Virtual Box using 200% of My CPU

[jeffcarras]

Hello guys, I am running MAC OS Sierra and installed VirtualBox, coming from vmware on El Capitan, But now I have noticed that my cpu usage is crazy, as soon as i start using the virtual machine, I have tried with win xp, win 7, linux and is the same..

These screenshots can explain my problem, I am in windows 7 only using packet tracer and look the cpu usage

Untitled.jpg (112.96 KiB) Viewed 5074 times

Capture.JPG (111.16 KiB) Viewed 5074 times

Thanks Guys

[socratis]

Thanks Guys

You're more than welcome !!!


But, I'm afraid that's all you're going to get with the information you provided. In order for anyone to diagnose a problem, they would need information, concrete information. So, in your case, you've got to do some searching on what is taking up the CPU, on the guest.

You mention VMWare. Do all of your guests used to live another life under VMWare? Did you uninstall the specific VMWare tools before importing them? Launch task manager in Windows and look for the process(es) that's hogging up your guests resources. In Windows, their update mechanism (svchost) is notorious for doing exactly what you're describing, but I can't know for sure, because you also mentioned Linux guests.

Pick a single guest, focus on that and we'll take it from there. Please read the following: Minimum information needed for assistance.

Specifically for the VM log file ("VBox.log.zip"), here's what you do:

1. Start the VM. Not from a saved or suspended state. Clean start.
2. Take the steps required to generate/observe the error.
3. Shut down the VM. Not suspended, not paused. Complete shut down.
4. Right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager. Select "Show Log..."
5. Save it (just the first log), ZIP it and attach it in your response (see the "Upload attachment" at the bottom of the form).

[jeffcarras]

Thank you for your kind answer!

I will explain with more detail

My specs:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.3 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 8 GB

When I was on my previous version of MACOS i used to use VmWare with windows 7, it was running perfectly good, with ton of programs, even games and the cpu never overloaded. Then i decided to stop using vmware and start using virtual box.


I did this:

1. Upgraded to MacOS Sierra
2. Installed a fresh copy of VirtualBox
3. Installed a new free copy of windows 7 (With 2gb ram)
4. Over that windows 7 i only have 3 programs installed (SeaMonkey, Visual Studio 2013 and Packet Tracer)
5. My CPU is getting crazy since then every time i start the virtual machine.
6. I Installed a freh copy of winXP to test, Same problem.
7. I installed a fresh copy of linux to test, Same problem.

Symptoms

Virtual machine gets really slow
Same happens with my macOS

On the other hand, I tried installing Parallels, Just to test...Same problem, I think its going to be my Sierra Installation.

My log is attached

Thanks

[socratis]

you've got to do some searching on what is taking up the CPU, on the guest ... Launch task manager in Windows and look for the process(es) that's hogging up your guests resources.

Did you do that? I didn't see anything about it in your answer.

00:00:01.311186 Host RAM: 8192MB total, 2533MB available
00:00:01.538854   RamSize  <integer> = 0x0000000080000000 (2 147 483 648, 2 048 MB)
00:00:01.539246   VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000008000000 (134 217 728, 128 MB)

You have 2533 MB free. You assign to your guest: 2048+128+overhead = too much. You are assigning memory to your guest, that you do not have available. Either close applications on the host, buy more RAM for the host, or reduce the amount of RAM assigned to the guest.

00:00:01.839410 CPUM: Logical host processors: 4 present, 4 max, 4 online, online mask: 000000000000000f
00:00:01.839415 CPUM: Physical host cores: 2
00:00:01.538850   NumCPUs   <integer> = 0x0000000000000002 (2)

You have assigned all your CPUs to the VM. The host is going to run low on resources, since VirtualBox cares about physical processors, not logical ones. See: CPU Cores versus threads.

[jeffcarras]

you've got to do some searching on what is taking up the CPU, on the guest ... Launch task manager in Windows and look for the process(es) that's hogging up your guests resources.

Did you do that? I didn't see anything about it in your answer.

Sorry I didn't do that first thing.

I followed your recommendations about the ram and cpu..and this is what i got:

2 screenshots of the cpu usage on both Os

[socratis]

I do not need your host's screenshot. I need your guest's only, with "Show processes from all users" enabled, sorted by CPU, from highest to lowest.

[eazhar]

Same thing has happened to me too.. recently updgraded to macOS Sierra and recently had my battery die in the middle of a VM. I had to revert to a previous snapshot because the main one I was using became unreadable. I am not sure if its due to the battery/snapshot issue or upgrading to macOS. One thing I noticed in common with my situation is that the guest PC is reporting 100% usage on the bottom of the window, even though ordering each process by CPU seems to indicate otherwise..


EDIT: I just clicked on show from all users and noticed that svchost.exe is what is consuming all the processing. From search results, this does not seem to be related to VirtualBox but something internally with Windows update. Hope this helps anyone else.