VMWare Workstation hangs up guest VMs in full screen mode

dc2000

Member
Messages
69
Location
Portland, OR
I have a 3-monitor desktop setup running Windows 8.1 (as a host OS.) I use one monitor exclusively to run VMWare Workstation 10. When VMWare first loads up at host PC boot I click "Enter full screen mode" button, which expands it to the size of that monitor. I then usually load several guest OS's into it.

My host OS is set up to show a password protected screensaver after 5 minutes and then turn off the screen after 20 minutes of inactivity.

So what I've been noticing (and yes, this is repeatable) is that sometimes when I wake the screen & log in to my host computer in the morning, most of the guest VMs don't seem to respond and show just a back screen. (Note that it doesn't happen all the time and is somewhat sporadic.) Here's a quick animated GIF screengrab to show what happens afterwards:

vm_bug.gif

As you can see, only the first VM seems to respond to clicks, the rest appear dead. Note that if I try to send Ctrl+Alt+Del keyboard sequence to any of those "hung up" guest VMs nothing happens. The only way to recover from this bug is to force-quit the VMWare Workstation itself, or reboot the host PC, which are both analogous to me flipping the power switch on all guest VMs (with data being lost in them) which is very annoying!

So I'm curious if anyone knows a way to recover from this bug w/o force-quitting the VMs?


PS. I obviously posted this question on VMWare forums, but to be honest, I don't have much faith in them. I tried it before and I never get responses from them. From my experience VMWare has a very bad customer support. Or, I should say, they're "too big" for a single user like me.

PS2. I also checked online and there was an update v.10.0.7 build-2844087 to VMWare that I installed, which unfortunately didn't fix anything.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700 (customized)
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel Z87
    Memory
    32 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Haswell on-board, 2 GB VDRAM
    Sound Card
    Haswell on-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer / DVI
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    C: Mushkin Scorpion PCle SSD, 222 GB
    D: Samsung SSD 840-series, 238 GB
    E: Samsung SSD 840 eVo, 500 GB
    F: WD (Red) HDD, 2 TB
    PSU
    Dell standard
    Case
    Dell standard
    Cooling
    Dell standard
    Keyboard
    Logitech K120
    Mouse
    Infrared wired mouse from Microsoft
    Internet Speed
    Comcast DSL
    Browser
    Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, IE
    Antivirus
    Windows 8 built-in
I have noticed this behaviour in VMware 12 after creating a new Windows 7 VM and a Vista VM I put it into high performance mode disabled Hibernation, Sleep, Screensaver, Hard drive . I think all I really had to do was disable hibernation.

Not sure what OS you are running as a guest VM but here is the way to disable it in Windows 10
Hibernate - Enable or Disable in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

Here is how to do it in Windows 8
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...u-add-remove-sleep-hibernate-windows-8-a.html

Here is how to do it in Windows 7
Hibernate - Enable or Disable - Windows 7 Help Forums
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + 8.1 pro and 7 Utimate
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i3 2.53GHz
Have you tried going into Services and restart all the ones for VMware(even if they say their on)
Screenshot (134).png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Update Pro in Hyper-V/Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Cliff's Black & Blue Wonder
    CPU
    Intel Core i9-9900K
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero
    Memory
    32 GB Quad Kit, G.Skill Trident Z RGB Series schwarz, DDR4-3866, 18-19-19-39-2T
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS GeForce RTX 3090 ROG Strix O24G, 24576 MB GDDR6X
    Sound Card
    (1) HD Webcam C270 (2) NVIDIA High Definition Audio (3) Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ BL2711U(4K) and a hp 27vx(1080p)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080 x 32 bits (4294967296 colors) @ 60 Hz
    Hard Drives
    C: Samsung 960 EVO NVMe M.2 SSD
    E: & O: Libraries & OneDrive-> Samsung 850 EVO 1TB
    D: Hyper-V VM's -> Samsung PM951 Client M.2 512Gb SSD
    G: System Images -> HDD Seagate Barracuda 2TB
    PSU
    Corsair HX1000i High Performance ATX Power Supply 80+ Platinum
    Case
    hanteks Enthoo Pro TG
    Cooling
    Thermaltake Floe Riing RGB TT Premium-Edition 360mm and 3 Corsair blue LED fans
    Keyboard
    Trust GTX THURA
    Mouse
    Trust GTX 148
    Internet Speed
    25+/5+ (+usually faster)
    Browser
    Edge; Chrome; IE11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender of course & Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit as a
    Other Info
    Router: FRITZ!Box 7590 AX V2
    Sound system: SHARP HT-SBW460 Dolby Atmos Soundbar
    Webcam: Logitech BRIO ULTRA HD PRO WEBCAM 4K webcam with HDR
Thank you, guys. I don't think the issue in on the guest VM's side. And no, I don't have hibernation, nor sleep enabled in them.

