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VMWare Workstation 16 screen flickers black: dwm.exe faults

  • 1.  VMWare Workstation 16 screen flickers black: dwm.exe faults

    Posted Dec 30, 2024 03:49 PM

    Good afternoon.  I have been experiencing this issue in VMWare Workstation 16 Pro for a while now and poring over the discussions hasn't come up with a definitive answer.  I have decided to create my own thread and see if we can come to a solution that works.

    I have several Windows 10 VMs that I created for simulation and training for my company.  After running one (or more) VMs for a few minutes, the screen (on the VM) starts to flicker to black for about half a second and back.  As time goes on or as I work on the machine more, this happens more frequently until one or more of the following happens:

    1- the resolution resets to some lower setting (It seems the graphic driver fails.  I'll see if I can get this to happen again so I can post the details)

    2- the machine blue screens and crashes.

    Looking at the Windows Application Event Logs, I see for each flicker an "Event 1000, Application Error" entry.  It points to dwm.exe faulting on module dwmcore.dll (text below).

    Faulting application name: dwm.exe, version: 10.0.14393.0, time stamp: 0x578999ab
    Faulting module name: dwmcore.dll, version: 10.0.14393.0, time stamp: 0x5789985b
    Exception code: 0xc0000225
    Fault offset: 0x00000000000682e8
    Faulting process id: 0x53c
    Faulting application start time: 0x01db5af4fd5b3b08
    Faulting application path: C:\windows\system32\dwm.exe
    Faulting module path: C:\windows\system32\dwmcore.dll
    Report Id: bd75a37d-2ca8-45d5-bc2a-fca1ec0cb62d
    Faulting package full name: 
    Faulting package-relative application ID: 

    Looking through the forums, I have done a few things that lessen the effect, but the problem still persists.

    I have updated to the latest available version of VMWare Workstation 16 (16.2.5 build-20904516).
    I have disabled 3D Graphic Acceleration
    I disconnected the sound card (weird, but it improved it)
    I reinstalled VMWare Tools

    If anyone has experienced this or comes across a solution, please post here.