Intermittent 15 second freeze every 90 seconds

[swallowfield_it]

Hi all, I hope someone can help me out!

I've got an issue with Workstation 6.0.2 build 59824 (although i've tested a previous build and the same issue exists) on a Dell Precision M90, XP SP2. My colleague has an identical laptop and doesn't get these issues, so at this stage i'll assume more detailed hardware specs are not required.

When running a VM in Workstation (W2K Pro, XP or Ubuntu) i get an odd intermittent, regular hang in both the host and VM, The systems 'hang' for 10-15 seconds every 90 seconds or so. During this time, the only thing that really works is the mouse cursor moves. Anything you do during this period (i.e. typing, clicking a button) then 'catches up' when the hang is over. During this period the disk activiy light comes on solid. Performance Monitor shows the disk is hammering away.

Further information\things i've looked at (in no particular order):

Uninstalled and reinstalled Workstation, tried another version of Workstation, tried VM's on another PC (no problem), defragged host and VM's, disabled Speedstep, edited config.ini with cpukHz setting, fiddled with every VM setting i can find, stopping VMWare Authorization Service on host, disabling lots of host Windows Services. Probably others, but i can't remember them at this stage.

I'm considering a rebuild of the host, but i'm going to be really annoyed if the problem still exists after the rebuild. Upgrading to Vista Ultimate is even something i'm considering to resolve this (and i didn't think i'd be writing that anytime soon!!!)

Thanks in advance,

Trevor

[jsa]

In the upper left of this web page you will find a search field. Key in freeze.

Several hits in there.

Things to try...

Disable vmware shared folders.

Disable vmware auth-d.

What ever you do, don't downgrade to Vista.

[swallowfield_it]

thanks for your suggestion jsa but i've already entered freeze, and several other terms into the search box (which is top right, not left btw ) and tried as many of the things that seem relevant (and some that don't).

Hence the list of things i've tried in my original post includes the authorization service disable fix you've mentioned, plus all the config changes, speedstep etc that i found in this forum.

[jsa]

I missed the part where you said:

During this period the disk activiy light comes on solid.

This sounds to me like you have a pretty significant over-commit for your memory.

That would force either the VM or the Host to start paging.

In Edit/Preferences, do you allow swapping of VM memory?

Does it help to change that setting?

How much is the Reserved Memory slider set for?

Too much, and host pages. Too little and guest might page.

Are the Guests configured with un-necessarily large memory?

[swallowfield_it]

right. you could be onto something here jsa!! (btw - the problem appears every 60 seconds, not 90 as i originally posted.)

I've already played around with the VM Memory Swapping setting, but it didn't seem to help. However, I've left it set at "Fit all VM mem into host RAM", and the slider is at 705 Mb. I started up my XP VM with 512 Mb and the issue still appeared. I then restarted it with 256 Mb and, although the freeze is still there it is much reduced (although the VM runs more slowly obviously)

Is 512 MB over the top for an XP VM ? I wouldn;t think so, so what should the memory settings be set to for optimum performance. For example, my host has 4 GB RAM, i'd like my VM to use 1024 MB so what should the Reserved Slider be set too, should i be allowing memory swapping or not etc.

thanks jsa - i'll do some more investigation and trialling tomorrow (i'm in the UK and its getting late!) and once we've sorted it out i'll pop back to this forum and award the points to you for the answer.

[swallowfield_it]

although i thought jsa was on to something in previous posts, it appears that lowering the ram for the VM only makes the issue less obivous. setting an XP-based VM from 256 back to 512 MB RAM stuffs it. I'm now stuck, so if anybody has any further ideas it would be much appreciated!

[bjovan]

Hi,

I have the same problem. I also tried several things, but no solution yet. I just bought a new pc (Dell precision M4300), my old one was working fine

Should you have found a solution, pls let me know

Best regards

[swallowfield_it]

hi bjovan,

I did get it working again, but it isn't an entirely satisfactory solution!!

I was spending so much time trying to fix it that i decided to cut my losses and rebuild the laptop from scratch, which has fixed the problem. Since then i've been re-installing all my apps, systems etc one by one to see which one may have caused the issue, but as yet haven't found anything.

Hope this helps!

[bjovan]

SOLUTION FOUND

On some Dells, the EMBASSY software is installed. REMOVE it, restart the PC, and it is OK !!!!

[dbowmanNNA]

Thank you bjovan. I was also having the problem and uninstalling the EMBASSY software fixed it.

[softart]

Thanks! Also Dell, also Embassy, also freezing...