I've noticed some odd behaviour when running Windows NT4 VMs under VMWare Server when the NT4 VMs use the multiprocessor HAL.
Host Server = DP DL580 G2 running Windows 2003 32 bit. Quad 1.9 Ghz Xeon with 4Gb RAM
Any NT4 VM configured with two virtual processors that's started that uses the multiprocessor HAL uses 50% of the host machines CPU even when the NT4 VM task manager shows the VM as idle (1% utilisation). I'm guessing if I only had a single processor host then the processor would be pegged at 100%. If I change the NT4 VM to have one CPU then host CPU utilisation drops to 25%. The only thing that makes any difference is if I switch the NT4 VM to the uniprocessor HAL using these instructions
http://www.vmware.com/support/ws3/doc/ws32_disks7.html
Then the behaviour reverts to normal i.e. When the NT4 VM CPU is idle the host CPU is idle too.
The behaviour occurs under RC1 and build 23869 and with NT4 VMs using service pack 5 or 6.
Has anyone else seen this behaviour?