vmware-vmx.exe consumes CPU, intermittent laggyness.

[xpacheco]

Still got no response on this. I am using VMWare Workstation 7.1.0 on a Dell Latitude E6500. I get

intermittent CPU spikes that cause my computer to become laggy/choppy and oftentimes unusable.

According to SysInternals Process Explorer, the problem seems to be

vmware-vmx.exe. Furthermore, I only have the problem when I am running a virtual machine. What I am not sure is whether it is a specific VM. I'll investigatge further.

Any ideas?

-- xavier

[bsimmers]

vmware-vmx.exe is the process responsible for running the actual VM, so there will be one copy of it running for every VM running on your system. There might be something running in the guest causing those CPU usage spikes, have you tried running Process Explorer in the guest?

[Scissor]

If I had to guess.... I would say that you have configured your Guest with 2 vCPU and your Host "only" has 2 cores.

But if you attach the vmware.log file from the directory containing your guest that will provide more troubleshooting information. Also tell us what OS your Host is running as well as the amount of installed RAM.

[xpacheco]

Thanks for the reply. I'm attaching a zip of the *.log files in my directory. The host is Windows 7 32-bit. The Guest is Windows XP all services packs applied.

Thanks for the help!

[Scissor]

Jul 29 07:59:12.592: vmx| HOSTINFO: This machine has 1 physical CPUS, 2 total cores, and 2 logical CPUs.
Jul 29 07:59:12.593: vmx| DICT                  numvcpus = 2

Configuring a 2 vCPU Guest on a 2 core Host can cause resource contention. After testing I have personally found that running 1 vCPU Guests provide better performance. Suggest (temporarily) switching your Guest to 1 vCPU to see if it makes a difference.

Jul 29 07:59:12.593: vmx| DICT --- SITE DEFAULTS C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation\config.ini 
Jul 29 07:59:12.593: vmx| DICT prefvmx.useRecommendedLockedMemSize = TRUE
Jul 29 07:59:12.593: vmx| DICT               host.cpukHz = 2660000
Jul 29 07:59:12.593: vmx| DICT                host.noTSC = TRUE
Jul 29 07:59:12.593: vmx| DICT                ptsc.noTSC = TRUE

This is ok, but I believe that Workstation 7.1 removed the requirement to manually add the host.cpukHz, host.noTSC, and ptsc.noTSC parameters to the config.ini.

Jul 29 07:59:12.603: vmx| MONITOR MODE: allowed modes          : BT
Jul 29 07:59:12.603: vmx| MONITOR MODE: user requested modes   : BT HV HWMMU
Jul 29 07:59:12.603: vmx| MONITOR MODE: guestOS preferred modes: HWMMU HV BT
Jul 29 07:59:12.603: vmx| MONITOR MODE: filtered list          : BT
Jul 29 07:59:12.603: vmx| HV Settings: virtual exec = 'software'; virtual mmu = 'software'

This is ok, but check in your Laptop's BIOS to see if there is a "VT" option that you can enable. If you do change the option in your BIOS, make sure to hard power cycle your laptop afterwards (the change only takes effect after power is removed from the CPU). While you are there you can check to see if there is a newer BIOS available for your laptop.