VMware Workstation

I have two, 64-bit Windows 10 Pro VMs running on a Windows 10 Pro host. The host is a Dell Latitude E-6430.

One of the VMs rolled up just fine, but the other is throwing errors regarding the audio controller. The speaker icon in the system tray is marked with a red X. When clicked, Windows attempts to repair the error and fails. Device Manager does not show an entry for Sound, Video, and Game Controllers like the 'good' VM does, but rather an entry for Other Devices where the Multimedia Audio Controller is shown with a yellow triangle and the device status is listed as Code 28, "The drivers for this device are not installed".

I've rerun the VMWare tools update; first Repair, then Modify where I removed the device from both Device Manager and VMWare, rebooted, reinstalled, and the condition persists. I've tried manually installing the driver, but that fails with the message "The installation failed because a function driver was not specified for this device instance". References for this type of error harken back to Win XP and Vista days; I've tried what I've seen but nothing has worked so far.

Can anyone offer any sage advice?

Kind regards,

Kenn in Virginia

Hi Kenn,

You are correct in assessing that it is most likely a VMware Tools issue.

Do not try a repair install from within the Guest OS as it likely will not fix this, unfortunately the "Reinstall VMware Tools" from the drop down menu also falls in that same category.

You really need the guest OS to reboot inbetween uninstall and install to make sure that all the files from VMware Tools are in the correct locations and of the correct version.

In short follow these steps:

• Uninstall VMware Tools
• Reboot guest OS
• Install VMware Tools
• Reboot guest OS.

Follow the steps from the installer to completely uninstall VMware Tools 

• Reboot the guest OS.
• Then from the Virtual Machine menu select "Install VMware Tools"

--

Wil

Appreciate the response, Wila:

Ah, were it to be that simple but alas, I removed VMware Tools and rebooted to Guest OS as instructed. After logging in, I noticed the speaker icon in the system tray is still marked with a red X. Device Manager now shows two entries for Other Devices; "Multimedia Audio Controller" and "Unknown device". Reinstalled VMWare tools using the "Typical" option and rebooted again. The red X in the system try remains, along with the lone entry for Other Devices; "Multimedia Audio Controller".

Next, I manually removed the entry for Other Devices; "Multimedia Audio Controller" and went through the VMWare Tools uninstall/re-install process. Same results; the red X in the system try remains, along with the lone entry for Other Devices; "Multimedia Audio Controller".

From the Windows troubleshooter, I was able to capture the registry settings for the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices] tree and subtrees, but at 35 KB, its a bit long to post in this forum. Can send under separate cover if this is the next path to take.

Many thanks again, Wila.

Kind regards,

Kenn in Virginia

Encountering the same exact issue with Windows 10 x64 EE 1607.   The install/uninstall sequence doesn't resolve the issue and a Unknown device shows up in device manager.

Looks like VMWare has messed up big time in this latest update (both in Workstation Pro and Fusion).

I also lost audio in two Windows 10 Professional x64 guests (one on Windows x64 Home host and the other on macOS Sierra host on Fusion). Lost audio as well on an Ubuntu EFI guest on Fusion (and looked like also lost the ability to set display for any other resolution other than 4:3 aspect ratio).

What I had done to recover the audio on the Windows 10 guests were to update manually the driver of the "Unknown Device" or "Multimedia Audio Controller".
Assuming you have a backup (either from a snapshot or disk backup) or another unaffected VM guest, check to see if you have the C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMWare\Drivers\audio folder in the guest. On the other hand, if you have a snapshot or backup, you may also choose to not update the Tools for now (that is what I have chosen with the Ubuntu EFI guest).

Assuming, you want to go ahead with the tools update and the audio problem persists, copy this audio driver folder to the updated guest(s) and install manually the audio driver.

Thanks for the feedback, BlueFirestorm:

Sad to report that re-installing the drivers manually did not work. Moreover, this version of VMWare Tools is missing the C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMWare\Drivers\audio folder :smileyalert: It is also missing on the other, working, Win10x64 guest. I matched every installed sys and inf file in their locations from the working guest to the non-working guest - both match.

KB article 2007298, updated 3/12 addresses this issue in general but does not mention the missing audio controller explicitly. However, I followed that one too and could not correct the audio.

