I had made a previous post a while back about the mouse being choppy while using the VMware console with Server 2008. I stated in that post that as of that writing, there was no fix for 2008 R2. There appears to be a fix now, however. The server I’m running is ESX 4.1.0-348481 (which is the RTM of ESX 4.1 Update 1). To get the mouse choppiness to stop, open up Device Manager and select the display adapter. Update the driver and manually choose the location of the driver (which is located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\video). After selecting that location and clicking “Next”, it automatically found the proper driver and installed it, and after a reboot, the mouse choppiness was fixed. I had already enabled hardware acceleration for the adapter, so if you update the driver and are still having issues, ensure you’ve enabled hardware acceleration. I’m also running the latest version of VMware Tools on this machine, so if this directory doesn’t exist, or this doesn’t work for you, make sure VMware Tools are up to date.
Thanks, that worked perfectly!
I’m having the same trouble with the choppy mouse, but installing the WDDM (3D) driver didn’t work. I even increased the VRAM to 32MB as is recommended.
I have a brand new install of VSphere 4.1; VM is Windows Server 2008 R2.
I don’t know where to adjust the hardware acceleration. It’s not an option under ControlPanel \ Display \ Change Screen Resolution \ Advanced Settings \ Troubleshoot. The tab for “Change Settings” is grayed out.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Jim
Jim, ensure that you’re installing the VMX_SVGA driver from “C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\video” and not the SVGA 3D driver from “C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\wddm_video”. That should solve your problem.
Thanks for the tip. I tried this but nostill isn’t normal. The mouse is slow and choppy.
I even found the advanced\troubleshoot tab and increased the hardware acceleration. It’s a wee bit better, but still nowhere close to normal.
Any other ideas?
Thanks – Jim
Are you sure that the VMX_SVGA driver is installed, you’ve rebooted, and hardware acceleration is enabled? That’s the solution. The driver you mentioned in your first post is the incorrect one.
Drew is correct. The VMX_SVGA, reboot and hardware accel. to full is the solution.
The driver is called VMware SVGA II.
The VMX_SVGA isn’t found at that path.
Jim
The name of the driver you mentioned is correct. What version is it and what folder did you pull it from? Mine is 11.6.0.36 (from VMware Tools version 8.3.7 build 341836).
Mine is dated 8/27/2010.
11.6.0.36
I don’t know how to identify the VMware Tools version.
It was freshly installed last week.
Jim
Just to verify: the server has been rebooted since specifying that driver, correct?
Yes. Reboot is forced with the driver install.
I’d try uninstalling VMware Tools, reboot, ensure that the driver for the video adapter is uninstalled (set back to Windows default driver), then re-install VMware Tools and set the correct driver via Device Manager.
I had the same problem as Jim… The choppyness wouldn’t go away… However i managed to get it working now ; thanks.
The steps i took:
– uninstall VMWare tools => system asked for a reboot
– Reboot
– when booting up the system said it needs to reboot ; so again Reboot
– install VMWare tools => asked for a reboot
– Reboot
– choose the correct driver “C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\video”
– Right click desktop -> screen resolution -> Advanced Setting (link) -> Troubleshoot (tab) -> Change settings (button) -> Change the slider to Full -> click ok to accept.
Now it works like a charm. So bit thanks 🙂
Hi,
After you installed the driver and reboot the server.
Right click desktop -> screen resolution -> Advanced Setting (link) -> Troubleshoot (tab) -> Change settings (button) -> Change the slider to Full -> click ok to accept.
All should be fine after that.
This worked great for me! The hardware acceleration was on before I installed the driver, so I updated the driver and it was still choppy. I went back and hardware acceleration had been turned off during the driver update. I turned it back on and now it is silky smooth!
Thanks!
Great info here. Combination of above posts work great….
1. Set video adapter to VMware SVGA II @ “C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\video”
2. Enable Hardware accel on Advanced/Troubleshoot tab
3. Disable mouse shadow
I also Disabled “Enhance precision” on mouse. You may try it either way.