Although this issue has been resolved with vSphere 4 U1, for those of you that haven’t upgraded please be aware of a known issue with Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7 where the guest operating system can freeze for a long period of time. The issue is noted in VMware KB 1011709.
The resolution is to either upgrade to U1 or to use the standard SVGA driver and not the one provided in the VMware Tools package.
VMware KB 1011709 Excerpt…
To deselect the SVGA drivers installed with VMware Tools:
When you install VMware Tools, select VMware Tools Custom Install and deselect the SVGA driver.
Alternatively, remove the SVGA driver from the Device Manager after installing VMware Tools.
Created on November 25, 2009 by Rick Scherer
Posted under vSphere.
This blog has 14,077 views and 14 responses.
Tags: freeze, vsphere 4, windows 2008 R2, windows 7
(1 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)
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10:49 am on November 25th, 2009
This is also the case on 3.5. And KB1011709 solved the issue.
11:15 am on November 25th, 2009
Thanks David.
Seeing that Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7 are not supported on ESX 3.5 Update 4 I am not surprised to see this issue. I would anticipate the fix to be in Update 5 which should be out before 2010.
11:41 am on November 25th, 2009
People should loudly scream to VMware that this BUG should be FIXED quickly.
11:52 am on November 25th, 2009
Hey Tom, this issue is resolved in vSphere 4.0 Update 1 — but currently there is no resolution in VI 3.5 – I would expect Update 5 to come out before 2010.
3:39 am on December 30th, 2009
Problem with W2K8R2 vms freezing still persists after upgrading vSphere 4.0 with update 1A. I’m at build level 208167…
I’ve removed the SVGA II driver and hope this will keep my vms running.
8:57 am on December 30th, 2009
Ole, did you upgrade VMware Tools on the VM after the U1 upgrade?
12:02 am on December 31st, 2009
Hi Rick
Yes, I upgraded VMware Tools as well. I also tried a complete reinstall of VMware Tools but VMs still freeze. Only an uninstall AND delete of the SVGA II driver solves the problem.
12:30 am on December 31st, 2009
Ole, you may want to open a SR with VMware. I’m not able to re-create this problem with U1 and you may have another underlying problem.
I’d also try forcefully removing the driver and associated driver files from the Windows folder. Then re-install VMware Tools.
3:12 am on May 7th, 2010
I’m pretty much impressed with the stability of Windows 7. It is better than windows Vista which hogs my memory and cpu.;~;
11:43 pm on August 6th, 2011
Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that.And he just bought me lunch since I found it for him smile Thus let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch!
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