VMware Player unrecoverable error: version 3.0.0-203739 on WinXP

[donw146]

After installing version 3.0.0-203739 of VMware Player on my Win XP Pro (SP3, up-to-date) box I get the following error attempting to start VMware Player: "NOT_IMPLEMENTED d:/build/ob/bora-203739/bora/lib/misc/win32uRegistry.c:76".

The associated log and dmp files are attached. I've tried several variations of uninstalling and reinstalling, including running the VMware install cleaner and manually cleaning the registry and file system. The only way I can get Player to start is by running in safe mode. Obviously there is some conflict with software I've installed but what? My machine is a typical developer machine with MS Office 2007, several versions of Visual Studio, CVS and Subversion apps, Norton AV Corporate, Firefox and various miscellaneous tools. While I was in safe mode I tried running the small apps in my Startup folder and was able to restart Player each time. I realize that I could methodically uninstall every oddball app I have one at a time until I find the culprit but I've spent a lot of time on this already. I'm hoping someone from VMWare can short circuit this process by looking at the attached files and giving me some hints. Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be?

The older version of VMware Player, 2.0.5-109488, continues to run fine when I reinstall it.

This is a continuing problem that I originally reported for version 2.5 at http://communities.vmware.com/message/1133185#1133185

[admin]

Hm, this looks you're running into the same problem as the person in this thread:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/239217?tstart=0

but I never got a response with the information we needed. Could you answer the same questions I asked there? Thanks!

[donw146]

The problem occurs on initial startup of Player. I never get a chance to run a vm. As mentioned above, I can start Player when running in safe mode but can't run a vm.

I'm unaware of any problem or anything unusual with my serial ports. My machine is a standard HP business machine. There is some old software for connecting to a modem pool called "Perle Dial-Out" installed. Since I haven't used this in a long time I had disabled some of the Perle Dial-Out startup items using Systems Internals Autoruns program. A careful check has just revealed a few more items that I have now disabled - when I have time I can try the Player 3 install again if you think it would be worthwhile.

Reg file requested is attached.

[donw146]

I had time to try another install of Player 3 after disabling the rest of the Perle Dial-Out entries. It now works great!!! Once I knew that the problem was with the serial ports I was able to focus on software that might cause the problem. Thank you.

You still have a problem with Player not handling "bad" serial ports. Let me know if you need any more information to help fix it.