Virtualbox CPU usage has increased suddenly

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Mac OS X hosts.
socratis
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Re: Virtualbox CPU usage has increased suddenly

Post by socratis »

Xavier, you shouldn't have to disable the sound with 5.2.22, it's supposedly fixed... ;)
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XavierR
Posts: 23
Joined: 11. Apr 2012, 20:22

Re: Virtualbox CPU usage has increased suddenly

Post by XavierR »

I have done the tests and obtained the following results:

- 5.2.14 (previous configuration): working fine
- 5.2.20, sound activated: CPU usage problem shows up within 10 minutes (this just reproduces the initial observation)
- 5.2.20, sound deactivated (as suggested above): seems to be working fine after one hour (CPU goes down close to 0% when VM is idle)
- 5.2.22, sound activated: seems to be working fine after one hour (CPU goes down close to 0% when VM is idle)

I think my observation confirms every that was written above regarding to the origin of the issue and its fix. I am now running 5.2.22, and will report back if any issue arises again.

Thanks for the fixes! :)
XavierR
Posts: 23
Joined: 11. Apr 2012, 20:22

Re: Virtualbox CPU usage has increased suddenly

Post by XavierR »

A test on a second machine, with 5.2.22 and sound activated led to the same issue as reported earlier in this thread.
Deactivating sound seems to fix it.

So, I am not sure the release 5.2.22 fixes the issue with sound activated (I actually do not care for sound in VM, so it is not a severe issue for me, and I will leave it off).
ataylor
Posts: 1
Joined: 24. Nov 2018, 18:28

Re: Virtualbox CPU usage has increased suddenly

Post by ataylor »

Hello! Long-time user first-time poster!

I'm a plus-one here... although my issue doesn't seem to be related to the audio? Here are my specs:

Host: MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) + macOS Mojave (10.14.1)
Guest: WinXP SP3 + Guest Additions 5.2.22 r126460
Vbox Info: Version 5.2.22 r126460 (Qt5.6.3) + 2D & 3D Video Accel Disabled + Audio Enabled

The issue for me only seems to appear after the VM wakes from sleep. If I close the clamshell of my laptop with the VM still running to put it to sleep, then reopen it, the host and guest wake up just fine - the guest also still works great. It's just that the CPU core allocated to the guest stays at 100% (even with VM idle) until I shut the VM down. I've attached a log file which had the issue occur.

The audio seems to work fine. Video playback still gives me some trouble (audio glitches and lags behind video) but it's not a huge issue for me (I just use the host if I want to watch something :)). Hope this extra datapoint helps?

EDIT: hmm, actually, maybe it is related to audio. I noticed that when the VM boots up, everything (including audio) works fine. After I let the computer fall asleep (or close the lid) and wake it, the audio no longer works in the guest and the CPU usage shoots to 100%.

EDIT #2: Confirmed... I disabled the audio, put to sleep, then woke... no issue. Re-enabled the audio, same procedure, issue occurs. Guess I'll apply the same remedy for now... it's weird that my audio works perfectly fine before it goes to sleep tho! :?

EDIT #3: sorry for all the edits! Downgraded to 5.2.18 and seems to be working fine. No CPU issues after wake from sleep and audio enabled & working. :D
Attachments
WinXP-VM-2018-11-24-11-16-16.log.zip
(25.3 KiB) Downloaded 20 times
spblinux
Posts: 1
Joined: 10. Aug 2019, 23:19

Re: Virtualbox CPU usage has increased suddenly

Post by spblinux »

190% cpu usage unless disabling sound:
  • mac mini late 2012, core i7, 16GB ram
  • macos 10.14.6
  • virtualbox 5.2.32 with extension pack of same version
  • windows 7 64bit guest 4 cores, 6GB ram, guest extensions 5.2.32 installed
  • now sound disabled
Effect of disabling sound: cpu on host down from 190 ... 200% to 60% and win7 vm again usable. Did run fine for years. Assuming some update(s) caused it. First went to virtualbox 6.10: guest slow and saw to many bug entries; went back to 5.x, still very very slow guest; disabled sound and got performance back.(Don't know whether 6.10 with sound disabled would have worked, but for now I will stick to 5.x; got some guest bluescreens with 6.x as described by other users.)

Thanks for the hint to disable sound!
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