I had another Win10x64 guest installed that I had not run for while (pre v12.5.4) . I sparked that up with the hope of capturing the contents of its C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMWare\Drivers\audio folder on a flash drive and bringing it into the non-audio working machine. Unbeknownst to me, the VMWare update began during startup and when I drilled down to the C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMWare\Drivers\ folder, I watched the Audio subfolder disappear while the remaking folders; dates updated to 2/17/2017, automagically.C:\Program Files\Common

Wonder how I can get my hands on the C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMWare\Drivers\audio folder from the previous version.

--> Insert groans here as I reveal that I have no backups or snapshots of the rogue guest 'cuz I'm an idiot . . .

Kind regards,

Kenn in Virginia

KennDevine,

You can change the settings for the VMWare Tools in Preferences - Update so that the tools does not get installed automatically.

Perhaps all is not lost as you can extract the drivers also manually.

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2032184

Just do a re-install and use the /a /p options as specified in the KB article.

I tried it and it will prompt for a folder to extract to. Let's say you specified C:\Extract you should be able to find the audio folder in C:\Extract\VMware\VMware Tools\Drivers\audio\Vista

My plantronics headset fails within minutes during a call. I am currently testing the setting VM > Manage > Change Hardware Compatibility. . . Pick an older built and try it for a while. I can't tell if that's going to be the end of the audio device mess VMWare has caused with the recent updates, but everything else has failed so far.

Hi,

Not the advice I  usually give, but try installing a previous version of VMware Tools.

For the moment the link in this post here should work:

Re: Fusion 8.5.4 (5115894) VMware Tools Error

and if that one stops working you can get the bits here:

Windows.iso from VMware Fusion 8.5.3

--

Wil

I extend my gratitude to you, Wila, for providing me a solution that works, along with a valid working link to the VMware Tools iso from Fusion 8.5.4. But, caveat emptor, I needed to TURN OFF automatic VMware Tools update; when I rebooted after reinstalling the old tools, the new tools slid back in and made themselves at home. Two more reboots later, and everything is good.

Much obliged for the fellowship  on this forum.

Kind regards,

Kenn in Virginia

Same thing here.

Strange: of 8 VMs I'm currently running on my machine (mainly Windows 10/64, v1607), only one shows the audio driver error.

This worked - I went back to version 12.3 and have success!

Just don't forget to go into VMware workstation preferences and de-select the "Automatically update VMware Tools on Client" checkbox.

Hi Wila,

Just great!. It was the only solution that worked with my VMware Fusion using Windows 10 x64.

I tried already removing and reinstalling VMware tools and it didnt work!.

Downloading the old version and installing it after removing the VMware tools again (a reboot needed), the audio and all the other driver are working as a charm!

:smileyhappy:

Same problem for me.
But also installed today ver. 12.5.5 of workstation with updated vmtools and the same error (i saw they claim to fix this- but not).
Moving back to the old 8.5.3 fusion version solution here.....

zahik

After some investigation it appears VMWare is using an audio device that isn't supported by Windows 10, and it appears not even Vista. The hardware id is VEN_1274&DEV_1371&SUBSYS_13711274&REV_02 which is an old Creative Sound Blaster card from the Windows XP days. I searched for Windows Vista/10 drivers for it on the Internet and there weren't any legitimate drivers available. By the way, there are a lot of shady driver websites out there and they're all dangerous so don't download anything from them.

Even more odd is that there doesn't appear to be any audio drivers in the VMWare Tools package. I extracted the package to my C: drive and there's no "audio" driver directory at all. So it appears that VMWare purposely released the tools package without audio drivers. Which, if you've used VMWare products for a long time, isn't surprising.

By the way, once you allow Player 12.5.4 or 12.5.5 to "upgrade" VMWare tools you're toast. I have a backup of the previous VMWare Tools ISO that worked, but after reinstalling there still wasn't any sound. Curiously when extracting the package to my C: drive it didn't have any audio drivers either.

So who knows, maybe the Anniversary Update of Windows 10 changed something that hammered whatever scheme VMWare was using. In any case, given my past experiences with VMWare I wouldn't expect a fix anytime soon. If it's less than a year I'll be shocked. Oh well. The fact is that VirtualBox has even worse problems, so there really isn't much end users can do.

