Windows 98 not booting after upgrading to 4.1.10

[Mr Wolf]

Hi to all!
After upgrading Virtual Box to version 4.1.10 on Windows XP SP3, Windows 98 guest always crashes with Blue screen of death.
Here's the log:

Log created: 2012-03-15T18:36:54.781250000Z
Executable: C:\Programmi\Oracle\VirtualBox\VirtualBox.exe
Commandline: C:\Programmi\Oracle\VirtualBox\VirtualBox.exe --comment "Windows 98" --startvm 2d89d4f9-d745-4792-afa0-41479241e688 --no-startvm-errormsgbox
Couldn't read GDT at 00000000c00a4d30, rc=VERR_PGM_INVALID_GC_PHYSICAL_ADDRESS!

I even tried to reinstall it, but I had several problems: it freezes when formatting the virtual hard disk or during installation.

Actually, I had other "random" crashes on other virtual machines, like Windows 7 and Windows XP.

All the virtual machines worked well with the previous version.

What could be the problem?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[mpack]

Post the log file please, as a zipped attachment. I'm referring to "VBox.log", stored in "Logs" subfolder of your VMs folder.

And which VirtualBox version did you upgrade from?

And, out of curiosity, why are you using the command line to launch VMs on a Windows XP host? Did you always do that?

I don't recognize the program path, "C:\Programmi\Oracle\VirtualBox", but I assume that's the default in your country and you have not been copying .exe files into non-standard folders.

[mpack]

A quick search tells me that past occurrences of this error message have been caused by allocating more memory to your VM than is available on your host, in which case this error should not be new to v4.1.0.

[stefan.becker]

Seems to be a generally WinDOS problem. I have Win9x guest working before, now they are crashing.

[stefan.becker]

Last lines from a logfile (win95 guest):

00:00:09.164 PCNet#0: Init: ss32=0 GCRDRA=0x00f8e0a0[32] GCTDRA=0x00f8e020[16]
00:00:09.165 PCNet#0: Init: ss32=0 GCRDRA=0x00f8e0a0[32] GCTDRA=0x00f8e020[16]
00:00:09.204 PCNet#0: Init: ss32=0 GCRDRA=0x00f8e0a0[32] GCTDRA=0x00f8e020[16]
00:00:09.204 PCNet#0: Init: ss32=0 GCRDRA=0x00f8e0a0[32] GCTDRA=0x00f8e020[16]
00:00:09.274 Display::handleDisplayResize(): uScreenId = 0, pvVRAM=0000000000000000 w=720 h=400 bpp=0 cbLine=0x0, flags=0x1
00:00:09.471 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#1: performing device RESET
00:00:29.018 Display::handleDisplayResize(): uScreenId = 0, pvVRAM=00007fd262fac000 w=1024 h=768 bpp=32 cbLine=0x1000, flags=0x1
00:00:57.099 Display::handleDisplayResize(): uScreenId = 0, pvVRAM=0000000000000000 w=720 h=400 bpp=0 cbLine=0x0, flags=0x1

[stefan.becker]

Last lines from a win98 guest:

