[SOLVED] Win7 Guest Slow Until Network Adapter Disabled

[maps]

Host: 10.7.5
Guest: Windows 7, with guest additions, 65 gb fixed vdi, 3 gb RAM
VirtualBox: 4.2.12 (problem existed on 4.2.10 and at least one more version prior)

Found nothing on searching for this. Sorry if its a dupe.

I'm experiencing long pauses or delays while running tasks in the Windows7 guest. Specifically running "autorunsc" in a command line. The process takes about 5+ minutes to complete on the guest, when normally its done in less than 1. However, if I disable the network adapter the command runs normally. I have even disabled the NIC (via windows guest network center) after starting autorunsc, and the change is immediate in the performance. It goes from stalled to streaming output as soon as the adapter is greyed out.

The network adapter is currently set for an internal network, dhcp, ipv6 disabled. I have already tried (individually tested, and put back to original value): updating VBox and guest additions, disabling IO APIC, reducing CPU's from 2 to 1, lowering RAM, changing to the PIIX chipset, changing to each different network adapter driver, and running different combinations of flags for autorunsc. If I don't tell it to verify hashes then it is faster, but not as fast as it is without the NIC enabled. I also have to use that feature.

By watching performance monitor you see very short bursts of disk access for data, that the CPU then handles almost immediately, and its quiet again sometimes a while before the next disk access. The CPU is at idle for 90% of the time it takes to run autorunsc. Sometimes it will go up to around 5%, but it will only go to about 10-20% after the disk access.

Possibly related. I also experience delays when installing a program. The initial windows prompt to allow or deny the install takes 10+ seconds to appear. Other windows functions seem normal, though.

All other programs load and run normally once installed.

[noteirak]

Please provide a VM log file when this behaviour occurs (ensure that you fully shutdown the VM) as a zip attachment - see this topic on where to find it

[mpack]

It seems to me this is obviously a problem with the network connection, the guest is having difficulty discovering its network neighborhood, some problem over MAC addresses or domains etc. Why do you think this is a VirtualBox problem?

[maps]

Please provide a VM log file when this behaviour occurs (ensure that you fully shutdown the VM) as a zip attachment - see this topic on where to find it

[noteirak]

Your log is not the good one, it shows that the VM couldn't be powered on, but this is not what you describe here.
Either you provided the wrong log, or your description of the problem doesn't fit (or you got a new one?)

[maps]

It seems to me this is obviously a problem with the network connection, the guest is having difficulty discovering its network neighborhood, some problem over MAC addresses or domains etc. Why do you think this is a VirtualBox problem?

Good question. I have never seen behavior like this in a Windows host, I guess, and I've had lots of network issues over the years. Even just considering Windows7 I've never had a poor NIC setup affect how anything else ran. Everything is pretty vanilla on the guest. The guest connects to a proxy server which provides internet access via a second NAT'ed interface. I have internet access, though it is tightly controlled so Windows cannot access the NCSI server to get rid of the yellow "!" on the network icon. Windows firewall is off, as is ipv6.

So, basically I'm just not aware of how a network adapter could cause a slow down like that. Win7 maps the "neighborhood" quickly, at least what there is of it. Guest > Gateway > Internet. I'll have to see if i'm doing something wrong with the proxy, I guess.

[maps]

I'm going to agree that this is not a VirtualBox problem. Starting a tcpdump on the proxy while attempting to run autorunsc shows attempted connections to a private IP not on my LAN network from the guest, that stop when autorunsc stops. For some reason it's communicating out, and probably blocking in the process.

I should have thought to look at the traffic after I realized the problem was related to the network adapter.

[noteirak]

On the log side, nothing shows up, so its not a Virtualbox issue IMHO

[maps]

On the log side, nothing shows up, so its not a Virtualbox issue IMHO

Just came back to confirm. Definitely not an issue with VirtualBox. autorunsc will connect out to verisign to attempt to verify file signatures, and abides the winhtt_p proxy settings, not the internet options proxy settings. Embarrassingly, I forgot to reset the winhtt_p proxy settings after changing proxies months ago. Sorry mpack, noteirak!

I'm not sure if I can delete the post, but if a mod wants to (as this problem has literally nothing to do with VirtualBox) that's fine with me. Or you can leave it up as an example to others to correctly diagnose their own issues before leaping to conclusions...

[noteirak]

It should stay, this is always good if someone search for a similar problem, it might just give them the clue they need to solve it.
As you say, it's a good exemple of troubleshooting.
And thank you for coming back and giving a proper end to this topic - this is maybe the biggest help here, so this topic doesn't stay unsolved.

[mpack]

Agreed, a result is still a result, and potentially valuable to others whether the initial suggestion proved correct or not.

I find it very refreshing that you were willing to accept that you might be in error, check it, and come back to confirm it. Thank you for that.

[WindowViper]

I don't agree, maps, that this doesn't belong on a VirtualBox forum.

You say, "I forgot to reset the winhtt_p proxy settings after changing proxies months ago." You are saying when you discovered that you were able to remedy the problem and speed things up, right? What does that mean? How did you do that? Assuming you are referring to a Windows 7 VirtualBox guest, it must be something that happens with VirtualBox guest installations, even if it was your mistake to make it happen, so it is of interest to other VirtualBox users like myself.

I have exactly the same symptoms -- a Windows 7 VirtualBox guest running at an excruciatingly slow pace. But in my case it happened yesterday, almost immediately following my first ever VirtualBox installation and creation of the Windows 7 guest, following generic instructions every step of the way. Right now the guest has been downloading 2 Windows updates and it is still 0% complete after at least 30 minutes. Yesterday evening it started to download and install 140 updates and by this morning it had installed about 100 of them, so I stopped the installation and pocketed the 100 successful installations that amounted to more than 12 hours of work. It seems to be some sort of network problem, even though I can successfully ping various URLs from the DOS prompt. (I am a 72-year old former IBM programmer, comfortable with the command prompt but not so much with Windows exotica.) So if I made a mistake somewhere, it might have been the same mistake you made or something similar. But I can't imagine where.

So would you please tell me what you mean by forgetting "to reset the winhtt_p proxy settings after changing proxies"? To be honest, I don't even know what a proxy setting is. Is there something I could check to determine whether or not I have a similar problem?

[socratis]

1. It's borderline hopeless to expect an answer to a 4 year old thread.
2. You do not have the same problem, you have a Win7 update problem. It happens on physical computers as well. If you want to get the updates going, search for "WSUS off-line" and you'll understand why your problem is not the same as maps' problem.