Windows 7 freezing on VirtualBox 6.1.36 with MacBook Pro MacOS Catalina Host

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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virtu
Posts: 5
Joined: 21. Jul 2022, 13:19

Windows 7 freezing on VirtualBox 6.1.36 with MacBook Pro MacOS Catalina Host

Post by virtu »

Hello,

I'm fighting to get smoothly running Windows 7 Professional on VirtualBox 6.1.36
As Host I use MacBook Pro 2019 Intel Core i9 with MacOS Catalina 10.15.7

In past few days I tried to change almost everything what I found in google to change, to resolve the freezing problem.
Base Memory, Chipset, Prozessor, Execution Cap, Video Memory, Graphics Controller, enabling disabling 3D acceleration.

Nothing helps.

VM VirtualBox Extension Pack-6.1.36a & the guest additions are installed.

Something is surely wrong with the graphics. Graphics are not nice, the Icons & co. are pixelated.

I downloaded Parallels on the same host, installed Windows 7 Professional on Parallels and everything is running nice, smoothly and without graphic problems.

What do I wrong? Please help to resolve the problem.
scottgus1
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Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Windows 7 freezing on VirtualBox 6.1.36 with MacBook Pro MacOS Catalina Host

Post by scottgus1 »

virtu wrote:In past few days I tried to change almost everything what I found in google to change, to resolve the freezing problem.
Base Memory, Chipset, Prozessor, Execution Cap, Video Memory, Graphics Controller, enabling disabling 3D acceleration.
This is called "thrashing", and it rarely helps, rather often making things worse. Your VM may be irreparably broken. It is much better to come to the forum before trying extensive changes to attempt to fix the problem. Or at least make a good backup of the host and VM so restoration can take place.

Best to restore the VMs from your backups, then provide a log:
Reboot the host. Don't start Virtualbox.
Rename the VM folder to something else.
Copy the backed-up VM folder from your host backups into the same parent folder that now contains the renamed damaged VM folder. The copied backed-up VM folder and the thrashed renamed VM folder should be side-by-side in the parent folder, so-to-speak.
Start Virtualbox. The VM should now be back in the pre-thrashed version.
(I'm not going to describe what to do if you didn't have a backup; we don't want to go down that rabbit hole... :shock: You may have to start over with a new VM.)

Start the VM from full normal shutdown, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the VM from within the VM's OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the VM with the Power Off option set.

Right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show Log. Save the far left tab's log, zip it, and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.
virtu
Posts: 5
Joined: 21. Jul 2022, 13:19

Re: Windows 7 freezing on VirtualBox 6.1.36 with MacBook Pro MacOS Catalina Host

Post by virtu »

@scottgus1
thank you for the reply.

I don't have anything to backup. Trying to set up a new VM with Windows 7 from scratch.

I updated my Mac to last Version, 12.5 macOS Monterey.

Just installed a new VM with Win7 x64 now, installed the Guest Additions.
No changes, all the same. Freeze and the icons are little bit pixelated, as before.

The log file is in the attachment.
Attachments
Win7New25072022-2022-07-25-10-03-15.log.zip
(32.38 KiB) Downloaded 7 times
virtu
Posts: 5
Joined: 21. Jul 2022, 13:19

Re: Windows 7 freezing on VirtualBox 6.1.36 with MacBook Pro MacOS Catalina Host

Post by virtu »

I did tried it with windows 10 x64
Same problem.
Works fine with Parallels Desktop, but not with VirtualBox
multiOS
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Posts: 800
Joined: 14. Sep 2019, 16:51
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: WIN11,10, 7, Linux (various)
Location: United Kingdom

Re: Windows 7 freezing on VirtualBox 6.1.36 with MacBook Pro MacOS Catalina Host

Post by multiOS »

The Log shows;
00:00:01.001999 VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000001b00000 (28 311 552, 27 MB)
27 MB is not enough for the resolutions you've been trying to use. Maximise Video Ram to 128MB, and increase CPUs from 1 to 2 (no more)

Please check if there is any improvement and, if not, or there are further problems, submit a new log which will show the changes made and my provide other indicators.
virtu
Posts: 5
Joined: 21. Jul 2022, 13:19

Re: Windows 7 freezing on VirtualBox 6.1.36 with MacBook Pro MacOS Catalina Host

Post by virtu »

multiOS wrote:The Log shows;
00:00:01.001999 VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000001b00000 (28 311 552, 27 MB)
27 MB is not enough for the resolutions you've been trying to use. Maximise Video Ram to 128MB, and increase CPUs from 1 to 2 (no more)

Please check if there is any improvement and, if not, or there are further problems, submit a new log which will show the changes made and my provide other indicators.
Done. But unfortunately no changes.
Attachments
Win7New25072022-2022-07-30-09-29-03.log.zip
(34.06 KiB) Downloaded 2 times
mpack
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Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
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Re: Windows 7 freezing on VirtualBox 6.1.36 with MacBook Pro MacOS Catalina Host

Post by mpack »

You really need to enable 3D acceleration before attempting 4K resolutions with simulated graphics hardware, only problem being that the host apparantly doesn't support it.
00:00:09.294276 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBoxMP::DriverEntry: WDDM: 3D is not supported, hardware type 1
00:00:09.294424 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBoxMP::DriverEntry: 3D is NOT supported by the host, but is NOT required for the current guest version using this driver, continuing with Disabled 3D..
If you can't have 3D acceleration then I would restrict the guest to a much lower display size, with 200% scaling. I have no idea if that will work with fullscreen - I suspect not.
virtu
Posts: 5
Joined: 21. Jul 2022, 13:19

Re: Windows 7 freezing on VirtualBox 6.1.36 with MacBook Pro MacOS Catalina Host

Post by virtu »

mpack wrote:You really need to enable 3D acceleration before attempting 4K resolutions with simulated graphics hardware, only problem being that the host apparantly doesn't support it.
00:00:09.294276 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBoxMP::DriverEntry: WDDM: 3D is not supported, hardware type 1
00:00:09.294424 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBoxMP::DriverEntry: 3D is NOT supported by the host, but is NOT required for the current guest version using this driver, continuing with Disabled 3D..
If you can't have 3D acceleration then I would restrict the guest to a much lower display size, with 200% scaling. I have no idea if that will work with fullscreen - I suspect not.

I don't know if my host supports it or not.

My host

Code: Select all

MacBook Pro 16'', 2019
2,4 GHz 8-Core Intel i9
32GB
AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8GB
macOS Monterey 12.5

But it's possible to enable the 3d acceleration in the settings. So I enabled it. But no changes.
Attachments
Win7New25072022-2022-07-30-11-43-02.log.zip
(38.33 KiB) Downloaded 3 times
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