[Solved] Guests Abort under Win 10 Home 64 Host

[o2bad455]

EDIT #7: SOLVED! In the BIOS, enabling Intel TXT (in addition to previously enabled Hardware Virtualization) seems to have fully resolved the issue. Thanks all!

EDIT #6: Oops, unresolved after all.

EDIT #5: Nevermind. Solved by installing the latest extension pack.

Original post:

Every Guest that I've tried to create (Win 10 32, Win 7 32, Win XP 32) has aborted immediately after selecting start-up disk (usually an iso image) on a Windows 10 Home 64-bit host. I've tried a few different options, including vhd for virtual machine, with no luck so far.

VirtualBox: 5.2.6 (without any Guest Additions yet)

Host: Windows 10 Home 64-bit, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD (in an HP EliteBook 8440p laptop)

Guest: Windows 7 Pro 32-bit, 1 GB

Attached are the VBox log and the VBoxHardening log as zip files.

I've searched both logs and didn't notice any obvious errors (no hits on "err" at all in the hardening log). Any ideas?

EDIT #1: My Host OS is Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit) Version 10.0.16299.192. I remember reading somewhere that VBox supports Win 10, but I think it listed an earlier version. Could that be my issue?

EDIT #2: Removed.

EDIT #3: When run in headless mode, I get this error:
Failed to open a session for the virtual machine Win7Pro32.
Failed to get a console object from the direct session (RPC_S_SERVER_UNAVAILABLE 0x800706BA).
Result Code: VBOX_E_VM_ERROR (0x80BB0003)
Component: MachineWrap
Interface: IMachine {85cd948e-a71f-4289-281e-0ca7ad48cd89}

EDIT #4: Both logs now attached as zip files.

[socratis]

EDIT #5: Nevermind. Solved by installing the latest extension pack.

I'm sorry, but what you're describing does not compute; installing the ExtPack has no effect on your VM startup. If it did, it would tell you really specifically that you're trying to use a feature that requires the ExtPack to be installed. It wouldn't fail with an RPC error message. Plus, your VBox.log doesn't show any ExtPack feature that is required.

Your VBoxHardening.log on the other hand, has these lines:

3cc.970: supR3HardenedWinFindAdversaries: 0x20
3cc.970: \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\cfwids.sys:
3cc.970:     FileDescription: McAfee Personal Firewall IDS Plugin
... (more McAfee entries)
3cc.970: supR3HardNtChildWaitFor[1]: Quitting: ExitCode=0xc0000409 (rcNtWait=0x0, rcNt1=0x0, rcNt2=0x103, rcNt3=0x103, 13990 ms, the end);

and if you read really carefully the following FAQ: Diagnosing VirtualBox Hardening Issues, you'll see that it fits the profile.

What happened in between? I have no clue. Did you reboot the host? Did an update take place in between? Were you in the middle of an update? I don't know...

PS:

Solved by installing the latest extension pack.

You don't install the latest ExtPack, you install the matching ExtPack, the same version as your main VirtualBox program. Small difference in language, it could save you a crash or two in the future...

[o2bad455]

Thanks, and you're absolutely right. I used the MATCHING extensions pack.

No idea why it started working yesterday evening, but it hasn't worked at all today.

I removed some McAfee remnants, but no improvement. Then completely removed and re-installed VBox, but still no improvement. Same symptom as yesterday. Attached are the current logs.

[socratis]

Uninstall McAfee or any other 3rd party invasive software.

Please read really carefully the following FAQ: Diagnosing VirtualBox Hardening Issues for some guidelines/ideas.

[o2bad455]

Thank you, but I'm still having trouble. All 3rd-Party AV and anything suspect has been uninstalled, although VBox was actually working yesterday with AVG. Today, no McAfee, no AVG, and no difference whether Windows Defender real-time protection is on or off.

I've carefully read the suggested Diagnosing VirtualBox Hardening Issues several times over and followed all suggestions there. Still no luck. I've also run sfc /scannow, which found nothing wrong.

Attached are the latest logs. I understand that it seems to be a hardening issue, but don't understand exactly how to narrow it down.

One thought I'd had was to try to recover the log from when it actually worked yesterday evening, and look for the differences versus today when it doesn't work. Although I've uninstalled and reinstalled VBox several times since then, I have not emptied the Recycle Bin. Is there any way to recover the logs (at least the hardening log) for when it worked from either a .vhd and/or a .sav file that I still see in the Recycle Bin?

EDIT:

The attached zip has 5 hardening logs ranging in size from about 226 to 547 K, some recovered from vhd files restored from recycle bin (so ignore date/time). I note that most of them (as now) quit with code 0xc0000409, but one (the smallest, and closer in time to when it worked) quit with code 0x1. I saw some explanation of the 0x1 code in the link, but no idea about the 0xc0000409 code.

[socratis]

Unfortunately I don't have a clue from here. Try to re-install your OS while preserving only the basic applications.

[erdeslawe]

Windows Error Code 0xc0000409 normally points to some corruption in the Windows Registry and the usual guidance is to carry out a Windows Repair Install (In Place Upgrade) if all else fails.

One Guide: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/163 ... grade.html
Google "Windows Error Code 0xc0000409" and you'll find endless threads.

[o2bad455]

I appreciate both of your suggestions. I'd given up for a bit since no other Windows issues, and just tried it again today without changing a thing. Surprise, it just started working again! Here are the current (working) logs. No idea at this point if it will still work tomorrow...

[o2bad455]

The problem has returned. Attached are logs from both working and aborted at start VBox sessions for both Win 7 32 and Win 10 32 hosted on Win 10 64, as well as the hardening logs.

[o2bad455]

SOLVED! In the BIOS, enabling Intel TXT (in addition to previously enabled Hardware Virtualization) seems to have fully resolved the issue.

[socratis]

Intel TXT

That would be Intel Trusted Execution Technology for those of you (including myself) that don't know what this is.

o2bad455, thank you for the feedback. And thank you for marking the topic as [Solved]...