VMWare 6.* shutdown very slow

[HassanMullah]

Hello,

since i have updated my VM Workstation from version 5 to 6.0 and now to 6.5 the shutdown until the windows where i can choose what i will do (Shutdown, Take Snapshot, Revert Snapshot) is coming up, is about 10 or more minutes.

Yesterday i have defragmented the VM disks, copied to another physikal disk, formatet my harddisk (NTFS 32Kilbyte Blocksize) and copied back to my harddisk. But it is all the same. Very very slow.

Can i log on a "Logging". Where must i do this ? what else could it be ?

kind regards

Hassan

[Scissor]

Are your Guest files stored on an external USB drive? How much RAM installed in your Host? How much RAM is allocated to the Guest?

Please attach the Guest .vmx file as well as the vmware.log file from the same directory to your reply.

[HassanMullah]

Hello Scissor,

my host system (IBM Thinkpad T60) is windows vista enterprise x64 with 4 GB RAM. my harddisc where the OS and the VM Ware ist running, is a 160GB harddisc with 7200 rpm. I have a secound harddisc inside the notebook with 120 GB an 5400 rpm, where my VM File

are lying. my guest have 2 harddisc (C: with 12 GB / 😧 with 60 GB) and 2 GB RAM.

Here the Files you want, can you find here: http://www.hasenmueller.de/files4forum/vmware/

Any ideas ?

Kind regards

Hassan

[Scissor]

Cool, I didn't realize that I could put a second hard drive in my T60 (replacing the CD-ROM). Instead I bought an eSATA Express Card and an external drive enclosure. Now I might just have to buy that hard drive caddy so that I don't have to carry cables around with me all the time... Anyway, back to your problem:

I have an older model T60 than you do. My T60 cannot address all 4 GB of installed RAM due to a limitation of the chipset. I don't know about your model T60, but if it's the same as mine then it can only address around 3 GB of the installed RAM (even if you install a 64 bit OS).

You have allocated your Guest 2 GB of RAM. That would only leave about 1 GB RAM left for your Host when you boot your Guest (if my 3GB theory above is correct). If you only use your Host for running VMs that might be enough, but otherwise the Host might be running low on RAM.

It looks like your Guest has also been allocated 2 vCPUs. Since your Host only has 2 CPUs, this isn't really a recommended configuration.

Try the following steps to see if they make a difference:

- Make sure that you have excluded your Virtual Machine folders on the Host from any Anti-Virus software real-time scanning.

- Try (temporarily) reducing the amount of memory allocated to your Guest. I find that my XP Guests run best when allocated between 384-768 MB RAM.

- (temporarily) Reconfigure your Guest to a single vCPU.

.

I am particularly interested to hear if reducing the amount of allocated RAM is directly related to how long it takes to shutdown VMware.

[continuum]

@scissor

>

I am particularly interested to hear if reducing the amount of

allocated RAM is directly related to how long it takes to shutdown

VMware.

To me it looks like this is directly related - the more RAM a VM has the longer the shutdown takes

___________________________________

description of vmx-parameters:

VMware-liveCD:

[HassanMullah]

Hello together,

sorry that i first now give you an answer, but i didn't find time to test it :_| .

I have test it with the memory, and i think it is the solution. if you take that memory, which vmware give you as default, everything is ok, if you give your vm much more, you have problems. sometime is less more :smileylaugh: .

cu and thanks a lot

Hassan

[ioniancat21]

I too also have this issue with the latest VMware Workstation version 7.1 and I can confirm that choosing the recommended RAM settings does indeed improve things, although you would figure the more memory allocated to the guest OS the better but I guess not. Maybe this also has something to do with the amount of physical memory installed on your computer and that a balance between physical RAM and memory allocated to a guest must work in tandem. It would be nice to see what VMware recommends as far as proportions are concerned.

Either way, the fix is good for version 7.1 so for all having this issue where your VMware guests are hanging on that black screen before returning to the initial config menu, this is the easiest first thing to attempt, give it a try.............