[SOLVED] Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
Quad5Ny
Posts: 4
Joined: 8. Jul 2011, 03:59
Primary OS: MS Windows 7
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows 7 SP1, Windows XP SP3

[SOLVED] Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Post by Quad5Ny »

UPDATE: Fix is to use PIIX3 instead of ICH9.


Hi everyone,

Its impossible for me to use my Windows 7 guest because every 5-70 seconds it will freeze up in a very strange way. During the freeze I can still move the mouse, and click on some things, but others are completely frozen (like if I try to right click on the desktop and get the right click context menu, it will half fade in and freeze).

Weird thing is, the freezes don't last. After a few seconds Windows (the Guest Windows) will emit a Ding Sound and everything will sort of play catch-up (windows will appear and the clicks will finally register).

I'm at a loss here, I can't find any open support tickets describing this problem. I've attached a log with the Guest running for about 2min; one of the freezes occurred about 10 seconds before shutdown.


Host: Windows 7 Pro SP1 x64 (MSDN ISO), GA-EP45-UD3R F13f BIOS (Visualization Options enabled, SATA Set to AHCI), Intel Q9550, 8GB RAM, Nvidia Fermi Video, Atheros AR938x Wireless, Sound Blaster Xfi PCIe, All latest drivers/Windows Updates, VirtualBox 4.0.10.

Guest: Windows 7 Pro SP1 x64 (MSDN ISO), Latest guest additions/Windows Updates:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<VirtualBox xmlns="http://www.innotek.de/VirtualBox-settings" version="1.11-windows">
  <Machine uuid="{XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}" name="Windows 7 Professional SP1 (64 bit)" OSType="Windows7_64" snapshotFolder="Snapshots">
    <MediaRegistry>
      <HardDisks>
        <HardDisk uuid="{XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}" location="20GB.vhd" format="VHD" type="Normal"/>
      </HardDisks>
    </MediaRegistry>
    <Hardware version="2">
      <CPU count="2" hotplug="false">
        <HardwareVirtEx enabled="true" exclusive="false"/>
        <HardwareVirtExNestedPaging enabled="true"/>
        <HardwareVirtExVPID enabled="true"/>
        <PAE enabled="true"/>
        <HardwareVirtExLargePages enabled="true"/>
        <HardwareVirtForce enabled="false"/>
      </CPU>
      <Memory RAMSize="3072" PageFusion="false"/>
      <HID Pointing="USBTablet" Keyboard="PS2Keyboard"/>
      <HPET enabled="false"/>
      <Chipset type="ICH9"/>
      <Boot>
        <Order position="1" device="DVD"/>
        <Order position="2" device="HardDisk"/>
      </Boot>
      <Display VRAMSize="128" monitorCount="1" accelerate3D="true" accelerate2DVideo="true"/>
      <BIOS>
        <ACPI enabled="true"/>
        <IOAPIC enabled="true"/>
        <BootMenu mode="MessageAndMenu"/>
        <TimeOffset value="0"/>
        <PXEDebug enabled="false"/>
      </BIOS>
      <USBController enabled="true" enabledEhci="false"/>
      <Network>
        <Adapter slot="0" enabled="true" MACAddress="XXXXXXXXXXXX" cable="true" speed="0" type="82540EM">
          <NAT>
            <DNS pass-domain="true" use-proxy="false" use-host-resolver="false"/>
            <Alias logging="false" proxy-only="false" use-same-ports="false"/>
          </NAT>
        </Adapter>
      </Network>
      <UART>
        <Port slot="0" enabled="false" IOBase="0x3f8" IRQ="4" hostMode="Disconnected"/>
        <Port slot="1" enabled="false" IOBase="0x2f8" IRQ="3" hostMode="Disconnected"/>
      </UART>
      <LPT>
        <Port slot="0" enabled="false" IOBase="0x378" IRQ="4"/>
        <Port slot="1" enabled="false" IOBase="0x378" IRQ="4"/>
      </LPT>
      <AudioAdapter controller="HDA" driver="DirectSound" enabled="true"/>
      <RTC localOrUTC="local"/>
      <SharedFolders/>
      <Clipboard mode="Disabled"/>
      <IO>
        <IoCache enabled="true" size="5"/>
        <BandwidthGroups/>
      </IO>
      <Guest memoryBalloonSize="0"/>
      <GuestProperties/>
    </Hardware>
    <StorageControllers>
      <StorageController name="SATA Controller" type="AHCI" PortCount="2" useHostIOCache="false" Bootable="true" IDE0MasterEmulationPort="0" IDE0SlaveEmulationPort="1" IDE1MasterEmulationPort="2" IDE1SlaveEmulationPort="3">
        <AttachedDevice type="HardDisk" port="0" device="0">
          <Image uuid="{XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}"/>
        </AttachedDevice>
        <AttachedDevice passthrough="false" type="DVD" port="1" device="0"/>
      </StorageController>
    </StorageControllers>
  </Machine>
</VirtualBox>
Thanks to anyone who points me in the right direction.

