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SteveLup
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Mac OS Catalina (Beta) - CPU Heating Issue

Hi

I noticed my fans were spinning constantly whenever using Fusion after installing Catalina and have narrowed it down to some rather curious behaviour.

Using Intel Power Gadget to monitor CPU power / clock speed etc, the following strange behaviour is evident:-

Basically, as soon as I open the VMware GUI (with no VMs running, nothing at all), instantly the core frequency of the CPU hits max and gets pegged there. CPU power consumption goes up from sub 10W to > 45W, the temperature rapidly rises and the fans end up running full speed.


This is with -zero- actual CPU usage. The Core Utilization is < 5% and nothing of interest shows up in the Apple Activity Monitor. Close the VMware window and instantly, core frequency drops back down to something sane and the temperature immediately starts backing off.

Very odd...

Steve

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zhus
VMware Employee
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In Activity Monitor, check the process "vmrest". Does the PID of this process keep changing?

If so, open Preferences window in Fusion, select "Never" in the combobox under "Applications menu: Show in menu bar:". It will disable Applications Menu.

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18 Replies
Mikero
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Cab you see which specific process is consuming all the CPU?

('VMware Fusion', vmware-vmx, 'VMware Application Menu'...?)

-
Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF
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SteveLup
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No CPU is being used at all - none.

All that is happening is that the CPU core speed gets set to max despite their being no load.

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SteveLup
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Screenshot 2019-06-25 at 07.10.36.png

The section in the middle is with the Fusion GUI open.

I have very closely looked at the CPU usage when in this state. The various VMware processes are all each under 1%. The only notable thing is that whenever the Fusion GUI is open, coreaudiod sits there at a steady 4% CPU usage, and drops back down to sub 1% when Fusion is closed. The total CPU usage delta between Fusion open and closed is 6% - which in no way should account for the CPU clock instantly scaling from sub 1GHz to 3.5GHz.

It's very odd.

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joebutl
Contributor
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Hi Steve, Did you ever find a solution to this? I am running into exactly the same problem.

Joe

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zhus
VMware Employee
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In Activity Monitor, check the process "vmrest". Does the PID of this process keep changing?

If so, open Preferences window in Fusion, select "Never" in the combobox under "Applications menu: Show in menu bar:". It will disable Applications Menu.

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joebutl
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That worked. No issues any longer.

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SteveLup
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I can confirm that solves the problem for me too, thanks.

Apologies for not responding sooner.

I don't know if VMware monitor this community - does this need formally reporting somewhere?

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wila
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Hi,

VMware forum user Zhus is an employee of VMware, so I think they know about the issue.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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larry989
Enthusiast
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Steve, I am trying to make a MAC OS (Mojave) virtual machine but keep getting errors.

I down loaded Mojave from the app store and according to what I read I should be able to use that app to create a VM,

It does create a VM but when I try to run it I get three errors.

Any thoughts?

pastedImage_0.png

pastedImage_1.png

pastedImage_2.png

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SteveLup
Enthusiast
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Sorry, I don’t run MacOS VMs so can’t offer any advice.

Your question isn’t related to mine in any way - you’d be better off creating a new topic as people who may be able to help you might miss this.

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omnipreus
Contributor
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As soon as I set the Applications Menu to "Never", the fan went silent.  This fixed my issue. Thank you for your help.

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tzielin
Contributor
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I have done all tips, but my CPU still consumes over 100% power.

After added the following to your VMs vmx file:

mks.enableMTLRenderer = "FALSE" 
mks.enableGLRenderer = "TRUE"

my VM doesn't work - dictionary problem.

disable the application menu: Preferences -> General -> Applications menu: show in menu bar -> Never - nothing changes

What is more in my case i have the same problem with carlos3000

sudo find "`getconf DARWIN_USER_CACHE_DIR`" -name com.apple.metal -print0 | xargs -0 rm -r:

find: /var/folders/s4/t0520nsn6kq1mq_g4w5vgppr0000gn/C//com.apple.WebKit.WebContent.Sandbox: Operation not permitted

find: /var/folders/s4/t0520nsn6kq1mq_g4w5vgppr0000gn/C//com.apple.QuickLook.thumbnailcache: Operation not permitted

find: /var/folders/s4/t0520nsn6kq1mq_g4w5vgppr0000gn/C//com.apple.WebKit.Networking.Sandbox: Operation not permitted

My VMware version is: Professional 11.5.1 (15018442)

MacBookPro:

Intel Core i7 3,5GHz

RAM: 16GB

OS: Catalina 10.15.2

Please for our help!

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wila
Immortal
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Hi,

A dictionary problem means that you added illegal characters to your .vmx file by editing it.

Most common problem is having smart quotes enabled in TextEdit, see menu -> File -> Preferences in order to change that and uncheck the settings.

pastedImage_0.png

Also note that you should type and not copy & paste those values from the internet as the same or similar problem might have occured.

If you're unable to fix it, then attach both the .vmx and a recent vmware.log to a reply here.

PS: What MBP are you using? (intel i7 doesn't tell me from what year it is, it could be from 2009 to 2019..)

Moderate note:

Please do not reply the same answer to different threads. It is not going to get you an answer faster, it just makes it difficult for others to follow your problem and the possible resolutions.

I have removed your other copies, so that the discussion stays in this thread.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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tzielin
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Sorry, for my multithreaded pposts. This is my first post on the forum and a few threads suited my problem. Thank you for your understanding and response.

Dictionary Problem has been partially resolved. Because in Windows VM launched after the entry in the .vmx file:
mks.enableMTLRenderer = "FALSE"
mks.enableGLRenderer = "TRUE"
however, it still doesn't solve the CPU consumption problem (over 200%)
For Linux, VM now displays "VMX file is corrupt". When I wiped the entries I can VM Linux start again.

My MBP is a 2017 model.

I attach both relevant files below.

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wila
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Hi,

The Linux VM had those lines 2x.

Try this one that I reconstructed from the vmware.log file you attached and removed both of the mks renderer settings (shut down Fusion, rename the old .vmx file and drop this one in its place)

Those settings only help for old laptops that don't support the metal renderer well. That's the reason those lines make a difference for some users.

You could also verify that without making manual changes by disabling 3D on the VM.

For a laptop from 2017 I don't expect they will help.

After studying both the .vmx as well as the vmware.log I'm not really seeing a compelling reason why your VM would use high CPU.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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tzielin
Contributor
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Exactly, I also struggle with the problem for a long time and I can't find a solution.

This happens on all VMs

I was hoping that updating the Vmware version would help. I tried every suggestion from the forum. Have you ever tried to report a problem directly to the software manufacturer?

Thank you for your time.

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wila
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Hi,

I have contacted support in the past, but it has been a long time ago.

You should be able to open a support ticket here: Fusion Support, Training & Technical Documentation or here: https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/get-help

It certainly isn't normal for every VM to cause your MBP to heat up / use a lot of CPU. Normally you should not need to hand edit .vmx files to resolve issues.

There can be a variety of reasons, but there wasn't an obvious reason in the log file, so more extended troubleshooting would have to be done in order to figure out the cause.

Contacting support is a good start in trying to find out why.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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carlosotgz
Contributor
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This was affecting me as well and this solution solved the problem. Thank you very much!!! Are you aware if this issue is affecting this specific version of Fusion or Catalina? Is it fixed in the latest version of Fusion? Thanks!

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