Dell M6400 VMWare Workstation, error 0xf4

clarkfreeman · 09 Oct 2013

Hi Folks,
I found your website with a search that led to a very similar problem I am having, found it in this post: Dell Precision M6400 BSOD

I have a Dell Precision M6400, and I am trying to get VMWare workstation to run but it BSODs within minutes (sometimes longer) when running in a VM. It does this regardless of which VM I am running (I have made three, XP, Win7, and Debian). The laptop is completely stable when not running Workstation, so I am guessing there is some type of conflict with what I have installed.

The guest VM will boot up and I can begin working in it, then after some heavy activity (could be anything, file edits, compiles, Windows Updates, etc) the guest will stutter freeze, then freeze up. Within a minute or so the Host will BSOD.

I have uploaded my SevenForums info package for your input.

Any help appreciated!
Clark Freeman

koolkat77 · 09 Oct 2013

Is the firmware of your SSD up-to-date?

Code:

Model	INTEL SSDSC2CW240A3 ATA Device

clarkfreeman · 09 Oct 2013

Hi koolkat,
Yes, I have downloaded the latest Intel SSD Toolbox (3.1.8) and it tells me my SSD fw is at the current version.

Thanks
Clark

Arc · 10 Oct 2013

Depending on the bugcheck code, it appears to be a storage device related issue, and your only storage device is that SSD that is running with the up-to-date firmware.

What more you can do here is to post a screenshot of the SSD using CrystalDiskInfo - Software - Crystal Dew World, which will help us to check the SMART data.

But, as you said the issue about VMware, it is found in your event log:

Event[18454]:
Log Name: System
Source: Service Control Manager
Date: 2013-10-08T18:40:18.622
Event ID: 7001
Task: N/A
Level: Error
Opcode: N/A
Keyword: Classic
User: N/A
User Name: N/A
Computer: CLARK-M6400
Description:
The VMware Workstation Server service depends on the VMware USB Arbitration Service service which failed to start because of the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

The missing service is : C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VMware\USB\vmware-usbarbitrator64.exe

Now, this is missing. That means, either the system file got killed somehow, or it is an improper installation.

Scan the system for possible virus infection with the following programs.

Then, perform a repair install/Clean install fo VMware. You may save the virtual machines elsewhere, even externally. Those will remain intact and will work fine with the new install of VMware.

Let us know the situation.

clarkfreeman · 10 Oct 2013

Hi Folks,
Thanks for the help. I experienced a cycle of 4 BSODs in the host last night after a guest BSOD (had never done that before). I made the decision to go back to Debian and moved my VMs off the drive and reformatted/reinstalled Wheezy 7.1. So far so good as I have been using the VMs all night.

Sorry the root cause won't be found...
Regards,
Clark