vmware workstation unrecoverable error (vcpu-1) - Only On New Laptop

[TanquenETG]

Thinkpad p15v gen 3 - VMware Workstation 15.5.7 Issues

Win11 - 16GB RAM

12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700H

This is a new laptop with 16GB of RAM, a i7-12700H CPU and a second 1TB SSD just for the VMs.

The BIOS VM related settings are on and are on by default.

If I change the VMs hardware setting to one CPU and one CPU core then it will run but it’s at 100% CPU usage almost all the time.

I have a clean WIn10 VM with all the updates that I start new projects with and it like the other VMs runs fine on my Win11 AMD workstation and the old Win11 Dell laptop only this new Win11 ThinkPad with a Intel i7-12700H has these issues.

I've been using Workstation for a long time and this is the first time I've not been able to install Workstation on a new PC and run the same VMs from the old PC. I just thought there may be a known issue with the new Intel CPUs with E and P cores.

The main thing to me is that a VM will run if I set it to one core but gets the error if there are more than one. Seems like it don't like the i7-12700H or the ThinkPads BIOS.

I've attached the log file and it has a number of errors but I don't know what to look for as the VMs run fine on the other PCs and can run on the new laptop if set only one core. So while errors like: "FeatureStateLib: Error while loading tech preview config file: " sound bad they are in the log files on the working PCs. ???

Would downloading the newest version of Player be worth a shot? Would v17 help fix the issues?

[gediam]

This is the exact same issue I just asked about here:  https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/Multiple-CPUs-Cores-in-Guests-Under-Windows...

As noted in my post, as a work around, you may configure your VMs to boot from UEFI, enable encryption, and add TPM. 

For pre-existing VMs, that's not really an option, and depending on your use case (e.g., trying to do P2V or to mirror another environment for troubleshooting), this workaround isn't even remotely viable.

I'm curious to see if you get a solution here.

[TanquenETG]

I don't know. That is very concerning if all my old VMs are no longer compatible. At the very least there should be a way to recreate the supporting vmware files and keep the virtual disc. Some kind of update or repair to get the existing VMs running on new hardware.

If it is some setup issue with the existing VMs then why can they run with only one CPU with one core?

[TanquenETG]

I tried uninstalling Workstation 15 Pro and installing Workstation Player 17 just to see but I get an error about "Installer detected the host has Hyper-v or device/credential guard enabled. Hyper-V is not installed but it looks like credential guard is. Workstation 15 Pro has no message about this.

[jpschaf]

I've seen this before. I think that's caused by a Windows defender setting you need to disable, specifically the core-isolation settings (Memory integrity needs to be disabled).  Some of the virtual memory protections you can enable in Win 11 that use virtualization technology can conflict with hypervisors like Vmware Workstaiton

[josephmhiggins]

goodness gracious.

you need vmware 17.

core isolation, etc are found and inspected on windows 11 by opening powershell and typing:

Get-ComputerInfo

After that, you begin your homework and go down the list, one by one,  of VBS, Hyper-V, Core-Isolation, etc and see if your settings are valid.

[jpschaf]

I'm on Vmware Workstation 16.2.5 and have no issues.  Just needed to make sure I disabled those features I mentioned.

[marko234]

I have had the same error on vmWare player 17.5 and guest centOs 9 stream.

the solution was to edit vmx file and change:

virtualHW.version = "10"

to

virtualHW.version = "21"