All VMs Are a Blank Screen after Workstation Pro Update

[ji3sticks]

Workstation Pro Version: 15.5.6 build-16341506 on Windows 10 2004

ESXi Version: 7.0.0 (Build 16324942)

After applying the most recent Worksation update, all my VMs show nothing but a black screen in Workstation Pro. It doesn't matter if they are local or remote VMs, or whether they are Windows, Linux. I can't even see the console on a headless Linux server VM.

I have an another device with Workstation Pro 15.5.2 build-15785246 running on a Linux laptop and everything is functioning normally.

Is there a way to uninstall a Workstation Pro update?

[scott28tt]

Uninstall and reinstall the older version.

[ji3sticks]

I don't have the installer for the previous version. I can get 14.1.8 from myvmware, but I tried that and it has the same issue.

[ji3sticks]

Everything works fine with the latest 15.5.6 build on a different Windows device as well.

Is there any way to get a 15.5.5 Windows installer from VMware?

[scott28tt]

In theory the only difference between 15.5.5 and 15.5.6 is a couple of bug fixes (which are unrelated to your issue).

Plus, if 15.5.6 is working OK on a different system I’m not sure how using an older version on your problem system will help.

Perhaps try a complete uninstall and reinstall.

Or look through the support bundle logs for errors: VMware Knowledge Base

[Mits2020]

I just spent 30 minutes searching for an official 15.5.5 installer in vmware.com for you, all the links from search engines lead to maintenance.vmware.com and "Content Not Available - Dear user, the web content you have requested is not available". So either the website is in maintenance mode or the links have disappeared.

[matthewsull99]

I have apparently have this issue, too. However, it only occurs in one datacenter/cluster and not the other. The one that doesn't work contains all server 2008 r2 servers. it's a difference.