Windows Crash starting VM

[Robert Helie]

Hello everyone,

I just installed the latest version of Workstation Pro (17.6.3). I configured a VM to run Windows 10, and as soon as I start the VM, the PC crashes. The Event Log error is:

Event 18, WHEA-Logger

A fatal hardware error has occurred.

Reported by component: Processor Core
Error Source: Machine Check Exception
Error Type: Unclassified Error
Processor APIC ID: 8

I am running Windows 11 insider.

Any one has an idea?

Thanks

Robert

[Morc001]

  Hi Robert,

  Machine Check Exception is a hardware error, or should be. I saw an AMD server which occasionally logged an MCE, but did not crash and had no sign of having any problems. CPU, motherboard, RAM as suspects, or maybe the power supply blipping down on load which trips the MCE and that crashes Windows. I'm quiet confident that it's not VMWare or the VM crashing the host per say, as in a software error causes the crash.

[Robert Helie]

Strange thing here is that the PC has been riunning fine for the past 2-3 years no crash.  I never had crashes using Virtual Box. Very strange.

[Morc001]

Even more reason to believe it is a hardware problem, that developed over the years. But go on, install VirtualBox, it can work just fine alongside VMWare Workstation. Just make sure you run the same load (amount of RAM, CPU, runtime). To reinforce my stance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine-check_exception#Possible_causes It could be a slightly loose RAM stick or VGA card that got loose over time heating up then cooling down. If you overclock it could very well be electron migration degrading your CPU. Or a faling CPU or PSU fan, or PSU. Lower end PSU on unclean wall power, etc. Whatever RaSystemlord suggested will not fix it. Besides it could very well be a microcode update, that is updated through Windows, even if you don't update the BIOS. Since you're on an insider I'm sure it has the latest microcode for your CPU. Cosmic ray, but that should be rare, although a lot more frequent than people think. Server ECC memory should protect from that, or maybe even DDR5 with its built-in ECC.

[RaSystemlord]

Well, if it's an old VM, then ...

The new version will give you new virtual drivers and thus it could be about settings of the individual VM - or Windows driver update giving them to you at the same as your VMware Update. Did you notice that happening?

As for hardware error - will the system crash with anything else occupying as much memory? Don't know exactly what has changed in later Windows, if any, but before it used memory in an orderly way (unlike Linux). So, try to use as much memory somewhere else and see if it crashes. You can also run memory checks (can be found in any Linux installation) and if they find a problem, then you have a problem. If they give a clean health, it doesn't mean that the memory is OK. Obviously, there are disk checks also available in Windows. Event Viewer should also be studied. Well, hardware-wise there are many things to check, but if it's only VMware, those checks above should cover the possible hardware issues. 

[Robert Helie]

It is not an old VM. It is a brand new VM with a brand new installation of VMware. Virtual Box was used in the past without issue. I do agree that this presents as a HW issue, but the way this presents makes me beleive that it is not RAM or any load related issue. I have seen many hardware issues over the years and this looks like it is very specific to virtualization or VMWare. I will try to setup an Hyper-V VM and see what happens.

FYI, the PC crashes a second or 2 after starting a VM, nothing has booted yet.

I found a log entry for the VM, last entry is:

2025-04-11T17:54:08.907Z In(05) svga    cap[261]: 0x00000001 (GL43)

I removed all the drivers from the VM configuration and used a very basic VGA 800x600 (VGA card is a new RTX 4070ti). The card works fine under heavy load.

[RaSystemlord]

Sorry, I'm still not sure about the timeline that you have there ...

By old VM, I meant that has it been running with VMware before? On this PC or somewhere else?

If it's New, how did you get the OS installed - if you are not doing it now? Thus, are you in the middle of installing the OS, right?

If you have an old VM (=has been running somewhere), does it now run somewhere else, with different hardware or OS (like Linux)? Or if you have any "installation completed in Windows"-VM  - does it run somewhere else - but this scenario is highly dependent on the timeline that you have there? 

(You can just copy the entire directory where you have the VM. Use a method that works trustfully - close everything, including the VMware-Pro-tab and use robocopy if you are not sure of the target media).

Those questions need a clarification to really understand what can be wrong ... yes, I agree, problems looking like hardware problems are not necessarily hardware problems, not physical hardware anyway. For that end, I would suggest to try out 17.5.2 which is the last real vmware-team version. Version 17.6.x seem to have lots of new problems.

As such, whether VMware software installation is new or not, doesn't mean much - those installations, practically speaking, never break. Yet, again, I don't know about 17.6.x versions.

[Robert Helie]

WHen I was using Virtual Box, VMWare was not free, so I never installed it before à few weeks ago.

I cannot even get to the OS portion (which is an ISO of W10), the PC crashes when VMWare is initialzing the VM, I cannot say at what point as all I see is the dotted square.

I will try version 17.5.2 and see how that works.

Thanks

[RaSystemlord]

OK, thanks for the clarification.

As with OS-portion, just create the VM first. Do NOT try to install the OS at the same go. Than you can see what really happens.

I suspect that you can create the VM just fine. When trying to boot - in the next step - from the ISO-image, something goes wrong. (It may ask to press "any key" to actually boot from the ISO-file). If it doesn't try to boot from there, there is something wrong with the ISO-file, or it resides somewhere it shouldn't reside (like network drive, USB-stick, or somewhere else than on your physical SSD).

[Robert Helie]

I have managed to make it work.

My best guess as to the source of the problem is the fact that Hypr-V had been installed on the PCand removed somewhere in the past.

While doing the differente installs/uninstalls I noticed a message about installing Windows Hypervisor Platform (WHP), but I did not have the Hyper-V features installed. I decided to reinstall Hyper-V, reinstall VMWare Workstation latest version, and all seems to work fine.

Must be a typical Windows uninstall that does not remove everything.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Have a great day,

Robert

[Robert Helie]

I t seems like my lkast reply was lost in limbo, must have forgotten to press "Post".

The VMWare and the VM are brand new. Virtual Box was used in the past. I tried removing everything from the configuration of the VM and used VGA 800x600. It crashes before anything boots. I foud this log entry:

2025-04-11T17:54:08.907Z In(05) svga    cap[261]: 0x00000001 (GL43)

Which is the last entry in the logs. FYI, the VGA card is a new  RTX4070ti that works fine under heavy load (as does the PC).

To furthuer test, I installed Hyper-V and loaded a Win10 VM without any issue.

The problem seems to be very specific to VMware.

Roerbt

[RaSystemlord]

Take all the unnecessary ones away from your VM settings, like USB, physical CD, 3D Acceleration ... and then try to start again.

If I read you correctly, you are not starting a VM, you are starting the installation of a Win 10 OS ... otherwise I don't understand what you mean by "configure a VM to run Windows 10". When installing, there are many other things possible ... like are you really using an .ISO -file or something else (which is not the way to do it). And so forth.

[Robert Helie]

I will try to remove everything and see if it changes anything.