Fusion 12 Big Sur - Screen going black for a few seconds

[DIRIT]

While using windows 10 within VM Fusion 12 on Big Sur, screen goes black for a few seconds then will come back with a few flashes.  Sometimes requires some input in order to prompt this.   Almost like it has to redraw the screen.   Sometimes occurs in close succession sometimes can be quite a while.  When happening in close succession it becomes unusable.  This was created to seperate out my problem from that of the “flickering” problem also mentioned in this forum.  This problem does exhibit a flickering as it redraws from black and could be considered a flicker but realised the issue mentioned elsewhere is a constant monitor flicker rather than a flicker while redrawing.  Not sure redrawing is what it is doing but not sure how else to describe it.  I’ve seen this sort of thing occur when there is a memory leak but I have not confirmed that is the case.

[Tomasz1]

They are sleeping....

[robkersey]

I think it's time to give Parallels Desktop a go... 

Free download to test it out.

https://www.parallels.com/uk/products/desktop/

https://www.parallels.com/uk/products/desktop/buy/?full

[pgeremia]

I just wrote a very STRONG email to their support department.  I am INFURIATED with VMWARE.  They are not taking this problem seriously. 

It has been MONTHS at this point with NO resolution in sight.  It seems to be all deflection and delay.

Please let me know how Parallels goes and if it was easy to migrate the VMWARE VMs over to it.

VMWARE is becoming an embarrassment.  

[robkersey]

I've switched to Parallels this weekend.

So far so good, not see any problems with display going black or DWM crashing.

This seems to be the fix for me now.

[pgeremia]

Awesome!!  I have not heard from vmware so I am probably going to start down that path as well.  If this issue is not solved very quickly I will also be requesting a refund for the very expensive upgrade price I paid.  Thanks for the update!

[robkersey]

I've been using Parallels for over a week now on a trial, it all seems good so I think I am going to buy  it and use that from now on.

Support is free with Parallels, you can raise a ticket without a license.

It's a yearly subscription, £79.99 (Same cost as Fusion upgrade!)

Asked for a VMWare refund but as it was purchased over 3 months ago, they will not refund... they have offered me 1 free support ticket.

[Tomasz1]

This problem still exists. 

I have tested today August 14th, 2021… 

No help, no working solution…

I am using: 

Big Sur 11.5.2, with VMWare 12.1.2.

Guest platforms are macOS 10.15  and MS Windows 10…

Blinking exists on all guest systems…

I was so exhausted with ignorance that I bought year ago Parallels and… problems are not on this platform.

I can recommend this to all frustrated clients of VMWare…

I hope that VMware will change approach and decide to solve this bug…

It’s crazy idea to make clients to choose another platform…

I hope some technician will read this and do something to keep clients…

Tomasz

[pgeremia]

I switched to Parallels Desktop and never looked back.  VMware is going down the tubes. 

[CCobianchi71]

ehi is anybody there?

Ca you help us!?

[pgeremia]

They will not help.  Just switch to Parallels desktop. 

[wila]

Hi,

One thing that was reported to cure this (mentioned a long time ago) is to disable the "Dark Mode Synchronisation" under menu "Virtual Machine" -> "Settings" -> Advanced

--
Wil

[Tomasz1]

"One thing that was reported to cure this (mentioned a long time ago) is to disable the "Dark Mode Synchronisation" under menu "Virtual Machine" -> "Settings" -> Advanced"

This solution does not work.

[DIRIT]

So after the update that was released months ago and creating a new VM.  I can safely say that if my VM outputs sound the screen will go black and redraw.  Any sound however quick or small.  Usually occurs after the sound is played rather than during for longer sounds.  What's worse is if it continues to do this over a period of time, say you have filled the "keyboard buffer", it will then change you to a "safe" resolution which unless you need massive icons and very little usable desktop, requires a VM restart.  There must be something in the sound driver that causes a memory leak or something.  Bit tired that VMWare has done nothing to help.  Had no problems under Fusion 11.  I guess I'll have to find a better hypervisor since it has been so long.

[CCobianchi71]

Hi WILA,

I red it and I applied it (see image enclosed)... but - if what I did is what you mean - it doens't work. Please confirm I did it properly!

As posted by DIRIT everything happened after I update BIGSUR and then FUSION12 (it was Fusion11 before). 

What I noticed is that it happened when any pop up window appears (like the one "do you want to save file?" "YES" "NO" "CANCEL" - or and error pop up window).I also tried to use another existing VM (on my VMWARE server) via Remote Desktop Connection (from my W10 virtual machine in VMWare Fusion), in order to reduce the drivers activity, and it happen the same! ... then the Fusion12 W10 virtual machines it doesn't seems to be the issue!

