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peter79
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Yellow exclamation mark on CPU afer virtual hardware uprade?

Guys,

I recently upgraded a ESXi 3.5 host to ESXi 4.1.0 the upgrade was successful without any issues.  I upgraded the tools on one of my VM's and then upgraded the virtual hardware to version 7 (the guest OS is WinXP Pro SP3).

After the hardware upgrade I logged into the console and rebooted the VM.  However I noticed in the device manager that there was a yellow exclamation mark against the CPU.  I attempted to update the driver from within the guest but was not successful.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

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AndreTheGiant
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An option could be remove the driver and let Windows reinstall them.

About the network have you tried to add a new virtual hardware, like the vmxnet3?

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro

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AndreTheGiant
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Can you send a snashot of the screen?

Have you upgrade the VMware Tools first?

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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peter79
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Yes I upgraded the tools first (I've done this loads of times and always make sure to upgrade tools first).  I've attached a screen shot.

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a_p_
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I can't tell you the reason for this, so this is more of a trial and error. I would power off the VM and take a snapshot, to be able to revert to this state once something goes wrong. Then power on the VM and delete/remove the CPU from the device manager and let Windows re-discover the hardware.

André

AndreTheGiant
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Never seen this issue. Do you have an EVC cluster (enabled after the creation of the VM?).

You can try to take a VM snap, remove the driver and restart the VM.

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
peter79
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This has just got a stranger.  I uninstalled the CPU in the device manager (after taking a snapshot) and rebooted.  The device manager rediscovered the CPU and the error was cleared.  Then I lost network connectivity to the VM (lost RDP access and pings failed).

However the second I reverted to my snapshot I regained all network connectivity.  I think I will just have to live with the situation, this is only a test VM and it wont have a long life span.  Andre, the VM is not in a cluster.  

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AndreTheGiant
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An option could be remove the driver and let Windows reinstall them.

About the network have you tried to add a new virtual hardware, like the vmxnet3?

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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peter79
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I uninstalled the CPU from device manager is that not the same as deleting the driver?

I didnt try adding another NIC the one NIC that is there currently flexible is there a particular type I should be using?

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AndreTheGiant
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Yes is the same... I mean also for network driver.

About the NIC type I suggest the vmxnet2 or vmxnet3.

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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peter79
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Ok I followed your advice about the NIC's but the issue is not resolved.  I'm officially stumped!

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maup33
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Heye.
Perhaps ghosted driver?
The Code 32 error in device manager

"A driver (service) for this device has been disabled. An alternate driver may be providing this functionality. (Code 32)"


This procedure unistalls ghosted network adapter (in your case cpu; turning on the hidden stuff will tell you).
To resolve this problem, uninstall the ghosted network adapter from the registry using the following methods:


1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd.exe, and then press ENTER.
2. Type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1, and then press ENTER.
3. Type Start DEVMGMT.MSC, and then press ENTER.
4. Click View, and then click Show Hidden Devices.
5. Expand the Network Adapters tree.
6. Right-click the dimmed network adapter, and then click Uninstall.

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peter79
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Guys,

I've solved the issue.  Our GPO for all computers joined to the domain has Windows firewall turned off however it turns on the firewall if a computer goes off the network.  Turns out that when I uninstalled the CPU and rebooted it messed with GPO and turned on the Windows firewall.  I have no idea how it did it though.  Its easily the strangest thing I've ever seen. 

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