As for Cliff's idea to restart services, it might be a good idea, except knowing which ones to restart. There's quite a lot of stuff that's running there:

1.png

2.png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700 (customized)
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel Z87
    Memory
    32 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Haswell on-board, 2 GB VDRAM
    Sound Card
    Haswell on-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer / DVI
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    C: Mushkin Scorpion PCle SSD, 222 GB
    D: Samsung SSD 840-series, 238 GB
    E: Samsung SSD 840 eVo, 500 GB
    F: WD (Red) HDD, 2 TB
    PSU
    Dell standard
    Case
    Dell standard
    Cooling
    Dell standard
    Keyboard
    Logitech K120
    Mouse
    Infrared wired mouse from Microsoft
    Internet Speed
    Comcast DSL
    Browser
    Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, IE
    Antivirus
    Windows 8 built-in
I had the problem where I suddenly couldn't "find" my Ubuntu VM, and activating clicking the .vmx gave me an error(I forget now what it exactly said) that lead me to check out services, and I just went down the list> right click>restart...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Update Pro in Hyper-V/Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Cliff's Black & Blue Wonder
    CPU
    Intel Core i9-9900K
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero
    Memory
    32 GB Quad Kit, G.Skill Trident Z RGB Series schwarz, DDR4-3866, 18-19-19-39-2T
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS GeForce RTX 3090 ROG Strix O24G, 24576 MB GDDR6X
    Sound Card
    (1) HD Webcam C270 (2) NVIDIA High Definition Audio (3) Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ BL2711U(4K) and a hp 27vx(1080p)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080 x 32 bits (4294967296 colors) @ 60 Hz
    Hard Drives
    C: Samsung 960 EVO NVMe M.2 SSD
    E: & O: Libraries & OneDrive-> Samsung 850 EVO 1TB
    D: Hyper-V VM's -> Samsung PM951 Client M.2 512Gb SSD
    G: System Images -> HDD Seagate Barracuda 2TB
    PSU
    Corsair HX1000i High Performance ATX Power Supply 80+ Platinum
    Case
    hanteks Enthoo Pro TG
    Cooling
    Thermaltake Floe Riing RGB TT Premium-Edition 360mm and 3 Corsair blue LED fans
    Keyboard
    Trust GTX THURA
    Mouse
    Trust GTX 148
    Internet Speed
    25+/5+ (+usually faster)
    Browser
    Edge; Chrome; IE11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender of course & Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit as a
    Other Info
    Router: FRITZ!Box 7590 AX V2
    Sound system: SHARP HT-SBW460 Dolby Atmos Soundbar
    Webcam: Logitech BRIO ULTRA HD PRO WEBCAM 4K webcam with HDR
VirtualBox is more easy to use and low memory. VMWare have so many processes and services running in the background altho its off.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo Thinkpad
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo P8400
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 900
    Keyboard
    Lenovo Thinkpad Ps/2 keyboard
    Mouse
    Synaptics Ultranav
    Internet Speed
    Turtle lol
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
VirtualBox is more easy to use and low memory. VMWare have so many processes and services running in the background altho its off.
The thing I didn't like about Virtual Box is its poor integration with the host. For instance, I couldn't drag-and-drop files from host to guest and vice versa, plus I couldn't copy and paste between guests and the host.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700 (customized)
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel Z87
    Memory
    32 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Haswell on-board, 2 GB VDRAM
    Sound Card
    Haswell on-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer / DVI
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    C: Mushkin Scorpion PCle SSD, 222 GB
    D: Samsung SSD 840-series, 238 GB
    E: Samsung SSD 840 eVo, 500 GB
    F: WD (Red) HDD, 2 TB
    PSU
    Dell standard
    Case
    Dell standard
    Cooling
    Dell standard
    Keyboard
    Logitech K120
    Mouse
    Infrared wired mouse from Microsoft
    Internet Speed
    Comcast DSL
    Browser
    Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, IE
    Antivirus
    Windows 8 built-in
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