VMware Cloud Community
Sanjuro7880
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-11-2011 06:49 AM

vCenter Server (Win 2008 x64) boots to a black screen

Ok. This issue is bothering me. I've scoured the internet and the communities but I have found no difinitive solution to this issue. I'm using the WDDM driver, Tried peoples recommendations either adding more video RAM, canging resolution, booting in safe mode, ensured RPC service was set to Network Service instead of Local System etc. Nothing has worked.

I'm using ESX 4.1 and vCenter 4.1. I cannor post screensots logs etc. because of the sensitive nature of our network.

If someone has a fix or something else other than what's listed above I should check please let me know.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

P.S to get my system back I have to revert to a snapshot, so I cant update or anything. Any type of shutdown/reboot causes this..

Thanks again!

0 Kudos
7 Replies
Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal
‎04-11-2011 07:18 AM

do you have all the power options disabled?  try running the command below at a command prompt

powercfg.exe -h off
0 Kudos
Sanjuro7880
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-11-2011 07:31 AM

Forgot to mention that I tried that as well.. No dice..

0 Kudos
Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal
‎04-11-2011 07:34 AM

so you are saying it only happens when you are running a snapshot?  reverting fixes it?  When you revert, do you also delete all?

0 Kudos
Sanjuro7880
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-11-2011 07:41 AM

No. When I reboot this happens. Only when I shutdown or reboot for any reason. It never geets to a CTL ALT DEL screen. Safe mode doesn't work. I can't check the logs or registry remotely or RDP.

The only way I can get the server back is to reverto to a previous snapshot. Something happens during reboot that causes this..

0 Kudos
a_p_
Leadership
Leadership
‎04-11-2011 10:43 AM

Tried peoples recommendations either adding more video RAM...

That's documented in http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1016770. It's recommended to set the Video RAM to 32 MB in the VM's Video Card properties.

Can you ping the Windows 2008 R2 guest once it has booted to the black screen (maybe ICMP is disabled) or are you able to connect to a share (e.g. \\servername\c$)?

André

0 Kudos
Sanjuro7880
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-11-2011 10:50 AM

No. Cant ping. Firewall is off so ICMP is open. Cannot connect to c$.

0 Kudos
Sanjuro7880
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-11-2011 11:44 AM

Actually I can ping.. but cant connect to any resources..

0 Kudos