Windows 11 immediately crashes in VirtualBox if "3D acceleration" is enabled?

[VirtualFrustration]

I run VirtualBox "Version 7.2.2 r170484 (Qt6.8.2 on xcb)" on Debian 13. Xfce. X11. My bare metal runs Intel GPU.

Recently, when I finally had got everything working decently in my Windows 10 VM, Microsoft EOL'ed Windows 10, so I could no longer run that with network access. I primarily used it to play an old game inside of it, with "3D acceleration" turned on for the VM. (Because otherwise it's way too slow.) It worked.

But now I was forced to create an identical VM and installed Windows 11 into it. If I have "3D acceleration" checked, it immediately crashes the VM as soon as the desktop shows up after booting, or at best a few seconds afterwards. Consistently.

If I uncheck "3D acceleration" for the new VM, it doesn't crash, but the game is then utterly unplayable.

So to be crystal clear: the exact same VM setup on the same machine and same version of VirtualBox with Windows 10 works but Windows 11 crashes. Windows 10 can no longer be used because it doesn't receive security patches. (No, I'm not eligible for "extended" support.)

I've updated the "Guest Additions".

In the log, just before it crashes/stops logging, there is this:

Code: Select all

00:00:06.468764 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBoxMP::vboxWddmPickResources: found the VBE card
00:00:06.468808 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBoxMP::DxgkDdiStartDevice: Handling complex topologies enabled
00:00:06.469723 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBoxMP::DxgkDdiStartDevice: using HGSMI
00:00:06.469792 GUI: UIFrameBufferPrivate::IsVideoModeSupported: Mode: BPP=32, Size=1280x1024 is NOT supported
00:00:06.469832 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBoxMP::vboxWddmVModesAdd: WARNING! :resolution 1280x1024 not accepted by the frontend
00:00:06.469843 GUI: UIFrameBufferPrivate::IsVideoModeSupported: Mode: BPP=32, Size=1400x1050 is NOT supported
00:00:06.469878 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBoxMP::vboxWddmVModesAdd: WARNING! :resolution 1400x1050 not accepted by the frontend
00:00:06.469888 GUI: UIFrameBufferPrivate::IsVideoModeSupported: Mode: BPP=32, Size=1600x1200 is NOT supported
00:00:06.469924 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBoxMP::vboxWddmVModesAdd: WARNING! :resolution 1600x1200 not accepted by the frontend
00:00:06.469934 GUI: UIFrameBufferPrivate::IsVideoModeSupported: Mode: BPP=32, Size=1920x1440 is NOT supported
00:00:06.469969 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBoxMP::vboxWddmVModesAdd: WARNING! :resolution 1920x1440 not accepted by the frontend
00:00:06.470087 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBoxMP::DxgkDdiStartDevice: WDDM: VRAM 0xe0000000/0x10000000, FIFO 0xf0400000/0x200000, IO 0xc030/0x10
00:00:06.470485 Enabling different vbva mode
00:00:06.474947 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBoxMP::DxgkDdiQueryAdapterInfo: WARNING! :unsupported Type (47)
00:00:06.501267 VMSVGA: Using HW accelerated screen 0
00:00:06.501286 VMSVGA: using accelerated graphics output
00:00:06.533956 VMSVGA: Using HW accelerated screen 0
00:00:07.083531 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:24:42.081316 main     VBoxService 7.2.2 r170484 (verbosity: 0) win.amd64 (Sep 10 2025 18:45:40) release log
00:00:07.083546 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:24:42.081316 main     Log opened 2025-10-14T17:24:42.081316700Z
00:00:07.083564 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:24:42.081316 main     OS Product: Windows 11
00:00:07.083598 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:24:42.081316 main     OS Release: 10.0.26100.6584
00:00:07.083606 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:24:42.081316 main     OS Service Pack: 
00:00:07.083626 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:24:42.083375 main     Executable: C:\WINDOWS\System32\VBoxService.exe
00:00:07.083628 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:24:42.083375 main     Process ID: 1776
00:00:07.083628 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:24:42.083375 main     Package type: WINDOWS_64BITS_GENERIC
00:00:07.084678 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:24:42.083375 main     7.2.2 r170484 started. Verbose level = 0
00:00:07.113048 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state doesn't really changed, still notifying listeners.
00:00:07.113065 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=1, Machine-state=6
00:00:07.113242 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:24:42.110886          vbglR3GuestCtrlDetectPeekGetCancelSupport: Supported (#1)
00:00:07.113309 Guest Control: GUEST_MSG_REPORT_FEATURES: 0x7f, 0x8000000000000000
00:00:07.114012 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:24:42.113021          vgsvcTimeSyncInit: Initially 156250 (100ns) units per 156250 (100 ns) units interval, disabled=1
00:00:07.119836 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state really changed, notifying listeners.
00:00:07.121161 VMMDev: Guest Log: WDDM: adapter capabilities 0x0000000B
00:00:07.121358 VMMDev: Guest Additions capability report: (0x0 -> 0x4) seamless: no, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: yes
00:00:07.122715 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL loaded.
00:00:07.123993 GUI: UIMachineViewNormal::adjustGuestScreenSize: Adjust guest-screen size if necessary
00:00:07.124008 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=1, Machine-state=6
00:00:07.124040 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state really changed, notifying listeners.
00:00:07.125876 GUI: UIMachineViewNormal::adjustGuestScreenSize: Adjust guest-screen size if necessary
00:00:07.125887 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=1, Machine-state=6
00:00:07.139833 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:24:42.140130 automount vbsvcAutomounterMountIt: Successfully mounted 'Windows_11_(2025-08-03)' on 'Z:'
00:00:07.257006 VMSVGA: Using HW accelerated screen 0
00:00:07.257029 Display::i_handleDisplayResize: uScreenId=0 pvVRAM=00007f0bb8000000 w=1920 h=973 bpp=32 cbLine=0x1E00 flags=0x1 origin=0,0

