Workstation 6 BSOD on VM start on XP x64bit host

[TimSmith]

Anytime I, and my co-worker with the same setup, try to start a VM in workstation 6, our PC's Blue Screen.

However, this will only happen if we have 4GB of RAM or above. If I go down to 3GB of RAM, I'm fine.

Both Machines are fresh installs of XP x64, latest SP. We do both have an Nvidia 7300gt graphics card with latest x64 drivers.

The BSOD is "Page fault in a non-paged area" 0x00000050

Workstation 6 - Build 59824

intel 965 MB, 1.8 core2 duo

Any thoughts will be helpful.

Thanks.

[TimSmith]

And what are you using for drivers for your Nvidia card?

[AZDeveloper]

I'm using the default Microsoft nvidia drivers.

[TimSmith]

Unfortunatly, those are not available for every nvidia card.

[SEITech]

I have solved this for my machine, it appears. I have found two solutions. First, again, my specs, as this may not work for all setups:

• Kentsfield Q6600 @ 2.4ghz

• Intel Brand S975XBX2 Chipset Motherboard

• 4GiB RAM

• Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS w/320MiB VRAM

• Four hard drives in a RAID 0 setup using the built-in Intel Matrix Storage (yes, this is my system drive, and yes, I am insane)

• Windows XP x64 with all updates

• Onboard LAN and Audio enabled, all other on-board stuff (Firewire, Trusted Platform Module, Serial port, Parallel port, Second SATA controller) disabled. USB enabled.

• VMWare Workstation v6.0.3

Solutions

1. Use older NVidia drivers. Specifically, v97.92 (http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-64bit_extended_archive.html) or 97.94 (not WHQL certified). This worked for me, but the system was not super stable... it got around the BSOD thrown by VMWare, but instead traded that for lots of random BSODs at random times everywhere else. I was able to decrease the frequency of the random BSODs by using the display-properties->settings->advanced->troubleshooting tab and turning down hardware acceleration to the lowest setting. Kind of nullifies the point of a super-awesome 3D card, but it is faster 2D than the default MS Windows driver.

2. Use the newest NVidia drivers (169.21 at this time). This avoids lots of random BSODs in Windows. In my BIOS, I found that, under the power settings page, there is an option to disable Intel Enhanced Speedstep (EIST) which is what allows frequency scaling of the CPU. With this disabled, VMWare appears to work quite normally. With this enabled, VMWare BSODs like we have all been discussing. So, it appears that VMWare and NVidia, together, do not play well with CPU frequency (i.e. speed) scaling. I would love it if VMWare would even acknowledge the issue, but I'm guessing that won't happen.

If you do not have my same setup, then these solutions may not mean much, but perhaps there is still some sort of general issue between NVidia, VMware, and CPU frequency scaling on all platforms? It would be worth digging through your BIOS and perhaps WIndows power settings to see if it could be disabled. Of course, if you are on a notebook, the tradeoff is horrible battery life. You choose!

Alternately, I think it is worth playing with the 'hardware acceleration' slider in the advanced display properties troubleshooting tab. You may find that turning acceleration down or off while using VMWare helps, and then re-enabling it while playing a game or doing CAD or whatever you do in 3D. May or may not help, but its a thought.

Good luck,

N

[michaeljf]

Found a solution:

1. Start with a clean Windows installation (no third party drivers or VMWare

2. Install all latest Windows updates and reboot

3. Install Nvidia's latest beta driver (174.74 in my case)

4. Install latest VMware beta - 6.5 (build 84113 in my case)

So, it appears that the solution to the problem needs both a newer video driver and a newer VMware version.

[SEITech]

Hey, that's great!

The only thing that grinds my gears is that VMWare has still not acknowledged a problem. So either they have read all of our complaints and concerns and secretly fixed it behind our backs, trying to make it look like they never had a problem, or they really accidentally fixed it. I guess I'd prefer the former than the latter, but it is still too bad that it comes down to users to figure this out and discuss it.

Glad there is finally a good solution!

[AZDeveloper]

I'm glad they fixed it, too.. but like you said, it doesn't make me warm and fuzzy to know that it was never really acknowldged by VMWare as a problem. I switch my workstation over to using an ATI 3850 512MB card and haven't had any problems with ATI's x64 drivers w/VMWare Workstation 6.0 (latest build as of today).

FWIW, it looks like I'm going to be ditching XP x64 as my workstation OS and moving to Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard. I got tired of the "Unable to allocate work item" problem when copying files between shares on the host and a guest OS.

Also, the 10 half open connection limit in TCPIP.SYS on XP x64 is now unpatchable. I like my workstation OS to be uncrippled, so it is either Windows Server 2008 x64 or an x64 Linux distro at this point. Vista is not an option for me.

[SEITech]

Do we know if VMWare 6 works well on Server 2008 x64? I've read some hype recently about using Server 2008 to replace Vista for a desktop OS - as in Server 2k8 is the best Windows for Desktop as well as Server roles, even if MS won't admit it.

So who has used Server 2k8 x64 with VMWare? Any good news? Or did MS plant a bomb inside 2k8 to disable any Virtualization that doesn't use the MS hypervisor thingy?

Just curious

[devzzzero]

I have a similar issue as discussed here.

My host is:

1xQ9450

1xASUS P5N72-T Premium (0502 Bios)

2x2GB OCZ2RPR10664GK

1xCorsair HX520 PSU (latest bios from eVGA)

2xVGA 8800GT in SLI mode

Windows XP64bit with latest drivers from nvidia and asus

VMware workstation (latest, just downloaded/activated on 7/13)

I am trying to install 64bit ubuntu as a guest, and as soon as I do something with starting the VM, WHAMO!

BSoD with 0xD1 (DEVICE_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL) with nvgts64.sys as the flaw (0x208, 0x7, 0x1, 0xFF,FF,FF,FF,90,03,0c,b6)

I could not catch the rest of the numbers.

Even worse, the result is an unusable system requiring a windows repair (safe mode also BSoDs!

-Jason

[SEITech]

Well - you have an NVidia Gfx Card...

Whether it runs great at high resolution is irrelevant if the drivers conflict with VMWare. There seemed to be an undeniable link between the Nvidia 8800 and better card series driver software for Windows * x64, and BSODs with VMWare 6 ... until VMWare 6 was updated recently (about 3 months ago?). Then the issues seemed to dissappear. Not that VMWare ever acknowledged them (boo vmware!)

Still - try my suggestions in the previous few posts ... or the suggestion of the users just above my posts... there did seem to be limited successes there. Also, make sure you have the newest version of VMWare 6... or try VMWare v6.5 RC which is free to get and try out.

I am sorry that the BSOD f*scked up your Windows install - that is really unfortunate. I never experienced that problem directly from the BSODs on my system - I could always just reboot and come back to Windows without trouble. So, there may be a different problem for you... if there are corrupt files in Windows when you reboot, then you need to check the hard disk for consistency - both the filesystem with a regular chkdsk /F, and then the disk surface itself with a chkdsk /R. You should also make sure you have the latest motherboard drivers with relation to power management controls. Another reason to suspect something other than your graphics card is that the issues most of us had were resolveable with the /3gb switch... which did not work for you.

Good luck. Backup your Windows system before trying again...

[michaeljf]

Looks like the problem has returned with the release of new Nvidia drivers and Vmware. See my latest post here:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1020089