VMware Communities
vmApprentice01
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

working Win98 VM on VMware 12.5.5/Win7 immediately fails on VMware 12.5.9/Win10?

I've got a Win98 VM that runs perfectly on a Win7-64 Pro box with VMware Workstation version=12.5.5.

I'm moving to Win10-64 Pro and have installed the latest 12.5.9.

I can bring up an XP VM with multiple cores, so I know that my BIOS settings and VMWare itself are all working, but the Win98 VM crashes immediately.

Comparing the log on the Win7-64 box with the Win10 box, I can see that the Win10 goes South after line 1396:

VMXVmdb_SetToolsVersionStatus: status value set to 'ok', 'current', install possible

where it says "Dumping core for vcpu-0"

The logs for Win7 and Win64 are almost identical up to that point.

The Win10 log with the crash is vmware.log and the Win7 log where it works is vmware-0.log

I'm not sure how to proceed?  I tried upgrading it to the Workstation 12 virtual machine on the Win7 box, but that had no effect when trying to run the Win98 VM on Win10.

What obvious stupid mistake am I making?  Portability of VM's is kind of the whole point of VMware, and I really need to get this working.  I think I had it originally running years ago on XP, so I'm surprised to see this fail as VMWare has been such a great tool to work with!!  Totally essential!

Thanks in advance!!!!

Reply
0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
wila
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

That's because your crash wasn't related to the SCSI.

I have to admit that when I looked at your Windows 98 log file that I was surprised to see the buslogic SCSI drives.

It is probably a good thing that you moved them over to the more common IDE drives.


The "NDIS" error is about networking.

Apparently if you have a CPU that is too fast, then that NDIS driver cannot cope with that.

The solution is to remove the network card driver in safe mode, then reboot.

(Probably don't need to remove the network card from the vm, although that would be another route to try)

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva

View solution in original post

Reply
0 Kudos
13 Replies
wila
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

Hi,

here's a couple of threads that have workarounds/fixes for the same bugnr.

vcpu-0:VERIFY vmcore/vmm/main/cpuid.c:386 bugNr=1036521

Unrecoverable error 1036521

VMware Workstation unrecoverable error: (vcpu-0)

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
vmApprentice01
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Thank you!  That pointed me in a direction that has Almost fixed my problem.

I already had virtualization enabled in my BIOS.

What worked briefly for me was for two power ups was:

1. Change processors->virtualization engine to Intel VT-x or AMD-V (I'm using an Intel i7-7700K)

2. Change Options->guest operating system from Win98 to Win95. (Win98 gave an error of "while initializing device NDIS: Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer")

But after this, when I power on, I now get the: While initializing device NDIS: Windows protection error., even though I immediately made an image of the 'working' Win95 VM and restored from this image after it stopped working (can't get my head around why it suddenly stopped working).

Years and years ago, I changed the hard disks (there are 3) from IDE to SCSI (possibly BusLogic SCSI).

My guess is that this was part of the problem - as my XP VM with 4 processors and IDE drives came up without any issues.

Is there a way to change a drive from SCSI to IDE?  I didn't see any options for this?

Any suggestions?  I'm now dead in the water again?  This doesn't make sense?

Reply
0 Kudos
continuum
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

> Is there a way to change a drive from SCSI to IDE?  I didn't see any options for this?

There is no button for this - just adjust the vmx-file directly.


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

Reply
0 Kudos
vmApprentice01
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

I'm a bit unclear on how to 'adjust the vmx-file directly'?

If I look at one of the SCSI hard disks in Hardware, I can see for the 'Disk File' "Widows 98 scsi_c.vmdk"

I don't see any way to adjust it?

If I click on 'advanced', for the virtual device node's hard disk advanced settings, every single choice begins with "SCSI" - there are no "IDE" choices?

When I think back, the 'only' change I made between when it started to work and now considerately gives the "While initializing device NDIS: Windows protection error." was to check the dialog box option for 'don't show this message again' for a few of the warning dialogs such as the one I'm attaching.  Possibly I could delete whatever setting is now preventing that warning from popping up?

Reply
0 Kudos
continuum
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

Get a decent texteditor like notepad+ and doubleclick the vmx-file


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

vmApprentice01
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Thanks!!!

I have a lot of entries where I can see that many apply to SCSI and IDE is mentioned.

