here that VMWare Player 15.1.0 is licensed for commercial use, but non-commercial use is free of charge, which I think is a smart strategy on the part of VMWare to foster adoption of their technology in the industry. 

Hope this posting is helpful to other people who encounter problems running VMWare Player 14 on a Windows 10 1903 host machine.

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808Exile
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Hi All,

There haven't been any updates to this thread since early August. Can anyone, preferably someone with VMWare comment on the status of this issue? I am running VMWare Workstation Pro version 14.1.7, which I bought just over a year ago. VMware, the question is are you going to fix this or not??????

My Windows 10 system upgraded to 1903 several weeks ago, Microsoft basically forced it on me, and of course if I restore to an older backup, (which is a lot of work), Microsoft is going to tell me I am or soon will be running an unsupported version of Windows. I hadn't tried to run a VM until last night and lo and behold I'm seeing the same issue as others, it starts, I get the notification about devices that can be attached to the VM, screen goes black and Nada. You can't power it down, you can't kill it with task manager. The only way to get out of it is to completely shut the bloody computer down.

I don't have Hyper-V running, I'm not getting any error messages etc. Just for kick and giggles I enabled Hyper-V, (got an error message) disabled it and back to black screen and hard lock up of the VM.

OK, so I know there are a bunch of "potential" workarounds, maybe they will work, maybe they won't, maybe they will sometimes, or for some VM's and sometimes they won't and for some VM's they won't. The comments in this post seem to indicate this or that works for some people, but not for others. I could spend hours, no days even trying the various combinations to fix the problem, and still be right back where I am right now after wasting hours and hours of time. And yes I saw the comment about downloading version 15 of VMWare Player, but why would I want to do that, why run a limited and crippled version of VMWare when I paid good money for Workstation Pro? VMWare knows the problem is there, they have even said they have a fix for it that is currently only available internally, (and this goes back to April 2019, 6 months!!!!!). They apparently refuse to comment on the query that multiple people have made asking if they are going to release a patch for version 14.x.x to address this problem.

I might as well slaughter a chicken and look for the answer in it's entrails. It is wonderful that other users have taken the time and energy to come up with "potential" solutions but why should they, or anybody for that matter have to spend hours of their valuable time and frustration to try and find a workaround to get a product to run that they paid good money to VMWare for?The SME has apparently lost the ability or the desire to comment on the matter and help it's customers.

Come on VMWare suck it up and answer us!!!!! If you not going to release a patch for version 14, or any other version for that matter then at LEAST have the stones and courage to tell us so we can make an informed choice about what direction we need to go from here. If our options are to either roll back to a earlier version of Windows 10 or upgrade to version 15 then for the love of Pete, shows some guts and just be decent enough to tell us.

And just a reminder VMWare, there are alternatives, maybe not as good as VMWare, but if people start throwing money at them that can change REALLY REALLY FAST!!!!

This kind of crap is what class action lawsuit attorneys dream about and I just happen to know one who isn't very busy right now!!!!

Gordon

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adza77
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Hi @808Exile

I see that no one from VMWare has replied, so I'll give you what I'm aware of.

  • Version 14 will not be fixed. It's EOL.
  • You have to upgrade to version 15 to have this fixed.
  • If you upgrade, you only get 6 months left of patches for that version, so be prepared to have to upgrade again soon.

Source: Re: VMWare Version Support Timeline Policy

I wish that I could give you better news (more than you know!)

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808Exile
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adza77

Thanks for the reply. SIGH:smileyangry:. I figured as much, but it would be nice if VMWare actually had the stones to say it themselves:smileyangry: . Geez, if the answer is no then just say so. Cowards!!!!

In my case I was able to get everything back to working by upgrading the latest Nvidia drivers, will I buy the next iteration of VWare workstation? Only if I have no choice. So what will I do between now and the next time something breaks workstation? look for alternatives to VMWare.

ARE YOU LISTENING VMWARE??????????? Yes I'm only one person, but you take my paltry $ 150 and add it to that of others, and them to others and so forth and so on until we hear on the news one night "This just in, VMWare corporation has just filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy" and the executives are going to be saying to each other what the H*ll happened!!!!! We were the defacto standard.

Every house needs a foundation and we your customers are the foundation your business is built on and by your crass, uncaring and insensitive treatment of your customers you are destroying the very foundation that supports your company one chip at a time. Unfortunately, by the time you figure it out it will be too late to fix it.

Nuff Said

Gordon

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formosabc
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I can confirm VMWare Workstation Pro 15.5 upgrade fixes blank vm guest boot up screen.  I understand that Windows 10 1903 is not supported for Workstation Pro 14 (maybe??) but VMWare should have at least released an announcement indicating this upgrade is needed... I spent hours trying to figure this out and even deleting a guest OS and then recreating a guest OS... had this information been easier to find it would have made my life easier... I would have felt better about VMWare.

Tip:  Do NOT use Windows 10 as your VMWare Workstation Pro host.  Use a "Windows Server" OS instead to avoid this "forced purchase" upgrade by VMWare.  I now have Hyper-V set up on a separate hardware so that I do not have to be dependent on VMWare in the future... go ahead and pull that "force the consumer to pay for a VMWare upgrade" trick again, I'm ready.  😞

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KoedoYoshida
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VMware say

" VMware Workstation 14.1.8 Pro | 12 Nov 2019 | Build 14921873
Resolved Issues

Unable to run VMware Workstation Pro / Player 14.x after updates on Windows 10 1903

VMware Workstation Pro and Player versions 14.x and earlier failed to launch on Windows 10 1903, after Windows 10 KB updates were applied.

This issue is fixed in the VMware Workstation Pro 14.1.8 release. "
VMware Knowledge Base

VMware Workstation 14.1.8 Pro Release Notes

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