I was having a problem with audio latency in VMware Workstation on my Windows 10 guest. I found an article that helped me fix it.
Ever since I changed to using Windows 10 in my VMware Fusion virtual
machine, I've struggled with a fair bit of latency and audio problems
when using the standard HDAudio device. Changing the buffer time didn't
make a huge difference, but now I've found a way to install the VMaudio
driver and revert to the old es1371 audio device so I can lower the
latency. This makes my Windows 10 run like my Windows 7 VM latency-wise,
and I figured everyone else could use this info, so here goes (note:
This worked for me, but I'm not responsible if your audio breaks):
NB: Whenever something is between quotes, assume that everything between
the quotes has to be copied or executed. If there are quotes within the
quotes, you do have to include those when you copy the text.
1. While it's shut down and VMware fusion is closed, back up your
virtual machine by storing a copy of your .vmwarevm package somewhere
else, just in case you need to revert later.
2. Boot up your virtual machine.
3. Go to the menu bar > Virtual Machine >Reinstall VMware Tools,
and dismiss the auto-play notification or the setup dialog if they
appear.
4. Open up a command prompt (windows key+r, then type "cmd")
5. I like to type "D:" to get to my cd-drive, but you can also type the
path directly. Run this command on the drive your VMware tools install
is mounted:
"setup64 /a"
press enter.
6. Follow the instructions on screen, and extract to a folder of your choosing.
7. Using Windows explorer, go to the directory where you extracted the
VMware tools. Within this directory navigate to the following path:
"VMware\VMware Tools\VMware\Drivers\audio\Vista"
8. Locate the file "vmaudio.inf", and press shift+f10 (or right click) on it.
9. Find "install" in the context menu, and press enter on it. Follow the on screen instructions.
10. Shut down your virtual machine and quit VMware fusion. Now it's time to edit your .vmx file
11. In the mac finder, locate your .vmwarevm package, and bring up the context menu. Navigate to "show package contents".
12. Locate your "<name of virtual machine>.vmx" file.
13. Bring up the context menu, find "open with" and open it in your favorite text editor. Text edit will do.
14. You have to change 2 lines in this file. If the line
"sound.virtualDev = "hdaudio"" is present, change it to
"sound.virtualDev = "es1371""
Next, add this line if it is not already present, and experiment with
the buffer length. I find that 30 is a good number: pciSound.playBuffer =
"30""
Finally, if you already tweaked the sound.bufferTime parameter with the
new hdaudio device, I'm not sure it makes a difference or not. You can
possibly leave it there, but I deleted it. Then save your .vmx-file
15. Go into fusion, and boot your machine. Hopefully it should now be much more responsive.
https://www.applevis.com/guides/fixing-vmware-fusion-audio-latency-problems-windows-10
Accessed 2022-02-19
