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Sorav84
Contributor
Contributor

VMware workstation 16 freeze issue

Hi ,

 I am facing following issue with VMware workstation 16 pro:

 

  • Always freezes when I suspend a single or multiple VMs by exiting workstation. I have to terminate workstation from Task Manager
  • Doesn't uninstall completely. I wanted to do a fresh install of workstation pro 16 but when i did from windows application manager. It only uninstalled license information and from windows application wizard but the actual installed file still remains
  • It is slow to launch.

 

Does anyone have any idea ? Any advice please.

Regards,

Saurabh 

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Ray_CJ
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Where you using some other version of VMware prior to these issues and if so, was it performing properly?  What is the host computer you are running on and was it working well prior to these problems?   What processor and how much RAM is on your computer?   

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Sorav84
Contributor
Contributor

Hello Ray_CJ,

Yes, I was using a VMware version and it was working properly  with some occasional  issues. The host computer details:

OS- Windows 10

Processor - 8700K

RAM - 32 GB.

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Ray_CJ
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

If you are running multiple VMs, it's possible the system is over-provisioned and the host is being starved of CPU and RAM resources.  I would reboot computer, remove old installation completely and make sure all old files are cleaned-up.   Reboot again, re-install VMware and re-import just one of the old VMs and make sure it is properly provisioned.

Double check that you have a proper allocation of CPU, RAM and Video Memory for the guest.    As a starting point, under the memory setting, allocate 8GB of RAM for the overall VM.  Under display settings, provision 2GB of video memory.   Give the VM 4 processors.  With settings like this, you should be able to run the host OS and 2 other VMs.   If you provision the VMs with too many resources, the host OS will not run properly.

Ray C

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Vicmeister
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

This may be completely unrelated, but I have seen this recently, and after some trial and error, I managed to resolve it. I am running Workstation Pro 16.1 on an HP EliteDesk with i7 and 16gb RAM. I recently upgraded to 16.1, but didn't see any issues initially.

This morning I fired it up, and it hung, with the screen greyed out. It appeared to be trying to load two VM clients I'd had open last time. After checking for updates, and running a modify re-install from Windows Settings it was still the same.

I found a reference in an earlier thread that identified the location of the UI logfile, so I had a rummage around in there. In the log, I could see it was trying to access the two client VMs .vmx files, and that they were not found. I knew they were there, so I checked in the folder, and sure enough both were present.

I then tried opening one in VMware Player 16, and it opened just fine confirming the config and all the files were ok.

Then I remembered that I'd done a bit of housekeeping and tidied up my 'Virtual Machines' folder to provide some logic, as I share them with other PCs on my network.

When I opened the VM directly from Workstation, by browsing to the new location, it still hung, puzzling me further as it opened just fine in Player.

Then I went to the library section of the Workstation, and removed every one of the client VM references - just the shortcuts NOT the files. Then when I opened up Workstation, it opened cleanly, and I could then browse to the VM I wanted to open, and start it up with no issues whatsoever.

Not sure if this is. a quirk of the 16.1 update, where rather than the shortcut flagging that the location is no longer valid, or a message to that effect when attempting to start the VM, or just link to it from the tabbed header bar, Workstation just hangs with the screen eventually greying out and then crashing.

Maybe one for the VM guys to look at. My workaround above got me up and running though.

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Teddos
Contributor
Contributor

My session always freezes when it looses focus for a certain period of time. Usually this happens when i move focus away from my monitor with the vmware session to my laptop screen to do some local work. When i return, the session is frozen and i have to wait until i get a timeout message. After that, i can just restart the session. It is like this for years now and it is annoying.

rdelmont
Contributor
Contributor

I'd like to share my experience. I bought the workstation 16 pro license last summer and I immediately noticed the guests freezing issues with two different laptops, both with 8th gen Intel processor (MSI Raider GE63 with i7 8750H and Lenovo X1 with i7 8650U - both with SSDs, lot of space, and 32GB and 16GB of RAM respectively), first one with WIN 10 + 11 and the second one with WIN 10 enterprise. So annoying it was I decided to downgrade to workstation pro 15.7 almost immediately, where I got no more issues.

No matter if I tried workstation pro 16.1 and 16.2, problem persisted: after loosing focus to the VM to go back to desktop, VM got frozen forcing me to close workstation pro and all related processes.

A couple of days ago I just got a new laptop in replacement of the Lenovo X1. New laptop has a 11th-gen Intel i7 CPU; aside for that, the config is almost identical to the old one (SSD, RAM etc.). I gave it another try to workstation pro 16.2 and.... taaa-dah! No more problems.

I'll leave to you any comment 🙂

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Pippo67
Contributor
Contributor

Good morning Teddos,

did you solve the problem.

I do have exactely the same issue: after loosing the focus for some time, I return to the VM and I find it frozen.

 

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Teddos
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Pippo67,

I switched to my Mac on which the problem does not exist. I would have to check the Windows install to see if the problem is still there. Not exactly what you were hoping to hear i suppose but i hope it helps.

Kind regards,

Ted.

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Pippo67
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Teddos, thank you for the answer... I will keep on strugling with it. 😞

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jvp-fema
Contributor
Contributor

Here is an account of our team's struggle with Workstation stability on Window's 10.  Something in a resent Windows update is conflicting with Workstation dependencies?

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/Workstation-16-2-3-Possible-Guest-OS-Displa...

Good luck,
John

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Pippo67
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you very much jvp-fema

.
I decided to remove  the  last windows 10 update to give it a shot.  Let's see. Regards
 
 
 
 
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jvp-fema
Contributor
Contributor

Good Luck!

The 16.2.4 upgrade has not worked for for many of our developers. Display freezes continue and it's most likely an issue with a Microsoft display adapter change instituted a month or two? ago and released in their updates. Our best guess taking a look at time frame of updates and issue.

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Pippo67
Contributor
Contributor

Hi everyboby,

I just want to share with you what I did to solve the problem.

Since my Dell Inspiron 7710 has 3 ssd drives and all the VMs are on the D and E drives, I decided to replace the OS C drive with a brand new and clean Windows 10 installation. I updated the OS to the latest version as well as all the drivers of my devices and voilà, everything is still working with the latest realease of Workstation and all the Shared folders always enabled.

Of course it took my the complete weekend to reinstall the Softwares I had in the Host machine and I had to move Office license from one drive to the other but it was worth it.

I hope this helps somebody.

Regards.

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mimixiku_jp
Contributor
Contributor

Hello everyone

I'd also like to share what I did.

I'm running vmware on Windows10 host. I met GuestOS freezing on 16.x, then I tried 15.x. No change.

Then I tried 14.x, and get error dialog like what in the following link. What I found is that VMware not compatible with Hyper-V.

I did as said in this link. And finally it worked. And then I tried to upgrade to 16.x. It still work well.

"VMware Workstation and Device/Credential Guard are not compatible" error in VMware Workstation on W...

Hope this will help you!

Regards.

 

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ScottFrisco
Contributor
Contributor

Same issue on V15 (Host running Win 10).

I'm running V15 but I know this problem wasn't resolved with V16 release so I haven't bothered to upgrade.

I did a little housing cleaning on my Host Dell Laptop and removed too much of the Dell bloatware software that all my VM's ran at 100% cpu usage and were basically unusable.   I went to Dell's website and had the Assistant download and install the latest drivers and latest firmware which I was about 2 years out of date.  After all the drivers and firmware were upgraded my VM's were back to operating normally.

Since that time frame (over a month ago) when I suspend a VM it has worked as expected.  Prior it was a 50-50 shot on the Workstation locking up or not.  

 

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