Extremely slow reboot times (XP/XP)

[Asperamanca]

Hi all,

I am a VMWare user for several years now, currently using 7.1.3 on XP SP3 (host)

Recently, the VM I am currently working with developed a strange behaviour that I have never seen before: Whenever I reboot the guest OS (XP SP3), the machine becomes extremely slow - you can watch the XP boot-time logo appear shade by shade over a timespan of about a minute, a whole boot sequence including login takes about two hours(!).

The problem is absolutely reproducable. I found a workaround: When rebooting, I power off the machine while it shows the BIOS screen, then power on again. In this case, the boot times are always normal.

I've upgraded VMWare (from 7.1.1 to 7.1.3), upgraded the VMWare tools, defragmented host machine and VM.

I've created a dump file while the VM was running in it's slow mode, but failed to create a tech support ticket thanks to VMWare bureaucracy (I spent about an hour on the phone, trying to resolve that issue...*sigh*)

What could I try? What more information could I provide that would be helpful to identify the problem?

Thanks!

Robert

[continuum]

upgrade to WS 6.5.5 - that will fix this

no - I am not joking

[Asperamanca]

How could I downgrade a VM that's already been upgraded to 7.1.3?

[continuum]

there is no need to change anything - VMs from 7.1.*  can also be used in 6.5

WS 7 has no new features

[Asperamanca]

Thanks for that info.

However, VMWare 7 added support to several guest OSes I need for other VMs. As far as I remember, I cannot have different versions of VMWare side-by-side, correct?

[continuum]

everything that runs in WS 7 also runs in WS 6.5.5 - only difference: WS 6.5.5 is a stable product - fast and reliable

the new version only officially supports some OS that were not supported in 6.5 - in practical terms this means nothing at all for most users

[a_p_]

I'm using VMware Workstation 7.0.1 build-227600 on Windows XP SP3 without any issues so far. Depending on the operating systems you need that may be an option.

André

[Asperamanca]

I had a typo in my OP - I upgraded from Version 7.0.1 to 7.1.3 AFTER the problem first occurred. However, I have used 7.0.1 without any problems whatsoever for several months previously.

[continuum]

7.0.1 was the last acceptable version of 7.*

I reverted to 6.5.5 on my win7-64bit host and it has the following advantages:

USB just works - where as USB support in 7.* mostly fails
6.5.5 is significantly faster on resume, suspend , shutdown
network is stable

6.5.5 scales way better - you can run way more VMs before performance goes down the drain

personally I run 7.1.3 on a second host = only to keep up with the new bugs

[Asperamanca]

Okay...I'll give it a try, and let you know. Thanks!