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Windows XP hangs when shutting down in VMWare Fusion

Windows XP hangs when shutting down in VMWare Fusion

"Here's the background:
I use a Macbook from this year and run VMWare Fusion (newest update). One of my VM's is Windows XP Professional. Two times recently, I have brought up the VM window to see that it has decided to shut down and is at the ""Windows is shutting down"" blue screen (not bsod). At this point it seems like using the menu drop down ""Shut Down"" does not work. The first time, I was able to force quit fusion (suspending the VM) and then come back in and shut it down from menu, but this time, no luck."

Asked by: Guest | Views: 380
Total answers/comments: 5
Guest [Entry]

"Try using the vmrun utility included with VMWare Fusion. Launch the VM in Fusion and execute this command (in a Terminal window) to make vmrun can see it:

/Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/vmrun list

If the problematic virtual machine shows up, run:

/Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/vmrun -T fusion stop ""/path/to/.vmx"" hard

That should shut it down immediately."
Guest [Entry]

"This worked for me:

If you have snapshots enabled, roll back to a previous snapshot.... even better if you AutoProtect enabled so that you can get a fairly recent snapshot. My AutoProtect takes a snapshot everyday."
Guest [Entry]

"I used the link provided by Jimi (kthanxbai) above and it worked great. (Thank you!)
My XP VM was hanging on the shutdown screen. I tried to follow the brief instructions given by Jimi above but w/o success. Then when I followed the link (he provided) to get more detailed information, I was able to ""power off"" the VM with no trouble at all.

The trick is to click on ""Virtual Machine"" in the VMware menu and keep it active/open/expanded while you click and hold the 'option' (alt) key on the keyboard. This will cause the options on the drop down ""Virtual Machine"" menu to change. 'Shut down' will change to 'power off'. Click on 'Power off' to fix the problem. I had some difficulty trying to hold the menu down, depress the 'option' key, click on 'power off' but once I did those things in succession, the problem was cleared instantly.

Thanks very much for the solution."
Guest [Entry]

"http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1006215

To force a virtual machine to power off:

1.From the Fusion menu bar, click and hold on Virtual Machine.

2.Press and hold down the Option (Alt) key. The menu option for Shut Down changes to Force Shut Down. (In Fusion 2.x and earlier, it changes to Power Off).

3.Click Force Shut Down. (In Fusion 2.x and earlier, click Power Off)."
Guest [Entry]

"It sounds like it may possibly be a corrupted VM. To effectively ""pull the power"" would be to get a TERMINAL window open on the MAC and you would have to know which VMWARE processes to use the kill command on. I do NOT know which processes you would need to kill. VMWARE support or Google would help you out.

Do you have a snapshot or CLONE of your VM? If so, I would try another ""copy"" of your VM. Have you made any configuration changes to your VM lately? In the future I would clone that sucker when it's working great then you will always have something to fall back on when stuff like this occurs."