Troubleshooting Stop errors when using Boot Camp virtual machines

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

• Windows boots to a blue screen
• Windows shows an error similar to:
  
  Stop 0x0000007B 0x87C45BA0, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000
  
• This issue may occur if you are using a virtual machine that is:
  • based on a Boot Camp partition, or
  • created with the help of Migration Assistant or vCenter Converter, or
  • upgraded to Windows 7

Environment

VMware Fusion 3.x
VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Fusion 6.x
VMware Fusion 5.x
VMware Fusion 2.x
VMware Fusion 4.x

Resolution

This issue can occur if:

• Windows does not recognize the (virtual) hard disk.
• Information in the Windows registry (information related to how the device drivers load during startup) is corrupted.
• A device driver that the computer boot controller needs is corrupted or is not configured to start during the startup process.
• A driver from a migrated machine is conflicting with the virtual drivers installed by Fusion.

If Windows is starting with a blue screen, but restarts before you can read the error, press F8 (or fn+F8, if your Mac is not configured to use the function keys as standard function keys) as soon as the virtual machine starts to access the Advanced Options Menu and then select Disable automatic restart on system failure.

To troubleshoot this error for Boot Camp machines:

1. Restart your Mac into Boot Camp and shut down Windows.
2. Boot the system in to Mac OS and launch Fusion.
3. If the error persists, try deleting Fusion's Boot Camp metadata files. For more information, see A Boot Camp virtual machine fails to power on with a disk error (1003483).

To troubleshoot this error for other machines:

1. If available, use the Last known good configuration option to start Windows.
   
   
2. Edit the .vmx file. Change the line
   
   scsi0.present = "TRUE"
   
   to
   
   scsi0.present = "FALSE"
   
   For more information, see Editing the .vmx file for your Fusion virtual machine (1014782).
   
   
3. Open Fusion and start up the virtual machine.

To repair a corrupted Windows registry entry that causes the blue screen:

1. In the Apple menu, navigate to:
   
   • Fusion 4.x and later – Virtual Machine > Settings > Startup Disk > Select CD/DVD.
     
   • Fusion 3.x – Virtual Machine > Settings > Advanced > Startup Device > Select CD/DVD.
     
     
2. Insert the Windows DVD in the drive (or select the Windows disc image).
   
3. Start or restart the virtual machine.
   
4. Press any key to boot to the DVD when prompted.
   
5. Press Shift + F10 for a command prompt.
   
6. Type regedit and click Enter.
   

Note: This procedure modifies the Windows registry. Before making any registry modifications, ensure that you have a current and valid backup of the registry and the virtual machine. For more information on backing up and restoring the registry, see the Microsoft article 136393.

To fix the registry:

1. In Regedit, click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
   
2. Click File > Load Hive.
   
3. Navigate to the drive where Windows is installed and open the file SYSTEM, which is located in Windows/system32/config.
   
4. Name the file P2V when prompted.
   
5. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\P2V\ControlSet001\services\LSI_SAS.
   
6. Right-click the Start key and click Modify.
   
7. Set the Value data to REG_DWORD 0.