I'm pretty sure that when running Vbox V2 releases, upon resuming the guest, the clock in the guest would catch back up to the host current time. With VBox 3.0.x releases (have not tried 3.0.12) the clock appears to very slowly be corrected. If I happen to suspend the guest for several days, the clock would take ages to catch back up this way.
The docs (http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/UserMa ... #id2501709) say:
So, how similar should saving state be to suspending? I either have a bug or an RFE to file and it all depends on what the existing design calls for regarding Save State and Guest Clock operation.Save the machine state: With this option, VirtualBox "freezes" the virtual machine by completely saving its state to your local disk. When you later resume the VM (by again clicking the "Start" button in the VirtualBox main window), you will find that the VM continues exactly where it was left off. All your programs will still be open, and your computer resumes operation.
Saving the state of a virtual machine is thus in some ways similar to suspending a laptop computer (e.g. by closing its lid).