Windows 7 VERY SLOW on Yosemite/Fusion 7.1

[dbaker0926]

I have had this issue a while and had hoped the 7.1 update would address these issues but they have not...

Originally I had Windows 8.1 on there and back in Mavericks and VMFusion 6 it worked flawlessly.  After the upgrade to Yosemite (I had beta) I've had issues but understandably.  Then after 7 came out and Yosemite I thought all would be well... but no.   I decided to go back to Windows 7 (for other reasons as well) fresh to see if the issues were maybe around Windows 8.1 but they were not (Side note... this is my Boot Camp partition).

I know there are known issues with iMac 2011's but I have a brand new MBP 2014 that's just a few months old.  I tried the workaround using the terminal debug command but it didn't seem to really help.   I just took it off and maybe it's slower... I dunno. 

I run my VM with 2 cores and 4GB of ram but any programs (IE, Word, Excel, Etc) just run like molasses.  Especially if I try to minimize or maximize a window.  If I right click on my desktop it takes about 30 seconds for the menu to come up.  If I am in an explore window and navigating thru folders looking for files it seems to move just fine.  

All in all I need this to work.  Is it a VMWare issue? Apple Issue? or what?   Can I go to Parallels and it work?  (on that note... if I do can I run Parallels using the same boot camp?)

Thanks for any help!

[BlessedBladeofW]

It is not their (vmware) fault, its Apple. the performance of all virtual techs is much slower and they WILL NOT FIX THE PROBLEM ANY TIME SOON, even 10.10.2 beta will not solve it.

please read the release note for 7.1,  vmware admits the performance issues and there is almost no way to improve it.   however, downgrading VM version from 11 to 10 may boost the speed.

I ended up getting a surface pro 3 for my work. virtual machine seems quite slow  (both parallels and vmware) nearly unusable. bootcamp is annoying and crashes a lot.

[wila]

Hi dbaker0926,

Welcome at the VMware communities forum.

Unfortunately with the current supplied information it is difficult to say where your problem originates, it certainly isn't normal that the VM is so slow.

Can you for starters tell us how much memory your new MBP has?

--
Wil

[dbaker0926]

16GB total.  I dedicated 4GB to the VM.  i7 2.5Ghz and the 512MB SSD. 

[wila]

16GB of RAM is plenty and that should not be the issue then.

Can you please attach the vm support bundle?

You can generate it from menu -> Help -> Collect Support Information

that with create a file on your desktop named vm-12-10-14-<number>.zip you can then attach that file to your reply here.

thanks,

--

Wil

[wbond_]

I've been experiencing this on a late 2013 rMBP with 16GB of ram and the Intel/Nvidia graphics. Ever since upgrading from Fusion 6 Pro to 7 Pro, Windows 7 graphics performance was terrible. I found another post here on the community about it, https://communities.vmware.com/thread/488820, but it seems abandoned.

I am running Fusion 7.1.0. When the hardware profile on the VM is set to version 11, I get terrible CPU spikes and lag trying to resize Chrome. Using hardware profile 10 helps some, but it still doesn't seem as smooth as I recall with Fusion 6. I've tried removing and reinstalling VMware tools multiple times to make sure something wasn't messed up there.

I hope this can be resolved soon, although, the upgrade from Fusion 7.0.1 to 7.1.0 didn't help.

If I attach my support bundle, is that only visible to VMware employees?

[AllBallsRacing]

Regardless of all the suggestions, tweaks, using hardware version 10, etc. the only properly performing version of Fusion right now is 6.0.5.

Simply put, the same VM using the same configuration on the same physical hardware using the same VM hardware revision, Fusion 6.0.5 performs better.

[dbaker0926]

IIs it difficult to downgrade?

[AllBallsRacing]

dbaker0926 wrote:

IIs it difficult to downgrade?

Honestly I'm not sure. I tested on a secondary machine and never updated my primary.

There are a few guys (wila?) here though that could probably give you some good direction on downgrading back to 6.0.5 successfully and completely.

[wila]

Hi,

wbond_ wrote:

If I attach my support bundle, is that only visible to VMware employees?

No, I'm sorry attaching the support bundle here will make it available to everyone. I would also like to note that the communities forum is a peer to peer forum, VMware users helping other users. For example I am also a VMware products end user, not employed by VMware.

For official support, use the proper support channels.

