I encountered an issue with distorted sound coming from a Windows XP x32 guest using a Windows 8 Pro x64 host under Workstation 9.0.1 build-894247.
It wasn't an issue under the Windows 7 OS I upgraded from, nor was it an issue with the other operating systems for which I have virtualizations setup (namely, Debian Linux).
I tried a slew of configuration options in the Windows XP .vmx file, notably those which began with "sound.".
I tried fooling with the sound card options and drivers on both the host and the guest, and even tried reinstalling VMWare Tools on the guest.
Nothing seemed to resolve the issue. I thought for sure it was a VMWare Workstation WIndows 8 compatibility issue that would have to be resolved in an upcoming version.
Anyway, I came a random post on Google that said that someone's similar problem was solved by making sure that their VIDEO drivers were up to date. He cited having a NVIDIA card, but I have an ATI/AMD HD Radeon video card.
I decided to upgrade my ATI/AMD Catalyst drivers, and it just so happened that new drivers were released just a few weeks ago.
Updating my 3D accelerated video drivers actually worked to fix the problem. I was quite relieved.
This ran counter to my intuitions, but I'm sure that someone else out there will be pleased knowing that their 3D accelerated video drivers are most likely the culprit in this situation.
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