Hi magi and jenny, thank you for your attention.
I'm using VMware tools build 7.3.1.50460. To make sure all program files and drivers are up-to-date, I attached the listing of all vmware tools related files on my drive. Re-installing VMware tools with repair option didn't change anything in regard of my problem. The windows guest OS has been installed already end of last year and was used via bootcamp, so it is not a fresh installation.
I'm was previously using fullscreen mode until I noticed this problem, while performing my tests to narrow the problem down I used windowed mode. It doesn't seem to make difference.
Answering Jenny's question - yes I have some unusual items in my start menu. A folder shortcut and a shortcut to VPN network dial-up (PPTP)
In my attempt to narrow down to the source of the problem, I've disabled all windows startup items (HKLM/HKCU registry, windows startup folder, stopped anti-virus services etc), switched to default XP window theme, removed all icons from desktop except recycle bin, removed folder/VPN-Dial-up shortcuts from start menu, switched start menu to default large icons,left just default items in start menu. I've also got only 2 tray icons: vmware tools and volume control. I also removed the network drive mapping to vmware shared folders and any other network locations. Now the configuration can't be more basic. I've attached list of processes running on guest OS. The only unusual processes are InputRemapper and vsmon(Zone Alarm.) I can't disable InputRemapper, because I will loose keyboard / mouse input. I tried disabling Zone Alarm, however it didn't make any difference.
Afterwards I made following observations:
\- After reboot, while windows logon screen was open - vmware process size was stable at around 24MB of physical memory usage, 386MB virtual mem.
\- After logging on, I've observed memory usage of vmware process steadily growing with approx speed of +2MB/s, can go endlessly upwards - over couple of hundreds MB.
\- Strangely vmware process stops consuming new memory once I start some mouse activity and actually releases some memory (around 10-30MB). Afterwards the memory usage floats around the same level.
\- Once the guest OS has been idle for couple of seconds again, vmware process starts consuming new memory. Sometimes it releases the newly consumed memory after I start mouse activity back to old level, sometimes not, especially if I leave it idle for longer time >2min. (500MB and more)
Next try - I've created a new user account, rebooted OS under this new account.
\- After logon, vmware process increases until it hits 72MB - 128MB usage and stops.
Effects described above are 100% reproducible, I've retried 10 times to make sure that I'm not reporting random effects here.
Interestingly, when I reboot and logon as a new test user at first, then logoff and logon using my regular user account - vmware process usage doesn't grow anymore and stays stable at the same level. It only grows if I logon after reboot using my regular user account.
While testing, I had same processes running under both user accounts, my regular and the new test user account. I attached the list of processes for both users.
(Just in case this makes any difference: I'm using VirtueDesktops under OSX, my vmware fusion window is located on the second desktop.)
Regarding the crash problem - I haven't experienced crashes for a while now, mainly because I stopped using vmware due to the memory problem. I've already checked the forum thread you've linked to, however after examining my log file after the crash, I found no mentioning of " NOT_IMPLEMENTED bora/apps/lib/dui/duiIconConverter.m:221 ". Unfortunately I didn't keep the log file. I will post the log once I get the crash again.
Thanks a lot for looking into this, any more suggestions are appreciated.
Best,
Dmitri
