Virtual machine running on a Windows Server 2012 host gets corrupted when 3D acceleration is enabled

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• The virtual machine running on a Windows Server 2012 host becomes corrupted when 3D acceleration is enabled
• The graphic/GPU drivers are not installed on the Windows Server 2012 host

Environment

VMware Player Pro 7.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Windows)
VMware Player 7.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Windows)
VMware Player 5.x (Windows)
VMware Player 6.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Linux)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Linux)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Player 12.x (Windows)
VMware Player 6.x (Linux)
VMware Player 5.x (Linux)
VMware Player Pro 7.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Player 12.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Windows)
VMware Workstation Pro 12.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation Pro 12.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Player 14.x (Windows)
VMware Player 7.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Player 14.x (Linux)

Cause

To use 3D acceleration in virtual machines, the host machine should be capable of supporting 3D. It can be achieved by using a 3D capable graphic processing unit (GPU) on the host.

 

This issue occurs if the there is no hardware GPU on the host machine or if the graphic drivers are not installed.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, 3D acceleration must be disabled in the virtual machine settings.

 

To disable 3D acceleration:

1. Ensure that the virtual machine is powered off.
2. Click VM > Settings.
3. Click Display.
4. Ensure that the Accelerate 3D Graphics option is disabled.