Temporary Freeze and Intermittent ( a lot of ns lag) (Guest Seems to be unresponsive)

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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BryanLeng
Posts: 5
Joined: 9. Aug 2021, 06:43

Temporary Freeze and Intermittent ( a lot of ns lag) (Guest Seems to be unresponsive)

Post by BryanLeng »

Hi,

I do not have this issue previously. but once i update to the latest version 6.1.26r145957 i have issue where the virtual windows always freeze temporary. Then it will come back again. And when i check the log, there is a lot of time waiting to connect to the virtual windows, and i saw a lot of ns lag happening. Below are some of thing i tried to make it more stable:

1) total remove of graphics driver and reinstall in clean mode
2) remove the extension pack and reinstall back again
3) turn on and off the 3d mode acceleration
4) increase video memory from 128 to 256mb
5) reboot multiple times windows and virtual windows

Below are my Virtualbox setting for the virtual image:
1) Base memory 3072mb (i have 16GB ram available and i am running 2 windows VM at one time)
2) Chipset PIIX3 (default)
3) Pointing Devices - USB Tablet (Default)
4) Enable I/O APIC - turn on (Default)
5) Enable EFI - turn off (Default)
6) Hardware clock in UTC time - off (Default)
7) Processor - 4 (i have 4 core 8 logical processor)
8. Execution cap - 100% (Default)
9) Enable PAE/NX - off (Default)
10) Enable Nested VT-X/AMD-V - off (Default)
11) Video memory - 128mb
12) Graphics Controller - VboxSVGA (Default)
13) Acceleration (3d accelleration) - ON (i have a dedicated Radeon 460 graphics card, so i am using this)
14) Remote display - off (Default)
15) Recording - off (Default)
16) Storage Attributes - SATA - AHCI (Default)
17) Audio - off
18) Network - Bridge Adapter (Adapter type: Intel Pro/1000MT Desktop 8245OEM) (Default)
19) Network Premiscuous Mode: deny ( (Default) i dont know what this is)
20) USB 1.1 OHCI Controller selected (Default)


