Since building my new Haswell 7x64 system on 6/26, I've found several warnings like this one in my Event Viewer log, and I've determined they coincide exactly with the times I ran VMs for Windows 8.1 and 7:
*****
Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-WHEA-Logger
Date: 7/18/2013 1:31:03 PM
Event ID: 19
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords:
User: LOCAL SERVICE
Computer: ---
Description:
A corrected hardware error has occurred.
Reported by component: Processor Core
Error Source: Corrected Machine Check
Error Type: Internal parity error
Processor ID: 2
*****
The computer has been in heavy use 16 hours a day since I built it on 6/26. However, these warnings have been generated only during the times I was running VMs for Windows 8.1 and 7, and those times have been infrequent and of short duration, about a half dozen runs lasting five minutes or less each. This is documented conclusively by the VMWare logfiles, for the warning times are sandwiched between the VM start and stop times that appear in the logs. There were two such warnings when I discovered the issue on 7/14. While I can't consistently repro it, I managed to get two new warnings out of several attempts within the first few minutes of starting the VMs. I have no idea what aspect of using the VMs triggers it. I run the VMs in windows and never mess with the Unity mode. They are vanilla installs, new copies of VMs I built on my i5 750 system and archived for easy restoration, and basically I've just been verifying they work.
My system is as follows, and I am not now overclocking, nor have I ever overclocked anything:
i5 4670 and Hyper 212 Evo
Asus Gryphon Z87, BIOS 1007 and now 1206
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8 GB 1.35v DDR3-1600 DIMMs x 2, 16 GB total
Intel 4600 graphics -> monitor
Nvidia GT430 -> TV
Seasonic X650 PSU
Samsung 830 SSD boot drive, two 2 TB WD Green drives, all TrueCrypted. The VMs are on the SSD.
Windows 7 x64 w/ SP1, fully patched, installed 6/26
VMWare Player 5.0.2 build-1031769
I've observed Processor ID values of 0, 2, 4, and 6, which I don't understand as the CPU is quad-core with no hyperthreading.
The system is stable on Prime95, Aida64, and Intel Linpack, plus MemTest86+ 5.0 RC1. The stress tests do not provoke the warning, nor do they cause excessively high temps. CPU-intensive multitasking that uses all four cores such as transcoding video with Handbrake while doing network file copies or downloading from the Internet while watching video or browsing the web does not cause the warnings. The only thing that causes the warnings is running a VM in VMWare Player, and it tends to happen within the first few minutes, when CPU usage is nil.
I've had no BSODs or abnormal behavior of any kind; this new system has been great. That said, these warnings are still troubling. From googling, I've learned that overclockers commonly observe WHEA-Logger warnings when stressing the system under extreme overclocking, and they say the solution is usually more vCore. However, I'm not overclocking, and I don't think the 4670 is capable of it anyway. Besides, the warnings occur when my system is basically idle and only when running a VM in VMWare Player. They don't occur at any other times.
Has anyone heard of a problem like this with VMWare Player? Are there any Haswell users who don't observe this problem with VMWare Player?
