Windows Server 2012 & black screen on boot?

[Kumba]

But stumped on this. I installed Windows Server 2012 into a VM on a Windows Server 2008 R2 host, VirtualBox 4.0.16, and got it fully configured in workstation mode. It worked fine. A day later, I go to power ot back up, and it boots, but all I get is a black screen now. No amount of reverting snapshots or changing the hardware setup is getting the desktop back. Afraid I am going to have to re-install it again, which sucks, but I'd like to know what I messed up on so I don't repeat it.

I'll post a Vbox.log if needed, but there is nothing special about my setup, so I'll list out the interesting bits:

• Host: Windows Server 2008 R2
• