VMware Fusion Error Detected

[HJR01]

Starting approximately 2-3 weeks ago VMware Fusion began generating the error: VMware Fusion detected an error and has to shutdown Windows.  I'm running Fusion Player 12.1.0 and Windows 10 build 19041.804.  

The community has some posts on this issue but none that appear to be related to the latest versions of Windows & Fusion. Has anyone else been experiencing this or have any idea how to resolve?  I appreciate any suggestions that anyone might have.  

Thank you
  -- Howard

[wila]

Hello Howard,

Sorry to hear that.

Please attach your vmware.log file(s) to your reply here. It might help in diagnosing to what is happening.

--
Wil

[HJR01]

Wil,  sorry for the late reply but I figure I'd wait until I experienced this issue again before providing my VMware.log.  Of course as it sometimes goes, post the issue and it doesn't occur again.  

However, I did make one change that might have resolved it; at least thus far no errors since I posted here.  I found in Windows, under the advanced scan settings for my display that somehow custom scaling was set to 200%.  It says to enter a scaling size from 100-500% but in parenthesis it states: "not recommended".  I'm not sure how this got set so I removed the scaling all together and thus far things appear to be stable once again.  

If it flairs up again; I'll be back.  

Thank you for reaching out, I appreciate it.  

  -- Howard

[HJR01]

Hi Wil,

I'm back.  It ran a few days longer without the error but eventually it did it again, actually once each of the last 2 days.  I'm sorry Will, can you point me to the VMWare.log files.  Are they the files collected my VMWare fusion when the error occurred, VMware Fusion Problem Report 2021-02-23 at 19.08.33.zip?

Thanks again

Howard

[wila]

Hi,

I think that the problem report is from apple's mechanism to collect spin dumps.

The initial log files to look at are saved in your VMware bundle.

You can find them via VMware Fusion Player. In the Library, select the virtual machine, then right click (or in apple terms: control+click, don't hold the control key after clicking) and select "Show in Finder".
That should open Finder with the current VM bundle selected.

With the VM bundle select right click again, this time select "Show Package Contents".

This will open the virtual machine bundle and show you all the files it is made up of.

Locate the vmware.log files, select them via command+click one by one and right click again, select "Compress n items". That by itself will create an archive.zip file which you can add to the reply down here.

--
Wil

[HJR01]

Wil,

Thanks for the explanation.  

Here are the VMware.log files.

Howard

[wila]

Howard,

The log has this bit about the last crash:

2021-02-23T18:58:00.732-05:00| mks| E001: PANIC: ISBRendererComm: Lost connection to mksSandbox
2021-02-23T18:58:00.774-05:00| mks| W003:

So that tells me that the crash is related to the graphics adapter.

Here's a couple of things to verify and try.

First make sure that your VM uses the latest virtual hardware.

Menu: "Virtual Machine" -> Settings -> Compatibility -> advanced -> Hardware version

It should be set to the latest version. Note that you can only make changes when the VM is shut down (not suspended)

If that's set to the last version, next thing to check is that your graphics card is having the recommended amount of RAM. Which nowadays is 8GB.

Menu: "Virtual Machine" -> Settings -> Display -> 3D checked then you can set RAM there to the recommended 8192MB

It is also possible to disable 3D here (which would have the same effect, but you will loose accelerated graphics) This could be a resolution as well, depending on needs.

I am assuming that VMware Tools is already up to date.
However the very latest display adapter driver is provided via Microsoft.
You can check Windows updates and see if it offers an optional Display Adapter update for your VMware virtual machine. If it does.. install that as well.

Hope this helps,
--
Wil

[HJR01]

Hi Wil,

Thanks for the suggestions.  

The only thing I found was the 3D graphics memory was set to 1024MB.  I changed that to 8192MB but my error occurred again soon thereafter.  I did restart after making the change.  

The only thing left was the VMware Tools so I uninstall them and reinstalled.  I thought that might have solved it since it was running without incident.  Well, at least for a few days until the error resurfaced once again.

Ugghh.  I tried to turn off 3D acceleration but it just turns itself back on again.  Any other suggestions

Thanks again

  -- Howard

[wila]

Hi,

---

@HJR01 wrote:

Ugghh.  I tried to turn off 3D acceleration but it just turns itself back on again.  Any other suggestions

Thanks again

  -- Howard

---

Huh.. that's weird.. never seen that happen and I cannot explain that.

With the VM shut down, not suspended turning off 3D acceleration via Settings -> Display, remove checkbox, then exit that screen should be permanent.

There's is no reason it should turn itself back on and -yes- I do expect your problem to be resolved without 3D acceleration.

edit: or wait.. there's a combination of using snapshots which described problems with settings not persisting. But that should only show up when using snapshots and I'm not sure you used them.

--
Wil

[jowy]

Hello wila,

I'm facing the same issues on many Guest machines and not only windows. Today, I have faced the issue on CentOS 8 guest machine.

Kindly find attached the log fie showing the panic issue:

E001: PANIC: ISBRendererComm: Lost connection to mksSandbox

2021-04-21T08:39:54.592+03:00| main| I005: MKSMacos: Starting CFRunLoop...
2021-04-21T10:55:00.357+03:00| host-2349331| W003: MTLRenderer: Command buffer execution aborted: Internal Error (IOAF code -536870211)
2021-04-21T10:55:00.372+03:00| host-2349331| E001: PANIC: Command buffer execution aborted: Internal Error (IOAF code -536870211)
2021-04-21T10:55:00.372+03:00| host-2349331| E001+
2021-04-21T10:55:00.372+03:00| host-2349331| W003:
2021-04-21T10:55:00.372+03:00| host-2349331| W003+ The core dump limit is set to ZERO; no core dump should be expected
2021-04-21T10:55:00.372+03:00| host-2349331| I005: Backtrace:

.....

[wila]

Hi Jowy,

I don't work for VMware and you already know the workaround.

There's nothing I personally can do. In your case I suggest to try and open a ticket with VMware and supply them with your log file.
See: https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/get-help

The community forum is for getting help from other users and not an official support channel (although sometimes a VMware employee might pick things up here too)

--
Wil

[jowy]

Hi wila,

I know that you don't work for VMware, and I don't know the workaround. If I know the workaround, I wouldn't send a message here.

Thanks,

Jowy

[wila]

Hi,

The workaround is to disable 3D acceleration in the display settings of the VM settings.
I just checked the .vmx in the zip you attached and this is enabled, which does explain why you are still running into this bug.

--
Wil

[jowy]

Ok thank you, I will disable on all guests. !

[Min-Yu]

Do you still have this problem now with newer Fusion and MacOS?

If so, I need the complete log files for vmware.log and mksSandbox.log

Thanks!