-Quad


P.S. I've also recently re-formatted In trying to fix this problem. My Host system runs perfectly (games and all) except for some weird DPC Latency issues related to having 'Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST)' on in my BIOS.
Attachments
VBox.log
In the log "C:\Virtual Machines\" is a separate drive mounted as a NTFS folder. So I've got plenty of bandwidth for the guest VHD.
(83.81 KiB) Downloaded 278 times
Last edited by Quad5Ny on 9. Jul 2011, 02:48, edited 2 times in total.
Quad5Ny
Posts: 4
Joined: 8. Jul 2011, 03:59
Primary OS: MS Windows 7
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows 7 SP1, Windows XP SP3

Re: Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Post by Quad5Ny »

Update: I think I've got it narrowed down to setting the Chipset to ICH9 in settings. I've re-installed my Windows VM's with Chipset set to PIIX3, and it seems OK.

It's a bit late right now. I'll post back tomorrow after some more testing.
MasterKGB
Posts: 52
Joined: 24. Jun 2011, 12:16
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: XP, Win7, Linux

Re: Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Post by MasterKGB »

Tested it Today, the problem been Reportd in that Thread http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=42843

After switching from ICH9 to PIIX3 my systems works normal again even some graphics problems I hade are away
FYI I tried between the 4.1.0 Beta the problem also persist in that Release and is fixed after switching from ICH9 to PIIX3

Seems to be a unknown Bug, or unreported
dch

Re: Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Post by dch »

I can confirm that the ICH9 -> PIIX3 switch fixes the freezing/pausing problem here as well.
Quad5Ny
Posts: 4
Joined: 8. Jul 2011, 03:59
Primary OS: MS Windows 7
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows 7 SP1, Windows XP SP3

Re: Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Post by Quad5Ny »

Yup, using PIIX3 definitely fixes the Freezes/Stuttering. I had a VM running for 6 hours today without any problems.

Marking this as solved.


Now if I could just get EFI to work with >2GB Base Memory & >64MB of Video Memory. - http://www.google.com/search?q=virtualb ... g%2Fticket
tsume
Posts: 4
Joined: 23. Aug 2009, 10:41
Primary OS: MS Windows 7
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: WinXP

Re: [SOLVED] Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Post by tsume »

Same problem, same fix here. Hope it's fixed in the next release.
chadmk
Posts: 1
Joined: 6. Aug 2011, 22:22
Primary OS: Ubuntu other
VBox Version: OSE Debian
Guest OSses: Windows 7 Enterprise (64 bit), Windows Vista Business (64 bit)

Re: [SOLVED] Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Post by chadmk »

Glad I found this post, been having the same problem.. very frustrating. Curious though if any solution has been found in order to use the ICH9 Chipset without the constant freezing??
alun
Posts: 9
Joined: 11. Nov 2011, 07:05
Primary OS: openSUSE
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win7, Win2K3, Win2K8, openSUSE (varoius: for services and testing)

Re: [SOLVED] Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Post by alun »

Also suffered the same problem, though my system has ICH6. So the problem also affects the ICH6. I guess it most likely affects all the ICH versions.

Changing to PIIX3 solved the problem.
gravyplaya
Posts: 1
Joined: 18. Nov 2011, 01:09
Primary OS: Ubuntu other
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Windows 7

Re: [SOLVED] Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Post by gravyplaya »

I agree that changing the chipset to PIIX3 is the right fix, but now my windows 7 wont boot. So I tried to recreate a clean VM with that setting and windows 7 wont even install. Setup wont even run. Now im really stuck cuz I cant install or use Windows 7 with that setting. How do I get Windows 7 to install with the PIIX3 setting.
quackking
Posts: 19
Joined: 11. Jun 2007, 16:38

Re: [SOLVED] Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Post by quackking »

I have had a similar problem, except my guest is Ubuntu 10.10 32bit. The symptom is network related - every so often the access through Virtualbox' NAT just stalls for around 20-30 seconds. The rest of the VM continues working, however. I have the PIIX3 chipset enabled so that is not the problem.

I just tried changing the network adapter from Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop to the PCFast III and that seems to have fixed the problem, but I only made that change yesterday so I am not totally convinced it is fixed. I'm posting this so others might try changing the network adapter in addition to or instead of the chipset.

