Windows 10 guest freeze on restart

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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tony_c
Posts: 9
Joined: 22. Jul 2020, 16:01

Windows 10 guest freeze on restart

Post by tony_c »

I am running VB on Win10Pro host with Win10Pro guest. Both OS are up to date as well as VB
For about a year every time the Win guest OS does an update and restarts the VM freezes on the blue restarting screen.
I have to slam it shut and restart it and luckily it has always opened without further problem.
Anyone else experienced this? (Happens everytime not sometimes)
Regards
Tony
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Windows 10 guest freeze on restart

Post by scottgus1 »

tony_c wrote:Anyone else experienced this?
Back when I ran live XP VMs for the office server, the VM sometimes wouldn't finish shut down or restart, just get stuck "Shutting down...". Had to kill them programmatically. Could never figure out why.

As a test, make a new W10 VM, see if it has the same problem. If it does not, it's a problem inside the failing VM's OS.
tony_c
Posts: 9
Joined: 22. Jul 2020, 16:01

Re: Windows 10 guest freeze on restart

Post by tony_c »

Hey Scott
Created a new VM and same behaviour. It seems some issue with the OS shutdown/restart signal in the VM environment
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Windows 10 guest freeze on restart

Post by scottgus1 »

Thanks for trying the experiment, it is illuminating.

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

Please right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show Log. Save the far left tab's log, zip the log file, and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.
tony_c
Posts: 9
Joined: 22. Jul 2020, 16:01

Re: Windows 10 guest freeze on restart

Post by tony_c »

Hi Scott
Win10 pro displayed dialog that it must restart to install updates.
clicked Update and restart
Blue screen updating...
Restarting... FROZE
Have to Shutdown VM via power off
Have attached the log file

This occurs every time (tested 2 independent VMs) but hard to reproduce as Microsoft dictate the update to restart scenario.

If no-one has reported this ever maybe it is an issue with the Dell laptop I run VB on?

Regards
Tony
Attachments
VB Freeze after restart to install Windows update Windows10Pro-2021-06-09-13-08-24.zip
(33.46 KiB) Downloaded 6 times
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Windows 10 guest freeze on restart

Post by mpack »

AFAICS it's the guest that freezes, not VirtualBox.
45:37:29.234600 xHCI: USB Suspended
45:37:29.258980 HDA: Codec reset
45:37:29.258997 HDA: Reset
45:37:29.361488 GIM: HyperV: Reset initiated through MSR
45:37:29.361516 ACPI: Reset initiated by ACPI
45:37:31.717125 VMMDev: vmmDevHeartbeatFlatlinedTimer: Guest seems to be unresponsive. Last heartbeat received 4 seconds ago
And notice also that the heartbeat task only stops responding after you hit the close button, which seems normal to me without checking other VMs (I don't normally close my VMs using the (X) window button). If so then the implication is that the guest was not frozen either, just busy.

Long mysterious pauses during Windows updates are not confined to VMs!
tony_c
Posts: 9
Joined: 22. Jul 2020, 16:01

Re: Windows 10 guest freeze on restart

Post by tony_c »

Appreciate you taking a look at the log.
I will leave windows to restart when it schedules it next time to see if that is different to me explicitly doing the restart.
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