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WhiteKnight
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Workstation 12 Pro crashes whenever I try to install MS Visual Studio 2015 in VM

I'm owning Workstation 12 Pro for about half a year now. Since then it hasn't once been able to run my development environment in a VM flawlessly.

Whenever I install Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 in a Windows 10/64 VM, the Workstation graphics driver crashes and the VM then hangs - and incidentally my host's graphics driver crashes, too. Only a reboot can then regain me access to my host machine.

I'm running Workstation on three different hosts, so it surely is a Workstation error.

Moreover, playing audio in the guest is making the guest significantly lag, too.

By now I have already wasted three support tickets on these problems. They only get temporarily solved and then re-occur with the next update to Windows 10 or Visual Studio 2015.

VMware is showing a strong degradation in product quality. Apparently, VMware does not have the resources to create a good product anymore.

In Germany we call such enduring lack of quality an "Armutszeugnis". The dictionary calls it an evidence of incapacity.

My next host installation will use Hyper-V. I'm through with Workstation now. Waiting for half a year to get critical problems fixed is not what I'm paying for.



[VMware]: Workstation 17 Pro; --
[host]: Windows 10x64 host; --
[guests]: Windows 10x64, Windows 8x64.
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bonnie201110141
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Sorry to hear that you hit the issue. But will you please run "Collect Support Data" from Help->Support and attach collected data? Thanks!

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bonnie201110141
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Also please collect support data after configure log to "debug" level in VM settings->Options->Advanced->Gathering debugging information (set to Full)

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WhiteKnight
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Thanks for your reply, Bonnie.

I already have created a new support request (the third in a row on these issues now) and I uploaded the support data on Sunday.

Today I set Debugging info to Full and have collected support data again. I'll upload it via your FTP portal.



[VMware]: Workstation 17 Pro; --
[host]: Windows 10x64 host; --
[guests]: Windows 10x64, Windows 8x64.
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rachelsunsm
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I have tried to install "SW_DVD9_NTRL_Visual_Studio_Pro_2015_English_FPP_VL_MLF_X20-29901.ISO" on my Win10 guest, the vm didn't hung, I'm using Win7 host with WS 12.1.1.

Do you have any specific configurations on your vm? So we can try on local env.

And what's support people suggest you to do?

Any way, maybe we can analysis your log first and hope we can figure out what's the problem is.

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WhiteKnight
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Hot Shot

Thanks for trying to help.

There is already a support case going on right now. I believe it'd be best to reply there, because they are making suggestions, too (to no avail yet, I'm afraid) and I have already uploaded a number of support files to your FTP portal.

Here's my last reply:

It's this file I'm trying to run: "de_visual_studio_enterprise_2015_with_update_1_x86_x64_web_installer_8234344.exe" which I downloaded from MSDN.

In the guest I have installed the current Windows 10/64 Enterprise edition as OS: "de_windows_10_enterprise_version_1511_updated_feb_2016_x64_dvd_8378813.iso", downloaded from MSDN, too.

My host OS is Windows 7/64 Ultimate, SP1: "de_windows_7_ultimate_with_sp1_x64_dvd_u_677306.iso". also downloaded from MSDN.


If requested by you I might encrypt and upload the whole VM via your FTP portal. I would set the TTL of the VM to 1 month.



[VMware]: Workstation 17 Pro; --
[host]: Windows 10x64 host; --
[guests]: Windows 10x64, Windows 8x64.
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bonnie201110141
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Will you please let us know your file name you uploaded via FTP portal? There are huge number of files in that FTP and I cannot find out your files.

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WhiteKnight
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Sure: You'll find it in the folder with the support id 1691538000* (I have omitted the final character for spam protection).

You'll find a copy of above video file in .wmv format in that folder.

Thank you for taking the time.



[VMware]: Workstation 17 Pro; --
[host]: Windows 10x64 host; --
[guests]: Windows 10x64, Windows 8x64.
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bonnie201110141
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Sorry I was not able to find any folder starting with 1691538 in the public FTP portal.

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WhiteKnight
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Have you been talking to VMware support, Srinivas G? He may have moved the files on your systems from the FTP site to some intranet folder.



[VMware]: Workstation 17 Pro; --
[host]: Windows 10x64 host; --
[guests]: Windows 10x64, Windows 8x64.
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bonnie201110141
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Ok. Then we will be able to find it through our PR system.

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WhiteKnight
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

A test, initiated by Srivinas, showed today that the VM wont crash when the graphics option "Accelerate 3D graphics" is disabled.

Well, that's expected behaviour: Disabling VMware Tools graphics drivers only proofs that the VMware Tools graphics drivers don't work - and it's just an additional hint, not the desired solution. I expect VMware Tools graphics drivers to be available and working for multimedia software to work in a VM.



