VMWare has broken my Macbook

[mikonium]

I have a 2008 Macbook Pro 15" (2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB ram), with Lion installed. I also have a Boot Camp partition with Windows 7 installed.

A few days ago I downloaded the trial version of VMWare Fusion 4.1 and set up my existing Boot Camp installation as a VM. Installed it with no problems, and installed VMWare Tools. It ran decently for a little bit, but then things started going wrong...

1) My fans constantly run at the max speed of 6000, even though iStatPro shows my CPU at 90F-110F.
2) iStat started showing the temperatures for "Heatsink A" and "Heatsink B" - these are two that never showed up before. Heatsink B gets up to 259F, which I suspect might have something to do with the fan speed. My computer is not actually hot though (definitely not boiling hot; and I don't think 259F is really possible), and when I use SMCFanController to force the fans to 4000, I don't have any overheating problems.
3) The serious problem: when I try to wake the computer from sleep, it shuts down. Pressing the power button starts it for a second, and then it shuts down again. I have to hold the power button for 5-10 seconds and wait for the light to flicker before it actually turns on again.
4) This also happens when I shut the computer down. If I want to turn it back on, I have to force it back on by holding the power button. Restarting it works fine, though.
5) These problems exist when booted into both Lion AND Windows 7.

-I tried a PRAM reset, SMC reset, and disk permission repair. As usual, those did nothing.
-I tried uninstalling VMWare. I had to use AppZapper because there was no VMWare uninstaller on my computer, or in the .DMG image. I really don't know why...I looked everywhere for the uninstaller and tried redownloading the image file, but in the end, I had to forcibly delete all of the files (and I'm not sure that I got everything). No change after the uninstall.

There is a chance that VMWare didn't cause this, but I'm fairly certain it did. My computer has been fine for months and the only recent change was VMWare - the problems occurred immediately after installation. I can't find any other users having this problem on the VMWare forums, and for some reason, VMWare isn't letting me log onto their forums, so I can't ask there.

Do any of you have any ideas? I'd really appreciate it!
Please let me know if you need me to post any more info.

 

[johnhurley]

I have a 2008 Macbook Pro 15" (2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB ram), with Lion installed. I also have a Boot Camp partition with Windows 7 installed.

A few days ago I downloaded the trial version of VMWare Fusion 4.1 and set up my existing Boot Camp installation as a VM. Installed it with no problems, and installed VMWare Tools. It ran decently for a little bit, but then things started going wrong...

1) My fans constantly run at the max speed of 6000, even though iStatPro shows my CPU at 90F-110F.
2) iStat started showing the temperatures for "Heatsink A" and "Heatsink B" - these are two that never showed up before. Heatsink B gets up to 259F, which I suspect might have something to do with the fan speed. My computer is not actually hot though (definitely not boiling hot; and I don't think 259F is really possible), and when I use SMCFanController to force the fans to 4000, I don't have any overheating problems.
3) The serious problem: when I try to wake the computer from sleep, it shuts down. Pressing the power button starts it for a second, and then it shuts down again. I have to hold the power button for 5-10 seconds and wait for the light to flicker before it actually turns on again.
4) This also happens when I shut the computer down. If I want to turn it back on, I have to force it back on by holding the power button. Restarting it works fine, though.
5) These problems exist when booted into both Lion AND Windows 7.

-I tried a PRAM reset, SMC reset, and disk permission repair. As usual, those did nothing.
-I tried uninstalling VMWare. I had to use AppZapper because there was no VMWare uninstaller on my computer, or in the .DMG image. I really don't know why...I looked everywhere for the uninstaller and tried redownloading the image file, but in the end, I had to forcibly delete all of the files (and I'm not sure that I got everything). No change after the uninstall.

There is a chance that VMWare didn't cause this, but I'm fairly certain it did. My computer has been fine for months and the only recent change was VMWare - the problems occurred immediately after installation. I can't find any other users having this problem on the VMWare forums, and for some reason, VMWare isn't letting me log onto their forums, so I can't ask there.

Do any of you have any ideas? I'd really appreciate it!
Please let me know if you need me to post any more info.

This sounds really ugly and while I do not use vmware ( parallels 7 for me ) it certainly sounds like possibly your machine is running into hardware issues. Software like vmware should not cause fans to run fast when temps are normal.

As a first step at debugging can you try restoring your machine back to the way it was before you installed vmware? That would include restoring your mac os x partition ( probably from a time machine backup ) and also restoring your bootcamp partition ( from whatever backup strategy you hopefully had in place ).

 

[wpotere]

Yeah, I doubt that VMWare is causing this. Most likely there is some hardware problem happening. You could backup your files and reload the OS to make sure, but I have a feeling that you are going to see the same issues. I have been running VMWare for years now (on latest version) with no problems.

 

[arkitect]

There is a chance that VMWare didn't cause this, but I'm fairly certain it did.

Chances are VMWare had nothing to do with this.
Get down to the "Genius" at your local Apple Store.

True story:
Yesterday we installed some new shelves in our garden shed. This morning I discovered the roof had blown off and was lying in the garden.
Installing the shelves didn't cause that, the gales we had overnight did…

 

[minifridge1138]

Your experience is not typical.
I've used virtual machines for years and never seen anything like what you are describing.
However, I also don't believe in coincidences.

What is your Mac doing when it gets that hot?
What processes are running?

 

[mikonium]

Took it to the Apple store...they said it was a broken sensor, and the guy suspected that it's also affecting the logic board. He said it'd be 1-week and 300 dollars (or, I could do it in-house for 900...) to fix.

It's been a good 3.5 years for this MBP, but I'm thinking of buying a new computer, instead of getting the repair. This is the second time my logic board has failed (the first time was under warranty), and since I'm living abroad next year, I don't want to deal with a constantly failing computer that I have to pay euros to repair. I know this is getting a bit off-topic, but: Are these new MBP 15" the way to go? When will the next generation of MBPs come out?