BSOD when installing VMware Workstation Pro 17.5.2 on Windows 11

[Mark Williams]

Hi all,

I am getting a blue screen when trying to install Workstation Pro 17.5.2 on Windows 11 Version 10.0.22631 Build 22631.

Hyper-V is not installed on this machine.

I have tried uninstalling and re-installing.  I have tried installing 17.0 and 17.5.1 – same issue.

The error is SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED on hcmon.sys.  Please find the analysis from WinDbg on the minidump attached.  Any advice would be appreciated.  Thanks!

[PJ1999]

I've been having the same issue on three separate computers:  Two laptops with Windows 10 22H2 and a desktop with Win11 23H2.  Version 16 installs fine, but Version 17 gives me BSOD guaranteed at the end of the install related to hcmon.sys, and then reboots leaving a crippled VMWare that I have to delete manually in order to get v16 to work again.   

Don't know if it's related, but we've had multiple computers with VMWare have their USB passthrough stop working.  The devices don't even show up to connect, yet they're working fine on the host.  Sometimes they appear when rebooting with the USB device plugged in, but as soon as you try connecting one of them, it'll knock all USB devices from the selection list.   This is regardless of VM.    

[Dhairya Tomar]

@Mark Williams Raised a ticket internally, relevant team will look into the same.

[Dhairya Tomar]

@Mark WilliamsRequest you to provide full dump of the Host when BSOD is happening.

[Mark Williams]

Thanks!  Just sent you a DM.

[Dhairya Tomar]

@Mark Williams @PJ1999 Just to check the possibility in case this issue is due to uncleaned drivers, request you to try below steps and update-

1. Clean Uninstall Workstation Pro using below-
Uninstall WS Pro/Player.
Go to this location - C:\ProgramData\VMware and delete the folders for VMware Workstation and VMware Player.
Go to this location - C:\Users\dtomar\AppData\Roaming\VMware and delete all the files inside
Go to this location - C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware and delete the folders for VMware Workstation and VMware Player.
2. Please stop related services if any by "sc stop serviceName" in cmd with administrative with priviledge
sc stop VMUSBArbService
sc stop hcmon
sc stop vmusb
3. Remove drivers:
del C:\Windows\System32\drivers\hcmon.sys
del C:\Windows\System32\drivers\vmusb.sys
remove hcmon, vmusb from here C:\Windows\System32\DRVSTORE
4. Remove registry related to WS Pro:
reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc." /f
reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VMware, Inc." /f
5.
     a.Stop 'VMware USB Arbitration service' from services.msc if running.
     b.Delete below registry entries for
         i."VMUSBArbService from "Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VMUSBArbService"
         ii."Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vmusb"
     c.Delete same entries from CurrentControlSet001 if any.
6. Delete usb folders from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VMware\USB"
7. Delete hcmon and vmusb from  C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\hcmon & C:\Program Files\Common
        Files\VMware\Drivers\vmusb
8. Reboot your system and install WS Pro.

[Mark Williams]

Thanks!  I followed the steps outlined in your post to completely remove WS Pro and drivers.  After a reboot, I tried to reinstall WS Pro 17.5.2 and got a BSOD with (what appears to be) the same error.  I will DM you the dump file just in case.

[Dhairya Tomar]

@Mark WilliamsRequesting you to share screenshot of system information screen of the machine where you are seeing this issue.

[Mark Williams]

This is solved.  Another user reached out to me via DM with a suggestion.

Looks like Splashtop Streamer 3.7 locks hcmon.sys, which triggers the BSOD during the installation. 

Disabling Splashtop as below avoids the BSOD.  Workstation installed just fine.

• Stop Splashtop® Remote Service (SplashtopRemoteService) and Splashtop® Update Service (SplashtopAutoUpdateService)
• Install VMware Workstation Pro 17.5.2
• Reboot as prompted by the VMware installer
  • Splashtop services automatically started on reboot

Thanks again to the user that DMed.

[PJ1999]

FIXED:  Both installation and USB passthrough problems are caused by Splashtop version 3.7.  Disable the Splashtop Remote Services service and the installation should work.  USB passthrough required disabling the service in MSConfig and a reboot.  

Update:  There must have been some Windows update that increased security on the kernel (possibly same thing that caused Crowdstrike's update to fail).  

I have a "golden" image of Windows 10 22H2 that is a few updates behind.  I used that to image a computer and VMWare 17 installed without a blue screen and all USB passthrough works. 

If I use an updated image, Workstation 17 install fails and USB passthrough doesn't work.