Mouse problems after converting a Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 VHD file to ESXi 3.5

[Ratchet67]

I have today used VMWare Converter 3.0.3 to convert a Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition SP2 evaluation VHD file (Virtual Server 2005) into ESXi 3.5. It appeared to work without error. However, I have one issue outstanding. That is, using the "VMware Pointing Device" driver results in my mouse being rooted to the bottom right corner of the Virtual Console. The mouse buttons seem to work, but the mouse itself will not move. I have VMware Tools installed and have reinstalled them several times, just in case. If I change the mouse driver to the "PS/2 Compatible Mouse" driver, this works, sort of. It moves around the screen and even slips seamlessly in and out of the console window, as you would hope. However, it is jerky. Hardware acceleration is maxed out. The video driver and all other features seem to work perfectly.

I have converted a Windows 2008 VHD and this worked fine.

If I do a clean install of Windows 2003, this works perfectly, mouse and all. So the issue appears to be limited to the conversion of a Windows 2003 VHD. I don't have a physical Windows 2003 machine to test if importing that would have the same bug or not.

A very similar discussion was had in a previous thread several years ago, http://communities.vmware.com/thread/36507.

Any help to fix this annoying bug would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[continuum]

Did you uninstall Virtual Server Additions?

___________________________________

description of vmx-parameters:

VMware-liveCD:

[_David]

Uninstall previous mouse drivers

In a CMD prompt type

SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1

DEVMGMT.MSC

Choose View/Show hidden devices

[paragsha · Accepted solution]

Normally we uninstall the services we feel might conflict with VMware devices (like mouse), so that such problems do not occur. However just to be sure, it would be nice if you could "uninstall" as continium suggested and see if that makes a difference. One catch here is that you might not be able to uninstall this from the VMware VM and you might need to uninstall this from VS VM before doing the conversion.

You can also see if this helps: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100223...

Message was edited by: paragsha

[Ratchet67]

Brilliant!

Using the link provided worked a treat. Mouse is now functioning just fine, using the VMware Pointing Device driver.

Note that the article didn't actually say which key to edit, but a little hunting revealed it should be the "UpperFilters" key. Removing the term "msvmmouf" from that key did the trick.

I suspect that uninstalling the Add On's before conversion would also work and I'll try that shortly.

In the meantime, thanks for the solution.

[Ratchet67]

As suspected, removing the Microsoft Add Ons before conversion worked perfectly. The mouse works without any further changes, other than installing VM Tools of course.

Thanks again for the solution.

[xe]

See KB 1004588, step 10 in the preparation section on this topic.

If you familiarize yourself with this article you should have better success with conversions.