VMWare Workstation Users: Report!

[Dodge DeBoulet]

My Dell 5150 Inspiron has an annoying habit of failing to resume from standby after any use of VMWare 5.5.x Workstation. The hardware seems to wake up (partially); I can hear the DVD/CDR seeking. The OS never comes back to life, though.

Does this problem go away with a ThinkPad T60? I should have mine by the end of the week, and it would be tremendous if that annoyance would disappear.

Thanks!

[Wiz]

I use vmware workstation on a T43p and a colleague of mine on a T60p without the problem you descibe so i'm pretty sure it should work fine. There is also a newly released version 5.5.4 that you might try unless you already did so.

[Dodge DeBoulet]

I use vmware workstation on a T43p and a colleague of mine on a T60p without the problem you descibe so i'm pretty sure it should work fine. There is also a newly released version 5.5.4 that you might try unless you already did so.

Thanks, Wiz, sounds promising. I found out a while back that this problem is common on the Dell 5150, which is one reason I didn't go with Dell this time around

[jdhurst]

I'm not sure what you mean by "any use".

If I use VMware (any and all versions from 1 through 5.5.4 now) and then shut down or suspend the machines and exit VMware, I have no problem on any ThinkPad in resuming from suspend.

I do not suspend my ThinkPad with an active machine running. If that is what you mean, I would suspend the VM first and exit VMware before suspending.
... JDH

[Dodge DeBoulet]

By "any use" I meant "any time a virtual machine had been started." Whether the VM was shut down or suspended, VMWare's launcher completely exited, etc., my Dell would refuse to resume from standby*. The only triggering event I saw that lead to this problem was that a VM had been started at some point prior to suspension. I always shut down any running VMs prior to suspending, and would normally exit VMWare as well.

Very annoying and inconvenient . . .


* Approximately 90% of the time. Once in a great while, it would successfully resume.

[jdhurst]

<snip>I always shut down any running VMs prior to suspending, and would normally exit VMWare as well.
Very annoying and inconvenient . . .
<snip>

Thank you. It must be a Dell problem (??) I don't know for sure. I have only ever used ThinkPads when using VMware and don't have that problem. I also thought (and think) that VMware isolates its machines very well. So, having shut down a machine, VMware should be returning to normal.

So let's see:
1. VMware builds networking devices in the host (Bridge, NAT and Host Only). You see the Bridge protocol in the TCP/IP Properties of the host NIC. But it is not configurable.
2. VMware checks for updates on occassion. That sits in options. Try disabling that option.
3. Check the other option settings (Input, Hot Keys, and Priority). If you made no changes to these, they should be OK
4. VMware sets a special user (but no profile to go with it) and likes to be run in a user that has power user rights or greater so check that.
5. Run disk cleanup to remove temporary files - perhaps there are some superfluous files that need deleting.

Other than that, I don't know. ... JDH

[Dodge DeBoulet]

Thanks for all of the detail, JDHurst, but you really didn't need to go to all that trouble. My ThinkPad will be in my hands tomorrow, and I will be retiring my Dell. Hopefully, I won't have to deal with this issue anymore