ESXi Host is stuck on booting page at "vmkusb loaded successfully."

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

ESXi host is not booting correctly and is stuck on the below screen.

 

When we press Alt+F12, we might see different errors after every reboot like below.

 

 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

The recurring, inconsistent boot errors, specifically implicating the vmkusb driver and other system files (though specific errors varied), strongly suggested a corrupted boot environment rather than a stable hardware or configuration failure. The unstable boot process pointed toward damaged or incorrectly loaded files.

Resolution

1. Revert the ESXi host from the failed state back to the previously stable version using the official reversion method from the below link.

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/316592/reverting-to-a-previous-version-of-esxi.html

2. Once stable, perform a fresh upgrade to the target version.