Every so often I need to access a virtual machine using VMware Workstation, but unfortunately it decides that it doesn’t want to do any work today and just pops up with a rather unhelpful “Internal Error” message. Thanks for that VMware; most enlightening. I guess I should at least be thankful that it was not an “unexpected error” but then, on the other hand, they must have expected it, so back to square one.
As this has happened quite a few times over the years I thought I should probably document it somewhere to save some poor soul that moment of panic. The more it’s documented the easier it is to find; it will also help me as I have a memory like a, like a, you know, one of those thingies. Anyway, the first time I had this error was 30 minutes before a session and a two-word error doesn’t give you much to go on.
In my case the fix was a really easy one; your mileage may vary. I can only assume that there is more than one type of internal error in the product, and that they expect it.
My internal error appeared to be due to a service not running. Again, your mileage may vary, but these are the steps I took:
- Open up Services: Start – Run – Services.msc
- Order Services by Name
- Press “V” to go to the VMware set of services.
- Check to see if there is a VMware service that is not running
- Start the Service
In my case this has always solved the problem. The image below shows that in my case it is the VMware Authorization Service that was not running.
Some might say that “computer said no.” If you have never heard that phrase before then check out this Little Britain sketch on YouTube. Usual workplace disclaimers apply.
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