Laptop cold-restarting, possibly due to VBox running

[NA!]

In the last 2-3 months, i'm facing a strange problem which seemed to get worse as time passed. Out of the blue, while i was working, doing relatively simple tasks like writing to a text editor, my laptop decided to power off, without any blue screen (i have disabled auto-restart in these cases). I usually have several programs open (browser, visual studio, vbox, SSMS and a few others) but not doing something extreme (like i.e. video editing).

One of the things i noticed is that when this happened, VBox was running (i have a WinXP vm i'm using). So, from last Monday i decided to do my work otherwise and try not to run VBox at all, just to see what happens. There were no crashes. Today i decided to start using vbox again and after ~1 hr, crash-boom-bang!

I have already performed a cleanup of the laptop (hardware-wise), memory tests and several other checks, none of which showed a problem. The system /cpu / gpu temps are within acceptable limits. I even changed the thermal adhesive paste under the heat sinks, just in case.

Of course in such cases, vbox.log does not help (nothing else was written to it after the first 34 seconds of logging), so i could not be sure if this problem is indeed caused by vbox. So, my question to all users here is: has anyone else experienced such an issue with the latest versions of vbox?

Host: Win7 SP1 x64 Ultimate
i7, 16GB RAM, plenty free HDD space
VBox versions with which i noticed the problem: 5.2.6, 5.2.8, 5.2.10
Guest VM usually open when the problem occurs: WinXP SP3, always in seamless mode.

[andyp73]

VBox versions with which i noticed the problem: 5.2.6, 5.2.8, 5.2.10

Do the later / latest 5.1.xx versions also show the same problem? Do 5.2.0, 5.2.2 or 5.2.4 also show the problem?

Guest VM usually open when the problem occurs: WinXP SP3

Do you have another guest that you can open to see what happens?

always in seamless mode.

If you run this guest in normal mode rather than seamless does it still have a problem?

You need to be our eyes, ears and fingers on the problem otherwise we are stabbing in the dark for answers.

-Andy.

[NA!]

Well, that's what i'm trying now. I have installed 5.2.4 and will work with this for a few days to see what happens. I'll drop to 5.1 if necessary until i discover if it's actually a vbox thing or something with my laptop. I just thought to ask here, just in case it's not just me...

[NA!]

OK, i still consider my case to be on a testing period, but after installing 5.2.4, i thought of providing an update. I experienced the same issue again with 5.2.4 (the first day i installed it, after 2-3 hours and it happened 3 times within a day). I'm almost certain now that this issue is caused by vbox because i again didn't use the specific vm for a few days and the problem did not occur.

I have reverted to 5.1.30 (which was the last 5.1 version i had before installing 5.2). After a couple of days working with it, i have no restarts so far. I'll keep using it but i'm suspecting something has changed from 5.1 to 5.2 which causes this behaviour. The problem is that i cannot provide any more info since the log file actually contains no helpful info. It is always reported to be 0 bytes (since the PC was cold-restarted) but when you open it, it contains some info which do not seem to be strange (i.e. reporting about a crash or something).

I'll keep using 5.1.30 and report again the results in a few days.

[socratis]

The symptoms you're describing do not show a "smoking gun", with the culprit being VirtualBox. It simply shows that under (potential) stress your laptop, for whatever reason decides to shut down.

You're looking at the VBox.log. I don't think that this is enough, you need to look at the Windows Event Viewer as well. You need to install a couple of monitoring apps. OpenHardwareMonitor is such an app for Windows OSes, there are a lot more out there. Give them a shot...

PS. As luck would have it, my PC is doing exactly the same thing for the last 2-3 days. It started when it was under stress, now it shuts down at the BIOS setup screen. I'm in for a major operation...

[NA!]

Sorry to hear about that man. Nasty things those "out-of-the-blue" crashes. I don't believe this is the case for me though. I'm using a simple XP vm for development of some old programs. No major stress on the PC. The fans may not even start at all. It may stay on for 2-3 hours and then suddenly, "puf". This does not happen when i really stress it though (i.e. gaming). The noise from the fans is noticeable then, but the system remains stable.

I'll try your suggestion about OpenHardwareMonitor anyway, thanks. The event log i have already checked, no useful info there, apart from some indications that the PC was not shutdown properly.

[socratis]

apart from some indications that the PC was not shutdown properly.

That's what I get on mine, and it sucks big time! Mine seems to go to "almost" a sleep/hibernate state, but the fans as still working, idling... And there's definitely no stress when you're in the BIOS' "Select your boot medium" screen.

[NA!]

Mine seems to go to "almost" a sleep/hibernate state

Hmmm. I get the same impression when the issue i'm describing happens on my laptop.

I have 3 monitors. When the issue i'm describing occurs, all three of them dim (as if they were entering power-saving mode) and the system powers off after ~1 - 1.5 seconds. After the restart though, i get a message from windows (before booting starts) saying that the system was not properly shutdown (nothing about hibernation or anything similar - just an abnormal shutdown). At the time this occurs, are you using vbox?

EDIT: (too late when i realized it )

now it shuts down at the BIOS setup screen

I guess not.

[socratis]

At the time this occurs, are you using vbox?

No. I'm not even using Windows! When it started happening I was updating my Win10-64 from the 1607 version (yes, I was holding back on purpose) to the latest. Now, it happens at the BIOS screen, none of my triple boot OSes is running.

Definitely *not* a VirtualBox issue here, clearly a hardware issue...

[NA!]

Definitely *not* a VirtualBox issue here, clearly a hardware issue...

Yup, indeed it seems a hardware issue. Well, good luck with it.

[NA!]

OK, after working with 5.1.30 for a week, no cold-restarts occurred. There is definitely something strange happening with 5.2 which causes my PC to cold-restart.

Since no log is produced when this problem occurs, creating a bug report for it seems pointless. Are there any suggestions on how to proceed with this matter? I can't imagine i will have to stick with this version of VBox until the laptop bites the dust and gets replaced.