M4600/VMWare/Visual Studio 2012

I'm not sure if I should put this in the M4600 owners' thread or not, so here goes.

I LIKE my Precision M4600 (although it's heavy as lead). I loaded it up with 24GB Ram, and an SSD and it's been running fine under Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. I do a lot of C# programming and VS development so I installed VMWare Player, created a Windows 8 VM (allocated 4GB Ram) and added Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 (among other development tools). I have similar setups on two other machines (desktops) and they work fine.

The problem is the Precision setup. I simply can't use Visual Studio. Keyboard entry is impossible: characters lag, skip, and trying to highlight a block using the keyboard is an exercise in frustration. The mouse works fine. The keyboard works fine in other apps inside the VM (e.g. Notepad). The keyboard works fine if I install VS 2012 on the Precision itself (yes, I'm crazy, I went and did this just to see if it was the VM). It's just VS 2012 inside the VM where it is simply impossible to type code.

I have the stock setup as shipped by Dell; i.e. I got the computer back in January and didn't update any drivers, etc. Does ANYONE have a setup similar to mine; i.e. VS 2012 inside a Windows 8 VM? Has anyone HEARD anything about a similar issue? I've googled till my eyes bled and couldn't find anything about this particular problem; there IS a long-standing issue with keyboards going dead inside VS, that I know about, this isn't THAT problem.

I'd appreciate any info or pointers to resources that might help me solve this. I would really prefer to do my VS development inside the VM and hope this isn't simply going to be impossible with the M4600 (in which case we're talking $1300 sort of down the drain).

Thanks in advance.


Norman

 

I mean, I'd strongly suggest trying a different VM solution. Try Microsoft's, for starters, and the Oracle's.

Or try allocating more CPU to the VM.

Or an external keyboard. And try both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports.

 

LOL - Where do I start!

What version of vmware workstation is it?

Ok I have noticed a lot of things about our M4600 and speak solely from the firepro m5950 gpu perspective as that is the model in my m4600.

Below are my recommendations as well as findings in different configurations under vmware player 8 - am sure these findings apply to player 9

I have run windows8x64, windows xp, windows 7x64, ubuntu 11.10, server 2008R2x64 all with in very demanding conditions ( router/firewall simulations, development, audio mixing mastering) with full 2d/3d acceleration with no problem once I got to grips with the below.

- first off vmware tools and ensure enable 3d Graphics - though I'm sure you've already done that

- Also download hwinfo64 and check what speed the PCIe bus is running at
(speeds indicated will be under gpu section)
i.e:
PCIe v2.0 x16 @ x1 = dismal performance under vmware guest with gpu acceleration if powerplay disabled enabled for guest
PCIe v2.0 x16 @ x16 = normal/fast performance under vmware guest with gpu acceleration enabled for guest
PCIe v2.0 x16 @ x1 = normal performance under vmware guest with gpu acceleration enabled if powerplay disabled for guest (however 2d performance on host (m4600) suffers when on battery - noticeable when scrolling long web pages - on mains it will go back to x16 when on mains)


- in hwinfo64 what speed is the gpu and memory
100.0 gpu and 151.6 memory = dismal performance under vmware guest with gpu acceleration enabled for guest
250+ gpu and 900 memory = normal/fast performance under vmware guest with gpu acceleration enabled for guest

- what power profile are you using? you should set profile to high performance - not this does hit battery life

- in vmware player if numlock is on guest but of on host this does cause a slight hiccup (could be perceived as latency) as the mouse is moved into the guest window and away from guest vm window

- check your memory speed in hwinfo64 too as you will be running at 667 (ddr3 1333) rather than 800(ddr3 1600) if your 24GB is made up of slow and fast dimms - for example I am running 32GB at 800

- disable powerplay so that performance is consistent even when on battery
This

- You should also use throttlelock to ensure cpu doens't dynamically adjust speed this will keep performance consistent

I am certain you can get performance out of this config as I have a very similar usage pattern to you.

Let me know.

Cheers!

 

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