I'm not sure exactly how to modify them to convert the SCSI to IDE?  I'm guessing I'll need to change

scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:0.fileName = "Windows 98 scsi_c.vmdk"

to:

ide0:0.present = "TRUE"

ide0:0.fileName = "Windows 98 scsi_c.vmdk"

but ... I'm sure there will be some non-obvious changes I'll need to make for the SCSI to IDE conversion?

---------- all entries in win95.mvx ------------

.encoding = "windows-1252"

config.version = "8"

virtualHW.version = "4"

scsi0.present = "TRUE"

memsize = "680"

floppy0.fileName = "A:"

Ethernet0.present = "TRUE"

sound.present = "TRUE"

sound.fileName = "-1"

displayName = "DiagnosxTemps"

guestOS = "win95"

priority.grabbed = "normal"

priority.ungrabbed = "normal"

powerType.powerOff = "hard"

powerType.powerOn = "hard"

powerType.suspend = "hard"

powerType.reset = "hard"

sound.virtualDev = "es1371"

redoLogDir = "."

tools.remindInstall = "FALSE"

tools.syncTime = "TRUE"

usb.present = "TRUE"

nvram = "win95.nvram"

scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:0.fileName = "Windows 98 scsi_c.vmdk"

scsi0:1.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:1.fileName = "Windows 98 scsi_d.vmdk"

scsi0:2.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:2.fileName = "Windows 98 scsi_e.vmdk"

scsi0:0.redo = ""

scsi0:1.redo = ""

scsi0:2.redo = ""

checkpoint.vmState = ""

workingDir = "."

uuid.action = "keep"

scsi0:3.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:3.autodetect = "TRUE"

scsi0:3.deviceType = "scsi-cdrom"

sound.startConnected = "FALSE"

scsi0:3.startConnected = "TRUE"

scsi0:3.fileName = "auto detect"

floppy0.startConnected = "FALSE"

extendedConfigFile = "win95.vmxf"

virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"

numa.autosize.vcpu.maxPerVirtualNode = "1"

numa.autosize.cookie = "10001"

migrate.hostlog = ".\win95-1cbfe735.hlog"

monitor.phys_bits_used = "36"

vmotion.checkpointFBSize = "16777216"

cleanShutdown = "TRUE"

softPowerOff = "FALSE"

toolsInstallManager.updateCounter = "2"

toolsInstallManager.lastInstallError = "0"

monitor.virtual_mmu = "software"

monitor.virtual_exec = "hardware"

ide0:0.present = "FALSE"

ide1:0.present = "FALSE"

ide0:1.present = "FALSE"

ide1:1.present = "FALSE"

Reply
0 Kudos
continuum
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

Note that the 4 available ide devices are

ide0:0

ide0:1

ide1:0

ide1:1

at the moment you have all of them disabled by setting the parameter

*.present = "FALSE"

So switch those 4 lines to "true"

Then add the .fileName parameter as you already done for the first 2


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

continuum
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

Important:

Your Win98 may no longer be able to boot if you switch the bootdisk from scsi to ide.

So make sure to work on a backup


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

vmApprentice01
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Thanks!!!

I has able to get the win95 VM to boot up after making changes so that it was Totally using IDE with no SCSI.  However, after I celebrated (2 reboots I think) and all seemed ok,  I made an image and then tried to boot up again.  It does better than before, it does a scan of all 3 IDE drives from some scripts on the Win98 VM (which means the VM is actually running), but then it crashes with

While initializing device NDIS:

Windows protection error.  You need to restart your computer.

I've restarted quite a few times, and it continues to give this error.

Here's my current setup with all traces of SCSI gone.  I just can't understand how it can just start failing after working fine with no further changes on my part?  Never a single problem when running the VM on XP or Win7.  i'm perplexed!!

.encoding = "windows-1252"

config.version = "8"

virtualHW.version = "4"

memsize = "680"

floppy0.fileName = "A:"

Ethernet0.present = "TRUE"

sound.present = "TRUE"

sound.fileName = "-1"

displayName = "DiagnosxTemps"

guestOS = "win95"

priority.grabbed = "normal"

priority.ungrabbed = "normal"

powerType.powerOff = "hard"

powerType.powerOn = "hard"

powerType.suspend = "hard"

powerType.reset = "hard"

sound.virtualDev = "es1371"

redoLogDir = "."

Ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

uuid.location = "56 4d 9c 6e 77 88 e9 62-16 c3 8c 65 3b 64 6f ef"

uuid.bios = "56 4d 04 d4 ed 9f 6d ca-4c 85 57 a2 24 b4 38 c4"

ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:b4:38:c4"

ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

tools.remindInstall = "FALSE"

tools.syncTime = "TRUE"

usb.present = "TRUE"

nvram = "win95.nvram"

ide0:0.present = "TRUE"

ide0:0.fileName = "Windows 98 scsi_c.vmdk"

ide0:1.present = "TRUE"

ide0:1.fileName = "Windows 98 scsi_d.vmdk"

ide0:2.present = "TRUE"

ide0:2.fileName = "Windows 98 scsi_e.vmdk"

checkpoint.vmState = ""

workingDir = "."

uuid.action = "keep"

sound.autodetect = "TRUE"

sound.startConnected = "FALSE"

floppy0.startConnected = "FALSE"

extendedConfigFile = "win95.vmxf"

virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"

numa.autosize.vcpu.maxPerVirtualNode = "1"

numa.autosize.cookie = "10001"

migrate.hostlog = ".\win95-1cbfe735.hlog"

monitor.phys_bits_used = "36"

vmotion.checkpointFBSize = "16777216"

cleanShutdown = "FALSE"

softPowerOff = "FALSE"

toolsInstallManager.updateCounter = "2"

toolsInstallManager.lastInstallError = "0"

monitor.virtual_mmu = "software"

monitor.virtual_exec = "hardware"

ide0:1.redo = ""

ide0:0.redo = ""

ide1:0.present = "TRUE"

ide1:0.fileName = "Windows 98 scsi_e.vmdk"

ide1:1.present = "TRUE"

ide1:1.autodetect = "TRUE"

ide1:1.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"

ide1:0.redo = ""

Reply
0 Kudos
wila
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

That's because your crash wasn't related to the SCSI.

I have to admit that when I looked at your Windows 98 log file that I was surprised to see the buslogic SCSI drives.

It is probably a good thing that you moved them over to the more common IDE drives.


The "NDIS" error is about networking.

Apparently if you have a CPU that is too fast, then that NDIS driver cannot cope with that.

The solution is to remove the network card driver in safe mode, then reboot.

(Probably don't need to remove the network card from the vm, although that would be another route to try)

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
Reply
0 Kudos
vmApprentice01
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Yeah, I added the BusLogic SCSI years ago when all my workstations were SCSI, definitely not a beneficial strategy ha ha!

I made the mistake of looking in the log file for the error and not really paying enough attention to the NDIS error, thinking it was all related to the SCSI somehow.

You are exactly right, it's a race condition that exhibits itself when the processor is 'too fast' on Win95/Win98.

I found a thread discussing the issue - and downloaded a MS 'hotfix'.

https://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=24439

Of course, MS tossed the Q312108 KB and the hotfix download long ago, but the download on that page passed VirusTotal.com - so I'll see if I can get it installed on the Win7 'slower' machine so I can move to Win10 - as I guess VMware workstation doesn't support CPU throttling?

Unless there's an 'official' NDIS driver for Win98 that can I download?  Surprising that this fix didn't make it into Win98?

Thanks!!!

Reply
0 Kudos
wila
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

Hi,

Windows 98 is around the time of the Pentium III Coppermine

Having a CPU that was able to ran at over 2GHz was mostly a wet dream back then.

Also note that Windows 98 has some 'out of memory' issues if you give it more than 512MB.

Max RAM it could address was 1GB.

Personally I'm not a fan of downloading fixes from the internet which are not from official sources.

I think that there is a CPU throttling option, perhaps its sched.cpu.max ?

sanbarrow.com

Ulli might know.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
Reply
0 Kudos
vmApprentice01
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Yes, wasn't happy at all about downloading from a non-official site, but ... it passed VirusTotal.com and I was able to extract a 154KB NDIS.VXD that did solve my problem.

In case anyone comes across this Win98 issue, I'm attaching the NDIS.VXD file.

Thanks, for that Advanced Parameters site, looks Very useful!!

My next step is massaging an XP vm and getting that setup on my client's new Win10 box (I guess running VM Player) so that he can run the old software while I re-write it for .NET and SQL Server.  I would guess that will be less problematic.

Reply
0 Kudos