VMware is a piece of useful software on your computer, but you may receive an error message - Internal error, which is a really annoying case. Now, you need to read this post. It will show you some causes of VMware Internal error and solutions to fix this error. Get these solutions from the MiniTool website.

VMware is a piece of great software for building and running virtual machines on your computer. However, many of you may receive an error on VMware that shows “Internal error.” when you boot a virtual machine in VMware, usually due to the failure of VMware Windows authorization service to boot.

VMware Internal error

The following part will show you the causes of VMware Internal error and then introduce you to some solutions to fix this issue.

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Causes of The VMware Internal Error

1.Fail to start VMware authorization service

As mentioned earlier, the main cause of this problem is that VMware authorization service cannot start in Windows. This error may occur if the authorization service does not work properly in Windows. 

2.No administration rights for VMware authorization service

VMware authorization service requires VMware administrative privileges to run and start the virtual machines, so if you run the service on your computer without administrative privileges, you will receive this error message. 

3.Aggressive Antivirus software

If your computer has antivirus software installed, and it is set to an aggressive mode, the antivirus software may not even allow you to run virtual machines on VMware. Some antivirus or antimalware software may also prevent you from running virtual machines on your system, so antivirus or antimalware software may also be the reason for this error. 

4.Corrupt VMware workstation or player

If your VMware workstation is corrupted, you may face this error. 

5.Fix-game.exe virus

There is a known virus that prevents VMware from running virtual machines. It is fix-game.exe and you can find it in Task Manager if it is running. 

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Solution 1: Run VMware Authorization Service with Administrative Privileges

If you want to know how to fix the VMware Internal error, here is the first solution – to run VMware authorization services with administration rights on Windows. To do this, you must ensure that you log in as an administrator. 

Step 1: Press Windows key + R key to open the Run box. 

Step 2: Type services.msc in the box and click OK to open the Service window. 

Step 3: In the list of services, search for the VMware Authorization service. 

Step 4: Right-click this service and choose Properties

Step 5: Be sure to set the Startup type to Automatic and click Start. Click OK.

run VMware authorization services with administration rights

Check your virtual machine one more time in VMware. If the error is caused by a failure of VMware authorization service, it can now work properly.

Solution 2: Reinstall VMware with the Repair Option

In order to fix VMware Internal error, you can also try to reinstall VMware with the Repair option in the Control Panel. 

Step 1: Type control panel in the search bar and click Control Panel to open it. 

Step 2: Click Programs and Features and find VMware Workstation.

find VMware Workstation

Step 3: Right-click VMware Workstation and click Repair

If your VMware is broken or something like that and the error is caused by it, repairing VMware will probably fix the problem.

Solution 3: Start VMware with Administrative Privileges

The VMware authorization process allows a non-administrator to build virtual machines. If you start VMware with administration rights, you don’t need that service to create a virtual machine because in this case, you are the administrator yourself. 

Therefore, if Solution 1 does not resolve the error for you, you should try to start VMware with administrative privileges. 

To do this, simply open a VMware workstation or VMware player with administrative privileges. Just right-click an app and click Run as administrator, and then you can run it with administrative privileges in Windows.

Solution 4: Stop and Restart All VMware Services

If none of the above solutions can solve your problem, you can try to stop and restart all VMware services to see if it can solve the issue for you. 

Step 1: Type cmd in the search bar, right-click Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator

Step 2: Perform the following commands:

NET STOP “VMware Authorization Service”

NET STOP “VMware DHCP Service”

NET STOP “VMware NAT Service”

NET STOP “VMware USB Arbitration Service”

taskkill /im vmware-tray.exe /f

taskkill /im vmware-tray.exe /f 

This will stop all services associated with VMware running on Windows computers. 

Step 3: Start the above services again. Run the following commands:

NET START “VMware Authorization Service”

NET START “VMware DHCP Service”

NET START “VMware NAT Service”

NET START “VMware USB Arbitration Service”

START C:\Progra~2\VMware\VMWARE~1\vmware-tray.exe

START C:\Progra~2\VMware\VMWARE~1\vmware-tray.exe 

Check to see if VMware Internal error still exists when starting a virtual machine.

Bottom Line

To sum up, this post has shown you some causes of VMware Internal error. Meanwhile, it also introduces you to some useful solutions to fix this error. If you are receiving this error message, you can try these solutions.

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