Workstation 6.5 unable to load Virtual Machines

[darrellchapman]

I've searched and searched for a solution to this problem, however none of the other posts were relevant nor solved my issue.

I'm running Windows XP x64, 2 Xeon Quad-core (E5450), 16GB of RAM on an HP xw8600 workstation. For the most part, VMWare Worstation works beautifully and then all of a sudden it fails to load up any virtual machines. Any vm's that were currently running continue to run fine, I just can't start any new ones. Here's a few things that I've noticed:

1) If I were to double-click on any on of the .vmx files, VMWare Workstation will open, but the details of the vm are not loaded up or shown

2) Using the menu item File-->Open, locating the .vmx file, and clicking "Open" returns same results

3) Double-clicking on a vm listed as a favorite in the sidebar results in the same thing.

4) Dragging a .vmx file and dropping it on to the VMWare WS window results in same thing.

The only solution I've found is to reboot the computer (which is not really acceptable while vm's are running)

Nothing is shown in my VMWare WS application log except for when I attempt #2 above. And then it's only one entry:

Feb 03 15:04:27.158: vmui| CVMUIApp::MenuButtonClicked: 40009

Anyone's help is grealt appreciated.

Darrell Chapman

[Scissor]

Try updating to Workstation 6.5.1.

[darrellchapman]

Sorry I am on v6.5.1...

[asatoran]

Have you tried reinstalling Workstation? You might want to uninstall and reboot before reinstalling. Possibly even uninstalling with the /c option to cleanup the previous installation.

[admin]

Please attach the rest of the UI log.

[darrellchapman]

Sorry for the delay and thank you for your help. Yes, I've tried reinstalling and uninstalling and reinstalling. Same problem.

Here's the log from today. I went to File-->Open, located my .VMX file and clicked open. The VM did not load up in to VMWare Workstation

Feb 05 17:28:36.576: vmui| Log for VMware Workstation pid=5680 version=6.5.1 build=build-126130 option=Release

Feb 05 17:28:36.576: vmui| Host codepage=windows-1252 encoding=windows-1252

Feb 05 17:28:36.873: vmui| HostDeviceInfo: Failed to enumerate host parallel ports via the registry. Could not open device map parallel port registry key.

Feb 05 17:28:36.888: vmui| SCSI Detect: Error finding driver for SCSI adapter Scsi Port 6.

Feb 05 17:28:36.904: vmui| SCSI Detect: Error finding driver for SCSI adapter Scsi Port 6.

Feb 05 17:28:36.904: vmui| SCSI Detect: Error finding driver for SCSI adapter Scsi Port 6.

Feb 05 17:28:36.904: vmui| SCSI Detect: Error finding driver for SCSI adapter Scsi Port 6.

Feb 05 17:28:36.904: vmui| SCSI Detect: Error finding driver for SCSI adapter Scsi Port 6.

Feb 05 17:28:36.920: vmui| SCSI Detect: Error finding driver for SCSI adapter Scsi Port 6.

Feb 05 17:28:36.920: vmui| SCSI Detect: Error finding driver for SCSI adapter Scsi Port 6.

Feb 05 17:28:36.920: vmui| SCSI Detect: Error finding driver for SCSI adapter Scsi Port 6.

Feb 05 17:28:36.951: vmui| HOSTINFO: Seeing Intel CPU, numCoresPerCPU 4 numThreadsPerCore 1.

Feb 05 17:28:36.951: vmui| HOSTINFO: This machine has 2 physical CPUS, 8 total cores, and 8 logical CPUs.