00:00:40.975 PATM: Disabling IDT e patch handler c0001408
00:00:40.976 PATM: Disable block at c00046e0 - write c0001564-c0001568
00:00:40.976 PATM: Disabling IDT 2 patch handler c00046e0
00:00:40.976 PATM: Disable block at c0001d94 - write c0001564-c0001568
00:00:40.976 PATM: Disabling IDT 30 patch handler c0001d94
00:00:40.991 PCNet#0: Init: ss32=1 GCRDRA=0x00fc7220[32] GCTDRA=0x00fc7020[32]
00:00:40.991 PCNet#0: Init: ss32=1 GCRDRA=0x00fc7220[32] GCTDRA=0x00fc7020[32]
00:00:40.999 PCNet#0: Init: ss32=1 GCRDRA=0x00fc7220[32] GCTDRA=0x00fc7020[32]
00:00:40.999 PCNet#0: Init: ss32=1 GCRDRA=0x00fc7220[32] GCTDRA=0x00fc7020[32]
00:00:41.000 PCNet#0: Init: ss32=1 GCRDRA=0x00fc7220[32] GCTDRA=0x00fc7020[32]
00:00:41.000 PCNet#0: Init: ss32=1 GCRDRA=0x00fc7220[32] GCTDRA=0x00fc7020[32]
00:00:41.001 PCNet#0: Init: ss32=1 GCRDRA=0x00fc7220[32] GCTDRA=0x00fc7020[32]
00:00:41.003 PCNet#0: Init: ss32=1 GCRDRA=0x00fc7220[32] GCTDRA=0x00fc7020[32]
00:00:42.979 PIT: mode=3 count=0x10000 (65536) - 18.20 Hz (ch=0)
00:00:42.997 PIIX3 ATA: Ctl#0: RESET, DevSel=0 AIOIf=0 CmdIf0=0x30 (-1 usec ago) CmdIf1=0xa0 (-1 usec ago)
00:00:42.997 PIIX3 ATA: Ctl#0: finished processing RESET
00:00:48.257 PIIX3 ATA: Ctl#0: RESET, DevSel=0 AIOIf=0 CmdIf0=0xc4 (-1 usec ago) CmdIf1=0xa0 (-1 usec ago)
00:00:48.257 PIIX3 ATA: Ctl#0: finished processing RESET
00:00:48.259 8900h shutdown request.
00:00:48.259 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'POWERING_OFF'.
00:00:48.259 ****************** Guest state at power off ******************
00:00:48.259 Guest CPUM (VCPU 0) state:
00:00:48.259 eax=00000100 ebx=00000000 ecx=0000141c edx=0004160a esi=0000010d edi=0fff06ef
00:00:48.259 eip=00008ca1 esp=00000a8a ebp=00000912 iopl=3 nt nv up ei pl nz na po nc
00:00:48.259 cs={ff3a base=00000000000ff3a0 limit=0000ffff flags=0000009a} dr0=00000000 dr1=00000000
00:00:48.259 ds={00c8 base=0000000000000c80 limit=0000ffff flags=00000092} dr2=00000000 dr3=00000000
00:00:48.259 es={00c8 base=0000000000000c80 limit=0000ffff flags=00000092} dr4=00000000 dr5=00000000
00:00:48.259 fs={0000 base=0000000000000000 limit=0000ffff flags=00000092} dr6=00000000 dr7=00000000
00:00:48.259 gs={0000 base=0000000000000000 limit=0000ffff flags=00000092} cr0=00000012 cr2=013a2038
00:00:48.259 ss={00c8 base=0000000000000c80 limit=0000ffff flags=00000092} cr3=00000000 cr4=00000200
00:00:48.259 gdtr=00000000c0083664:01ff idtr=0000000000000000:ffff eflags=00007246
00:00:48.259 ldtr={00b8 base=80003000 limit=00001fff flags=00000082}
00:00:48.259 tr ={0018 base=c000d7a4 limit=00002069 flags=0000008b}
00:00:48.259 SysEnter={cs=0000 eip=00000000 esp=00000000}
00:00:48.259 FCW=037f FSW=0000 FTW=0000 FOP=0000 MXCSR=00001f80 MXCSR_MASK=0000ffff
00:00:48.259 FPUIP=00000000 CS=0000 Rsrvd1=0000 FPUDP=00000000 DS=0000 Rsvrd2=0000
00:00:48.259 ST(0)=FPR0={0000'00000000'00000000} t0 +0.0000000000000000000000 ^ 0
00:00:48.259 ST(1)=FPR1={0000'00000000'00000000} t0 +0.0000000000000000000000 ^ 0
00:00:48.259 ST(2)=FPR2={0000'00000000'00000000} t0 +0.0000000000000000000000 ^ 0
00:00:48.259 ST(3)=FPR3={0000'00000000'00000000} t0 +0.0000000000000000000000 ^ 0
00:00:48.259 ST(4)=FPR4={0000'00000000'00000000} t0 +0.0000000000000000000000 ^ 0
00:00:48.259 ST(5)=FPR5={0000'00000000'00000000} t0 +0.0000000000000000000000 ^ 0