Below are the error message i always get

00:01:48.372388 VMMDev: Guest Log: All services started
00:01:48.392749 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state really changed, notifying listeners
00:01:48.392781 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners
00:01:48.393268 VMMDev: Guest Additions capability report: (0x1 -> 0x5) seamless: yes, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: yes
00:01:48.393575 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state really changed, notifying listeners
00:01:48.393622 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners
00:01:48.393799 VMMDev: Guest Log: Got multi resize request 1 displays
00:01:48.393889 VMMDev: Guest Log: [0]: 0 0x39 0,0 1920x1057 32
00:02:10.873900 VMMDev: vmmDevHeartbeatFlatlinedTimer: Guest seems to be unresponsive. Last heartbeat received 15 seconds ago
00:02:10.918226 VMMDev: GuestHeartBeat: Guest is alive (gone 15 895 266 219 ns)
00:27:17.828879 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 1 518 818 185 203 ns lag; new total: 1 518 818 185 203 ns
00:27:17.829020 VMMDev: vmmDevHeartbeatFlatlinedTimer: Guest seems to be unresponsive. Last heartbeat received 1506 seconds ago
00:27:17.839887 VMMDev: GuestHeartBeat: Guest is alive (gone 1 506 779 017 929 ns)
00:27:22.775934 VMMDev: vmmDevHeartbeatFlatlinedTimer: Guest seems to be unresponsive. Last heartbeat received 4 seconds ago
00:27:22.779165 VMMDev: GuestHeartBeat: Guest is alive (gone 4 677 157 827 ns)
00:27:22.832041 AHCI#0: Port 0 reset
00:27:22.833245 VD#0: Cancelling all active requests
00:32:19.527259 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 96 091 950 787 ns lag; new total: 1 614 910 135 990 ns
00:32:19.527288 VMMDev: vmmDevHeartbeatFlatlinedTimer: Guest seems to be unresponsive. Last heartbeat received 46 seconds ago
00:32:19.580569 VMMDev: GuestHeartBeat: Guest is alive (gone 46 544 673 163 ns)
00:35:38.416127 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 181 650 ns lag; new total: 1 674 910 317 640 ns
00:42:05.406699 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 338 231 ns lag; new total: 1 734 910 655 871 ns
00:45:31.697420 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 199 105 ns lag; new total: 1 794 910 854 976 ns
00:48:30.622299 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 072 122 ns lag; new total: 1 854 910 927 098 ns
00:52:22.699680 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 236 734 ns lag; new total: 1 914 911 163 832 ns
00:56:21.339973 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 154 344 ns lag; new total: 1 974 911 318 176 ns
01:01:06.156433 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 053 913 ns lag; new total: 2 034 911 372 089 ns
01:04:21.834173 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 005 812 ns lag; new total: 2 094 911 377 901 ns
01:07:23.498654 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 414 011 ns lag; new total: 2 154 911 791 912 ns
01:10:23.670696 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 162 340 ns lag; new total: 2 214 911 954 252 ns
01:13:23.636618 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 109 499 ns lag; new total: 2 274 912 063 751 ns
01:16:20.357621 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 281 978 ns lag; new total: 2 334 912 345 729 ns
01:19:52.857573 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 455 946 ns lag; new total: 2 394 912 801 675 ns
01:22:50.213211 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 170 146 ns lag; new total: 2 454 912 971 821 ns
01:25:49.442717 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 017 796 ns lag; new total: 2 514 912 989 617 ns
01:28:46.850941 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 019 839 ns lag; new total: 2 574 913 009 456 ns
01:31:53.866173 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 096 268 ns lag; new total: 2 634 913 105 724 ns
01:34:51.731215 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 295 844 ns lag; new total: 2 694 913 401 568 ns
01:37:47.928077 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 084 285 ns lag; new total: 2 754 913 485 853 ns
01:40:44.821613 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 468 395 ns lag; new total: 2 814 913 954 248 ns
01:43:40.547898 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 211 733 ns lag; new total: 2 874 914 165 981 ns
01:46:31.104346 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 295 194 ns lag; new total: 2 934 914 461 175 ns
01:49:21.277053 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 344 193 ns lag; new total: 2 994 914 805 368 ns
01:52:13.036741 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 410 136 ns lag; new total: 3 054 915 215 504 ns
01:55:08.517302 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 000 093 243 ns lag; new total: 3 114 915 308 747 ns
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Temporary Freeze and Intermittent ( a lot of ns lag) (Guest Seems to be unresponsive)

Post by scottgus1 »

Please right-click the guest in the main Virtualbox window's guest list, choose Show Log.

Search the far left tab's log for this text:

Attempting fall back to NEM

If you find it, Hyper-V is enabled. See HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM (Hyper-V is active).

If you don't find that text, save the far left tab's log, zip the log file, and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.
BryanLeng
Posts: 5
Joined: 9. Aug 2021, 06:43

Re: Temporary Freeze and Intermittent ( a lot of ns lag) (Guest Seems to be unresponsive)

Post by BryanLeng »

Hi,


I did what u say. it stated "VT-x is not available".
Attached is full log.


0:00:03.886954 ********************* End of CFGM dump **********************
00:00:03.887171 HM: HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM: VT-x is not available
00:00:03.951092 NEM: WHvCapabilityCodeHypervisorPresent is TRUE, so this might work...
00:00:03.951112 NEM: WHvCapabilityCodeExtendedVmExits = 0x00000000000003ff
00:00:03.951124 NEM: fExtendedMsrExit: 1
00:00:03.951134 NEM: fExtendedCpuIdExit: 1
00:00:03.951143 NEM: fExtendedXcptExit: 1
00:00:03.951153 NEM: Warning! Unknown VM exit definitions: 0x3ff
00:00:03.951162 NEM: Warning! Unknown feature definitions: 0x7f
00:00:03.951172 NEM: Supported exception exit bitmap: 0xf7dfb
00:00:03.951187 NEM: WHvCapabilityCodeProcessorVendor = 1 - Intel
Attachments
VM1-2021-08-09-21-40-08.log
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scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Temporary Freeze and Intermittent ( a lot of ns lag) (Guest Seems to be unresponsive)

Post by scottgus1 »

scottgus1 wrote:Search the far left tab's log for this text:

