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bail3yz

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VMWARE - problems after power failure

Hi,

I have vmware running on a windows 2003 box.. with 10 virtual machines all running 2003.

power died.. box restarted.. now when I load up the virtual machines.. i get blue screens randomly.. then eventually get blue screen on the main box

if I load the VMs 1 by 1.. I get an error something like "exception 0xc0000005 access violation has occured" 100% of the time on the 8th  or 9th box.. not sure which one.. order I load the VMs doesnt matter.. error occurs everytime when X number of VMs.. after this error is usually when the main box blue screens.. and it says something about vmx86.sys and some memory addresses

I tried scan disk.. I tried VMware repair.. nada

Anyone have any ideas?
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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Any errors reported in the event viewer, disk faults, or disk timesouts?

is this a single disk, or RAID disk, any RAID issues?

It might be worth running a memory test with memtest86+

http://www.memtest.org/

Lets examine the host, and work out why it's BSOD-ing.

VMware Server could also be crashing the main host, if the main VMDKs are corrupted.
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bail3yz

ASKER

ya I am very  positive its VMware thats crashing the main host.. because it always happens right after one of the VMs crash

let me check the logs and ill try the memtest
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ASKER

oh sorry forgot the disk question, its a single disk
Were all the VMs running at power down?

Are all VMs causing the issue?

Seems like a disk fault?
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ASKER

Yea all the VMs were running at power down

and yup all the VMs are causing the issue.. I tried to restart them at least 10 times now.. in different orders..  always crashes at the same time.. regardless of the VM


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ASKER

This was the error in event log

Source: NetBT
"Initalization failed because the transport refused to open initial addresses"
Just quickly create a new VM, it can be blank with no OS, and check you can start it!

do you have anyh *.lck files or folders in the directories?
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ASKER

Sorry what i meant before was.. I can start the first 7 VMs fine.. and then it crashes on the 8th..

are you asking me to start 7.. then start an empty one for 8?

I dont know what anh*.lck files / folders are
okay, so if you power off all 7 VMs, can you power on No.8, is it someting wrong with No 8, or is it getting to No.8 (random order) it crashes, because that sounds like memory, as more memory is being used until you get to No.8.

Or No.8 is corrupt, or has a disk read fault.

Should easy to work out if No.8 is the issue, or is it 7 VMs + the 8th machine which causes the fault!
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ASKER

it is getting to number 8..
when i got to 7 before i tried to unpower some.. and power others up and it worked.. but fails everytime on 8..

and i always power them up in random orders.. so #8 is always different

I also think its memory too.. trying to do the memtest.org thing..

would that mean the ram is bad now?

Okay, so if all the VMs are powered down, and you power this No.8 VM, it fails?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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ASKER

running memtest.org thing now.. not sure how long this takes.. @ 29% done.. ill keep you posted..

Thanks for the help so far!.. id rather it be the memory then the HD.. im too lazy to set everything back up.. rather just buy new memory lol :).. hopefully I dont have to do either tho
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ASKER

yup .. looks like its the memory.. memtest spamming tons of bad addresses..

ill let this test finish and then try cleaning the dust and reseating the ram
I'm glad it's finding bad memory! I hope this resolves your issue.
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ASKER

So I took out the RAM .. let it cool off .. was really hot from the mem testing lol.. waiting a few minutes.. reseated it.. and BAM.. loaded up 10 VMs.. no crash :D:D:D

Thank you very much..

Any technical explanation to what exactly happened? was the RAM's connection to the MB iffy after the power failure or something like that?
heat and cold can expand dimm/memory contacts, requiring them to be reseated.

glad its all fixed, by just reseating memory.

glad to assist.