A rare VMWare error message is this one, occuring when the virtual machine is being launched:
Your host does not have synchronized TSCs. Please read VMware Knowledge Base article 2041.
When that error message pops up it is likely that all sorts of time-related things will go wrong in the guest system: Video playback, audio for the video, double-clicks.
An example environment where this can occur:
- Host system Windows XP
- CPU AMD Opteron for socket 939 (175, 180, 185, 190)
- Certain drivers, such as those installed by MSI Live Monitor (AMD CPU Driver 1.3.2.16?)
Fix
I fixed the problem by adding these lines on the bottom of the .vmx file:
processor0.use = TRUE processor1.use = FALSE host.noTSC = "TRUE" ptsc.noTSC = "TRUE" host.TSC.noForceSync = "TRUE" |
That way the guest system only has a single core CPU and only one core of the Opteron helps to emulate it, but that seems to be the only disadvantage.