Accelerate 3D Graphics Causes Windows XP To Fail Startup

[Dryne]

For version 16.0.0 build-16894299 this looks like a bug.  I was unable to start my 32-bit Windows XP guest stuck at a black screen.  I originally enabled the option to accelerate 3D graphics.  Only today did I realize that this option causes Windows XP to crash and fail startup.  After turning it off, I am able to start my guest successfully.

[scott28tt]

Host OS?

VMware Tools installed in XP?

[Dryne]

Host:  Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS

VMWare tools has zero updates under Windows XP for quite a long time.  Updated to Workstation 16 attempts a repair install of the existing VMWare tools.  Issue is still present.

[bluefirestorm]

There was a major change in the virtual graphics implementation (support for DX11, OpenGL 4.x inside VMs) with version 16. You could try downgrading the virtual hardware compatibility to Workstation 12.x for the XP VM with 3D acceleration enabled. You don't lose much in terms of VM features with such an old guest OS like Windows XP.

[Dryne]

Thanks.  I had already upgraded the guest to the latest available.  To revert it now it looks like I must restore from backup.

If VMWare has plans to address this such that Windows XP guest does not crash at startup, I will leave it as is for now and await the fix.  If they have no plans to resolve the crash, I will restore from backup later.

[bluefirestorm]

The virtual hardware compatibility can be changed (up or down) through the menu

VM -> Manage -> Change Hardware Compatibility

So restoring from a backup is not necessary.

[Dryne]

Thanks.  Unfortunately, even after downgrading it Windows XP will not start.  It is an issue changing video resolutions when I last checked the logs.

This is a bug in Workstation 16.

[Dryne]

I just restored my Windows 10 image for test purposes to learn that this XP failing to start issue happens under Linux host only.  Windows 10 host does not share this same issue.

[Barney]

I have the same problem. I suspect it is a problem in vmware-tools.

• VMWare 16 with Win XP client with 3D acceleration and tools 10.0.12 does not work - black screen.
• Restoring an old version of the image with tools 8.8.4, upgrading it to V16 compatibility, enabling 3D acceleration works fine.
• Updating the tools in the image to the latest version (10.0.12) breaks it again.

How can I downgrade the tools version in my image? That is much less effort than installing everything again in the old backup.

[jaxid]

Quick Solution

https://www.inter-net.de/post/windows-xp-grafikprobleme-mit-vmware-16

Comment to VMware:

After 2 years this problem still does exist! Fixed this **bleep**!

3D support for Windows XP (hosted by Linux) still doesn't work and there's no reason why it shouldn't continue to work!

It is interesting that the problem only exists with Linux but not if you use Windows 10 as a host, for example!