VM crashes with Siemens Simatic Step 7

[mliemburg]

Hi,

I'me using Siemens Simatic Step 7 v 5.4 SP5 to make PLC programs. The computer I use is on running Windows 7 Professional. The VM with Step7 is running on Windows XP Professional. While using Virtualbox version 3.x everything works just fine. After upgrading to Virtualbox versien 4.x. The auto address completion makes the whole VM crash (reset/restart). After the restart Windows XP reports that is has been recovered from a serious error (direct translation from Dutch). Now I have to use Virtualbox version 3.x to make things work. There is a work-around for this and that is to use Virtualbox 4.x with Guest additions version 3.x. Thus, the probleem seems to be in the Guest Additions.

Does anyone know how to solve this? If you need more information please let me know.

To be clear this is what i did:
1. Start VM
2. Open Simatic Manager
3. Open a function or functionblock
4. Select a network (in LAD)
5. Edit a address used in the network
6. While typing a list of addresses is shown
7. VM crashes and restarts

I apologize for my bad English. My native language is Dutch. Thanks in advantage for any help!

[mliemburg]

In addition here's a part from the log:
00:02:51.228 ERROR [COM]: aRC=VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80bb0005) aIID={09eed313-cd56-4d06-bd56-fac0f716b5dd} aComponent={Display} aText={Could not take a screenshot (VERR_TRY_AGAIN)}, preserve=false
00:02:52.210 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'RESETTING'.

[mpack]

Hmm. That's the second time I've seen that error message reported, in just the last few messages I've read. Sounds like a bug. I assume that the "screenshot" it couldn't take is for the thumbnail of the VMs display that appears in the VBox gui. I believe that thumbnail feature can be disabled (right click on the thumbnail, select "update disabled" from the menu that pops up). Does that stop the crash?

[mliemburg]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately disable-ling the preview didn't solve the problem.

[SVAndrei]

Greetings. I'm having the same exact problem as listed above. Has a solution been found?

Thanks.

[davani]

hi there
i have the exact same problem
and i found out that its gustadditions problem although with gustaddition version 4.0.0 it works
versions 4.02 and 4.0.4 has same problem and i tried them both on Linux and Windows hosts

[jorgensen]

You can try to extract the drivers and install them one-by-one to figure out which driver is the problem.

[jz.liu@hotmail.com]

Hi all: my pc running on win7/VM4.04 on XP sp2. i have same problem. my step7 is working fine after I did below.
1. set VM input host key to NONE
2. open step 7
3. open any s7 project
4. open LAD Editer
5. set LAD view to 3D
6. untick "Symbol Selection" by click View/Display with
7. do code with no crash.
8. but could not asign a FC call input with 1 or 0. you have to generate your own always on and always off symbols.

good luck.

[jz.liu@hotmail.com]

again.. turn LAD Editer in STL view is another solution.

[vineyard88]

Good News for all,

I have tested with the current version 4.0.10-72479 with extension 4.0.10-72436 and this problem is gone!

Can finally program in LAD with symbol selection in peace.

cheers,
Henry

[rudolf130]

VirtualBox 4.1.22, same problem with KOP editor.
I tried doing what suggested above but the problem is still present.
Ideas?

[mpack]

This is an old thread. It soon became clear that "could not take a screenshot" is a red herring. It refers to the thumbnail picture of the VM window, displayed by the GUI, and which can only be taken if the VM is in particular graphics modes. The error is informative only, and harmless.

If anyone has a real bug to investigate then post the complete VM log as a zipped attachment, and provide a proper description of the problem. See Minimal information needed for assistance.

And please be sure to distinguish between the VM crashing, and a guest application crashing. Two very different things.

[rudolf130]

I think the error is not the "could not take a screenshot": see log.
The VirtualMachine crashes while editing kop code and starts again, I think it is a VM crash, not an application crash (it works well when running on the real machine)
Thanks

[mpack]

If the guest OS restarts then that isn't a VM crash, it's a guest BSOD. If the VM really crashed then the VM window would close, there might be an error dialog (guru mediation), and that's it. As to the reason for the guest crash: configure your Windows guest to not reset after a guest BSOD (My Computer | Properties | Startup and Recovery settings button", untick "Automatically restart". Then take notes of the BSOD next time it happens. You can also extract data from the mini core dump created by the BDOS handler, but I always forget how to do that - details are on Google.