VirtualBox Guest keeps freezing after upgrade from ...

[dcull]

...Version 5.1.30 to Version 5.2.6.

I'm using a Snapshot of a Windows 7 image, running in a Windows 7 Host.

After a period of operation - perhaps 60 mins - the guest image simply freezes - refuses to accept either mouse or keyboard input. I am left with no other option than to "Power Off the machine".

I notice that this seems more likely to happen if a Skype screen sharing call is running in the Host.

Anyone got any ideas?

[socratis]

With that many clues, not even Hercule Poirot could help you out I'm afraid. We're going to need to see a VM log from a complete VM run when the problem happens:

• Start the VM from cold-boot (not from a paused or saved state) / Observe error / Shutdown the VM (force close it if you have to).
• With the VM completely shut down (not paused or saved), right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager and select "Show Log".
• Save only the first "VBox.log", ZIP it and attach it to your response (see the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form).

[minnieman]

I had the same problem today after a Windows 10 update. I have a Linux host with a Windows 10 guest. I completely removed Virtual box and purged. I installed VirtualBox 5.2.6. I still had the freezing until I booted to safe mode in Windows 10 and installed the latest Guest Additions. I think it was related to a video driver issue.

Hope this helps.

[dcull]

VBox.zip attached.

[dcull]

I upgraded the Guest Editions and re-started the VM from a cold boot.

(For soem reason the performance of the VM from a cold boot is very very slow - this is why I normally use snapshots).

In any case the "freeze" happened again - the relevant section in VBox.log seems to around here (line 1198 of attached file VBox_from_cold_boot.zip). Anyone got any ideas what the root cause of the problem might be?

00:06:30.391066 RTC: period=0x200 (512) 64 Hz
00:06:30.579614 RTC: period=0x20 (32) 1024 Hz
00:06:52.437895 RTC: period=0x200 (512) 64 Hz
00:07:04.344923 VMMDev: vmmDevHeartbeatFlatlinedTimer: Guest seems to be unresponsive. Last heartbeat received 4 seconds ago
00:07:30.945079 GUI: Request to close active machine-window.
00:07:30.948588 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'SUSPENDING'
00:07:30.951323 AIOMgr: Endpoint for file 'g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{91b4b518-c8e7-458a-affc-b622e13be2df}.vmdk' (flags 000c0781) created successfully
00:07:31.384538 PDMR3Suspend: 435 904 797 ns run time
00:07:31.384562 Changing the VM state from 'SUSPENDING' to 'SUSPENDED'
00:07:31.384576 Console: Machine state changed to 'Paused'
00:07:35.820838 GUI: Request for close-action to power VM off.
00:07:35.820863 GUI: Passing request to power VM off from machine-logic to UI session.
00:07:35.820867 GUI: Powering VM down on UI session power off request...
00:07:35.821504 Console: Machine state changed to 'Stopping'
00:07:35.823230 Console::powerDown(): A request to power off the VM has been issued (mMachineState=Stopping, InUninit=0)
00:07:35.823250 Display::handleDisplayResize: uScreenId=0 pvVRAM=0000000010b70000 w=1920 h=1080 bpp=32 cbLine=0x1E00 flags=0x1
00:07:35.823272 GUI: UIFrameBufferPrivate::NotifyChange: Screen=0, Origin=0x0, Size=1920x1080, Sending to async-handler
00:07:35.823763 Changing the VM state from 'SUSPENDED' to 'POWERING_OFF'
00:07:35.823780 ****************** Guest state at power off for VCpu 0 ******************

[socratis]

There are several things that you need to fix to your VM setup:

1. You seriously need to cut down on the snapshots. They' not backups, they're not quick access. If nothing else, if you want to read/write a sector to the disk, ALL of the following files must be checked, which makes the process way slower:

   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{6d403ce2-b723-4f25-9f38-e4a5b63ea10e}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{eb784346-5607-456d-bd29-cc151d5884a2}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{03be4d1e-3f99-4958-9f71-99ea517ad095}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{6ce6c0ae-994a-4293-9966-c545d7fadc96}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{a512a58a-1dc7-46c1-b924-3b3882c90178}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{34385a74-cf97-4479-859c-ec27b1fa39b2}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{60aa2cb2-bc19-4052-ae20-8e98dcd0cb4e}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{4dbeb20d-440f-4db8-9ce2-caf3fa3f89d8}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{6a338b98-e92b-4e82-b954-a88ff12e57d1}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{9a4c5c8b-4e1e-475f-9c96-0771daab3780}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{a5224566-b6ad-423a-9c4e-550bebd5d20b}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{53a8b1e5-844d-457e-a510-7ec68d42826a}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{1131cf3c-74df-42b4-b9e8-1a032bf3daa8}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{573128f9-3c0f-4910-9f5d-564cc25d4e98}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{12ca8c80-f1ac-4bc1-8234-ab0ca08a75f3}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{1b26089a-d5bf-4b3c-aa77-e12206e60bb4}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{fa255e6b-e458-475b-897c-42bdd6bc8c11}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{c044b27c-ecb9-4dd1-9a9e-d47ab1254ac1}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{1f2f7c2f-ddeb-4d89-8779-197d3a3ee935}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{bfd0f3a7-2426-4108-8667-da2bf8291e7f}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "g:\VMs\backups\Snapshots\{b61ce70a-73c1-4bde-ba46-2efcd9f11984}.vmdk" (cb=69)
   "C:\Users\Donacha.Cullagh\VirtualBox VMs\w764 Clone DC\w764 Clone DC-disk1.vmdk" (cb=79)