For doing so go to: Fusion Support and open a ticket at File a Support Request

--

Wil

[wila]

Hi,

No it isn't particularly difficult to downgrade.

The steps are roughly as follows (from memory)

- Shut down, not pause or suspend, the VM and change the virtual hardware version to 10.

- Uninstall Fusion 7

- Download and Install Fusion 6.0.5 (or later when a later version comes available, today the latest version is 6.0.5)

- Boot your VM, uninstall VMware Tools

- Reboot your VM and install the Fusion 6.0.5 VMware Tools

That's about it.

The most important step is to change to virtual hardware version 10 (vHW10) while you still have Fusion 7 installed as Fusion 6 will not be able to change from vHW11 to vHW10.

--

Wil

[wbond_]

I've submitted a support request and recommend anyone else having this issue do so also. Hopefully with enough reports we can get this addressed.

[mntnbighker]

Anybody know how many features are lost going back to 6.x for managing ESXi? I have the terrible Win7 performance issues with 7 (even some VMware tools crashes killing Windows sessions completely), but I need the ESXi management features. Oh, and actually my worst issues are with VMware 7.x and Win7 on Mavericks at work. I run Yosemite and VMware 7.x with Win10 Tech Preview at home with far less trouble. My system at home does have more horsepower, and it does run slower than it ran Win8 on VMware 6.x.

[benad84]

I experienced the exact same issue, with Win 8.1 guest, on my retina MacBook Pro (late 2013 model). I find it funny that the 7.1 release notes imply that graphics performance issues happen only to "some older macs". My mac is just little bit over 1 year old, so I wouldn't cosider that "older".

In my experience the slowdown happens only after a day or so. It really feels like their "software-only" video driver they introduced in 7.0 has a performance or memory leak of some kind, and that even using 3D-acceleration all the time, the software-only driver still leaks.

[wila]

Hi,

mntnbighker wrote:

Anybody know how many features are lost going back to 6.x for managing ESXi?

All of the ESXi features I'd say. The "Connect to Server" for connecting to ESXi is a new feature for Fusion 7.

The alternative is using the web client or the vSphere client in a VM from within windows.

--

Wil

[wbond_]

I spent 45 minutes on the phone with VMware today. A support technician removed VMware tools, reinstalled it and upgraded the machine to hardware version 11. The problem was still present.

I showed him the difference between hardware version 10 and 11.

He said this was the first report of the problem they've gotten. He said it will probably be a while until I hear back about it since they have to prioritize their engineering resources.

Please take the time and file support tickets about this if you are having trouble.

[dbaker0926]

wbond_

Do you see the OS running "ok" with Version 7 and using hardware profile 10?  Would it be ok for me to re-upgrade to 7?  Or do you recommend staying on 6?

[dbaker0926]

Just as an update and FYI...

I am running VMWare Fusion 7 with hardware profile 10 and it runs... "ok" but still not great... if you use the version 11 profile it's molasses.

For fun, I downloaded Parallels 10 trail and installed.   Works 10x better...  as it stands looks like I'll probably switch unless VMWare magically finds a fix in the next 14 days. 

[Waahmbo]

I wonder about it being an Apple problem.  Previously I had Fusion 5 Pro, downloaded the evaluation for Fusion 7, which runs as pro, and it worked great on my mbp.  When it came time to purchase a license key, I opted for a non-pro key, since I didn't need any of the feature of 7 Pro.

Once I entered the 7 (non - pro) license key, it tanked Fusion on my machine, it's been beach balls ever since.  My Windows Experience Index in the virtual machine went from a 6.2 to a 4.1 - the low scores are now in the 3D and Aero indexes, but it doesn't seem to matter how I configure my VM now, it just doesn't work well anymore.

[cram501]

I have a similar problem.  (MB Pro, early 2013 16GB RAM, 750 GB SSD)

If I run one VM it usually runs acceptably for a few hours up to a week.   If I run 2+ VM's, it runs for a few hours to a couple days.   After that time period it really slows down.   The graphics are laggy and HDD access seems to be really slow.   The CPU gets pegged just opening an application.  No interrupt storm as on the iMacs.

Swapping to V10 helps somewhat but it always ends in the same condition.   The only way to rectify it is to close all VM's and shut down vmware.   Once I restart all is good again for a while.   Shutting down a slow VM can take 10-15 minutes instead of 1 or 2. 

It's really frustrating.