VMware Workstation Pro 12 on Windows 10 pro suddenly extremley slow

[EManN68]

Hi All,

anyone having performance problems running Workstation Pro on Windows 10 Pro ?

My setup ...
HP compaq 8100 Elite Convertible mini-tower
I7 CPU 860 @ 2.80 GHz , 4 cores, 8 logical processors
16 GB Ram
BIOS has VTx and VTd enabled

Windows 10 version 1809 Build 17763.737
Windows would not allow me to update to 1903 because of my version on VMware Workstation
(I also have another windows 10 host running workstation pro 14 which windows will not allow me to upgrade to 1903)

VMware Workstation PRO 12.5.9
(Tried installing v14 - my vm would not start up after install)
(Tried installing v15 - would not install, Workstation 15 did not like my i7 CPUs)

trying to run windows 2008 x86 guest - functional role AD Domain Controller
1 GB RAM
1 processor
35 GB HDD
bridges Network Adapter - using same NIC as host, only 1 NIC in this host
display does not have accelerated 3d graphics enabled
VM hardware version is Workstation 12x virtual machine.

Up until last week the AD VM mentioned above was working fine and so was windows. I came home from work one day
and found that the Host had rebooted for some reason.  Checking windows system logs shows unexpected reboot but no reason.
Windows update have been set to notify and let me choose when to install so I know it was not that.

Anyhow back to workstation pro.

I opened workstation pro and it took longer than usual to start. Click on my AD VM.  Took about 1 minute to show the settings on the
right hand side window, much slower than before.  Power on was brutally slow to get thru post and start loading windows.  It took about 2 hrs to get to the
VMs windows logon screen.  What happened to my VMware workstation ?

Things I have done to try to fix ...
- DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
- sfc /scannow
- chkdsk /f /r
- disk cleanup on C:
- disk defrag on C:   (system did 7 passes)
- Uninstalled workstation 12, rebooted, re-installed

all other things I do on my host have expected fast response time.  Anything I do in VMware workstation is extremely slow right from
launching it.  It was ok a week ago.  I checked the last patches intalled ...

KB4516550  - cumlative .net update  installed on 9/26/2019

I doubt this will affect VMware workstation and has anything to do with vmware being so slow.

is anyone else experiencing this problem or have suggestions ?

thanks,

E

[EManN68]

go figure ??

My work NoteBook is a Lenovo T470 P, I5
2.81 GHz, 1 socket, 4 cores, 4 logical processors
16 GB Ram

Windows 10 Pro Ver 1809  (same version as my home desktop which has the VMware performance issues)_

I have no issues running vmware workstation Pro 14.  I've since upgraded to VMware Workstation Pro 15.

no issues.

What the heck is going on here ?

[wila]

Hi,

As you found out. On that old - but fine - intel i7 processor you can run VMware Workstation passed version 12.5.x

If you do manage to get a newer version of Workstation running, it _will_ be slow. But from your topic subject I do understand that you are still on Workstation 12.x on that machine.

In that the case the other thing that comes to mind is an antivirus application at the host that is interfering with hypervisor extensions.

For example see this thread:

XP VM suddenly slow, Win 7 fine

Of course there are still other possible reasons, but this is one thing to check.

--

Wil

[EManN68]

Hi Wila,

Thanks for the response. I have no idea what is going on.  I'm not sure it is antivirus as it worked fine before last week and is working fine on my other boxes.

For my home lab setup I have 3 boxes.

1) HP DC 7800  core 2 quad

     8 GB RAM.

      Windows 7 Ultimate x64 - currently running the latest version of 12 VMware Workstation Pro 12.5.9

       running Microsoft security essentials for ant-virus

2) HP Z210 Workstation  Intel 3 Xeon

         16 GB RAM

     Windows 10 Pro 1809 - currently running the latest version of 14 VMware Workstation Pro 14.1.7

     running windows defender for anti-virus, cloud protection and other settings turned off ... on real time shield on

3) HP 8100 Elite I7

         16 GB RAM

     Windows 10 Pro 1809 - currently running the latest version of 12 VMware Workstation Pro 12.5.9

     running windows defender for anti-virus, cloud protection and other settings turned off ... on real time shield on

All 3 boxes are roughly the same age.  Box 1 and box 2 work fine.  Box 3 use to work fine up until last week.  I know the boxes are old but they shouldn't stop running the old versions. I ran VMware server 2.02 for years.  Just upgraded to VMware Workstation Pro a few months ago.  I think this has to do with MS HYperV.  They buggered up everything to promote their HyperV and kill VMware and virtual box etc etc.

I will try excluding the VMs working directory from the anti-virus real time scanning ... I think I tried this already but I'll try it again.

[EManN68 · Accepted solution]

Thanks all for all the suggestions and trying to help me with my issue.

After hrs of googling and trying all sorts of things which did not work I decided try one last thing. I tried to copy MY virtual machine to one of the other USB HDDs attached to this machine and this is when I noticed that the copy was very slow so I cancelled the copy. I tested copying from the various disks on my box then used Crystal tools to check all my HDDs.

Turns out that MY HDD has a "current pending sector count" ... uh oh ! Hard drive failure is imminent?

So I used Roadkill’s Unstoppable Copier to copy the VM's files from the troubled drive to another USB Drive.

Powered up the VM and all is good again.  Turns all my issues was probably caused when my pc, the host, unexpectedly Rebooted.  The VM was running at the time and the files got corrupted as the disk took a hit with the unexpected Reboot.  Thank  God for Roadkill's Unstoppable copier. It has saved me a couple of times now.

Looks like I'll be shopping for a new USB HDD.

MY AD VM is back up and running. 

[wila]

Hi,

Glad to hear you resolved it.

One final remark is to consider adding automated backups of your VM.

There might be a time that your Roadkill tool fails to work because the disk has too much problems or simply died.

Of course I might be opinionated on the subject as I just happen to have built such a tool (see my signature)

--

Wil

[EManN68]

Hi Wila,

Thanks for the response.

I do have Seagate Dashboard backing up the AD VM to my Seagate personal cloud NAS drive but unfortunately to get a good backup with no open files I need to shutdown the VM to get a proper backup.

Since this VM is a AD domain controller it is always up.  I have to shut it down and do a manual backup.  My last manual backup of this VM was more than 60 days ago so when brought back online the security token was no longer valid so the backup copy of VM was no longer valid DC in my domain ... hence had to use Roadkill.

I will have to be a little more diligent with the manual backup of this box.

thanks,

E

[wila]

Hi,

I understand.

For the record, there's no need to shut down the VM if you use my backup program. It basically makes a snapshot and your VM is backed up with the files open and everything running.

On restore you get a VM you can resume as if it was suspended.

--

Wil

[EManN68]

thanks for the offer but I'll just continue to use Seagate dashboard backup since I already have it implemented in my home lab domain.