(The host machine is running Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS, 2.6.32-36-generic-pae kernel, Virtualbox 4.1.6)
jjinnsoft
Posts: 1
Joined: 7. Dec 2011, 20:31
Primary OS: MS Windows 7
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows XP/7

Re: [SOLVED] Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Post by jjinnsoft »

I can confirm this issue as well on VirtualBox 4.1.6, at least on Windows 7 host. Apparently the problem is still not fixed. To reproduce:
  1. I upgraded to vbox 4.1.6 on Windows 7 host.
  2. Set up new Windows 7 64-bit guest with these settings:
  3. System/Motherboard: ICH9 chipset, enable IO APIC is checked, EFI is not enabled, absolute pointing device not enabled, 1280 MB base memory
  4. System/Processor: 8 processors (host is hyper-threaded quad-core i7 processor), 100% execution cap, PAE/NX is enabled
  5. System/Acceleration: both VT-x and nested paging are enabled
  6. Display/Video: 128 MB video memory (host is GeForce GTS 250), 1 monitor, 2D & 3D acceleration both enabled
  7. Storage: 1 IDE controller with ICH6 type & host I/O cache enabled. One CD/DVD drive attached as IDE primary master. 1 SATA controller, AHCI type, 1 port, host I/O cache disabled. 250 GB VDI image attached.
  8. Audio: Intel HD Audio controller is enabled
  9. Network: one adapter enabled; emulated adapter type is Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM); it is a bridged adapter attachment
  10. Serial Ports: No serial ports (default)
  11. USB: USB & USB 2.0 controllers both enabled
  12. Install clean copy of Windows 7 64-bit RTM.
  13. Install vbox guest tools; the WDDM driver is selected to enable Aero Glass.
  14. Aero Glass is turned on.
  15. Browse through Control Panel. After a minute or two of clicking around, the guest temporarily hangs, but eventually comes back to life. As others have noted, the mouse pointer still changes when I move the mouse over parts of the UI. I can even click on things during the hang and it apparently does things. For example, I can click the Start button while hung, and the search box in the start menu (which I can't see yet) displays an I-beam cursor as expected. However, the screen does not update for a period of maybe 30 seconds (I haven't timed it exact).
  16. Here's the really weird bit: if I run Windows Media Player and play one of the songs that comes with Windows 7, I can browse Control Panel while the music plays and it won't hang. After closing Windows Media Player, the system will again hang randomly when browsing through Control Panel.
In my attempts to resolve this, I tried uninstalling the guest tools. This changed the behavior of the hang, but did not solve it completely. After doing this, it appeared that the entire guest OS would temporarily hang (whereas before it seemed like it still ran, but didn't update the screen), and my mouse cursor no longer updated to new cursors (I could still move it, but did not change to resize cursor on window borders, etc.).

The solution, as others have noted, was to change from ICH9 to PIIX controller. This seems to have resolved the issue for me, as it did with others.
squall leonhart
Posts: 312
Joined: 21. Apr 2010, 10:39
Primary OS: MS Windows 7
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows XP, 8, 10, Android x86

Re: [SOLVED] Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Post by squall leonhart »

this is caused by using the windows 7 stock drivers or matrox storage manager 8 drivers having LPM enabled by default

IRST 9, 10 and modded 11 'generally' work fine.

the affected drivers have LPM enabled which interferes with certain physical devices and virtual hdds as well.

the newer drivers prevent LPM from enabling on devices that don't properly support ATAPI-8, but it can still be a problem in some cases.

Copy start at the next line:

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\ser vices\\iaStor\\Parameters\\Port0]

"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\ser vices\\iaStor\\Parameters\\Port1]

"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\ser vices\\iaStor\\Parameters\\Port2]

"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\ser vices\\iaStor\\Parameters\\Port3]

"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\ser vices\\iaStor\\Parameters\\Port4]

"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\ser vices\\iaStor\\Parameters\\Port5]

"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000
timtty
Posts: 1
Joined: 23. Jan 2012, 20:35
Primary OS: FreeBSD
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: win7, linux, unix

Re: [SOLVED] Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Post by timtty »

This also fixed this random and sporadic problem for us as well. Thanks for the help community.
poldim
Posts: 13
Joined: 14. Mar 2010, 22:38
Primary OS: MS Windows 8
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win 7

Re: [SOLVED] Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Post by poldim »

I'm in a similar situation as OP except my Win7 Guest is already in PIIX3. When shutting down or restarting, the system hour glasses and freezes at the "shutting down" screen with blue win 7 background........
Chelmite
Posts: 10
Joined: 23. Dec 2011, 02:25
Primary OS: Fedora other
VBox Version: OSE Fedora
Guest OSses: Windows 7

Re: [SOLVED] Windows 7 SP1 Guest Freezes/Unfreezes Randomly

Post by Chelmite »

I don't find a
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStor
. There is
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStorV\Parameters
, but it doesn't have any
Port
keywords, only
BusType
and
queuePriorityEnable
.
Locked