Thanks for the info rmuncrief​.
For me, (after installing also 12.5.5 and not working as at you) , I installed the solution here
ver 8.5.3 and it's working....

Best Regars.
zahik.

Wila's suggestion also worked for me.

I'm on 12.5.5 and my audio device stopped working today (after I installed the big Win10 creators update on my host). Uninstalling Tools on the guest and reinstalling the version from Fusion 8.5.3 fixed my issue.

Is there any update on this issue ?

Here is how to fix Audio Volume Issues in Windows 10

1- Search for Sound in the Search bar at the bottom of desktop.

2- Go to Sound settings in the Control Panel

3- Right click the default devices in the new window that pops up and go to its Properties section.

4- Click on the Enhancements tab , choose the option to Disable all enhancements and hit the button Apply.

Source:- https://merabheja.com/fix-audio-volume-issues-in-windows-10/

Hello all,

Thank you for this post which helped me a lot !

Today I find a way to have the latest vm tools installed with the sound ok.

A few days ago, I was following this article https://blog.bryansmart.com/2012/02/16/low-latency-sound-for-vmware/

With sound.virtualDev = "hdaudio"in the vmx file, I had sound in my win10 guest (linux host) but with problems (the sound crackles due to latency problem, see article)

When I wanted to disable HD audio and use the old virtual sound device with sound.virtualDev = "es1371", I had no more sound at all.

Then I find this subject with google, as I finished with the same problem.

Willa solution worked for me too.

I made several test and in fact, it seems that the driver for "es1371" (WDM audio) is no more available in vmware tool since VMware-tools-10.1.X

I tried with many of them from 10.1.0 to 10.1.7, and it didn't worked. (Index of /45848/tools/releases )

With 10.0.9, the driver are here and it works.

So I copied the drivers after the installation of vmtools-10.0.9

All you need is in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\ (All is here, .sys and .inf files)

Get a copy of the directories vmaudio.inf_amd64_30933caaaa23abee/ and wdmaudio.inf_amd64_bf7ec511830b3442/

Copy them in a vmaudio directory.

Then I installed the latest tool and installed the vmaudio driver. And all is working again :smileyhappy:

Open the device manager, find the device undetected and choose to update the driver manually.

Select your vmaudio dir you created before and all will be fine.

Tell me if it works for you too.

Have fun.

Abundant thanks, @Tfid!  This one worked for me, finally ending a three-day search.  It was a bit tricky to locate the download for Tools 10.0.9; only 10.0.6 showed up in the search results, but changing "1006" to "1009" in the URL got me there.

I didn't yet try copying the DriverStore folders and upgrading to the latest Tools. I'll wait until something else forces that upgrade.

Dear Tfid,

thank you very much, your solution was my last chance after 8 hours of trying - and it was the only one that worked!

Advice to all: If you work for hours on this problem and find a solution - create a snapshot IMMEDIATELY before changing anything else!

I did not do it and lost hours: I began with the proposals from wila and dfischvtas, and after some time it worked suddenly. I thought I knew the way there and wanted to do it again from the beginning, but without all detours (in order to have a clean installation). But I never could reproduce the solution again. I did some 20 - 40 attempts with wila and dfischvtas - but it never worked again!

But now, everything is ok for me, I just followed the solution of Tfid.

It's really a pity: I used VMWare on a WinXP computer for years. But it was really slow. Now I thought, I could replace it with Hyper-V on Win10. But this was complicated: I had to switch the LAN- and WLAN-interface all the time and the WLAN-switch troubled other WLAN-applications. So I bought VMware Workstation 14 - and now worked a full day only for getting sound!

Why does every improvement come with new severe mistakes?

Regards

Jörn

Hello Tfid,

I just want to thank you. You solution worked!. I used the Willa solution for already 4 months. Back then I downloaded/installed old VMware tools ver. 10.0.10. After installation Sound worked but I lost some sharing functionality between Mac en Win10 VM. Mainly the copy/paste between host en VM was really handy.

The second folder was a little different, but worked just the same.  I found this two in my installation.

C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\

vmaudio.inf_amd64_30933caaaa23abee

wdmaudio.inf_amd64_6b5a0534c3cf6f82

I saved this folders to a temp location in Win10 VM. Then I installed my last Fusion VMware tools version. In my case ver. 10.1.6. After installation, as expected, the sound didn't work anymore. I just install the ' unknonwn device' driver in Device Manager as you suggested, using the saved audio folders... and Voila!!.

