VMware Stuck on Windows Logo | Possible Reasons and Solutions

Case: HELP my vmware stuck on windows logo

It is desperate when you created, installed or updated a Windows virtual machine on a VMware host, only to find it cannot be successfully booted. It may look like that your VMware stuck on Windows logo, or VMware automatic repair loop. Why does this happen? And how to solve it?

In this article, I will summarize the possible reasons of why your VMware stuck on Windows logo, and introduce several ways to solve it.

The possible reasons why VMware stuck on Windows logo

You may find yourself run into the problem of VMware stuck on Windows logo or VMware automatic repair loop when you upgraded your VMware host, or just patched it. That’s just one of the causes.

In fact, many other people find themselves experiencing the same problem when doing other things. This leads to the fact that there are many reasons that can cause this problem to occur. Including:

• “No compatible bootloader found” after you updated or patched VMware.
• Malware infections, missing device drivers, or corrupted system registries.
• Some virtualization feature of antivirus such as Avast or AVG running on the host.
• Starting with Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 or later, during the boot process, the operating system resets the TSC (TimeStampCounter, increments by 1 for each passed cycle) on CPU0 when it detects it to be equal or larger than 0x40000000000000. It does not reset the TSC of the other vCPUs and the resulting discrepancy between two vCPUs TSC values may result in the issues described under the Symptoms section. This only applies to virtual machine hardware version 10…

In this article, I briefly summarized several resolutions to the problem VMware stuck on Windows logo according to these causes. Before you start, I suggest you perform virtual machine backup to avoid unexpected errors.

Important: Backup your VMs before risky operations

Sometimes tiny mis-operations can lead to serious data loss. The same is especially true for fragile virtual machines. Therefore, keeping a regular VMware backup schedule and backing up your VMs before any risky operations can be a very effective data insurance.

Besides, if your VM run into a complex problem, restore to the latest backup is considered the best solution by most people. After all, instead of bothering to search for the cause and solution to an error that may be strange to you, you can quickly restore your VM to the exact normal state it was in when taking the backup. The more often you backup, the less data you may lose.

Therefore, before you start trying to apply web search results to the problem of VMware stuck on Windows logo or VMware automatic repair loop, it is better you backup the virtual machine to avoid unexpected error.

Here I introduce you to a free virtual machine backup software -- AOMEI Cyber Backup. It offers you the following benefits.

✦ Agentless Backup: create complete and independent image-level backup for VMware ESXi and Hyper-V VMs.
✦ Multiple Storage Destinations: backup to local or network share destinations.
✦ Restore Entire VM: restore immediately available VMs from any selected restore points.
✦ Support Free ESXi: supports both paid and free versions of VMware ESXi.
✦ Perpetual Free: you can use AOMEI Cyber Backup Free Edition with no time limit.

AOMEI Cyber Backup support VMware ESXi 6.0 and later versions, and also support Microsoft Hyper-V. Next I will demonstrate how to quickly create a backup task in 3 steps.

You can click the following button to download the freeware.

*You can choose to install this VM backup software on either Windows or Linux system.

3 easy steps to create a backup task that covers multiple VMs

1. Bind Devices: Access AOMEI Cyber Backup web client, navigate to Source Device > VMware > + Add VMware Device to add vCenter or Standalone ESXi host as the source device, and then click … > Bind Device.

Note: Once bound to the host you do not need to repeat this step later.

2. Create Backup Task: Navigate to Backup Task > + Create New Task, and then set the Task Name, Backup Type, Device, Target, and Schedule.

3. Start Backup: Now you can click Start Backup and select to Add the schedule and start backup now, or Add the schedule only.

How to solve VMware stuck on Windows logo

Since there are many reasons for the problem VMware stuck on Windows logo to happen, the troubleshooting steps may also be prolonged. You may need to try them one by one. For example:

• If the problem may cause by an unsuitable boot method, you can check and change it in BIOS.
• If it is because of some corrupted system registries, you may need to recover them or reboot the guest OS to last good configuration.
• If it is because antivirus such as BitDefender 2017 or later, it seems to be the only way is to uninstall.
• …

If the above configuration still cannot solve your VMware VM stuck on Windows logo problem, you may take a look at the following solutions.

Way 1. Manually editing the vmx file and changing virtual hardware version

The solution corresponds to the symptom quoted at the beginning of the article. You can try this if you are also experiencing VM stuck on Windows logo after upgrading compatibility to ESXi 7.0 U2 version 19.

1. Manually editing the vmx file and changing virtual hardware version from 19 (18 on a different VM) both to 17.

2. Unregistering VM and re-registering with "new" vmx-file to let the VM's boot correctly.

Way 2. Update the advanced configuration in vSphere Web Client

If you failed to reboot Windows 8 or 2012 Server or later virtual machines at the Microsoft Windows boot splash screen. And this virtual machine has not experienced a full power cycle (powered off / powered on) for more than two months, and it is configured with more than one vCPU. Then to work around this issue, you may need to add monitor_control.enable_softResetClearTSC = TRUE to the virtual machines advanced configuration in the vSphere Web Client. The specific steps are:

1. Log in to the vSphere Web Client and power off the target VM. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings to open the Virtual Machine Edit Settings window.

2. Click VM Options. From the list on the left, expand the Advanced option.

3. Click Edit Configuration. And then click Add Row.

4. Type monitor_control.enable_softResetClearTSC in the new Name column.

Type TRUE in the new Value column.

Click OK to save the change to the virtual machine.

5. Power on the virtual machine.

VMware’s official document Windows 8 and Windows 2012 Server or later virtual machines fail upon reboot.

Way 3. Restore VMware VM from backup

If you got the latest VMware VM backup, you can just restore to it directly to save time and labor. The data loss extent depends on how recent your backup was taken.

Let’s take AOMEI Cyber Backup as an example, you can recover the stuck VM in 3 simple steps.

1. Access AOMEI Cyber Backup web client, and the accomplished backup task will be listed in Backup Task. Select which backup you want to restore, and click ... > Restore to open the wizard.

Or you can navigate to Backup Management > History Versions. Specify a VM and select a restore point from the left list.

2. Confirm the source host and VM, choose to Restore to original location. Then you can click Start Restore.

While the Free Edition covers most of VM backup needs, if you want to restore to new location, you can also upgrade to Premium Edition to enjoy the additional feature:
▶ Restore to new location: Create a new VM in the same or another datastore/host directly from the backup, saves the trouble of re-configuring the new VM.

Summary

You are likely run into many unexpected errors while using a virtual machine. For example, VMware internet not working, VMware stuck on Windows logo, or VMware automatic repair loop.

In this article, I summarized several causes and solutions to the problem VMware stuck on Windows logo. Among all these ways, it is most recommended that you restore your VM from the latest backup. You can try AOMEI Cyber Backup, with its simple steps, it can save you great labor and increases work efficiency.