Then I made a cross check test: I move my Fusion12 machine on a native BigSur/Fusion12 ambient and it seems it works!

What made me crazy is that I reinstalled VMWare completely (also cancelling .com.vmware files) but it still make the same!

NOTE: when I was using Fusion11 everything was working properly!Unfortunately, after installing Fusion12, I updated my machine and I cannot go back to Fusion11. 

[CCobianchi71]

What I do not like is to move to another ambient... nothing against to Parralel but also my virtual servers are on VMWare and I have never ever had any single problem!

I cannot believe VMWARE do not pur resources to solve this stupid stuff!

[SMITHJVM]

Just went back in my post history to see that I asked about this back in January 2021... it's basically September 2021 now and I wasn't even the first to flag this issue, so I think it's fair to say that VMWare either does not know how, or flat out chooses not to fix this bug.

For those who run into this thread in the future: do not bother waiting, just pull off the bandaid and switch to Parallels now.  I ended up wasting way too much time waiting for VMWare to get their act together, but since April have been running Parallels and can confirm that this glitch does not exist with Parallels.  There are a few UI differences between the two products to get used to but for my purposes I have 100% of the features I needed for my Windows VM.  As a Fusion user since its 1.0 days, it did take a lot for me to jump ship but seeing its current state now, I'm glad I did.

I'm still using ESX and Workstation on my other systems, but on my Mac I doubt I will ever go back to Fusion.  At least not until Parallels decides to pull this stunt too I guess.

[DIRIT]

Very sad but I am guessing that Fusion is not really core to the VMware business, Fusion is one of the last things to have resources thrown at it.  VirtualBox is a bit clunky by it works and it is free!  Will use it for external ESXi VM connection but as for local VM, I am about done.  Fusion 12 ended up being a downgrade for me.  Fusion 12 should be a beta or experimental piece of software not $199 for the Pro edition.  I wonder if there is anyone who has it working as well as Fusion 11 did.

[wila]

@CCobianchi71 yes that looks fine.

re. @DIRIT many people use Fusion without this particular issue. I've never seen it and AFAICT it is not that common. 7900 views on a thread this old is not THAT impressive, roughly 33 hits/day, it does indicate it is a problem for some, but certainly not for everyone. It will be very annoying to bump into, no doubt about that.

There's a lot of variables here and there can be different reasons why someone would see this.

First things first.
Yes the graphics stack changed in VMware Fusion 12, to be frank.. the main change was in Fusion 11.5 as a way to make the graphics stack less susceptible to attacks VMware introduced a separate process to handle the 3D graphics engine.

Another big change is that VMware now uses the apple hypervisor instead of their own (where the VMware one IMO was a lot better)

The things you can do to try and isolate

- disable 3D
- change virtual hardware, while that doesn't change everything, it can make a difference for some hardware to go and use an older version. Either way your GPU still should be able to handle Metal well.
- macOS version itself (there's some AMD GPU driver fixes in Monterey for example)
- Windows 10 now carries the latest GPU drivers for VMware (are you up-to-date?)
- disable the dark mode sync

Those are the most important parameters from the top of my head.

I haven't seen any logs in this thread, so that certainly doesn't help to diagnose.
Like is it a common issue for some hardware? (we can only guess... )

Is everyone with this problem using nvidia GPU's? (I've seen it mentioned at least once)

Is everyone using 4k screens? External screens / MBP display ?

If using MBP did you try switching between GPU's, is this in full screen only, if so are you stretching the screen...

So many questions...

Please note:

This forum is where you can get peer help: users helping other users. It still isn't an official support channel, for that you should open a support ticket. ( https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/get-help )

--
Wil

[CCobianchi71]

Hi @wila,

let me comment your points 1 by 1:

- disable 3D

[CCobianchi71] I disabled in the past but nothing changed...

 
- change virtual hardware, while that doesn't change everything, it can make a difference for some hardware to go and use an older version. Either way your GPU still should be able to handle Metal well.

[CCobianchi71] See enclosed .png: mu macOS has "AMD Radeon R9 M290 2 GB" is that suitable!?

- macOS version itself (there's some AMD GPU driver fixes in Monterey for example)

[CCobianchi71] What do you mean with "driver fixes in Monterey"... should I do something specific!?

- Windows 10 now carries the latest GPU drivers for VMware (are you up-to-date?)

[CCobianchi71] Yes... It looks so!

- disable the dark mode sync

[CCobianchi71] OK... let me try...

Moderator edit by wila: edited your image to remove the serial number of your host