Windows 10 guest OS crashes at random

[bradphippsnz]

I'm running:

VM version: VMware Fusion 6.0.6

Host OS: Mac OS X 10.7.5 Lion

Guest OS: Windows 10 Pro x64 (full version upgraded from beta testing version)

RAM: 28GB local, 12GB assigned to Windows 10

Mac Pro 2,1, 2x 3GHz Quad Core

Next time it crashes I'll take a screen grab but basically "the guest OS has had an error and needs to close". It happens once a day, at random times (though usually on the hour).

Is there a log I can export out to post on here too?

Can't see anything in task scheduler that seems to trigger on the hour, defrag is disabled. I'm not that familiar with Windows 10's background services so not sure what else is running, IE automatic updates.

I have a Windows 7 VM which I will use (and used solidly right up until Windows 10 was released) but have been forced to go back to it twice due to Windows 10 being "unstable" with the VM.

Has anyone had any similar? Would upgrading to 7.1.3 help (I have a spare licence for it but going to v8.0 is out of my reach at this stage. Also, will 7.1.3 run OK on Lion? I would prefer to upgrade to Yosemite or El Cap but the Mac Pro 2,1 is hardware locked to Lion as the highest OS it will run.

Thanks in advance. I'll post a grab if it happens today (hasn't yet).

[Mikero]

You can gather logs by clicking Help > Collect Support Information.

It saves a .tgz file on your desktop which contains all the logs we need to look at.

7.1.3 wasn't designed to work for Lion, so it's unsupported and there were some pretty big under-the-hood changes between OS X 10.7 and 10.8 if I recall correctly.

[bradphippsnz]

Thanks Michael. If it happens again I'll grab the logs.

I am hoping to obtain a Mac Pro 3,1 in the next couple of months (and hopefully a copy of Fusion 8.0) so I'll be able to run a more compatible OS. I'm not a fan of Lion but am stuck with it.

[dariusd]

Windows 10 guests will crash periodically with SATA CD/DVD drives on older releases of Fusion.  To work around the problem, power off your VM, then go into Virtual Machine > Settings..., and choose CD/DVD (SATA).  Then, under Advanced options, change the Bus type from SATA to either SCSI or IDE.

Hopefully that will solve the problem.  (I'm going out on a limb and guessing/assuming that this is what the cause is...)

Cheers,

--

Darius

[bradphippsnz]

Thanks Darius, I'll power it off at lunch and check (assuming it hasn't crashed before then. )

[bradphippsnz]

Well, I applied the change Darius suggested and since then I haven't had any crashes. Normally it happened at least once a day.

I'll keep an eye on it.

Thanks all!