[Solved] Windows XP VM continues to cause Windows 10 host restart

[socratis]

Im running a windows 10 host, and trying to run a windows xp VM.

I have already checked my hardware virtualization in my BIOS and it is enabled, and I have tried to start the VM with Hyper V enabled and disabled. I have also turned off my 3d graphics acceleration, which ive seen as a suggestion on other sites.

But for some reason every time i try to start the VM it causes my host computer to restart, and I have no idea what to try and do to fix it. I am trying to run the most recent version of Virtual Box 5.2.22 with the associated extension pack.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to try and resolve this?

[socratis]

I have tried to start the VM with Hyper V enabled and disabled

You definitely do not want Hyper-V enabled. Disable it.

every time i try to start the VM

Has this VM ever worked? Is WinXP installed in the VM?

[duffym]

Yes the VM is an image that other people in my team have used but it was working on a Windows 7 host. I am the first person in my group to be running Windows 10 as a host and trying to get the image to run.

[mpack]

I would guess faulty RAM or disk on the host.

[duffym]

its a brand new laptop

[mpack]

Then it's even more likely to have faulty RAM. Older PCs are proven in use. Newer PCs can have bad connections, dry solder joints, damage in transit etc. Naturally a RAM fault is more likely to be exposed by an app that uses lots of RAM, or disk space.

I suggest that you Google for a ram check app, make sure it's not from one of the scam "we can fix your PC" websites. Run chkdsk too, quick check first, then if nothing comes of that, consider letting a thorough surface scan run all night.

Corruption of the XP VM itself is also possible, though I'd expect that to cause an host app crash, not a host reset. Host resets IME are really only caused by hardware faults.

[duffym]

What settings in my host Windows environment should i be worried about being either enabled or disabled? I actually tried to just standup a new VM that was going to be a Ubuntu VM and it ended up causing a blue screen. This leads me to believe im either missing a setting somewhere either in the VM settings or im missing something on my HOST side.

As i mentioned before my hardware virtualization is already enabled in my BIOS and Hyper V is completely disabled, as well as ive turned off my 3d graphics acceleration. Is there anything else that i need to turn on/off?

[socratis]

and it ended up causing a blue screen

What was the BSOD error?

or im missing something on my HOST side.

Or you may have something extra on your host side, mainly software. What 3rd party software do you have installed? And I'm not talking about the Firefox and the Notepad++ class of software, I'm talking about software that installs drivers. From antivirus, to monitors, to drivers, to ... anything that didn't get installed with Win10.

[mpack]

Here's one thing you can do: click the start button and search for the "System" control panel applet. Click "Advanced system settings", click the "settings" button inside the "Start-up and Recovery" panel. On the next dialog that pops up, make sure that the "Automatically restart" checkbox is not ticked in the "System failure" panel. Click "Ok" and "Apply" to back your way out of the dialogs.

Now the next time the fault is encountered Windows will not reset, it will halt on the blue screen (may be black in Win10), and you can note down the BSOD info.

[duffym]

The last time it blue screened it gave me a CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT error, which i have been researching and trying to determine a potential fix, It seems like it could be a lot of different things but one of the most common is that its most likely a driver error. Ive already gone thru the Device Manager and made sure all of my drivers were up to date but i am going to see if there are any drivers that i should download on the HP website for my computer.

As far as 3rd party software unfortunately there is a lot of it installed due to it being a company laptop and i have to deal with their constant monitoring and security protocols. So there is definitely a potential for something there to be causing problems.

I will definitely give the auto restart option thing a try to see if i can capture any more data on the crashes. I have been trying to go thru the logs and even looked thru the mini kernel dump to try and come up with a solution or atleast a new direction to go in but have been unsuccessful to this point.

I am going to attempt a install and run on my own personal computer that is not a company laptop but is still Windows 10 to see if I can find the proper configuration i need within windows 10 to make it work.

[duffym]

we ended up finding a solution!

It turns out that there was something called Device Guard in our group policy that needed to be changed. This can be accessed by running a gpedit.msc from the command prompt and then using the drop downs to find the Device Guard options and you have to disable the virtualization security protocol.

After i did this i restarted my PC and was able to get both 32 and 64 bit options in Virtual box as well as actually start up and run VMs with no crashing or restarting.

[socratis]

was able to get both 32 and 64 bit options in Virtual box

Whoa... you never mentioned anything about that before. Had you mentioned that, we would have directed you to the FAQ "I have a 64bit host, but can't install 64bit guests", which includes Device Guard as one of the suspects.

What we haven't seen so far is the presence of the Device Guard being responsible for the host to reboot (which is what this is all about). That's a first, and thank you for letting us know, that's another thing to keep in mind.

Glad you got it going. Marking as [Solved].

[duffym]

At first we were only trying to get a 32 bit VM to run but it was not working, so we tried to see if by chance a 64 bit would work.

Either way i appreciate all the advice and help you guys provided.

[socratis]

Is there any chance that you could try to re-enable Device Guard to recreate the crash? I know that I'm asking you to crash your computer knowingly on purpose, but the developers find it really interesting and they would like a "minidump" of the crash. If you're up for it, please let me know...

There was a similar crash with Device Guard in the past few days, that's what makes it interesting. The funny thing? It shouldn't crash...