My windows 2003 vm in vmware fusion turns into a black screen after an OSX crash. The guest system seems bootable but starts with total blackness. Fortunately safe mode works. Event log shows it’s unable to load vmx_fb.dll, which is the graphics driver of vmware tools.

The paradox is that vmware tool is unable to install in safe mode, which will always fail even though MSI service can be enabled with this method. Then manually deleting vmx_fb.dll and vmx_mode.dll in system32 folder also not works.

It seems the only way is to roll back vm to 2-month-ago snapshot losing all the intermediate stuffs. But this thread is the rescue. Additional vmx_svga.sys in drivers directory should also be deleted. Then the guest 2003 system can be started with the default vga driver.

Now enter the vm, reinstall vmware tools, and make a new snapshot for such emergency case.