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marks2017
Contributor
Contributor

VMware Workstation has stopped working Windows 10 Creators V1709 Unable to start it

If the Host is rebooted, Workstation will not start.  To get it back I have to Uninstall VMware Workstation, Reboot, Install VMware Workstation, Reboot, then i can start and stop the guest without issue.  As soon as the Host is rebooted again, the guest will not start with the message VMware Workstation has stopped working / I've used this process with both V12 and V14 of Workstation

Anybody else have this problem?

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yanw
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Would you please use VMware Workstation 14 to reproduce the issue and upload the vmware-ui.log? Thanks very much. Steps:

1) Launch VMware Workstation and open "Help -- About Workstation" and identify the location of vmware-ui-xxxx.log, the default location should be C:\Users\{user}\AppData\Local\Temp\vmware-vmware\vmware-ui-xxxx.log

2) Try to power on a guest to reproduce the "VMware Workstation stop working" issue.

3) Attache the vmware-ui-xxxx.log.

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infiniter
Contributor
Contributor

Since I'm having the same problem, here's what happens: after you start the software, no window appears. Instead it runs in the background, consuming 25% CPU capacity (one core) and 2.8 MB of RAM. I had to kill the task. After that there won't be a file or folder with "vmware" in the name in \temp. The four services are running. The event record doesn't show anything.

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marks2017
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you,

I'll try and recreate the problem and capture the associated Log File.

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marks2017
Contributor
Contributor

The log files are attached.

One is when Workstation fails to start following a reboot of the host.

The other is after I uninstalled Workstation

Rebooted

Installed Workstation

Rebooted

Then brought up Workstation successfully.

Thank you,

mark seitzer

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yanw
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Thanks for your log files, just want to confirm that when you hit the stop working issue? when launch Workstation UI or when power on a VM?

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marks2017
Contributor
Contributor

The failure happens when launching Workstation.

The Guest is encrypted, meaning the dialog to enter the password does not come up before the failure.

-mark seitzer

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infiniter
Contributor
Contributor

Any news? Fall Creators Update is out since a while and Workstation not working at all is not funny.

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yanw
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Present we can not reproduce the issue on Windows10 1709 host. And the bad behavior you described seems different from "Marks2017", you said that there is no related log files generated, so maybe the process is dead-locked. It is very helpful if you can use windbg to produce crash dump for analysising.

Detail step:

Install Windbg from: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/windows-driver-kit (find Get (WinDbg) as part of Windows 8.1 SDK), launch the sdksetup.exe and install the "Debugging tools for Windows" component.

After reproduced the issue, do the following steps:

  1. Find the PID of hung process. From the task manager, from "details" tab, check the "PID" column is here, else you need right click the header of the listview and select "Select columns", in the popup dialog, check the "PID", and then OK. From the task manager, find the hung process name, and remember the PID value.
  2. Launch windbg. Note, you need launch windbg as administrator if the process is elevated.
  3. From File menu, select "Attach to a process", or press shortcut F6. You will get the "attach to process" dialog, at the "Process ID:" edit box, input the PID value from the step 1, and select OK to exit this dialog.
  4. After windbg finish the modLoad operation, it will break, at this time, input the following cmd:
    .dump /ma c:\logs\vmware.dmp

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yanw
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi, mark:

From the logs you provided, we have not found any useful clues. And would you please help us to collect more information using Debug Diagnostic Tool? The tools can be download at the following URL: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49924

Detail steps:

  • Execute DebugDiag 2.0 Collection on the server, the wizard "Select Rule Type" loads
  • Select "Crash" and then click on "Next >"
  • In the window "Select Target Type"
    • Check "A specific process", then click on "Next >"
    • In the Selected Process filed, type "vmware.exe", and click "Next"
    • Choose a name and a location for dumps file, then click on "Next >"
      • Setting those dumps on another disk than C:\ is possible
      • Please check you have enough available space disk as the dump size will be equal to the memory consumed by the process you are monitoring
    • Check the status is "Active"
      • If it's not, The "DbgSvc" service is surely not started
      • You can go in "Administrative Tools > Services" and start it
    • When a dump will be generated, you'll see the column "UserDump Count" being incremented
  • The dumps are located by default in "C:\Program Files\DebugDiag\Logs\Crash rule for all IIS_COM+ related processes" or in "C:\Program Files\DebugDiag\Logs\Rule_Name".

  • Then try to launch VMware Workstaion and see if there is a dump file generated, if yes, please attach the dump files, thanks very much
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