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GALROY
Contributor
Contributor

ESXi 3.5 + Windows 7 - Hangs

hello all,

I have a VM running windows 7.

from time to time it will hang upon restart. When it happens I do from vi shutdown, I disconnect the E1000 network based card and start and it starts without no problem.

any ideas?

Thanks

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9 Replies
stretch522
Contributor
Contributor

Ditto for me using 64-BIT RTM. thanks for your advice about disconnecting the NIC. That helps.

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dtracey
Expert
Expert

Hi,

Which VM platform are you running W7 within? Workstation, Server or ESX?

Which build of W7 are you running?

Are you using the VM Tools within the guest?

Thanks,

Dan

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stretch522
Contributor
Contributor

We're using ESX 3.5. My guest is Win 7 Pro RTM. I installed VMWare tools, but removed all of the drivers. Previously, installing the VGA driver caused me to not be able to view the screen once it booted.

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sto6ma9ch
Contributor
Contributor

I just ran into this issue, only the VM will hang with the "Starting Windows" logo displayed (see attached screenshot). This VM is running in Lab Manager. Here's some info about the setup:

1 VMware VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 4 server

1 Lab Manager 3.0.1.378 server

1 ESX 3.5 Update 4 server with one Lab Manager resource pool

FibreChannel SAN storage

Windows 7 RTM x86

1 vCPU

2,048 MB RAM

1 E1000 NIC

LSI Logic SCSI controller

Guest OS = Microsoft Windows Vista (32-bit)

Disabling the E1000 NIC via VirtualCenter client allows the VM to fully boot. Then enabling the NIC once Windows has started appears to work without issue. However, powering on the VM with the NIC enabled results in the VM being hung at Windows startup.

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Linjo
Leadership
Leadership

Windows 7 is not supported on ESX 3.5, you will have some problems.

Have a look at ESX4 instead, Windows 7 have experimental support there.

Best regards,

Linjo

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Best regards, Linjo Please follow me on twitter: @viewgeek If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".
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symsv
Contributor
Contributor

I have same problem even with ESX 4.0 and Vshpere. powering on the VM with the NIC enabled results in the VM being hung at Windows startup many a times. I would appreciate any help or workaround.

Thanks

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JBMORE
Contributor
Contributor

Still testing to see if this is a persistent fix but this is what I did to get Windows 7 x64 to boot in esx 3.5 U4

1) install windows 7 (set as Vista x64 as OS)

2) remove network adapter (due to hanging on boot)

3) started VM and installed tools (did an advanced install so I could remove video card driver... this also seem to make the VM fail to boot)

4) turned off VM

5) added network adapter

6) Edited the vmx file for VM and changed "ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"" to

"ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet""

Seems to be booting now and has not hung since.

Hope this work for you

John

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formatdynamics
Contributor
Contributor

That vmxnet thing worked for me. I'm running esxi 4 with windows 7 rtm x64. I just powered down the VM, removed the network adapter, re-added it as type vmxnet3 instead of e1000, Powered on, Reran the tools installer, picked 'Modify' for the install type, then chose to install the 'vmxnet3 driver' from the driver installation list (it's not installed by default for a Typical install).

Thanks a lot!

-Tony

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jaber007
Contributor
Contributor

Had same issue running windows 7 release VM on a esxi 4.0. Deleted the Network adapter and created a new one with VMXNET 3. Works perfectly.

Thank you very much.

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