Fusion 4.02 - vmware-vmx process always at 100%

[pholbrook]

Running Fusion 4.02 on OS 10.7.2 on an 2011 21.5 core i5 iMac with 12 gig RAM, 2 TB disk.

Tonight I was having trouble with a Windows 7 image running very slowly -  pegging a single core with 100% CPU from a vmware-vmx process.  I thought it was something going on with Windows, but then I tried an Ubuntu image, and finally I found that even creating a brand new VM and booting it without an operating system resulted in the same behavior - any VM running at all results in a vmware-vmx process running at 100% CPU under activity monitor.

I tried rebooting.  I tried repair permissions on my disk.  I tried downloading and reinstalling Fusion 4.02.

I'm not clear that anything has changed.  I wasn't seeing this behavior either last night or the day before.  I've done no OS upgrades this week, nor got anything else from software update.  I haven't installed any new apps in the last day or two.

I am seeing a couple of messages in my console logs.  Samples:

Oct 25 21:40:00 imac [0x0-0x4e04e].com.vmware.fusion[842]: 2011-10-25 21:40:00.645 vmware-vmx[957:1907] Cannot find function pointer NewPlugIn for factory C5A4CE5B-0BB8-11D8-9D75-0003939615B6 in CFBundle/CFPlugIn 0x10155b190 </Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin> (bundle, not loaded)
Oct 25 21:44:09 imac [0x0-0x4e04e].com.vmware.fusion[842]: Tue Oct 25 21:44:09 2011 VMware Fusion[842] (FileSync.framework) _SFSendMessage: gServerMessagePortName = 'com.apple.FileSyncAgent.iDisk'
Oct 25 21:44:17 imac [0x0-0x4e04e].com.vmware.fusion[842]: 2011-10-25T21:44:17.027|
Oct 25 21:44:17 imac [0x0-0x4e04e].com.vmware.fusion[842]: ServiceImpl_Opener: PID 1386
Oct 25 21:44:18 imac [0x0-0x4e04e].com.vmware.fusion[842]: 2011-10-25 21:44:18.437 vmware-vmx[1378:5703] Error loading /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin/Contents/MacOS/DVCPROHDAudio:  dlopen(/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin/Contents/MacOS/DVCPROHDAudio, 262): no suitable image found.  Did find:
Oct 25 21:44:18 imac [0x0-0x4e04e].com.vmware.fusion[842]:     /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin/Contents/MacOS/DVCPROHDAudio: no matching architecture in universal wrapper
Oct 25 21:44:18 imac [0x0-0x4e04e].com.vmware.fusion[842]: 2011-10-25 21:44:18.438 vmware-vmx[1378:5703] Cannot find function pointer NewPlugIn for factory C5A4CE5B-0BB8-11D8-9D75-0003939615B6 in CFBundle/CFPlugIn 0x103228620 </Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin> (bundle, not loaded)

I see those messages in the last 24 hours or so, but not in system.logs more than about 1 day ago.

Any suggestions?

-- Paul

[pholbrook]

No replies here.  Since I'm still in the complementary support period for Fusion 4, I've submitted a ticket.  Thank goodness I still have that option.

[scottjf8]

Try disabling folder sharing to share local folders...  I've read that is causing spiking CPU issues...

I'm gonna test this out in a few...

See if that helps

[pholbrook]

Support suggested that, but in my case it didn't help.  The support tech is going to do further research and get back to me.  (If I have a reasonably unique problem, I wonder how long it takes for a more senior engineer to get involved?)

[stephan77777]

I seem to have a similiar problem. After switching from an older (2009) iMac to a new Intel core i7 with 16 GB RAM, SSD disk and 10.7, Fusion became so slow it is now unusable. I have tried to play with all parameters including memory settings and everything suggested in this forum. The vmware-vmx process is always at 100% or higher even with XM or Windows 7 in idle. I have tried to re-install a new VM with Win7, but after 6 hours the install process was still at 30% "expanding files" so I gave up.

Frustrated, I also tried Parallels. It seems to have the same problem! I could not install a Windows 7 VM - took forever.

However everything else on my Mac works??

[pholbrook]

You're having the same problem with Parallels?  That's a fascinating detail, suggesting perhaps it's something in the OS, not in either product.

I did try running one of the VMs that had been giving me trouble under an essentially new install of 10.7.  I booted from an external FireWire disk that I had installed 10.7 on a couple of months back, I installed VMware, and then I tried it on one of my VMs.  Not surprisingly, it worked fine.  I then installed the 10.7.2 combo updater, rebooted, and still had no problem.

I'm not suprirsed - it has to be some other factor, something else installed or running on our systems that is causing this.  I just can't figure out what.

[stephan77777]

I also tried the same VMs on a MB PROM 15" with 10.7 and Fusion 4.02 - no problem here. It seems to be an issue with the specific hardware/OS driver combination and VMware.

Is there anybody out there experiencing this problem on similiar hardware? Intel core i7 based perhaps?

[Landogardiner]

Same problem here, but on an iMac 2009. Windows 7 / Vmware Fusion 4 needs 15 min for starting, during this time Mac OS X Lion doesn't respond. Unusable.

[pholbrook]

I finally gave in and did a clean install of Lion to deal with this problem.  That's a pretty painful way to deal with it, because I did not even do  restore of my settings from my backup, figuring that what ever was causing the problem was somewhere in my previous system configuration.

[Spocksbeard]

I found out that it has nothing to do with my lion installation because creating a new vm in the same vmware installation on the same os x lion helped. So I tried to investigate where the problem is but found nothing special in comparison to my new vm.

Here is my comparison table:

step	problem vm	working vm
being in setup via F2	100% cpu	0% cpu
being in grub - don't boot	100% cpu	100% cpu - why??
after boot	100% cpu	0% cpu

so I played a bit with my problem vm and changed the network interface. Switched off and found 0% cpu at phoenix setup. Changed from automatic to ethernet and switched on again: 0% cpu. So did I found something: no. Starting my second problem vm with automatic network discovery worked also.

Strange but it works again...