00:00:48.259 ST(6)=FPR6={0000'00000000'00000000} t0 +0.0000000000000000000000 ^ 0
00:00:48.259 ST(7)=FPR7={0000'00000000'00000000} t0 +0.0000000000000000000000 ^ 0
00:00:48.259 XMM0 =00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000 XMM1 =00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000
00:00:48.259 XMM2 =00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000 XMM3 =00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000
00:00:48.259 XMM4 =00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000 XMM5 =00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000
00:00:48.259 XMM6 =00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000 XMM7 =00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000
00:00:48.259 XMM8 =00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000 XMM9 =00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000
00:00:48.259 XMM10=00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000 XMM11=00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000
00:00:48.259 XMM12=00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000 XMM13=00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000
00:00:48.259 XMM14=00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000 XMM15=00000000'00000000'00000000'00000000
00:00:48.259 EFER =0000000000000000
00:00:48.259 PAT =0007010600070106
00:00:48.259 STAR =0000000000000000
00:00:48.259 CSTAR =0000000000000000
00:00:48.259 LSTAR =0000000000000000
00:00:48.259 SFMASK =0000000000000000
00:00:48.259 KERNELGSBASE =0000000000000000
00:00:48.259 ***
00:00:48.259 Guest paging mode: Real, changed 7 times, A20 enabled
00:00:48.259 Shadow paging mode: PAE
00:00:48.259 Host paging mode: AMD64+G+NX
00:00:48.259 ***
00:00:48.259 Active Timers (pVM=00007f4402b00000)
00:00:48.259 pTimerR3 offNext offPrev offSched Clock Time Expire HzHint State Description
00:00:48.259 00007f440037b050 00009010 00000000 00000000 Real 12145310 12145316 0 2-ACTIVE VGA Refresh Timer
00:00:48.259 00007f4400384060 ffffff80 ffff6ff0 00000000 Real 12145310 12145329 0 2-ACTIVE EMT Yielder
00:00:48.259 00007f4400383fe0 00000000 00000080 00000000 Real 12145310 12145856 0 2-ACTIVE CPU Load Timer
00:00:48.259 00007f4400380110 000017e0 00000000 00000000 Virt 47422424234 47423650748 0 2-ACTIVE Audio timer
00:00:48.259 00007f44003818f0 00000000 ffffe820 00000000 Virt 47422427499 47429717047 0 2-ACTIVE USB Frame Timer
00:00:48.259 00007f4400372b30 00000670 00000000 00000000 VrSy 47422360922 47424649001 18 2-ACTIVE i8254 Programmable Interval Timer
00:00:48.259 00007f44003731a0 00010390 fffff990 00000000 VrSy 47422364736 47990000000 0 2-ACTIVE MC146818 RTC/CMOS - Second
00:00:48.259 00007f4400383530 00000000 fffefc70 00000000 VrSy 47422368103 1199864031601 0 2-ACTIVE ACPI PM Timer
00:00:48.259 ***
00:00:48.259 Shadow GDT (GCAddr=fea88000):
00:00:48.259 0008 - d760ffff 0000bb00 - base=0000d760 limit=0000ffff dpl=1 CodeER Accessed Present 16-bit
00:00:48.259 0010 - d760ffff 0000b300 - base=0000d760 limit=0000ffff dpl=1 DataRW Accessed Present 16-bit
00:00:48.259 0020 - 366401ff c000b308 - base=c0083664 limit=000001ff dpl=1 DataRW Accessed Present 16-bit
00:00:48.259 0028 - 0000ffff 00cfbb00 - base=00000000 limit=ffffffff dpl=1 CodeER Accessed Present Page 32-bit
