BSOD randomly occurs on Windows Guests without error code

[David Baum]

Broadcom previously acknowledged the report of this complaint but has refused to provide ticket number.  It has not been fixed by them with most recent release.  I am searching for anyone's suggestion where they have solved this problem.

The problem:  Windows 11 Enterprise guests (of any 23H or 24H builds) on Windows 11 Enterprise hosts (of 23H or 24H builds) fail randomly while being used to run any application, resulting in BSOD.  There is no Error code.  BAOD collects data and reboots the machine.  Not only does this result in loss of work, this results in inability to backup the Guest machines.

I have taken the following steps (as reported to Broadcom):

1. Verified Windows hypervisor services are NOT installed on Guest
2. Verified Windows hypervisor services are NOT running on Guest
3. Verified all device drivers on Host and Guests are most current available
4. Replaced disk drive on Host where Guest systems are located
5. Reduced Memory to  8GB and threads to 4 on Guest Machines
6. Run only one Guest Machine at a time with nothing else running on Host
7. Configured gests as using either NAT or bridged connection.
8. Reinstalling VMWare Workstation on Host and updating to most recent version
9. Rebuilding Guest machines

The Host machine is part of AD Domain.  The Guest machines are part of the same AD Domain.  It has 64GB or RAM.  The drive hosting the Guest machines is 2TB SSD.

This problem does NOT occur if I uninstall VMWare Workstation and install and use Virtual Box.

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David Baum
703.634.9966
[e-mail]
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[gbohn]

I haven't solved your specific problem, but in general you should be able to locate the dump file and use windebug tools (don't remember what  you download from MS to get them) to be able to open the dump and get at least some information about what the BSOD claims triggered it.

This may or may not point to a specific device driver, etc.

I believe the Event viewer would also  normally be expected to have a general 4-byte code on what type of BSOD event (in general) happened.

That may give at least some idea of what it thought was going wrong (in general).

[David Baum]

I have attached Debug Analysis.  It seems to imply it cannot find a file, and that there is a driver error without identifying the driver.  All drivers have been verified as current according to the properties tab.  Why did this problem not occur prior to VM Ware Workstation 17.x

How can I downgrade my software and Guests to a working version?

Attachment(s)

2025-04-05 - Analkysis of MiniDump.pdf   89 KB 1 version