Everything works, even the copy / paste functions that I lost because of the old version VMware tools. Sharing within my macOS High Sierra and the Windows 10x (last version) is finally working as expected.

Thanks again!

Hi,

Just as a FYI, last time I saw this, the way that I solved it, was by removing the audio adapter from the virtual machine and then add it back.

--

Wil

This one finally worked for me:
https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003425

Sound is not working in Windows virtual machine (1003425) | VMware KB

It replacing the bad driver was on my win10 guest.

Thanks you !

Wila's suggestion also worked for me also with the second link he provided.

Thank you Wila

I am having this problem with a fresh install of Workstation 12.5.7 on my host machine (Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials) and a fresh guest install of Windows 10 Pro Build 1703.  If the problem was in the VMTools back in version 12.5.4 of Workstation, why is this still happening in version 12.5.7 of Workstation?

I tried the above suggestions, but I did not find success.  What worked for me:

1. Power down the VM
2. Edit the VM properties to delete the sound card. (click OK to commit the change)
3. Edit the VM properties again and add a new sound card.
4. Boot VM and sound is available.

WOW! It worked. I'm running fedora 26, with guest OS windows 10 x64, with windows tools 10.1.7.

Thanks dfischvtas

I tried the above suggestions, but I did not find success.  What worked for me:

1. Power down the VM
2. Edit the VM properties to delete the sound card. (click OK to commit the change)
3. Edit the VM properties again and add a new sound card.
4. Boot VM and sound is available.

Thank you.  This worked for me too. Imported Parallels VM because they went subscription. Sound wasn't working. Removed and added sound card and sound is working fine now.

Hi,

Obviously for everybody who installed an older version of VMware Tools. This solution by dfischvtas is better!

If you're unsure then you can always take a snapshot of your VM before removing the Sound card.

--

Wil

Actually no need to power off the VM. Just remove the sound card, click "OK" to VM Settings dialogs, then add the sound card and click "OK" to VM Settings dialogs. The VM should after a while find hardware changes and install the sound card automatically.

rSerge

I was going to suggest the same thing, only. just to be safe, I removed the device from Device Manager inside the guest system, BEFORE removing the "Sound Card" from the Guest's VMware "Settings" panel.  I then added the sound card again, as you did.

It appears from your results that the initial removal from Device Manager may not have been important, but I was making sure and would still recommend it.  However, no restart was needed in my case either.

I tried that and it didn't work.  However a much simpler solution that did work for me was as follows:

> Shut down the Virtual machine

> Go to Virtual Machine from Fusion menu bar

> Settings

> Sound Card -Remove sound Card

> Click on Add device and select Sound Card and add and check Connect sound card

> Power on the Virtual Machine and test the behaviour

Good luck...

Upgrade audio driver

Attachment(s)

audio.zip   19 KB 1 version

Your driver are working,The issue was completely sloved, Thany you very much!

Windows 10 x64 guest on VMWare 15.5 Pro on Windows 10 x64 host

Looking in Device Manager you can find that virtual audio device under [Sound, video and game controllers] is VEN_1274 DEV_1371 SUBSYS_13711274.

This is Creative AudioPCI ES1371/ES1373, for which Windows 10 got no drivers. Even updating the driver finds nothing.

Shut down the guest OS, find the .vmx configuration file for the virtual machine and add the following line:

sound.virtualdev = "hdaudio"

Start the virtual machine and see that Windows recognizes a [High Definition Audio Device].

Problem solved.

Thank you so much! Worked for me too!

Several years since the last response, but today I HAD a similar problem -
AND this thread was one of the first Google hits, 
AND I didn't see any mention to check if the Audio Service was running in Services - 
so, hope this might help someone else . . . . 

** environment: VMWare Workstation 17.6 / host = Windows 10 22H 19045.4651  / guest = Windows Server 2022

A couple of fixes below worked - but the simplest/easiest is sometimes best (Occam's Rzor?)

Control Panel > Sound > popup:

-- Audio Service Not Running 

-- This computer cannot play audio because the Windows Audio Service is not enabled.
-- Would you like to enable the Windows Audio Service?

YES = immediate audio

Thx