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gambcl
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Flickering screen using Fusion 5.0.3 on latest 2013 (Haswell) MacBook Air


Hi all,

I just got one of the new Haswell-based MacBook Airs and have installed the latest Fusion (5.0.3) on it to run Windows 8 (x86).

It installed fine but now I get a large dark area flickering on the bottom half of the screen. Even if I run in windowed-mode, the flickering extends

from left edge to right edge but its only about half the screen height.

First I thought the MacBook Air was faulty, but it only started happening when I tried running Win8 in Fusion.

Also the flickering stops as soon as I switch to another Mac app, and then comes back if I switch back to Fusion, so it definitely seems to be

related to Fusion.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks,

Charles

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mnahum
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The same unfortualty happen on macbook pro ... you need to switch off hardware acceleration and it's become better ...

View solution in original post

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mnahum
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The same unfortualty happen on macbook pro ... you need to switch off hardware acceleration and it's become better ...

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bmcmillan
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I am having the same problem on a 64 bit Windows 7 VM.  My 32 bit Windows 7 VM's seem to be okay. New Macbook Air (2013 version - picked it up yesterday) and VMWare Fusion 5.0.3.  It's probably the new graphics card in the Air.

Brian

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bmcmillan
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Correction. It is happening on my 32 bit Windows 7 VM's  as well.  I am unable to use VMWare on this machine without a fix.

Brian

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gambcl
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I just tried turning off the graphics acceleration as suggested above, and the problem does seem to have gone away for now.

I can use this until we get a fix.

Do VMWare actually read these forums, or should we be reporting this issue somewhere else?

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bmcmillan
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I tried that too. I opened a support case. They have requested log files.  They have been real good in the past with these kind of issues. I don't think we will have to wait too long for a resolution.

bmcmillan
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I spent some time this morning with support. One thing the found that that some of the VMWare services were not starting up properly. We un-installed VMWare Tools and Re-installed. This seems to help but it did not eliminate the flicker entirely.  We made sure there was enough memory & processor cores allocated to the VM.

They asked me to shut down all VM's not in use (not suspend) and watch for a couple of days. They agreed this is not a solution but will help diagnose the problem. I will watch my VM's for a couple of days and we will talk again.

Brian

ps - I have no flicker problem with running an OS X 10.7 VM.

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kfreeman86
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Was having the same issue (bottom half of the screen would flicker black seemingly at random while in full screen w native 1440x900 resolution) and tried:

  • Disabling hardware acceleration
  • Disabling MouseShadow within Win7

No luck

I was able to get it to go away by going into the OSX Accessibility settings and moving the mouse pointer back to the default size. Once I did that, I reenabled the gfx acceleration [didn't check the Retina option since it isn't applicable] and then booted the VM - all is well now

This is on the new 2013Haswell 13" w Fusion5[most current update available] and Win7ProX64 fully patched w VMwareTools installed on the guest O/S. 2proc cores and 4GB allocated to the VM

If this doesn't work for you.. a user of mine w the 3rdgen MacAir running the lastest Fusion5 offerring had an odd issue a month back where a black box would flicker around his mouse

We were able to resolve the issue by going into the VM file from the OSX side and utilizing this VMware KB: VMware KB: Black square popup appears in a VMware Fusion virtual machine

On a completely separate note - the display on my 2ndgen Air looks a lot better than my BRAND NEW Air. Put them side by side and everything just looks better on the 2ndgen [mine came w the samsung display] =(

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bmcmillan
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The work around I received from Tech Support is to go into VMWare system preferences, General, and set Gaming to "Always optimize mouse for games." This did it.  Mouse is a little sluggish but it works for now. No flickering for several hours.

Brian

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changhai
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Brian,

if you have change and please add the following line into vmx file, let us know whether or not this issue is got fixed.

mks.vsync="1"

Best Regards,

changhai

bmcmillan
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I made the change in one VM and set Gaming back to "Auto-detect mouse for games." So far so good. No problems for the last two hours.


