vmware Workstation : Your host does not have synchronized TSCs. Please read VMware Knowledge Base article 2041

VMWare Workstation evaluation

While trying out vmware workstation trial/evaluation copy, come across warning messages. Here is what happened. Downloaded VMWare workstation from VMWare downloads section.

• Hardware

The home PC has amd athlon X2 64 and Windows xp sp 3 with 250 gb hdd and 3 gb ram.

• Installation

Installation of VMWare workstation is easy breezy .

• Fedora core 8 for guest OS

Downloaded Fedora Core 8 to play with VMWare workstation.

• Creation of virtual machine

On completion of successful download of Fedora Core 8 at c:\temp, started VMWare workstation.Using new => virtual machine have invoked virtual machine wizard selected custom option to choose other linux 2.6.x kernel. And allocated resources like virtual hard drive, RAM, etc.

• Warning Message

When powered on fedora core 8, it give warning message



"Your host does not have synchronized TSCs. Please read VMware Knowledge Base article 2041".

Clicked on ok and let Fedora Core 8 power on.

• Issue Resolution

To resolve the issue I have added following lines to config.ini which is existing in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware workstation

processor0.use = TRUE
processor1.use = FALSE
host.noTSC = "TRUE"
ptsc.noTSC = "TRUE"
host.TSC.noForceSync = "TRUE"

• Interesting findings:

While digging into the issue, I have come across some interesting resources. These resources are related to .VMX file which is generated by VMWare workstation and performance degradation issue for computers running windows xp sp2 on multiple processors with resolution fix pack from Microsoft.

Here are those resources for further reference on virtual machine file:

• Advanced parameters VMX-file parameters

http://sanbarrow.com/vmx/vmx-advanced.html


• Article ID:896256 Computers that are running Windows XP Service Pack 2 and that are equipped with multiple processors that support processor power management features may experience decreased performance

http://support।microsoft.com/?id=896256


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