Very slow startup HP 6730b notebook

[RB85]

Hi,

I have been using VMware for a couple of weeks now to test the possibilities for the company i work for. I am using a HP 6730b notebook with a Intel Core2 Duo @ 2.26GHz and 4GB RAM. I have used VMware Workstation 6.5 to create some virtual machines and VMware Player to use them later. All this went well and the performance was good for the first weeks, but since a couple of days the performance got really bad. The virtual machines all run on Windows XP Professional with SP2 installed. When i try to start it, it can take up to 15 minutes for the machine to startup. Loading the personal settings takes forever. I have tried to run different virtual machines, but all have the same problem so i guess its a problem with the laptop, but i am not sure about that. Did anyone of you have some problem or something like this and have any idea how i can solve it?

Thanks in advance

with kind regards,

Roger

[continuum]

maybe you assigned 2 CPUs and 3 Gb of RAM ?

without more details we can't say anything

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description of vmx-parameters:

VMware-liveCD:

[weinstein5]

H ,amy vm are you running under workstation at a time? Does this occur with just a single VM running? When is the last time you ran a virus scan?

If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful

[RB85]

Sorry i didn't post any more information.

I assigned 2 CPU's to the Virtual Machines and 1GB of RAM. I never run more that 1 virtual machine on 1 host at a time and the PC's are in a company LAN with with daily virus scans.

[continuum]

set back to one CPU and try

mainmem.useNamedFile = "false"

in the vmx-file

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description of vmx-parameters:

VMware-liveCD:

[RB85]

Thanks for your reply. I have tried the things you said but unfortunately it didn't solve my problem. I looked at the CPU performance of the host system when the virtual machine is booting. After the first loading screen, with the windows logo, the system will start to load my personal settings. This will take forever and somehow, the CPU of the host is at about 1 or 2 %. There is no difference when i try to load a different virtual machine. All have the same performance issue.

[continuum]

post more details - a vmware.log for example

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description of vmx-parameters:

VMware-liveCD:

[RB85]

Hi,

This is a log file from this morning. Took about 20 minutes to startup.

[pepan]

I have experienced the same. Startup speeds return to normal when all VMware windows services are disabled via the service control panel.

While I have no proof to back things up, I suspect some kind of conflict between HP ProtectTools and VMware Player at least.

[davesuk]

I have just installed VMWare 6.5 workstation on a new HP 6735b laptop and got exactly the same symptoms.

Without VMWare, host bootup and logged in in <2 minutes

With VMWare installed, host bootup is <30 seconds, logon takes 2-3 minutes and loading programs takes over 10 minutes.

I've not done any further investigation because it's so slow it's almost impossible to work sanely. Uninstalled VMWare and all returned to normal.

If I get time I may start disabling HP software in turn to see if it's a conflict there.

[davesuk]

Rather laboriously I uninstalled each of teh HP ProtectTools in turn but didn't get my system to respond after each reboot.

Eventually I uninstalled the HP Protect Tools Control/Management Suite and all of a sudden performance returned to normal.

I can't use the fingerprint scanner or any useful stuff but at least I have a laptop that works again! I can't find any fixes from HP for the Protect Tools or anything from VMWare to fix the problem but I'm pretty sure that's conclusive testing.

VMWare + HP ProtectTools = unusable laptop

VMWare - HP ProtectTools = performance back to good

[atom88]

I have an HP 6730b laptop with almost the EXACT same configuration with the SAME SLOW STARTUP issues! Everything was fine, but when I installed HP Protect tools (to use the fingerprint reader) it took literally about 15 MINUTES to get the windows (now HP logo) login screen to let me enter a password/or fingerprint.

I'm going to try turning off VMWARE services on startup and if needed uninstall HP Protect tools.

[atom88]

I found this blog which refers to a corrupt datastores.xml file.

However, I do not have this file in the location specified? I'm a little puzzled by this? I also had the error in my windows event logs:

VMWare Server: The VMware Host Agent service terminated with service-specific error 4294967295 (0xFFFFFFFF).

Perhaps this will help others too?

Here's what the post says:

VMWare Server: The VMware Host Agent service terminated with service-specific error 4294967295 (0xFFFFFFFF).

Having just rebooted my laptop, I clicked on the link to open VMWare Infrastructure Web Access in the my browser and was slightly puzzled by the "page cannot be displayed" error. I figured it was probably the VMWare Server Web Access service not starting for some reason, so I opened services.msc and checked it out. The Web Access service was actually running, but the Host Agent service was not, so I tried to start it - it failed. Dutifully opening Event Viewer for some more information I found the error:

The VMware Host Agent service terminated with service-specific error 4294967295 (0xFFFFFFFF).

Great. Thanks for the elaboration. Time to check the VMWare logs, (c:\ProgramData\VMWare\VMWare Server\) - the most recent of which contained the following entry:

Trying hostsvc
+ error: not well-formed (invalid token)+
+ backtrace:(backtraces not supported)+
+ Win32 service stopped+

A bit of Googling pointed me in the right direction, "not well-formed" refers to the XML config files which are stored in c:\ProgramData\VMWare\VMWare Server\hostd, after that it was just a case of opening each one in turn until I found the malformed one. I backed it up and replaced it with a default version, and lo and behold, my services started!

fantastic stuff.. this plagued me as well.. turned out to be the datastores.xml fine was corrupted/empty. There was however another version of the file called datastores.xml.default. so i just renamed that to be datastores.xml and started the VMware Host Agent. Perfect, Thanks!!

best

Monday 30 March 2009 16:02

had the same problem, corrupt datastores.xml file, moved it out and started the VMware Host Agent.

Worked a charm....Thanks!

mack

Thursday 11 June 2009 10:16

Thanks to all of you for taking the time out to share this with all of us! This fixed my problem within minutes!

[vAdmin]

yes,'re right 6730b is slow when using Win XP, I\m now using 6730b + Win 7 it works like charm and faster than normal.

However, the RAM installed is 4 GB but the usable is always strange 2973 MB only !?!?!both in Win 7 and XP.

Kind Regards,

AWT

[umarzuki]

AlberWT: that maybe caused by using a 32-bit Win XP/7

[tonygent]

Hi All.

I had this same problem, with the machine taking an age to get to the point where it could be logged in. Eventually - I gave up (with the original XP build) and re-installed the OS and did not install the Protect software.

Tried it again with Windows 7, same issue. Installed latest HP Protecttools and login just takes 10 mins.

However - HAVE found a fix. Tried this process below and it worked fine! Login is the same time as normal and I CAN use the fingerprint sensor now :smileyhappy:

Install HP ProtectTools, then before the reboot do the following :

right click My Computer ->

Manage Expand Services and Application folder, locate hpqwmiex and right click -> Properties

Set startup to Automatic (Delayed Start).

Reboot the machine and register your fingerprints after a normal login.

No idea WHY it worked, but it did for me.

Hope it works for you!

TG