Scenario:
Intel Core i7-4930K 12MB L3 Cache 3.4GHz, Socket LGA2011
ASUS Sabertooth X79
4x8 =32 Meg Ram 1866MHz DDR3
EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB GDDR, PCI-Express
Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD - 2.5", SATA III 6GB/s w/MEX controller
WD Velociraptor WD1000DHTZ 1TB 3.5" SATA Hard Drive (on different controller)
Windows 8.1 all updates applied
All drivers and patches applied
No question marks in the device manager
Fast machine which works fantastic with all applications - except, yep, VMWare Workstation (even tried Version 9, with same issues)
I have spent several months with VM support to no avail at this point, including logs, debugs, documented different scenarios etc. Even attempted to throw the debug files into Visual Studio, but of course, don't have the debug symbols for VMWare. I can see where it stops, and warns, but can't get to the nitty gritty.
Have used Process Explorer by Sysinternals and Windows Performance Analyzer - although my lack of skill in operating those or reading the results, may work against me.
Ironically, Oracle VBox works, using the same .vmdk drive, albeit not nearly as snappy.
I am throwing this out to see if anybody has a suggestion - reward is possible, as it killing me.
I have all sorts of guests: Windows 8,7,2012 server, 32 bit, 64 bit All behave the same:
Machine freezes every few seconds or so - and tends to get worse over time. Sometimes I am fooled after removing this/that serivce, changing BIOS settings, trying different SATA, USB ports, settings, uninstall, re-install, permissions, disabling/enabling power settings, LAN card settings, video drivers, controller drivers, Intel patches, etc. - hours and hours of trying different combinations. Every last driver has been updated, rolled back, updated again, uninstalled.. you get the picture. I have researched - and over the years, there are many people who have expressed similar problems with various versions of VMWare products, but not causes or solutions that relate, or work in our scenario. (And some that reminded me of problems I saw in the past, but was able to fix.)
What DOES work is this: if the VM freezes, I can open or close a browser on the host, and it moves the VM forward. Not the same with opening a windows application - just a browser.
The KICKER - I can run an application called CPU-Z which is a free app that talks to the processor/motherboard/memory in almost real time, and my VM Workstations works pretty darn well. Might freeze for a millisecond now and then, but the fact that the CPU-Z app is constantly 'talking', it takes the place of my hitting the browser every few seconds to keep the VM moving. And again, I can just use Virtual Box - just not my preference.
I am looking for any suggestion - no matter how wild or simple it may be. I have tried at least several hundred things/combinations/tests - but more heads are better than one. The old adage of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a result has certainly led to me insanity over this issue, but it is critical do what I do.
VMWare technical support has been nice and I get fairly responsive e-mails, requests to do this and that, but one person on VM Workstation is not going to make them move quickly - and my issue is 'isolated' according to them. They have indicated that this is on the 'must solve' list, but I can't wait until the next millenium.
I have thought of changing motherboards, but any of these modern motherboards use the same vendors for controller and USB drivers - so I am not sure it would help, My current motherboard is highly rated - even though I am not a gamer. Everything else works perfectly.
I figure I can't be the only person in the world with this hardware/software setup.
Maybe one of you has had this problem and solved it, without ever posting it somewhere.
Thank you in advance for anybody's help