virtualbox.org

I run Windows Vista 32 host system on a Dell XPS1730.

I have been successfully using VirtualBox for some time. This applies to all recent versions.

Now, for no apparent reason, the computer freezes if I try to launch Virtual Box. It freezes solid as soon as the launch starts.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled. I have reinstalled older versions and it still does it. So it appears not to be VB itself that is causing the problem.

The only major thing that I have changed on my computer is I have installed Microsoft Security Essentials. Could this be the reason?

If so, what is the work around?

If that is not it, what else could it be?

regards
Michael

Have you tried a system restore to a point before this started happening?
If you get it to work then I would not install the MSE until you read some forums about is and if it has caused problems.

One thing I have done is I started Windows in SAFE mode.

Then I ran VB and it started up fine. But when I tried to start up the virtual machine it failed with the error message :

"Virtual Box run-time error.
Cannot access the kernel driver!
Make sure the kernel module has been loaded successfully."

So my question is now - does the fact that it started up alright in windows SAFE mode provide any further clues to the problem? (NB. When I then tried to start it up in normal windows, it froze again).

Also, what is the error message telling me?

Finally, I ran VB Sandboxed (ie. contained within Sandboxie). It launched just fine. Of course, I could not launch the Ubuntu VM because the virtual hard disk was too big to be copied into Sandboxie - but VB launched with no complaints. What does this tell us?

regards
Michael

Your safe mode test implies that yes, something else is interfering, and MSE is a likely candidate. You may want to considering using a restore point as Perry suggested, or at least uninstalling MSE (hopefully it uninstalls fully).

The error message in safe mode is because VirtualBox requires certain drivers to be running in order to function properly. These will not have been loaded in a safe mode boot.

Thank you for your advice.

For future reference, it turns out that the problem goes away if I go into the Nvidia video card control panel and turn off the PhysX acceleration option.

This is on by default, so I don't know why it did not cause a problem when I was using VirtualBox earlier, but turning it off fixed the problem.

regards
Michael