After installing or upgrading VMware Tools, the resolution settings cannot be changed.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• When VMware Tools is installed or upgraded on a Windows virtual machine, the screen resolution of the VMRC console screen is forced to "800x600" and cannot be changed to any other resolution.
• Using a HW version 10 or lower and Windows Server 2003 / 2008 
• The virtual machine's video memory limit exceeded is recorded in vmware.log.

####-##-##T##:##:##.###Z In(05) vcpu-0 - Guest: DXUM_devapi: 2332: Topology validation failed, screen memory limits exceeded.
####-##-##T##:##:##.###Z In(05) vcpu-0 - TOOLS call to Resolution_Set failed.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi

Cause

Insufficient video memory prevents resolution changes.
This may occur when using a HW version 10 or lower and Windows Server 2003 / 2008 

Resolution

Adding the video memory or upgrade the HW version to 11 or later.