Windows 10 unreliability getting bad

[matthewj]

Is it just me, or is Windows 10 really unreliable on Fusion now? I develop software using Visual Studio, and it crashes a log with hangs, and other software also just exits and fails. It has been getting worse recently and I can't pin it on any particular thing. I created a new VM from the Windows installer a month ago, and it is now hard to use for more than an hour without it needing a power cycle.

I'm running on an Intel iMac Pro with lots of memory and disk space so it is not resource limits. But I'm questioning whether I need to switch to something else for my VMs. I have a Windows 7 VM that has worked for years, and it seems to be a lot better and not have problems. 

I wish I could click a button and make it work reliably... Thanks for any suggestions (none of the usual have worked so far, like GPU changes).

[ColoradoMarmot]

Thoughts: Even with a pro, you may be starving the host.  What's the host and guest config (Cores - real, not virtual; RAM, etc), and host OS and Fusion version?  On ventura, we really need to leave N-2 physical cores for the host, and at least 8GB of RAM (and that's just for the OS, not any other software).

Second, I've also seen this as the hard drive starts to fail, have you run first aid on it and checked the smart status?

Last, if you're hosting your code via shared folders, try moving it into the VM itself (either on the virtual disk, or via a direct attached USB drive).  If it is on a USB drive, try moving it directly into the host virtual disk (apple borked the USB subsystem in monterey and it's still not fixed).

With an iMac pro, it shouldn't be an OpenCore issue (that has known problems).

[matthewj]

Thanks - good suggestions - my Mac Mini was core starved, but the iMac Pro has 18 cores and the VM use 4 (I've tried 6 before). Plenty of RAM too with 128GB, and disk space too. 

This is a VM client issue, with applications failing for no good reason. Visual Studio hangs, browsers will just close, file managers error. There is something not right. The host Mac is fine though, as are some of the older VMs.

I ponder a removal and reinstall of VMWare, but is that really going to be better?

[matthewj]

I copied one of the troublesome VMs to my Windows Server with VMWare Professional. It has been good for a few hours so far. I'll leave it overnight, and if that's solid, I may ponder how Fusion is the cause of this.

[ColoradoMarmot]

I should ask, what host OS and Fusion version.  It's possible you're not on a supported combo.  Ventura/13 should be very stable for example, but running older Fusion version's won't be.

And have you tried running the apple diagnostics on the machine?  Maybe there's bad RAM or something.

[Technogeezer]

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@matthewj wrote:

I copied one of the troublesome VMs to my Windows Server with VMWare Professional. It has been good for a few hours so far. I'll leave it overnight, and if that's solid, I may ponder how Fusion is the cause of this.

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"Leaving it overnight", that is,  leaving a VM running overnight is not a good idea unless you tell your Mac not to go to sleep. There are many reports of VMs having problems when the Mac host goes to sleep.

[HurcoMv]

I'm on an Intel MacBook Pro 2019 core i7, 32GB memory, 2TB solid state disk, Fusion Pro 13.0.2, Ventura 13.4.1. Windows 10 has basically been rock-solid. Now on Windows 11 and that has been solid too. I'm also a developer but use Rad Studio. It's very rare to have any issues with the VM's operating system or applications crashing etc, even debugging Android applications via USB on handheld devices, which you might think could cause an issue if anything does. Also running SQL Server with databases on the Fusion shared folders. Side channel mitigation is disabled.

The VM is configured with 2 cores, 8GB memory and 512 MB shared graphics memory. 3D acceleration is on and "Always use high performance graphics"e is selected).

From a Mac perspective, the VM is on a separate logical volume (on the 2TB drive that is) and the SQL Server databases are also stored on that volume.

If it was me, I'd look at the event viewer (in Windows 10 that is) if you haven't already, just in case there's anything in there that might give you a clue.

[HurcoMv]

Spoiler

Sorry - meant to add that my business partner has the same setup except that he's running on an M1 MacBook Pro and using the Arm version of Windows 11. I realise that's not an Intel but Fusion is the common thing between both environments.

[matthewj]

I'm on the latest MacOS, latest VMWare Fusion. I ran diagnostics today and it's all good. 

[matthewj]

Not sure I know how to quote here. My Mac is always left fully powered, so sleep is not an issue. I have one VM that runs happily for months at a time.

The one factor I haven't mentioned is the use of Docker - this is a key requirement for my Windows 10 applications, though I'm not sure how that would trigger the errors that are occurring. Hmmm.

[ColoradoMarmot]

Unless you've specifically set the 'prevent sleep when screen blanks' permission, Apple sleeps your mac.  It's gotten overly aggressive on that.

It sounds like you're using nested virtualization then?  That definitely could interact with the sleep - I'd try changing that preference and see if things stabilize.

Oh, one other note - if you have anything that reads the vmdk file for backups or antivirus scans, that can also cause issues, especially if they don't use apfs snapshots.

[HurcoMv]

In terms of diagnostics, I'm not sure if I was clear, but I meant the event viewer on Windows 10. This can show application errors/crashes etc which I'd imagine you wouldn't see in Mac diagnostics.

Regarding Docker, are you running the Docker on the Mac or in the Windows 10 environment? My business partner runs SQL Server docker on the Mac with no issues. We've not had experience with Docker in a Windows environment, at least not running a Windows version of it.

[matthewj]

Not sure it helps anyone, but I imported one of the troublesome VMs into an alternative system with its own hypervisor, and it has been rock solid. I really wish VMWare had a way to determine what is failing. This isn't a normal thing for an 18 core, 128GB iMac Pro I hope.

But given it is only me that is having this issue, it may be some oddity in what I'm doing in my client VMs. Thanks all.

[ColoradoMarmot]

Did you try setting the 'prevent sleep when screen blanks' preference?

And nested hypervisor may be some part of the problem - it's been finicky (e.g. some intel chips don't work with it).

[matthewj]

Due to my remote work requirements, I set nothing to sleep.

The Hypervisor may indeed be part of it - since installing a hypervisor from another party, my VMWare VMs seem to be a lot better behaved. Not quite sure why!

[ColoradoMarmot]

Apple will sleep things automatically (by default) when the screen blanks unless you have specifically set that preference.  They've gotten way overaggressive on it.