VMware Communities
Superkikim
Contributor
Contributor

[SOLVED] BSOD on vm3dmp.sys after installing VMWare Tools 7 on Windows 7

For those who have this same problem. It has been explained in the VMWare Fusion 3.0 forum, but as this is not just related to Fusion, I post it here:

If you get a BSOD after installing the VMWare Tools on a Windows 7 virtual machine (mine is x64 but it seems to be also happening on x32), you will have to

  • to reboot with the installation ISO or CD

  • open a command line console on your virtual machine

  • go to the system drive (usually D:\) in \Windows\system32\drivers\

  • Rename vm3dmp.sys as vm3dmp.sys.old

  • Reboot your virtual machine. It should then boot properly, but VMWare display drivers will not have been loaded

  • Remove the Displaylink drivers which seems to be the cause for the BSOD

  • Go back to \windows\system32\drivers

  • rename vm3dmp.sys.old back to vm3dmp.sys

  • reboot. And you should be ok

Cheers

6 Replies
lukewpatterson
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks!  Saved me hours of frustration.

Reply
0 Kudos
SoftDeveloper
Contributor
Contributor

Superkikim‌, Thanks!, had the same issue with Displaylink stuff in Workstation 12 and Windows 10 guest

Reply
0 Kudos
jkalmbach
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks!

Helped me also for VMWare Workstation 14 and Windows 10...

It is a shame that VMWare is not able to resolve this bug in their driver....

Reply
0 Kudos
vKopp
Contributor
Contributor

You are my hero of the day!

Thanks!

PS: I booted into SafeMode (Win10) using F8 and renamed vm3dmp.sys to vm3dmp.sys.old (without booting from recovery ISO)

BSoD-PFN_SHARE_COUNT-vm3dmp-sys.jpg

Reply
0 Kudos
Pooran98
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks for the remove displaylink drivers tip.  I reverted to a pre-tools snapshot then removed the drivers rebooted and installed Tools and no more BSOD.

Reply
0 Kudos
bartoloamores
Contributor
Contributor

Still working in 2023 on Workstation 17. Thanks for sharing.

Reply
0 Kudos