Computer reboots when installing Vmware Workstation on a PC with sptd.sys installed

[TuRDMaN]

? If Windows boots you can get the minidump quite easy?

lol, that's the whole problem, windows won't boot at all, not even in safe mode >_<
And yeah, I've tried every option in the F8 startup menu and nothing works. They all lead to the same BSOD

[mastermind]

Yeah, after the crash during installation, I checked out some forums and removed both programs, and got rid of the sptd.sys file and started over again. And I have no way of getting the minidump.... unless I can somehow transfer it to a disk or something using the windows recovery console on the windows install cd.

By default in Recovery Console, access to other drives than the Windows system drive is disabled. That also includes floppy. There is a local security policy setting that allows you to change that behaviour, but that could be very "tricky" to fix now, when you can't boot normally.

Are you familiar with booting from "live cds", such as ERD Commander? By booting from such a cd, you will be able to access your minidump files and copy them to a floppy (minidump files are really small). Then you could send it/them to the Daemon Tools team from another computer.

[Copytrooper]

lol, that's the whole problem, windows won't boot at all, not even in safe mode >_<
And yeah, I've tried every option in the F8 startup menu and nothing works. They all lead to the same BSOD

You did rename/remove sptd.sys and it still crashes?

[nbehnken]

Vmware Server build 20923 w/ Daemon tools x86-32

Machine is a tyan s2865 nforce4 based system with XP Professional SP2. Machine normally only gets rebooted for service packs. I installed Daemon tools, had the virtual drive setup with all emulation options on. Then I attempted to use this drive as a physical drive from my vmware instance. The VM started and then immediately the host machine BSOD with Macihne Check Exception. Then to my surprise after I hit the power button, the machine immediately would BSOD before the windows desktop with Machine Check Exception. I then rebooted in safe mode and tried to run the uninstall program. It pops up a message something along the lines of "not enough information to uninstall.". So i'm like ok... I went to the command prompt and renamed the sptd.sys (sp) service and the generated sptdxxxx.sys and rebooted. All seems fine again with no further BSOD. I would send you the minidump, but it unfortunately doesn't write one or can't. The lastest version of Vmware Server is available for free off of VMware's site for testing if you are interested. Thanks for the great program. I have used old version before and they are $$.

[mastermind]

nbehnken: Did you install the latest version of Daemon Tools (v4.03)? Most users who have experienced similar issues with v4.00/4.01, have reported that the problem was gone in v4.03.

[ShamblerDK]

Am running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition SP1 here and I installed DT 4.03, rebooted, and installed VMware 5.5 without any problems.

[floogy]

lol, that's the whole problem, windows won't boot at all, not even in safe mode >_<
And yeah, I've tried every option in the F8 startup menu and nothing works. They all lead to the same BSOD

Did you type ESC, while bootup in safe mode, when the message appears sth. like "Press ESC to avoid loading SPDT.sys"?

floogy

[nbehnken]

vmware / daemon tools

Ya, I just downloaded Daemon tools off of this site. VMware was installed before Daemon tools if that makes a difference. It IS a beta of Vmware btw, so maybe that has something to do with it. Its not a big deal to me. I'll check and see if I got a minidump out of the last one too and send it to the email listed below.

Keep up the great work.

Nick