Black Screen on Win 10 1703 "Creators Update" When VMware Tools Installed

[NoelC1]

Hello,

I have Workstation 11 and it's been running Windows 10 x64 Pro up through version 1607 as a guest system flawlessly (Host is Win 8.1 x64 Pro MCE).

Unfortunately, when the "Creators Update" installs itself I'm seeing the screen go black in the guest OS around the time the installation finishes (first login?).

I've restored snapshots and re-run the installation a number of times, and the one thing that keeps the black screen failure from happening is to uninstall the VMware Tools SVGA driver before running the installation.

This might even be an acceptable workaround save for the fact that I can only set the screen size with the default Windows 10 driver to a maximum of 1162 x 864 pixels in size.  I'd really prefer the 1920 x 1200 I was using before with the VMware SVGA driver.

Can anyone suggest something I could try?

I realize I'm running an outdated version of VMware Workstation.  Even so, is it possible VMware could be convinced update VMware Tools for version 11 to avert this failure?  Assuming it's a basic incompatibility, I doubt I'm the only one who will be seeing this problem.

Thanks.

-Noel

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi Noel,

I don't think you can convince VMware to release an update for a product version that is out of support.

See:

http://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/support/product-lifecycle-matrix.pd...

Snippet:

VMware Workstation 11.x End Of Support date: 2016/06/02

You can try for yourself to install a newer version of VMware Tools, but of course that won't be supported either and might have other side effects.

http://www.vmware.com/go/tools

--

Wil

[NoelC1]

>You can try for yourself to install a newer version of VMware Tools, but of course that won't be supported either and might have other side effects.

Awesome advice!  Thank you!

It didn't occur to me to install a newer set of VMware tools, and the current driver doesn't black screen!  Of course I'll watch for any other issues as you noted.

Thanks again.

-Noel

[Gis]

If you do install an "unsupported" tools and it seems to work, tell me which one. I'm in the same boat.

No point in going to Wks 12.5 with Wks 13 [or is it 14] out at one point soon.

[Gis]

Oh. I didn't install the tools. Unknown device in device manager and can't do a few things that the tools help [screen stretch, folders] but seems to be ok with Win 10 v1703.

[NoelC1]

Specifically, I'm finding VMware Tools 10.1.6-core-5055683 to work with a Windows 10 Pro x64 version 1703 guest on a Windows 8.1 x64 Pro host.  VMware Workstation is 11.1.4 build-3848939.

-Noel

[bluefirestorm]

Looking at the Release Notes of Workstation 12, it looks like Windows 10 as a guest OS was fully supported starting on this version. So in a sense, you are already "on your own" running Windows 10 guest VM in Workstation 11 and earlier; aside from the fact Workstation 11 and earlier is already unsupported.

Some drivers even pre-date Workstation 11 (for example VMaudio device driver date is shown as 4/21/2009 version 5.10.0.3506). And these device drivers are the same as seen on a VMware Fusion 8.5 Windows 10 VM.

But if you want to install the VMware Tools that came with Workstation 11 and still have the SVGA drivers from 10.1.6 Tools; one possible way is to extract the individual drivers (run setup /a on command line) and then uninstall the device (in this case becomes Basic Display Adapter after reboot) and update the device manually on the Device Manager of the Windows 10 VM. This way you minimise any potential side-effects to just the specific device driver(s) that you want to use from newer version tools.

For VMware Tools 10.1.x for Workstation 12.5, the individual device driver files is under C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers and video drivers appears under video_wddm\Vista subfolder. I don't know where Workstation 11 stores it but I suspect it would be the same (or at least in the similar hierarchy). If you extract the 10.1.6 tools to a folder named C:\Extract, the video drivers is found under C:\Extract\VMware\VMware Tools\VMware\Drivers\video_wddm\Vista

The 10.1.6 tools SVGA 3D device driver date appears as 12/13/2016 and version 8.15.1.50.

[Gis]

I think you mean 10.1.5 but I tried as well on an upgraded VM as well as a new and they work fine.

Thanks

Gis

[NoelC1]

Nope, I meant EXACTLY what I wrote:

Specifically, I'm finding VMware Tools 10.1.6-core-5055683 to work with a Windows 10 Pro x64 version 1703 guest on a Windows 8.1 x64 Pro host.  VMware Workstation is 11.1.4 build-3848939.

If 10.1.5 works as well, that's great, but what I got to work was 10.1.6.

-Noel

[karmasabtch04]

Hello all,

             I am using VMWare version 11.1.4 build-3848939 and have installed Windows 10 Build 1703 and installed VMWare tools version 10.1.5-5055683 and everything is working perfectly. I have had no issues installing software, no crashes/sad faces , and no issues installing updates. The VM is performing smoothly!!

[0WayneH0]

Maybe you meant exactly what you wrote, but I tried to find 10.1.6 and cannot.

I can, however, find 10.1.5 with the same exact build number (which would seem odd if you were right about 10.1.6).

VMware-Tools-10.1.5-core-5055683.zip

Just adding this reply to save people looking for a potentially mysterious 10.1.6.

Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

About to try this with 1703 (using WS 11.1.3). Thanks for sharing the positive experience(s) above.

Cheers.

EDIT: I used the approach tabled by bluefirestorm (just using the video driver) and this seems to have solved my problem also. I have 1703 running in WS 11.1.3 with a Windows 8.1 x64 host.

[NoelC1]

Well, that's weird.  The package I downloaded certainly says 10.1.6 on it, but within it I see that the version of the setup64.exe inside the ISO is 10.1.5.5055683.  I have been known to make mistakes in the past, but I think the typo was not mine this time.

In any case, I'm now on:  VMware-tools-10.1.7-5541682-x86_64.exe

-Noel