Windows 7 Shuts down on its own

[GDLTD]

I seem to have issue #8323 but that bug is apparently fixed. (I'd post the link but the forum won't let me.)

VB 4.1.18
Host: Mac OS X 10.7.4 64bit, 10GB RAM
Guest: Windows 7 Enterprise 32bit, 768MB RAM, Guest Additions Installed, no option for the computer to sleep

All I use this VM for is IE9 testing. No other apps installed.

The issue is the guest shuts down on its own - I actually see it go through the shutdown process, it doesn't just crash. I've triple checked the energy saver settings and there's nothing I can see that tells it to shutdown.

I have several XP VMs on the same host and they don't have this issue.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[mpack]

Between simulated RAM and VRAM, your VM is using practically all of the free memory on your host. I suspect that might have something to do with the problems you are having. On a 10GB host, less than 1GB is reported as free. Something there is being a tremendous memory hog.

[GDLTD]

Thanks. I have about 2.3GB that's inactive. My understanding is that OS X usually only reallocates that when free runs out. So the "available" number is actually much higher. I have another machine, with less RAM (8GB), that I have more VMs (4) on and push much harder... the key difference is it's running Fusion instead of VirtualBox.

I'll run a tool to move the inactive RAM to free RAM and see how it goes. Thanks for giving me a direction to research.

[Perryg]

00:00:01.137 Host RAM: 10240MB RAM, available: 906MB
AFAIK VirtualBox can only use available (physical) memory and not what is call swap memory.

[GDLTD]

It just shut down again. There was 1.1GB free when it started shutting down. 2GB free after it shut off. I had just used it ~5 minutes prior. After shutdown, there was also 1.6GB of Inactive memory - I didn't catch the number before it shutdown.

I'm only referring to physical RAM. Here's Apple's definition of Inactive Memory:
Inactive:

This information is in RAM but it is not actively being used, it was recently used.

For example, if you've been using Mail and then quit it, the RAM that Mail was using is marked as Inactive memory. Inactive memory is available for use by another application, just like Free memory. However, if you open Mail before its Inactive memory is used by a different application, Mail will open quicker because its Inactive memory is converted to Active memory, instead of loading it from the slower drive.

[Perryg]

Not to be argumentative but try it when you have 4GB of free available memory not when it has 1GB. What are you running on the host that has to have 9GB of memory active anyway?

[GDLTD]

I'm all ears FWIW, I noticed that the "available" report is just for "free" RAM, it doesn't count "Inactive".

Main RAM usage:
Photoshop: 1.5GB
Chrome (combined): ~1.2GB
VB: 1GB
kernel: 900MB
Firefox: 367GB
SmartGit: 270GB

Currently there's 2.75GB wired, 4.55GB active.

[Perryg]

Well currently there is no actual indication as to why the guest is shutting down in the log file. Memory is at this point only a suggestion. Since it is not being reported in the log it must be the guest that is shutting down so I would try to free as much memory as possible and then look at the guests event viewer to see why it is shutting off.

[GDLTD]

I'm not sure why I didn't think to check the event viewer. I did that, and apparently this install doesn't like VB. The license period gets switched to expired and then Windows shuts down. This VM came straight from Microsoft, so I'll take it up with them. Thanks for the help

[Perryg]

Let me guess, it a Windows IE9 VHD that you got from MS. These are intended to be used with their VPC software and although you can run them in VirtualBox the guest detects a change in hardware and since the actual key is marked as invalid/stolen it marks the OS as pirate and shuts down.

[GDLTD]

Yep. I actually forgot this one came that route. No point in taking it up with MS. The rest I have installed have regular licenses... I was thinking it was one of those.

[lintpete]

Is this possibly the same reason for the sudden shutdown of Windows server 2008 in the VM that I run in Virtualbox? If so, why does it shutdown only after one hour?
I have checked and changed the power settings in Windows but this doesn't make any difference.

I'm running Virtualbox 4.1.18 with guest additions on an OS X Lion host with 8 Gb memory.
The shutdown in the log starts with:
01:02:23.279 Guest requests the VM to be turned off
01:02:23.378 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'POWERING_OFF'.

[Perryg]

Is this possibly the same reason for the sudden shutdown of Windows server 2008 in the VM that I run in Virtualbox? If so, why does it shutdown only after one hour?
I have checked and changed the power settings in Windows but this doesn't make any difference.

I'm running Virtualbox 4.1.18 with guest additions on an OS X Lion host with 8 Gb memory.
The shutdown in the log starts with:
01:02:23.279 Guest requests the VM to be turned off
01:02:23.378 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'POWERING_OFF'.

I suspect that you have gone past the software trial period if that is what you are using and Windows triggers a mandatory shutdown.