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I have a Win7 Pro 64-bit host running a Win7 Pro 32-bit guest. Ever since I installed the last update, 4.1.14r77440, my guest video just goes CraZy, flashing. The screen it totally black & sometimes I can see the bar at the bottom & some other stuff. I have a "gadget" on the desktop that shows RAM & CPU usage & looks like a Speedometer & Tachometer. That/those usually show up "fine" & the rest of the screen is black & flashes "on".

Most of the time I can keep piddling around with things & it will finally stop flashing so I can use it, but I've found that I have to restart the system. For some reason starting the system seems to make it go crazy, but sometimes rebooting it will keep it from flashing. Other times I can reinstall the Guest Additions, with the WDDM drivers & when it reboots, things come up working. That only lasts for "a while" though. Sometimes it lasts longer that other times, but it never fixes the problem.

Does anyone have any ideas or anything for me to do or try?

Well... I?m new here at the forums, but maybe... Have you tried uninstalling the guest additions for your machine, and then reinstall the new version? Some times just upgrading the Gust Additions makes the VM do weird things, I had that experience with an XP machine that never rebooted when you instructed to do so (just stayed in the closing windows message XD) so I had to completely uninstall the new guest addittions (updated from older) and reinstalled, then no more probs...

Its not the same exact case, but maybe uninstalling the guest additions, cleaning with ccleaner and then reinstalling could solve your issue.

See ya!!

Well, you know the old saying, "Close counts in horse shoes, hand grenades AND virtual machines", so you're good to go there. Thanks. Not many people actually know the end of that old saying. . I did try removing it & reinstalling it, BUT your suggestion got me thinking that maybe I should try to treat this like "REAL" hardware & "power the system off", so to speak. Like I was actually putting in a new graphics card or something. I removed the Additions, then did a "Shut down". THEN I started it back up. We'll see how that goes. I've got two Windoze 7 VM & they both have this problem. One of them started back up & looks great the other I had to fiddle around to get it to stop flashing. It's too early to tell if either system still has the problem or what.

Thanks for the suggestion. If you think of anything else. I've got my hammer out & I've taken a few practice swings to get loosened up... .

Update...
I rebooted both VM & they're still doing the "Flash Dance", so reinstalling didn't fix it. Again, suggestions are welcomed.

I learned something new today, I never heard of that saying About your problem... sounds a bit nasty, what are you VM configurations? maybe it has something to do with IO APIC enabled in your guest (In other thread they say that enabling thyat can cause performance issues, may be your case)

See ya!!

It is enabled, but it's been that way for a long time & I've never had this problem. Also, the config's help says not to disable it if the guest was installed with it enabled. It sounds like there's nothing I could do if that was a problem.

I tried removing the latest Guest Additions & installing the last host where WDDM worked, but didn't Flash; version 4.1.10-76836. Then I installed the Guest Additions for that version, but now IT Flashes too. So I removed that & put everything back the way it was.

bamim2 wrote:It is enabled, but it's been that way for a long time & I've never had this problem. Also, the config's help says not to disable it if the guest was installed with it enabled. It sounds like there's nothing I could do if that was a problem.

In the VM you would have to replace the installed (IO APIC) HAL with a basic ACPI HAL. This old message should help you with how.


However, I doubt the IO APIC setting has anything to do with this. I would go with uninstalling and reinstalling the guest additions, making sure you have admin rights and allow all needed drivers to be installed.

I've already done 2 different variations of replace the Guest Additions:
1) I've removed the xxx.14 (current) GA. Halted the Guest. Then booted the Guest back up & installed the GA again & rebooted.
2) I've removed the xxx.14 (current) GA. Halted the Guest. Then installed version xxx.10 of the Host. Booted the Guest & installed xxx.10 GA & rebooted that.

Aero didn't work on my W7 Pro 32-bit guests until I installed update xxx.10 & then it miraculously worked for some reason. That's why I went back to version xxx.10, figuring there may something special about that update. It turns out once I went back & tried it again, it made the screen flash & it didn't do that before. I could try other update versions, but that means I have to shut every one of my VM down just to make one change. I didn't install the update on any other VM than the W7 Guest, but I didn't want to leave the other VM running with different version than the Host.

Also, my Host is using the i3 "built-in" graphics & not a card. I don't know if that has anything to do with this.

It's the only one you have or its a laptop which has interchangeable VGA's?

I don't understand the question. Are you asking "Is it the only one I have" or "is it a laptop"? It's not a laptop & I've chosen not to put a graphics card in the system, because I only use it for things that don't require a graphics card. I had a graphics card in that system & it actually looks much better with the CPU graphics, so I sent with that.

If that's not what you're asking, please let me know.

So far I have not figured out what causes this, nor what to do to fix it, but I have (after MUCH F.....iddling around) figured out something of a workaround:
Bring up & click on Task Manager, so either choose "Host-Del" keys or from the menu, choose Machine>Insert Ctrl-Alt-Del & then Click on Task Manager.

For some reason that will "stabilize" the display & keep it from flashing. I've tried updating drivers & nothing seems to work, but at least this little "trick" makes things bearable.

Hmm. I hesitate to suggest malware, because every donk does, but at this point (if I were you) I'd be carefully examining the task list for suspicious processes - which would mean any process I can't positively identify, or can't prove that it is what it says it is.

What I'm thinking is: screen scraper malware, looking to grab passwords, email addresses etc. The flash would be a side effect of the virtual display driver grabbing the screen. The fact that it stops when you have the task manager open (when you might notice CPU being used) is what makes me suspicious. I might download SysInternals process monitor to see if it behaves the same with other process list viewers.

On the subject of things regularly grabbing the screen contents, you might want to try disabling VirtualBox's own (harmless) guest screen preview feature.

Thank you for the suggestions. I use SysInternals all the time. I'm currently looking at the running processes & giving them the "evil eye". Are you suggesting that I use the SysInternals ProcMon the way I use TaskMan to get the screen to stop flickering?

I've looked into my workaround more closely & I believe it has something to do with the way Windows 7 goes to full screen before it actually implements the Task Manager. I've tried the ProMon & ProcExp tools from SysInternals & they don't stop the screen flickering unless I make them go full screen. That's REALLY hard because it's almost impossible to see the screen due to the flashing. The screen is totally black, with only the part where the mouse clicks as color. It's very hard to explain, it's just plain weird.

Any further suggestions are VERY welcome though.

Did you disable the screen preview feature?

No, the idea with ProcMon was that if the screen continued flashing you might be able to see what process was responsible.

I think perhaps it's time you posted the service log for a VM showing the problem. That's the file "VBox.log" from the "VirtualBox VMs"/<vmname>/Logs subfolder. Post as a zipped attachment please.

Sorry. I did disable the feature. I'll have to wait to see if that helps, since the problem doesn't happen all the time. Also, there's NO way I can see anything to find out what process is responsible, because the screen is just going crazy. I can't see at all. Of course, right after I posted that the Task Manager is a good work around, that stopped doing anything. So, it's not a work around any longer. I've booted & rebooted about 10 times trying to get it to flash, but of course, NOW it's not going to do it.

As soon as it does go crazy again, I'll grab the log file, zip'em up & post'em. Thank you for your help & suggestions.