WIN10 virtual machine running on ESXi 5.0 and getting BSOD frequently, Event ID 1001, BUGCheck

[naveenbaldwa1]

ERROR:

Event ID 1001, BUGCheck

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x00000109 (0xa39fc66846d8d763, 0xb3b6d2ee995c3c0b, 0x00000000c0000103, 0x0000000000000007). A dump was saved in: C:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 237c3db0-9453-4873-9657-b2c75cf7313b.

WIN10 (latest build) machine is running on ESXi 5.0 and rebooting (BSOD) frequently, like in every few hours, please help to fix this. Thanks.

ESXi build:
VMware ESXi 5.0.0 build-623860
VMware ESXi 5.0.0 Update 1

[bluefirestorm]

You are running a version of ESXi 5.0 build that pre-dated even the first release of Windows 10 in 2015. Chances are the CPU is also just as old if not even much older.

I doubt you can find a fix for this as ESXi 5.0 has been long unsupported. FWIW, it seems to be a kernel or data corruption.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/debugger/bug-check-0x109---critical-struct...

0x7 would mean a critical MSR modification. So it might be related to the CPU (possibly because it is unsupported even with Windows 10 as bare metal).

[naveenbaldwa1]

Thanks for your reply.

is there any workaround to fix this issue?

[bluefirestorm]

I doubt that there will be any workaround.

ESXi 5.0 supports up to virtual hardware version 8 only. So it does not even support Windows 10 as a guest. I already mentioned your version pre-dates the original release of Windows 10 OS.

Windows 10 21H2 is fundamentally a very different operating system from Windows 10 from original launch in 2015; especially if you consider post 2018 Spectre/Meltdown patches,

It is also bit too much to ask for fixes/workarounds without supplying details like the Windows 10 version and CPU that you have. Anyway, the ESXi 5.0 version virtual hardware version 8 will mask out many CPU features that came after release of ESXi 5.0.

If the host CPU that is supported to run ESXi 6.5 or newer, it is better to upgrade to such version as these versions officially support Windows 10 as a guest OS. But I guess there are many different reasons why you are stuck with an ESXi 5.0 environment.

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=software&testConfig=16

[naveenbaldwa1 · Accepted solution]

To work around this issue, manually create a CPUID mask for the affected virtual machines. To do it, follow these steps:

1. Turn off the virtual machine.

2. Right-click the virtual machine, and then click Edit Settings.

3. Click the Options tab.

4. Under Advanced, click CPUID Mask.

5. Click Advanced.

6. In the Register column, locate the edx register under Level 80000001.

7. In the Value field, enter the following character string exactly:

   ----:0---:----:----:----:----:----:----

8. Click OK two times.

Source:https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/performance/stop-error-0x109-on-vmware-...

Got above workaround and worked for me!