Random crashes - Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager has stopped

[xerces8]

I get this error dialog on seemingly random base:

[Window Title]
Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager

[Main Instruction]
Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager has stopped working

[Content]
Windows is checking for a solution to the problem...

[Cancel]

First I got it running version 4.1.16, then I updated (also the extension pack) to 4.1.18.

I have Windows 7 Pro SP1 64-bit as host and run Windows XP Pro as guest. I use just this one VM.

It runs fine for several minutes, then suddenly I get the above dialog.

The event log has this:

Code: Select all

Faulting application name: VirtualBox.exe, version: 4.1.18.0, time stamp: 0x4fce11de
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 6.1.7601.17725, time stamp: 0x4ec4aa8e
Exception code: 0xc0000374
Fault offset: 0x00000000000c40f2
Faulting process id: 0x1e64
Faulting application start time: 0x01cd74b7d3c6603c
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VirtualBox.exe
Faulting module path: C:\windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
Report Id: db42e780-e0ab-11e1-a227-028037ec0200

Please advise.

Otherwise the PC works fine, no problems with any other software.

Regards,
David

[mpack]

Lets clarify: the error message is telling us that the fault is in the "Manager" (which is the UI which launches VMs), but you mention a VM as well - even though those are independant processes. Are you saying that the crash only happens while a VM is running, or is the VM not actually relevant? Are you aware that you don't need the manager to launch VMs - you can launch from a desktop shortcut?

Since we aren't getting lots of others reporting manager crashes, I can only assume something unusual about your system. I believe the exception code indicates system memory (heap) corruption, so are you using unusually long description/name strings, unusually large number of snapshots or VMDK extents - etc etc. I would look for things along those lines.

[xerces8]

Yes, after posting it occurred to me that "Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager" is the window title of the main VB GUI.

But yes, what crashes is the actual running VM (after Windows finishes "searching for solution" the VM window is closed), the main GUI window continues to work. I can also restart the crashed VM then and it will work (until the next crash).

Another thing: after such a a crash a VBoxSVC.exe process is left that never goes away, even after closing all VB windows. (the update from 4.1.16 to 4.1.18 pointed this out for me. Solved it by rebooting Windows.)

I have two VMs configured:
- one with a name 9 characters long (standard US ASCII characters) and no description, one snapshot
- another, that is a clone of the first, 15 character long name, no description, one snapshot

I am running the second VM.

[xerces8]

I checked in Task Manager: the main VB window process has an Image name VirtualBox.exe and Description "Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager", while a started VM process... the same. So the crashing process is the VM and not the main UI.

One more thing: the VM settings has VT-x and nested paging enabled, but the running VM window states in the status bar that neither is used/enabled.

The CPU is i7-2640M and according to CPU-Z it supports VT-x.

[mpack]

If it's the VM which is crashing then please post the latest VM log - as a zipped attachment if possible.

[xerces8]

Here it is (it just crashed again before taking the log).

[mpack]

I don't know if its significant, but the last thing in the log is a lot of log entries related to the RTC - something seems to have turned up the timer interrupt frequency. What application are you running in the guest that might be trying to get real time results? I've seen timer problems like this before, but they were with the PIT (legacy discrete timer chip), but I see you have IO-APIC enabled, so you can't be having exactly the same problem.

[xerces8]

I use Cisco VPN Client v4.8 in that VM, but it was not active at the time of the last crash.
During the last crash I was running some .NET application (MS Fixit... because I was having the same Windows update applied over and over again - probably as a consequence of another previous crash)

[mpack]

I can only suggest that you post a bugtracker ticket about it, since I don't see anything obviously wrong. Also I would see if I could pin down whether the crash only happens with certain apps: it would still be a VirtualBox bug, but it might make fixing it easier.

[xerces8]

https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10815

[vDerrill]

Thanx for posting that ticket#. I'm having the exact symptoms you're describing. Running XP on windows 7 host. I'm using an AT&T VPN connection, it seemed to crash for me when I was doing large downloads. I changed the network card from NAT to Bridged and it seemed to have resolved it.....but I would rather have the NAT working....

[xerces8]

I also switched to bridged networking. Until now no crash.

But I lost the connectivity between host and guest (ping, SMB not working). Is that normal? Access to other hosts/addresses works.

[mpack]

But I lost the connectivity between host and guest (ping, SMB not working).

Did ping work previously? Win7 disables ICMP (ping) response by default. If you are using bridged then your VM is just another PC on the LAN, and things will work or not work for the same reasons as any other networked PC.

[xerces8]

I cant ping the guest either. I turned off the firewall on it.

Strange, I started the VM again, and the mentioned network problems are gone...

[xerces8]

Today it crashed even with bridged networking.

logs attached