Windows 2003 virtual machines when restarted or rebooted go into a loop where they blue screen with F7 error and restart and error out with the F7 again. We have observed that the virtual machines will start after 20-30 minutes of going from restart to F7 error. This happened when we upgraded the ESX hosts from 4.0 to 4.1. VMware support says that this is a OS issue with Windows 2003.

Hello, F7??? error, what is this? Sounds for me that a driver problem exist from VMWare and your hardware. If the problems start after upgrade and befoer everything was running correct it belongs to VMWare from my point of view. Did you install the new VMWare tools on the VMs so they use the corret drivers inside the VMs?Best regards Meinolf Weber Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

I have worked with vmware on this issues for serveral weeks and they say it is a Microsoft 2003 issue. Below is what VMware engineer's are saying is the problem. The reason you have to open a case with Microsoft is because we initially concluded from your memory dumps that the problem is being caused by the isapnp.sys driver in some of your VMs (we established that not all of your machines are affected by the issue). This is why Microsoft need to look at this OS issue within the Windows 2003 machines having problems. Despite the machines running on top of ESX there is nothing from the VMware layer that we can look at in regards to that driver causing problems in your Windows operating system. Microsoft Support would be the ones with expertise in reading those memory dumps in more detail and providing support for issues with the isapnp.sys driver.

Hello, according to the statement from VMWare plase open a support call with Microsoft PSS, so they can have a look into the systems to verify and collect additional information together with you.Best regards Meinolf Weber Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

Hi, Please make sure that the VMWare update is compatible with Windows Server 2003. If the root cause is the damaged isapnp.sys. you may run the command: SFC /Scannow to scan and repair the system files. You may also copy and replace the isapnp.sys file from another good Windows Server 2003 computer in Recovery Console. For more information, please refer to the following Microsoft KB articles: Description of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 System File Checker (Sfc.exe) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310747 How To Use the Recovery Console on a Windows Server 2003-Based Computer That Does Not Start http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326215 If the issue persists, please contact Microsoft PSS as “Meinolf Weber” mentioned. To troubleshoot this kind of kernel crash issue, we need to debug the crashed system dump. Unfortunately, debugging is beyond what we can do in the forum. Please be advised that contacting phone support will be a charged call. To obtain the phone numbers for specific technology request please take a look at the web site listed below: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;OfferProPhone#faq607 Regards,Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

I will work on trying the SFC /Scannow and the replacing the isapnp.sys file Friday 1-7-2011 and see if that will resolve the issue. Thanks

Hi, I would like to confirm what is the current situation? If there is anything that I can do for you, please do not hesitate to let me know, and I will be happy to help. Regards,Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.