00:00:48.259 0030 - 0000ffff 00cfb300 - base=00000000 limit=ffffffff dpl=1 DataRW Accessed Present Page 32-bit
00:00:48.259 0038 - e80007ff c000fbff - base=c0ffe800 limit=000007ff dpl=3 CodeER Accessed Present 16-bit
00:00:48.259 0040 - 040002ff 0000f300 - base=00000400 limit=000002ff dpl=3 DataRW Accessed Present 16-bit
00:00:48.259 0070 - 0000ffff 00cfb300 - base=00000000 limit=ffffffff dpl=1 DataRW Accessed Present Page 32-bit
00:00:48.259 0078 - f80e0003 c000b300 - base=c000f80e limit=00000003 dpl=1 DataRW Accessed Present 16-bit
00:00:48.259 0080 - 0000ffff 008ff100 - base=00000000 limit=ffffffff dpl=3 DataRO Accessed Present Page 16-bit
00:00:48.259 0088 - 10000fff 8040f300 - base=80001000 limit=00000fff dpl=3 DataRW Accessed Present 32-bit
00:00:48.259 0090 - 23441000 c040bb05 - base=c0052344 limit=00001000 dpl=1 CodeER Accessed Present 32-bit
00:00:48.259 0098 - 23351000 c040bb05 - base=c0052335 limit=00001000 dpl=1 CodeER Accessed Present 32-bit
00:00:48.259 00a0 - 05220100 0000f300 - base=00000522 limit=00000100 dpl=3 DataRW Accessed Present 16-bit
00:00:48.259 00a8 - 0000ffff 0040b300 - base=00000000 limit=0000ffff dpl=1 DataRW Accessed Present 32-bit
00:00:48.259 00b0 - 20000fff 8040f300 - base=80002000 limit=00000fff dpl=3 DataRW Accessed Present 32-bit
00:00:48.259 00b8 - 90001fff ff008269 - base=ff699000 limit=00001fff dpl=0 LDT Present 16-bit
00:00:48.259 00c0 - 30000fff 8040f301 - base=80013000 limit=00000fff dpl=3 DataRW Accessed Present 32-bit
00:00:48.259 00c8 - 40000fff 8040f301 - base=80014000 limit=00000fff dpl=3 DataRW Accessed Present 32-bit
00:00:48.259 00d0 - 50000fff 8040f301 - base=80015000 limit=00000fff dpl=3 DataRW Accessed Present 32-bit
00:00:48.259 00d8 - 60000fff 8040f301 - base=80016000 limit=00000fff dpl=3 DataRW Accessed Present 32-bit
00:00:48.259 00e0 - 70000fff 8040f301 - base=80017000 limit=00000fff dpl=3 DataRW Accessed Present 32-bit
00:00:48.259 00e8 - 0def0133 0000f300 - base=00000def limit=00000133 dpl=3 DataRW Accessed Present 16-bit
00:00:48.259 00f0 - 141c0003 c000f101 - base=c001141c limit=00000003 dpl=3 DataRO Accessed Present 16-bit
00:00:48.259 00f8 - 30008000 d400f306 - base=d4063000 limit=00008000 dpl=3 DataRW Accessed Present 16-bit
00:00:48.259 0100 - b0008000 d400f306 - base=d406b000 limit=00008000 dpl=3 DataRW Accessed Present 16-bit
00:00:48.259 0108 - 4ac000ff 0000f301 - base=00014ac0 limit=000000ff dpl=3 DataRW Accessed Present 16-bit
00:00:48.259 0110 - d66000ff 0000f300 - base=0000d660 limit=000000ff dpl=3 DataRW Accessed Present 16-bit
00:00:48.259 0118 - 60000fff 8140f3e4 - base=81e46000 limit=00000fff dpl=3 DataRW Accessed Present 32-bit
00:00:48.259 ffd8 - 81180087 fe008980 - base=fe808118 limit=00000087 dpl=0 TSS32Avail Present 16-bit HyperTSSTrap08
00:00:48.259 ffe0 - 80900087 fe008b80 - base=fe808090 limit=00000087 dpl=0 TSS32Busy Present 16-bit HyperTSS
00:00:48.259 ffe8 - 0000ffff 00af9b00 - base=00000000 limit=ffffffff dpl=0 CodeER Accessed Present Page 16-bit HyperCS64
00:00:48.259 fff0 - 0000ffff 00cf9300 - base=00000000 limit=ffffffff dpl=0 DataRW Accessed Present Page 32-bit HyperDS
00:00:48.259 fff8 - 0000ffff 00cf9b00 - base=00000000 limit=ffffffff dpl=0 CodeER Accessed Present Page 32-bit HyperCS
00:00:48.259 ***
00:00:48.259 ************** End of Guest state at power off ***************

