Windows 7 - occasionally freezes, even switch back to MacOS isn't possible

[jasni]

Hi,

we're using VMWare Fusion 5 on 4 brandnew iMac (late 2012) with fusiondrive (8GB RAM, 3TB fusiondrive).

On each of these iMac's we've installed one Windows 7 VM (64Bit, 2 CPU, 3 GB RAM, 120GB HDD).

That VM is running in fullscreen mode.

The users are working mainly with Office Application (Outlook 2010, Word 2010, Excel 2010). Google Earth is also frequently used.

The overall speed of the Win7 VM is quite good. Even Google Earth runs very fast and smoothly.

But occasionally the Win7 VM is freezing.

For a certain amount of time, the user is not able to do anything in the VM. It is even not possible to switch back to Mac OS.

The timeframe is ranging from about 10s to several minutes.

It occurs on all 4 iMacs, but never at the same time and at the same intensity.

Sometimes it happens all through the day on one iMac, while the other User are able to work without any problems.

Sometimes all 4 iMac are affected.

I'm a bit clueless about what is causing that behaviour.

Any suggestions why this is behaviour occurs?

Thanks in advance.

Nils

[KumarLande]

Hey Nils,

When you say it happens on all the 4 Mac(s), does all the 4 Mac(s) run the same applications? This isolates that there is something similar is happning in all the 4 Mac(s) could be the application itself(Just being skeptical )

-Is that the Windows freezes or it the virtual machine on Fusion freezes?

-If you feel that its from Windows did get a chance to have the event log to see any errors.

-If you feel you may also upload the VMware support logs. To collect the best support logs when the error occurs and just after you recover from the error, go to Help in the in the VMware Fusion menu from the top menu bar >Select collect support information. This will create a tar file on your Mac desktop. 

[ColoradoMarmot]

Two ideas:

1) Disable system restore in the guest

2) Disable Antivirus scan in the guest (autoprotect is OK).

[jasni]

Hi KumarLande,

sorry for the late reply, but I was two days out of office.

Let me answer your questions:

>Is that the Windows freezes or it the virtual machine on Fusion freezes?

Both are freezing. The Windows VM (running in fullscreen) freezes, no input or output is possible. And it is not possible to switch to Mac OS

>If you feel that its from Windows did get a chance to have the event log to see any errors.

I've checked the eventlog, but there's nothing really exciting in it.

A few events about Microsoft Windows-Search (3036) not able to find an object

A few events about VMWareTools (1000), not able to autoupgrade (meanwhile I've updated the VMWare tool)

And a few about User Profile Server (1530) forcing profile unload

A couple of Application error (1000) with different faulting applications (Excel 2010, Outlook 2010, SearchHost, iexplore)

I've attached a zip file with the exported Windows Eventlog. It's from a german Windows 7, so I'm not sure if it's readable for you.

>If you feel you may also upload the VMware support logs

I've also attached the Fusion Log.

Bye

Nils

[jasni]

Hi dllhotka,

we're using Trendmicro Worry-Free Business Security Advanced. We've made an update to the latest Versions yesterday and I've uninstalled the old antivirus client and reinstalled the new version (instead of an autoupdate).

I would really dislike to run the VM without any antivirus protection - it's windows, not Mac OS .

But maybe we can switch to another antivirus solution (just for testing).

Bye

Nils

[ColoradoMarmot]

It's the automatic scans that can cause issues - the 'live' protection is usually ok.

[jasni]

Hi Guys,

sorry for the late reply. The VM's on the four iMacs are running fine now.

I've done the following things:

- Exclude VM files from spotlight

- Remove some big file from windows search within the vm

- adjust the vm ram, so that the overall ram of the iMac is not overcommitted.

This has worked very well on three of the iMacs.

On one of the iMacs the problems occurring even after above steps. On this iMac I've uninstalled the virus scanner (TrendMicro WorryFree Business Solution) and installed a standalone antivirus scanner (NOD32).

After that the problems disappeared even on that iMac, so I think something was different with the Windows 7 installation within the vm.

So after all, the vm's are running fine, the users are happy, so I'm happy.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Nils