Help!!

rejaz

Hi All,

I have just started using VMWare Player and I have installed a Windows XP SP3 and Windows Server 2008 client onto it, Everytime I reboot either of the VM's they get stuck on the initial bootup screen.

I have tried to repair and re-install VMWare Player and neither have worked.

Please assist.

Essendon

Have you Googled the issue? Are there any logs you can gone through?

AnthonyF

How much ram do you have allocated? I have XP maxed at 4 and it hangs on boot into vm but it makes it through after about 30 seconds. Maybe it boils down to processor and things running on your host vm.

rejaz

I have gone through many posts and nothing helpful has came up, I have even tried posting on the actual vmware website and none of them "experts" can work it out either.

rejaz

I have 2GB with 2 CPU cores allocated, I can run everything fine within the windows vpc but not vmware....

Essendon

Maybe you have a busted copy of VMware Player? Try another copy of it perhaps or download a cop of the free VMware Server. Have you checked the logs? There can be some useful information there.

paul78

What are you running VMPlayer on? Perhaps it's your host settings of some sort - just shooting in the dark here.

Oddly enough, I have the same problem with some Linux VM's which are based Ubuntu. If I reboot the VM enough times, the GUI would eventually load. For those Linux VM's what I have to do when it gets stuck during the boot is to bypass X-Windows (ctrl-f1) and login to kill the X server to restart it.

Obviously that technique doesn't work for your Windows guest VMs.

It wasn't causing me enough pain to try to find a permanent resolution but I suspected it was some latent driver issue in the guest VM that doesn't like VMware.

Question - did you experience the problem before or after you installed the VMWare guest tools? Perhaps don't install the guest tools or if you did not install; try install the guest tools.

rejaz

Right,

The problem occurred before and after I installed VMWare Tools, It happened even when I first installed the VM.

I even tried to install the VM tools and on reboot the VM froze.

Also I wouldnt know what to look for when looking through the VM logs.

Regards

R

AnthonyF

What processor do you have?

I cannot use a 64 bit VM on my laptop only 32 bit. When I tried it got stuck at the bootup screen. Does your host bios allow you to turn VM support on or off? I had to turn the support on for my desktop.

Can you post a screen shot of the error or text extract?

paul78

Also - when you say it gets stuck on boot, is it after the POST? Can you try to enter safe mode?

rejaz

I have a Intel Core i3 CPU, also it gets stuck on the VMWare Splash Screen (I have uploaded a screenshot),

I have a 64bit OS on my host machine aswell.

The VM's get stuck on this regardless of have OS I have installed within the virtualized environment.

AnthonyF

I think you may have busted copy of VM ware.

All I can suggest is to:

1. Confirm that you have turned on Virtualized Support in your BIOS.
2. Download fresh copy of VM Ware.
3. Ensure you have have set the Virtualization Settings to automatic. It is under the hardware tab of your VM Settings.
4. Look up your specific processor on the intel website to confirm that it can handle VM's. I tried looking but there are are several different generations of i3 processors. So without a specific model I could not look it up. Check below.
ARK | Advanced Search

rejaz

Anthony,

I can confirm Hardware assisted virtualization is enabled within the BIOS, I have already re-downloaded a fresh copy of VMWare from their Official website, I also can confirm the preferred virtualized setting for the VM's are all set to Automatic, My CPU to be more specific is...

Intel (R) Core (TM) i3-2330M CPU @ 2.20GHz 2.20GHz

Regards

R

AnthonyF

I am at a loss... I checked the processor out here.

ARK | Intel® Core

It supports VT-x so processor is good.

Maybe you should cut it back to one processor core. I am sure you probably did that but just to be sure...

Is this a custom build? Maybe you have mobo issues? That is all I can think of besides doing a reinstall of host O/S.

Anybody else have a clue?

paul78

R - I may have missed it in your post. What is the host OS? Can you provide some details about the host OS? Perhaps the host OS needs to have some updates.

Also - do you have this problem with other guest OS's? Can you maybe download a Linux bootable ISO (something quite and easy like Linux Mint or some other Live CD) what happens if you try a different guest?

rejaz

Anthony,

The CPU is down to one core on the VM clients,

I built directly from the OEM Disk, also thats not possible as I have a HP and its under warranty so can't risk that

Paul,

My host OS is Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit, with 4GB Ram.

I have a linux Boot CD but I also have the same issue with the Windows 8 VM I have recently build and I have also heard im not the only person with this issues..

paul78

When you use the Linux LiveCD - do you have the same problem? Can you reboot fine with a non-Windows guest OS?

The only other thing that I can think of is to make sure that you have all the latest Windows 7 patches installed.

rejaz

It happens with the Linux LiveCD aswell,

My windows 7 OS is fully updated.

paul78

Strange... I suspect that is must be the host system and not the guest VM's. Unfortunately, I don't run VMplayer on Windows 7 so I'm kinda out of ideas. Perhaps you can try another host OS?

rejaz

Paul,

There are a few users affected, as far as what I can see on the VMWare forums, I had asked VMWare for support but they are asking for £74.95 + VAT to answer my support query.

I wont give up looking for a solution on this issue!

Thanks for all the help guys.

rejaz

Solution found!

I disabled the hardware within the VM (CD/Floppy/USB) and the VM's are now rebooting successfully with no issues.

This is only a temporary workaround but hopefully when VMWare get their act together they will release an update/patch to resolve the issues currently at hand.

Thanks for all your help guys I really appreciate it !