Windows 10 randomly freezing

[benben]

Hi all,

Some help needed here please.
I am running a windows 10 machine in virtual box hosted by MacOS X High Sierra on a macbook pro 3.3 GHz Intel Core i7, 16gb ram, 512ssd.
My macos high sierra has all up to date updates.
I am getting random freezing of the windows VM. Sometimes it can go for many days without issues, other times it freezes multiple times a day, haven't figured out a pattern or if something is triggering it. When it freezez, the screen remains in the last state that it was, i am not getting any errors, or anything else, if I was editing a file it remains there, just that it's not accepting any other input.

I have made sure to:
- update to latest 5.2.12 release
- check power settings of the windows to be high performance, always on, etc etc - this improved somewhat for a while but then it came back
- went through various 2d/3d acceleration settings, increased available RAM, CPU, etc. - this improved the responsiveness of the VM but the freezing still remains

I am attaching the log file just after i had to forcefully shut it down.
Please let me know what is causing this, it's starting to drive me mad.
Thank you !

[andyp73]

The only thing that jumps out at me in the log file is that you have allocated both of the processor cores in the Intel i7-6567U processor to the guest. This may lead to resource starvation for the host.

If you don't already have them then I think you are going to need to use some resource monitoring tools on the host to see what it is up to when the guest freezes. Apple's Activity Monitor might be a good place to start. Socratis mentions others in various threads if you search round the forums a bit.

-Andy.

[benben]

Ok i will allocate only 1 core to see if it makes any difference. But I am experiencing no slowdown or processor surge on the host when this happens.

[benben]

Ok, back now. After allocating 1 CPU, freezing still happens.
Virtualbox itself seems to be working since total CPU that is consuming oscillates between 78% and 85%.
Could it have something to do with the mouse ?
Also there is no section on VirtualBox in the Console app.
Another attachment here.

[mpack]

Is this a new install of Windows?

[benben]

Yes

[mpack]

In that case it is normal for Windows to use a lot of CPU and network time performing update checks and organising the disk. In a VM the hardware is simulated, so lots of network I/O in the guest translates into lots of CPU used on the host, plus some network time.

There are also a lot of default processes in the guest which you can kill to speed things up. I killed Cortana and Windows Defender scanning (the latter turns itself back on eventually).

The heavy activity should die down if you leave the VM running for a few hours, maybe a day.

That said, a dual core PC is never going to be a great choice for a Win10 VM. It really needs at least two cores to itself.

[benben]

No, maybe i didn't make myself understood.
The VM is not slow, it simply freezes from which it never recovers unless i do a power off (ie: force quit) of the virtualbox window, essentially killing power to the VM.
I also cut the internet access so there is no update running in the backgroun.
I only use a shared folder between host and guest.
The installation is not new in the sense that it was installed now (i installed it at least 2-3 months ago), it is new in the sense that i went through all the installation steps from kit, and not copied some older/downloaded virtualbox vm file.

[mpack]

Ah, I didn't appreciate that the freeze was permanent. However it could still be a CPU load issue, probably combined with a missed event of some kind. As I mentioned earlier, high CPU and I/O load is normal for a new Win10 install.

You might try disabling audio and 3D acceleration, to see if that has any effect. If it does then enable these one at a time to see when the problem returns (I'm betting on the OpenGL drivers - I don't trust Intel to write decent 3D drivers). Personally I'd also set it back to 2 cores, since I'd expect Win10 to be unusable on only one core. I would be accepting the fact that high CPU use on either host or guest will interfere with the other.

It might also be worth doing disk checks on the host, and consider whether the freeze coincides with a timed host activity (e.g. a backup task kicking in).

[Paul_S]

I have found with many Windows issues that a Windows Registry repair utility will help a great deal.

cCleaner is free and has a Windows Registry repair utility. After installing and starting up, choose the Registry button on the Left. Run this over and over until no errors reported.

https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/download

This utility also has a great tool to remove a lot of garbage files in Windows.

Another and better Windows tool is Norton Utilities, but it is not free. It has a great Windows Registry utility that is even better than cCleaner.

https://us.norton.com/norton-utilities

[socratis]

00:00:01.674798 CpuExecutionCap <integer> = 0x0000000000000050 (80)

Take that to 100%. VM Settings » System » Processor » Execution Cap.

00:00:01.675183 [/Devices/usb-ohci/0/Config/] (level 4)

Change the USB controller to USB3 from USB1, Win10 natively supports it. VM Settings » Ports » USB » USB 3.0 (xHCI) Controller.

00:00:02.000145 Audio: Device 'Dell USB Audio':
00:00:02.000151 Audio: 	Usage           = Input
...
00:00:02.000181 Audio: Device 'Dell USB Audio':
00:00:02.000187 Audio: 	Usage           = Output

Can you remove that USB device temporarily and see if the situation changes?

Finally, I'd like you to post the output of the command:

• 
  VBoxManage showvminfo "win10"