EFI firmware does not boot into Windows, VM console is stuck on black screen, vmware.log shows EFI ROM version after CPU reset, but not BIOS-UUID.

Example :

2022-12-06T20:06:14.714Z In(05) vcpu-0 - CPU reset: hard (mode Emulation)
...
2022-12-06T20:06:14.751Z In(05) vcpu-0 - Guest: EFI ROM version: VMW71.00V.18227214.B64.2106252220 (64-bit RELEASE)
2022-12-06T20:06:14.833Z In(05) vcpu-0 - BIOS-UUID is 42 25 b2 56 f1 fd 5a 2f-5b 76 88 67 eb 85 54 2b   <===  Will be Missing when issue occurs

This issue happens intermittently. Perform VM reset from vCenter UI, Windows starts up normally again, not ending in repair mode.

A deadlock occurred intermittently in VMware Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) at boot time when the following conditions meet:

• Guest OS is 64-bit Windows and uses EFI firmware
• VM is configured with more than one vCPU
• VM is running virtual hardware version 13 or older
• VM was started on ESXi 7.0U2 or 7.0 U3

This issue is resolved in VMware ESXi 8.0

To workaround the issue, please follow any one of the two procedures mentioned below:

Option1: Upgrade the VM virtual hardware version to 14 or newer.

Option2: Add the following config options to .vmx file.
          ---
          chipset.smramLock = "TRUE"
          cpu.canDisableSMM = "TRUE"
          ---
          There is no functional or performance issue associated with setting these options.
          NOTE: Virtual machine must be powered off/on to apply settings.