Attempting fall back to NEM
BryanLeng wrote:00:00:03.887171 HM: HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM: VT-x is not available
scottgus1 wrote:If you find it, Hyper-V is enabled. See HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM (Hyper-V is active).
Any trouble following these instructions?
BryanLeng
Posts: 5
Joined: 9. Aug 2021, 06:43

Re: Temporary Freeze and Intermittent ( a lot of ns lag) (Guest Seems to be unresponsive)

Post by BryanLeng »

Hi,

Sorry, i think i understand the things wrong. Reread it back and follow back the instruction, this time i got it right. Thanks for the help.
Now i get it. It was the " CredentialGuard " that uses the hyper-V that cause virtualbox unable to use the CPU VT-x virtualization feature, hence cause all the lagging issue.

Now i understand. I can even feel the virtual windows is running faster now. booting is also noticable faster than before. Let monitor for sometime and see how everything is.

Many thanks for help.
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BryanLeng
Posts: 5
Joined: 9. Aug 2021, 06:43

Re: Temporary Freeze and Intermittent ( a lot of ns lag) (Guest Seems to be unresponsive)

Post by BryanLeng »

By the way, Last question. Is there any restriction or rules how the parameter setting below:

1) Number of processor to use
2) Memory size
3) 3d enable or non-3D
4) memory size for the display

Thanks.
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Temporary Freeze and Intermittent ( a lot of ns lag) (Guest Seems to be unresponsive)

Post by scottgus1 »

Great! Glad you're up and running!

1) Number of processor to use:
These "processors" are really threads on the host processor. More is not necessarily better, unless your programs in the VM can fill them up. Two processors is good for most Windows OS's from Windows 2000 onward, Linux also benefits from 2 processors.

2) Memory size:
This is strict addition: Amount needed for each VM + host requirements <= total host RAM. Some folks are unaware how much the host is using at the time and they have trouble starting a VM with lots of RAM set. Usually, if there's plenty of host RAM, 2-4GB for the VM, for modern OS's is a good place to start,

3) 3d enable or non-3D:
Either way. 3D enabled is good for Windows 10 (though Transparency needs to be turned off in the VM OS's Personalization settings). 3D is also good for modern Linux. Guest Additions are required to use 3D, and I personally try to match the GAs version to the host Virtualbox version if I use 3D in a VM.

4) memory size for the display:
There's an upper limit of 128MB for most VMs, or 256MB for Windows with 3D enabled. Without 3D, the default amount may be OK, or 32-64MB if you have a large host display and go full-screen on the VM. Maxing the slider is the usual step I take for modern OS's.
BryanLeng
Posts: 5
Joined: 9. Aug 2021, 06:43

Re: Temporary Freeze and Intermittent ( a lot of ns lag) (Guest Seems to be unresponsive)

Post by BryanLeng »

Thanks once again for the recommendation. I am using the setting below for 2 of my VM, which i think should be stable for now and still achieve the speed that i need.

- CPU - 4 core for each VM (i am using i4770k - 4 phsyical with 8 logical core). i find it faster with 4 cores.
- Memory - 3072mb for each VM (i have total 16gb). I think 3gb should be sufficient as i monitor the VM like to use around 1.5gb to 1.8gb. Setting the memory to 2048 may seem like not maxing out the performance of the VM and the memory usage drop to 0.7gb. And i tried using 4096, and the VM still is using 1.5gb most of the time. So i think 3gb should be the perfect value. And the speed seem to max out on 3gb. Anything beyond that seem wasted. Personal feel.
- 3D disabled, as i feel without 3d it works faster.
- video memory to 128mb. since i am running vnc often, i think it crucial to capture the image as fast as it can get. I havent try out 64mb, maybe i will try it later.

Thanks for the help, and hope this post can benefit a lot more people.
fth0
Volunteer
Posts: 5668
Joined: 14. Feb 2019, 03:06
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Linux, Windows 10, ...
Location: Germany

Re: Temporary Freeze and Intermittent ( a lot of ns lag) (Guest Seems to be unresponsive)

Post by fth0 »

scottgus1 wrote:These "processors" are really threads on the host processor.
Just to make it clear: "threads" stands for OS threads, not for CPU hyperthreads.
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