Knowledge Base
Windows device manager shows yellow bang for VMCI device (1023129)
Details
In a Windows virtual machine, the desktop toolbar or Device Manager shows a yellow circle with exclamation mark (Yellow Bang) indicating a device problem. This probably indicates that the VMware VMCI Bus device driver is missing. The incomplete VMCI device might be displayed in the Other Devices section of Device Manager as the Base System Device, a generic Windows name.
The VMCI (virtual machine communication interface) device is used for host-to-guest communications.
Solution
Video how-to for VMware Fusion.
With VMware Fusion or Workstation, click Virtual Machine (VM) > Install VMware Tools. With ESXi run the vSphere Client and click Inventory > Virtual Machine > Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools. Follow the on-screen instructions displayed during VMware Tools installation. The VMCI driver is installed by any option you select during installation, such as Typical, Complete, or Custom. The Install VMware Tools menu item may be grayed out while downloading and installing, or if no network connection is found.
After installing VMware Tools, open Device Manager to verify that the Yellow Bang has disappeared, and that the VMware VMCI Bus Device appears under the System Devices section of Device Manager.
Virtual hardware version 7 VMs have the VMware VMCI Bus Device enabled by default, but the device driver is not pre-installed, it is obtainable only through the VMware Tools installer. The VMCI device cannot be removed from virtual hardware version 7 VMs.
For Windows 98 and Windows 98SE, there is no support for the VMCI device in VMware Tools. One workaround is to disable the VMCI device using Device Manager, so Windows effectively ignores it, and diagnostic tools stop reporting errors. Another workaround is to downgrade the VM to virtual hardware version 4.
Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 are supported with VMware Tools in Workstation 8.x, Fusion 5.0, and ESXi 5.1.
The Yellow Bang could appear for other reasons besides the lack of a VMware Tools driver. The dialog box for the device might show a numeric code, which you can check against the list of error codes in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 310123.
Note: The preceding link was correct as of March 22, 2013. If you find the link is broken, please provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.
Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 are supported with VMware Tools in Workstation 8.x, Fusion 5.0, and ESXi 5.1.
The Yellow Bang could appear for other reasons besides the lack of a VMware Tools driver. The dialog box for the device might show a numeric code, which you can check against the list of error codes in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 310123.
Note: The preceding link was correct as of March 22, 2013. If you find the link is broken, please provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.
In some cases, uninstalling the device with Device Manager and performing a scan for new hardware resolves the issue, as suggested under error Code 19.
For more information about VMware Tools, see Overview of VMware Tools (340).
For information about VMCI programming, see VMCI Sockets Documentation.
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