What could be wrong? These endless VM issues (regardless of the VM software) really exhaust me...

[Roman Shein]

+1
My guest is Win11 25h2 running on Win11 24h2 host.

[VirtualFrustration]

A new version of VirtualBox just became available, so I installed it. It's "Version 7.2.4 r170995 (Qt6.8.2 on xcb)".

Sadly, the same problem persists: with "3D acceleration" checked, it immediately crashes upon boot. With it unchecked, it runs, but very poorly. Sigh.

[VirtualFrustration]

Hmm... Actually, without 3D acceleration after the update, it does seem to run noticably better and faster than in the previous version (unless this is some weird and temporary glitch). Still not as smooth how it was with 3D acceleration on Windows 10, though, I think.

[multiOS]

I suggest you report this 'crash' issue here: https://github.com/VirtualBox/virtualbox/issues and provide the required Logs for analysis.

[VirtualFrustration]

I suggest you report this 'crash' issue here: https://github.com/VirtualBox/virtualbox/issues and provide the required Logs for analysis.

1. I would use Github if it would actually let me, but it doesn't. Like every major website in the last 10-15 years, it is 100% impossible to create an account. I have tried many hundreds of times over the years, but they are consistently blocked with fake error messages, eternal CAPTCHAs, or get instantly shadowbanned or banned before I do anything. (This really should be common knowledge by now.) Thus, I cannot post any Github "issue". That is why I post here -- on the official forum for VirtualBox. Why tell people to go elsewhere?

2. I already did provide the log, or as much of it as can be safely done. The full log contains tons of personal information and even what I provided was a lot of work to go through with my eyes to make sure I'm not posting personal data in public.

[multiOS]

This Forum is primarily a User Community Self-Help and discussion group sponsored by Oracle. The GitHub page has replaced the previous VirtualBox Public Bugtracker reporting system; and is now the 'official' route for reporting unresolved software issues direct to the Development Team, whose direct participation in this forum is obviously limited by work priorities.

[Slickster]

Just as a heads up, I've been grappling with this issue for few days now. The workaround that has worked for me was to set the vRAM on the guest to 4096MB. I got the crash on 6144MB and 8192MB but again worked on 16384MB.

For me the issue also affected Windows 10, 11 and Ubuntu guests. I'm running on an Nvidia GPU with proprietary drivers. Tested on Ubuntu 25.04 and 25.10 host.

[VirtualFrustration]

Thank you for that unexpected hint! After I changed the RAM for the VM to "4096 MB", it no longer crashes with GPU acceleration enabled. Just to make sure that it really was because of the specific amount of RAM (which seems absurd), I tried setting it first to "9141 MB" and then "8192 MB". In both cases, it crashed immediately or after a couple of seconds in the desktop (like before). Then I switched back to "4096 MB" again and verified that it works there, which it does. This is very bizarre to me.

(But this forum almost locked me out when I tried to log in just now... Idiocy about forced "two-factor authentication" and coldly expecting me to have access to the e-mail address I used when registering. It's a miracle that I'm even allowed to post this reply. That ruined my joy from finding out about that bug's workaround...)