2. Why VMDK and not the native VDI?
3. What is "g:\"? Is it an external hard drive? That makes it even slower. Really, really slower.
4. You need to enable 2D and 3D acceleration and then reapply the Guest Additions (GAs). And consider increasing your vRAM to either 128 or 256 MB:

   00:00:02.387181   VRamSize         <integer> = 0x0000000002000000 (33 554 432, 32 MB)
   00:01:16.933872 GUI: 2D video acceleration is disabled

5. You have two CD IDE controllers. Why? And both of them have the GAs CD loaded. Why? You install the GAs, you eject the CD, period. You don't add/delete controllers. You don't change the hardware if you want to insert a CD:

   00:00:02.387126 [/Devices/piix3ide/0/LUN#0/Config/] (level 5)
   00:00:02.387130   Path      <string>  = "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxGuestAdditions.iso" (cb=58)
   00:00:02.387138 [/Devices/piix3ide/0/LUN#1/Config/] (level 5)
   00:00:02.387142   Path      <string>  = "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxGuestAdditions.iso" (cb=58)

6. Do not make your problem more difficult to isolate by throwing everything at it at once. Like full-screen, on a multi-monitor setup, with 4 audio outputs/2 audio inputs. Try to start simple and see what might be causing the error. One thing at a time:

   00:00:01.112078 GUI:  Map mini-toolbar for window #0 to screen 1 of 2
   00:00:01.112100 GUI:  Resize mini-toolbar for window #0 to 1920x1080
   00:00:05.985862 GUI: UIMachineLogicFullscreen: Additions-state actual-change event, rebuild multi-screen layout
   ...
   00:00:04.804932 Audio: Initializing DirectSound audio driver
   00:00:04.842539 DSound: Output: GUID: {1419D12F-1B7A-4D25-898F-67569058C225} [Headset Earphone (6- Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000 )] (Module: {0.0.0.00000000}.{1419d12f-1b7a-4d25-898f-67569058c225})
   00:00:04.842558 DSound: Output: GUID: {0E9880C3-EAB4-49C3-94AB-D81A9D89ACEF} [Speakers / Headphones (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC)] (Module: {0.0.0.00000000}.{0e9880c3-eab4-49c3-94ab-d81a9d89acef})
   00:00:04.842566 DSound: Output: GUID: {2A94D5D2-29A5-4D9E-8F47-29FC2F2963E3} [Communication Headphones (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC)] (Module: {0.0.0.00000000}.{2a94d5d2-29a5-4d9e-8f47-29fc2f2963e3})
   00:00:04.842573 DSound: Output: GUID: {D964DC5B-A309-44C5-A174-47C9E54F6BCD} [PL2409HD-3 (NVIDIA High Definition Audio)] (Module: {0.0.0.00000000}.{d964dc5b-a309-44c5-a174-47c9e54f6bcd})
   00:00:04.893903 DSound: Input: GUID: {D551EC4C-4407-4E98-8816-8771A575B452} [Microphone Array (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC)] (Module: {0.0.1.00000000}.{d551ec4c-4407-4e98-8816-8771a575b452})
   00:00:04.893917 DSound: Input: GUID: {F5F0877A-5BC1-4EBE-833A-0D7B8320E97C} [Headset Microphone (6- Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000 )] (Module: {0.0.1.00000000}.{f5f0877a-5bc1-4ebe-833a-0d7b8320e97c})

7. Other than that, I don't see anything failing in VirtualBox. I would make sure that all the energy savings in your guest are Off. I would check the performance settings in your guest that is set to Maxmum. And finally the energy/power settings on your host to prevent sleep.

[kmacim]

To stop the freezing, the Ram size has to be increase when configuring the VM.

[socratis]

@kmacim
Did you even check the size of the RAM that the OP has allocated? It's way, way more than enough...

[dcull]

OK, I can see that I've got myself in a pickle here.

What is recommended first step?
Merge the snapshots?
Or convert the files from .vmdk to .vdi format?
Or something else?

[socratis]

What is recommended first step? Merge the snapshots? Or convert the files from .vmdk to .vdi format?

Answer: All of the above. Take a look at CloneVDI. It will merge, convert and compact everything. Read the Help for the details...

[dcull]

Quick update - using VBoxManage.exe I managed to get rid of all the snapshots and convert the image from .VDMK to .VDI.
I'm happy to say that the problem with the image 'freezing' has gone away.

Thx for the help.