[Solved] VirtualBox doesn't start anymore (no error messages)

[Alduin]

After having used VirtualBox 4 frequently on a Windows 7_x64 system it has now stopped working. I was at version 4.3.36 when it stopped working and updating to 4.3.38 or 5.0.22 did not help.

There is no way for me to get around this. I tried to create another windows user account and it didn't work from the other account. Once started, I get a process called VboxSVC.exe running that CANNOT be killed in ANY way whatsoever; I tried taskkill, kill from WIndows powershell run as administrator ... but this process is TOTALLY unkillable, only a reboot can kill this process. Such processes are apparently possible in windows according to Mark Russinovich.

If I try to avoid the GUI and run VboxManage I get the same problem, VBoxManage just hangs, I can Ctrl+C out of it, but I still end up with an unkillable VboxSVC process.

Here's what happened: While I was running a VM doing some work in it I decided to install the Anaconda distribution of Python for Win7_x64. During install the anaconda installer failed to create start-menu shortcuts. I didn't care, but then I discovered that the command "conda" wasn't available. I read this troubleshooter:

https://github.com/ContinuumIO/anaconda ... /issues/41

and tried executing the .bat script that is posted in that troubleshooter (I copied and pasted the lines in that troubleshooter, saved it into a .bat file and ran it on a cmd prompt as administrator) that didn't solve my issue with Anaconda.

I discovered that the QuickLaunch icon for "My Documents" is now broken. I also discovered that the "System" control panel failed to take me to advanced system settings with the error message %windir%/....cpl not found. (Right-Click on computer: Properties -> Advanced System Settings).

So I decided that a system reboot would resolve my issues with Anaconda, QuickLaunch Icon and %Windir% variable. So I properly shut down the VM and exited from the VirtualBox GUI and closed all programs manually before the reboot.

After the reboot Anaconda works fine and I have the conda in the path variable. But now VBox fails to start as described above.

Edit: I did a complete uninstall, reboot, then I enabled verbose MSI logging, installed VBox 4.3.38 and pasted the log into pastebin, here is the paste:
http://pastebin.com/GBZ9rYPj

[scottgus1]

VboxSVC.exe is the monitor system that takes care of running all things Virtualbox. Virtualbox does not affect the host OS's PATH variable, which is the target of the .bat file your Anaconda link contains. Changes to the PATH would not affect the default installation of Virtualbox.

There are logs that describe what happens when you start Virtualbox. See your user folder (usually c:\Users\{yourname}) and look for the ".Virtualbox" folder (note the period (.) in the name ".Virtualbox)
In that folder are a pile of log files and an xml or two. Zip the whole .Virtualbox folder and post the zip file here, using the Upload Attachment function below the windows where you write new posts (not on a file-sharing site, please).

Also, please post the MSI log as a zip file here, too.

[Alduin]

Ok, here we go.

[Alduin]

In the Device Manager of my system I used to have a list of around 40 items consisting of yellow question marks. When looking into them, i.e. Googling for their ID it turns out to be "Intel Xeon integrated memory controller" etc. Doing my research I found out that this is a problem with Intel Chipset drivers. I tried installing using the Intel INF Update utility but it terminates with the message "Unknown Error" and no useful information is revealed in the logs. I'm curious as to why Intel doesn't provide the driver files to install manually using Device Manager.

So I decided to try out DriverPack solution. I cannot recommend this software as I don't know whether it is free from malware or in some other aspect can be harmful. But I took a chance anyway. Apart from installing unwanted software (DriverPack Notifier, Opera web browser and Winrar) and corrupting the drivers for two of my devices (ASMedia USB 3.0 Controller and Bluetooth USB dongle) it installed everything else seemingly fine. I could fix the USB 3.0 driver and uninstall the software afterwards.

Something that I find conspicuous is that even though those yellow question marks are gone and those Intel Chipset components are properly identified, the Device Manager shows that no drivers are installed for those components. The motivation for this is that no drivers are needed for those components. So I'd assume that there must have been a corruption somewhere among the driver installers that failed to mark those hardware components with proper identification tags and tell the device manager that no driver is needed or something blocking from such a markup to take place.


After resolving these driver issues I have found that VirtualBox now starts up fine again. And the VMs appear to run normally. But the Mini Toolbar that is shown in fullscreen mode still crashes the VM as well as does opening the settings (HOST+S) while VM is running , so those issues are still not resolved. Edit: I realize that the system hasn't been updated with WIndows Update since July last year. The installation of the updates were pretty troublesome the following troubleshooter solved my issues:

http://superuser.com/questions/951960/w ... or-updates

along with attempts at removing the SoftwareDistribution directory from %SYstemPath%. After windows update I have no issues with VirtualBox, for now The window resizing issue is gone.