[VMware]: Workstation 17 Pro; --
[host]: Windows 10x64 host; --
[guests]: Windows 10x64, Windows 8x64.
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bonnie201110141
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Yes, that indicated the issue exists with our graphics component. And it is highly recommended that you have your host graphic driver updated to the latest and give it a try with 3D disabled.Sometimes our graphic component does not work well with very old host graphic driver.

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WhiteKnight
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I understand that it's easy to point a finger on someone else but this time it's most certainly the VMware Tools graphics driver who's the trouble maker - for these reasons:

  • I have three computer systems running : My desktop, my notebook and a backup/failover desktop. Each of these is equipped with another NVIDIA graphics card.
  • I'm setting up each of my three systems completely anew every three months with the latest driver and software versions on the market. So no legacy code may cause any trouble.
  • All my machines are equipped with the most powerful hardware available/affordable at that time: Desktop: GTX 980, Notebook: Quadro K5000M, Backup: GTS450.
  • All machines come with different graphics drivers.
  • I have set up the machine currently causing trouble two weeks ago, so the graphics driver is two weeks old.
  • Half a year ago I had the same trouble on my notebook, so the error exists for more than six months, with a completely different NVIDIA graphics driver.
  • No other software in my host OS is causing any trouble, though some of them are utilizing CUDA and rely heavily on the graphics card's features.
  • Corel Photo-PAINT runs flawlessly on my host, but the Photo-PAINT function "Export to PNG" crashed my VM (i.e. graphics drivers) on my notebook all the time when I installed Corel Photo-PAINT in that VM.

I feel that it's not my task to verify that VMware Tools graphics drivers run flawlessly - and without any manual reconfiguration - with graphics cards and graphics card drivers by one of the leading graphics cards manufacturers.

Same for the VMware tools sound card drivers and the lag they produce.



[VMware]: Workstation 17 Pro; --
[host]: Windows 10x64 host; --
[guests]: Windows 10x64, Windows 8x64.
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WhiteKnight
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Srinivas suggested to update my NVIDIA drivers - like you did.

After updating my NVIDIA graphics drivers from a version which is only 14 days old to today's version everything seems to work fine now. However, I'd like to perform a full install of my applications first before I can give a confirmation on the resolution to this issue.

Nonetheless, if NVIDIA graphics drivers appear to be this volatile and cricital to VMware Workstation (i.e. six months of VMware Workstation not working as expected over and over again), I strongly suggest to get in contact with NVIDIA to agree on a treaty to include VMware critical driver features with their regression test suite. I can't stand any more failures running VMware Workstation.

Moreover, the audio lag issue isn't solved by having installed the graphics driver update.

Nonetheless, thank you for your patience and time.



[VMware]: Workstation 17 Pro; --
[host]: Windows 10x64 host; --
[guests]: Windows 10x64, Windows 8x64.
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bonnie201110141
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Glad to know that the issue is gone. Usually VMware 's graphic component may not work well with very old graphic driver. Would you mind sharing your NVIDIA driver version? We really need to fix the issue that we are not working on a recent NVIDIA driver. Thanks!

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WhiteKnight
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Sure, here it is: Although I have already deleted the previous driver by now I remember it to be version no. 362.xx WHQL. Current driver version I'm using is 364.51 WHQL. I downloaded the previous one three weeks ago.

How about the audio lag issue? I frequently face the issue that when the Windows 10/64 error message sound is played by a message box ("Windows Critical Stop.wav") that the VM hangs for 30 seconds. This is true for both audio devices available with VMware workstation, although it occurs less often when using sound.virtualDev = "es1371".

Just give it a try: Go to "C:\Windows\Media\" and play a number of .wav files therein. Then play "Windows Criticla Stop.wav" - and most certainly the VM is going to hang.



[VMware]: Workstation 17 Pro; --
[host]: Windows 10x64 host; --
[guests]: Windows 10x64, Windows 8x64.
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bonnie201110141
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

For the graphic issue, we will try to reproduce locally. I agree we should work with NVIDIA 360.xx driver.

For the audio lag issue, I tried but was not able to reproduce the issue locally.

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bonnie201110141
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Our colleague found that searching NVIDIA 362 via google did discose many crash/hang issues. Maybe that is why they releasee 364.xx so shortly.

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WhiteKnight
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Gee... I just read that the same appears to occur with the latest NVIDIA drivers:

http://www.destructoid.com/the-new-nvidia-drivers-are-crashing-systems-again-348508.phtml

Smiley Sad



[VMware]: Workstation 17 Pro; --
[host]: Windows 10x64 host; --
[guests]: Windows 10x64, Windows 8x64.
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