Windows 10 VM crashes with more than 1 core and when saving the machine state

[jnoble100]

Hi all. I'm using Version 7.0.8 r156879 (Qt5.15.2) on an iMac for a Windows 10 VM to run an old version of Quicken.

It used to work fine but I upgraded the version of VBox a while back and Windows upgraded and since then I'm getting a lot of crashes and issues.

I can't revert back to the version that worked so trying to figure out a way forward.

Issues:

1. If I increase the cores to more than 1, the VM crashes with a Windows error and then reboots and goes into a reboot loop. Going back to one core the VM works. I've disabled Hyper-V following the instructions from the post "HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM (Hyper-V is active)" but it still crashes.
2. If I try to save the machine state when closing the VM it closes fine but then freezes on startup. Saving the VM state does take a long time now - about 1 minute.
3. Periodically the VM freezes whilst running. No pattern I can see to this. I was hoping increasing the cores to 2 would fix this but then problem 1 occurs!

My iMac has 16 GB RAM and I'm allocating 4 GB to the VM. See screenshot attached showing the other settings for the VM.

At a loss as to what to do next. Log attached from now where I've tried to save the state and the VM has frozen (and is in a hung state now).

Anything obvious that I'm doing wrong?

Thanks.

[scottgus1]

I've disabled Hyper-V

On a Mac host? Not possible. Hyper-V is a Windows thing, and the commands are all Windows commands, not Mac commands.

I don't know if "Darwin Kernel Version 19.6.0" from the log is Ventura, but if so you're stuck using 7.0 on Ventura, and you cannot disable the green turtle on Ventura, since kexts are not allowed.

If I increase the cores to more than 1, the VM crashes with a Windows error

What error? Use Nirsoft BlueScreenView or WinDbg from the Microsoft store to find out what the BSOD was.

The log shows this VM in a saved state. Saved states do not survive a version change. Since you cannot revert to the previous version, you must right-click the VM and click "Discard Saved State" to get the VM to boot again. Note that whatever data was unsaved in the VM will be lost and the VM will boot from a pull-the-power-plug state.

Periodically the VM freezes

7.0.8 Guest Additions may cause this, try the Guest Additions on the test builds.

[jnoble100]

Ha, of course! I did run the commands to disable Hyper-V from the Windows cmd prompt in the VM.

The log was from when restoring the saved state hung. And the version change was some time back and I've tried saving the state since then. When I shutdown the VM (and don't save the state) there is no saved state to discard.

Test builds guest edition installed. When I try to start the VM with 2 cores now I get the BSOD attached (and latest log) - clicking restart or advanced here just goes into a loop of restarting and the same BSOD. Going back to one core - and it starts fine.

WinDbg downloaded and installed but after the BSOD when I ran it nothing showed up.

All very odd. At a loss what to do. 5 years using VBox successfully now and then I upgrade the version and bang!

I can use the VM but it hangs periodically and I have to shutdown or stop it completely and restart from fresh every time. I used to be able to save the state and quickly restart.

[fth0]

I don't know if "Darwin Kernel Version 19.6.0" from the log is Ventura

Here are two useful Wikipedia pages to see that it is part of macOS Catalina (10.15). The macOS - Release history page gives the major numbers (e.g. 19), and the Darwin (operating system) - Release history page gives the detailed version numbers (e.g. 19.6.0).

[fth0]

Are you sure that the VM is really freezing, or is it only very slow? In the VM configuration, you've disabled System > Acceleration > Nested Paging, and that alone could slow down any VM considerably.

Additionally, please note that bringing a VM into Saved state is like pausing a DVD player, and restoring the VM is like unpausing. Whatever bad has happened before the pause, will continue to be there after the pause. In consequence, I'd ignore any error that a restored VM produces, because I cannot know its history.

[jnoble100]

Thanks guys.

I am using Catalina - it's an old Mac but working well apart from this little challenge (touch wood).

> Are you sure that the VM is really freezing, or is it only very slow? In the VM configuration, you've disabled System > Acceleration > Nested Paging, and that alone could slow down any VM considerably.

Yes it's definitely freezing. If I start the VM rather than restore it works, and no freezing. I've left it when frozen for a long time and nothing. The restored VM was always just quicker to stop and start again rather than having to restart Windows completely and then Quicken.

Strangely the "System > Acceleration > Nested Paging" was enabled earlier but I changed the "Paravirtualization Interface" to none and now when I change it back to any of the options, the "Nested Paging" is greyed out. Note though, even when it was ticked before all the same problems occurred. Any ideas how I turn this back on?

[granada29]

My advice for stability when running VirtualBox on macOS Catalina is to stick with the VirtualBox 6.1.xx releases.

The Apple hypervisor installed with Catalina does not seem to play well with VirtualBox 7.0.x and will never be updated. When I tried VirtualBox 7 on my Catalina machine I had all the symptoms you describe, plus an enormouse amount of system overhead.

To revert to VirtualBox 6.1.x, you should first uninstall VirtualBox 7 using the script on the installer .dmg. After that, install VirtualBox 6.1.x and jump through all the hoops associated with installing the kernel extensions (kexts).

[jnoble100]

I like the sound of that and that seems to make sense - I think it was since the jump to 7 that I've seen this.

For going back to 6.1, will the VM itself need changing or can use the very same Windows 10 VM file?

[fth0]

Generally speaking, you should follow granada29's advice and revert to VirtualBox 6.1.44.

Strangely the "System > Acceleration > Nested Paging" was enabled earlier but I changed the "Paravirtualization Interface" to none and now when I change it back to any of the options, the "Nested Paging" is greyed out. Note though, even when it was ticked before all the same problems occurred. Any ideas how I turn this back on?

"Nested Paging" being greyed out could be a bug of the new "no KEXT" (NEM) mode on macOS hosts, or it could be deliberate, I don't know. You could try VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --nestedpaging on in a terminal.

[jnoble100]

A big yes - that worked to get the "Nested Paging" back on.

VBox version 7 uninstalled and version 6 now installed (had to disable USB 3 for the VM to get the VM to run).

And all looking good now.

Closing to saved state and re-opening works again (closing takes about a bit which feels long but it works).

Was going to think about moving the VM to Windows 11 but no, it's all back as it was before I upgraded to version 7 - and it works.

A huge thank you for everyone's help and suggestions.

Another triumph over me switching to Parallels!