Shutdown the VM and opened another one. It flickered. Shut it down, made the change, restarted, and it is fine.


Brian

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jjfcpa
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I've tried every setting so far and the screen flickering makes it impossible to use Win 7 64 in VMWare 5.03.  They need to fix this ASAP or I've got to find something else that works!

None of the suggestions in this forum have made any difference at all.

appljohn
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My experience is similar to jjfcpa.  I have been able to get Fusion not flickering but only in single window mode and only by disabling 3D graphic acceleration and putting the mouse into gaming mode.  But the usage that way is slow and tedious and I can't use Fusion in any other mode, like Unity View mode, which would be my choice.

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bmcmillan
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I am running in Unity view right now (although I don't normally).  Single Window. No flicker.  Here is what I did:

- Show package contents on my "Windows 7 – 64 bit.vmware" file

- Opened the .vmx file

- Added the line   mks.vsync=1   & saved

- Restarted the VM

Currently running Windows 7 (64 bit), Oracle 11 EE, JBOSS 5.1 App Server, Eclipse (Juno), and Solitaire in Unity view. Outlook 2011 as an OS X app. No flicker.

VM setup:

- Accelerate 3D Graphics is ON

- Use Full resolution for Retina display is ON

- 2 processor cores and 2048MB allocated to VM.

Macbook is:

Model Name: MacBook Air

  Model Identifier: MacBookAir6,2

  Processor Name: Intel Core i7

  Processor Speed: 1.7 GHz

  Number of Processors: 1

  Total Number of Cores: 2

  L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

  L3 Cache: 4 MB

  Memory: 8 GB

  Boot ROM Version: MBA61.0099.B00

  SMC Version (system): 2.13f5

System Software Overview:


  System Version: OS X 10.8.4 (12E3067)

  Kernel Version: Darwin 12.4.1

  Boot Volume: Macintosh HD

  Boot Mode: Normal

  Secure Virtual Memory:  Enabled

  Time since boot: 2 days 2:37

All software current on updates.

Brian

danfred99
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Hi

I had my IT support try Brian's above tempt solution. So far the flicker issue is gone. The flickering really made fusion un-usable.

Hopefully we get an update for full fix soon.

Cheers

Dan

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BLUMEA
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I experienced same flickering problem on my new Air and it appears that adding the proposed change to the .vmx file is resolving the issue. What's interesting though is that on this new Air I am also running a Windows 7 VM copied from an older MBP with Fusion 4 which worked without any flickering. I hope VMware can make this modification into a permanent fix as without it it's impossible to use the Windows 7 VM with Fusion 5.

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changhai
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BLUMEA,

thanks a lot for your feedback and will let our developer aware of your comments.

Best Regards,

changhai

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dpugh
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I'm running Fusion Version 4.1.4 (900582) and have added the additional line to the vmx file as Brian suggested but to no avail. Is the mks.vsync parameter supported on my version of Fusion or am I going to be forced to upgrade to V5 to resolve this problem. Thanks in advance for any guidance offered.

BTW disabling 3D acceleration and changing the mouse gaming setting solves flickering in single view mode but, as someone else has already said, doesn't help with Unity mode which remains unusable.

Update: Think I've answered my own question. I've installed a trial version of V5 and both single and unity views work perfectly - no flickering. The question now is whether I want to spend EUR44 to get something I thought I already had.

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Jason57
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Hello,

I just received my new haswell MacBook air today.  Purchased VMWARE 5.03 Today Immediately noticed the flickering and a Google search led me here.

I have adjusted my mouse setting to the game setting and also disabled my 3D Acceleration.  Is this the fix?  I apologize as I am some what of a noob here.

Any Help Would Be Appreciated

Thank you,


avanish321
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hi jason.

yes .. the workaround is to add the line


mks.vsync= "1" 


in virtual machine's config file.

For details on editing the config file please refer VMware KB: Editing the .vmx file for your VMware Fusion virtual machine

Cheers! Avanish