...

00:00:48.358 NAT: zone(nm:mbuf, used:1)
00:00:48.358 NAT: zone(nm:mbuf_cluster, used:0)
00:00:48.358 NAT: zone(nm:mbuf_packet, used:0)
00:00:48.358 NAT: zone(nm:mbuf_jumbo_pagesize, used:0)
00:00:48.358 NAT: zone(nm:mbuf_jumbo_9k, used:0)
00:00:48.358 NAT: zone(nm:mbuf_jumbo_16k, used:0)
00:00:48.362 ERROR [COM]: aRC=E_ACCESSDENIED (0x80070005) aIID={f6916ec5-a881-4237-898f-7de58cf88672} aComponent={Keyboard} aText={The console is not powered up}, preserve=false
00:00:48.364 Changing the VM state from 'DESTROYING' to 'TERMINATED'.
00:00:48.414 ERROR [COM]: aRC=E_ACCESSDENIED (0x80070005) aIID={1968b7d3-e3bf-4ceb-99e0-cb7c913317bb} aComponent={Console} aText={The virtual machine is not powered up}, preserve=false

[Mr Wolf]

Post the log file please, as a zipped attachment. I'm referring to "VBox.log", stored in "Logs" subfolder of your VMs folder.

And which VirtualBox version did you upgrade from?

And, out of curiosity, why are you using the command line to launch VMs on a Windows XP host? Did you always do that?

I don't recognize the program path, "C:\Programmi\Oracle\VirtualBox", but I assume that's the default in your country and you have not been copying .exe files into non-standard folders.

Hi!

In order:
I upgraded from 4.1.8.
I didn't use command line. I always launch the virtual machines from VirtualBox.
Yes, the path is localized in Italian, in English should be: C:\Program Files\Oracle\virtualBox or something like that.

I first tried on a computer of mine with 3 GB of RAM and 512 MB for the Virtual Machine; then, I tried on another computer always with Windows XP SP3 and 2 GB of RAM and had the same issue.
I attach the log from the latter PC.

[mpack]

Seems to be a generally WinDOS problem. I have Win9x guest working before, now they are crashing.

Not for me. Two different Win98SE VMs, working fine on two hosts.

[mpack]

If your host supports VT-x then I recommend turning it on. My Win98 VMs run much better that way - I haven't tested running without it on v4.1.10 because on recent VBox versions it has run at a snails pace.

[stefan.becker]

Maybe depending on VGA, CPU and Host OS.

For me its not working with VT (Linux Host (Mint12/64), AMD Phenom 2).

[mpack]

Ah ok. I made it crash.

I turned off VT-x, and started up my Win98SE VM (nothing special, but installed with ACPI support). First thing I noticed was that it started up more quickly than recent versions have when VT-x is off. That may just have been luck. Reached desktop ok. Everything looked fine, a few repaints looked sluggish, as expected when VT-x is off. I then opened an explorer window and started dragging it - and I got a really nasty crash, a black screen of death of some kind showing a fault address, if I acknowledged then it changed to a different fault address... I'm not certain my clicks were actually influencing anything. Eventually I clicked the close button and selected "Power off", which worked fine (so it was Win98 which was faulting: the VM was running fine).

Turned VT-x back on, booted up, and everything was hunky dory again.

So, the deterioriation in support for Win9x systems on non VT-x systems seems to be gathering pace!

[Mr Wolf]

If your host supports VT-x then I recommend turning it on. My Win98 VMs run much better that way - I haven't tested running without it on v4.1.10 because on recent VBox versions it has run at a snails pace.

Mmmmmm!!! I disabled VT-x when installed Windows 98 on the previous VirtualBox versions; now, I enabled it, and Windows 98 boots and doesn't crash anymore!

[Mr Wolf]

Sorry for the double post, but I have to correct myself: Windows 98 boots, but... I tried a couple of applications I installed, and that previously worked, and it still crashes.

[mpack]

It would be useful to have proper details of the new crash.

[Mr Wolf]

Ok! Here you go!