Feb 05 17:28:39.857: vmui| Foundry Init: setting up global state (0 threads)

Feb 05 17:28:39.857: vmui| Vix_InitializeGlobalState: Use Preference. vixLogLevel = 0

Feb 05 17:28:39.857: vmui| Vix_InitializeGlobalState: vixDebugPanicOnVixAssert = 0

Feb 05 17:28:39.857: vmui| Vix_InitializeGlobalState: vixLogRefcountOnFinalRelease = 0

Feb 05 17:28:39.857: vmui| LOCALE windows-1252 -> NULL User=409 System=409

Feb 05 17:28:39.857: vmui| VixHost_ConnectEx: version -1, hostType 3, hostName (null), hostPort 0, options 515

Feb 05 17:28:39.888: vmui| LOCALE windows-1252 -> NULL User=409 System=409

Feb 05 17:28:39.935: vmui| VMListReg::Listener - Initial registry scan completed.

Feb 05 17:28:40.013: vmui| Releasing the multi-instance Mutex.

Feb 05 17:28:44.717: vmui| CVMUIApp::MenuButtonClicked: 40009

Feb 05 17:28:52.638: vmui| Reloading config state: E:\VMWARE-VWS-014\VMWARE-VWS-014.vmx

Feb 05 17:28:52.670: vmui| VMHS: Transitioned vmx/execState/val to poweredOff

[darrellchapman]

Interestingly enough, the logs were exactly the same when it worked and when it didn't with the exception of the following lines:

When it worked the log had these additional lines:

Feb 05 17:33:52.685: vmui| CnxAuthdConnect: Returning false because CnxAuthdConnectPipe failed

Feb 05 17:33:52.685: vmui| CnxConnectAuthd: Returning false because CnxAuthdConnect failed

Feb 05 17:33:52.685: vmui| Cnx_Connect: Returning false because CnxConnectAuthd failed

Feb 05 17:33:52.685: vmui| Cnx_Connect: Error message: Failed to read vmware-authd port number: Cannot connect to VMX: E:\VMWARE-VWS-014\VMWARE-VWS-014.vmx

Feb 05 17:33:52.685: vmui|

Feb 05 17:33:52.685: vmui| Setting power state poweredOff (reported)

Feb 05 17:33:52.732: vmui| CVMUIApp::OpenTabInt: opened /vm/#4ae0d6a64efd099c/

Feb 05 17:33:52.748: vmui| ReplayMgr::OnFoundryEventNotify --- got event 12

Feb 05 17:33:52.763: vmui| Reloading config state: E:\VMWARE-VWS-014\VMWARE-VWS-014.vmx

Feb 05 17:33:52.810: vmui| VMHS: Transitioned vmx/execState/val to poweredOff

Feb 05 17:33:53.076: vmui| CVMUIApp::OnCtxCurrentObj: /vm/#4ae0d6a64efd099c/

Feb 05 17:33:53.185: vmui| Setting power state poweredOff (reported)

[KevinG]

When this happens, check if the vmware-authd service is running

Also what is the E: drive?

Can you start a VM if it is located on the C: drive?

[darrellchapman]

Yes, the vmware-authd service is running; along with vmnat.exe, vmnetdhc.exe, vmware.exe, and vmware-tray.exe.

E:\ is a local (internal) drive that contains all of my virtual machines.

Good question about C:\. I'll remember to try that when it stops working again.

[darrellchapman]

Loading a VM from the C:\ drive had no effect. It still won't load.

I think I'm making progress though. When I can no longer load VMs up in WS I shut it down while leaving current VMs runnin. If I open WS again, I still cannot load VMs. However if I kill the vmware-tray.exe process and then load up WS it almost always works. So the link may be the vmware-tray app. I will do a little more testing today to see what I find out.

Thanks for everyone's help. I hope to return the favor one day.

[darrellchapman]

Another bump in the road.

Once I exit VMWare WS, I tell it to keep all running VMs running in the background. The problem is now I can't get back in to the running VMs. When I try to load up WS and activate a VM it gives me the following error (attached). Even if I right-click on the vmware-tray icon and click "Open all background virtual machines" I get the same error. No other vmware.exe processes are running. Any advice?

[Scissor]

What antivirus are you running on your Host? Any other security software running on the host?

[darrellchapman]

Host is running AVG Antivirus Network Edition v8 but I currently have the Resident Shield (file scanner) and Firewall disabled. No other security software is currently running.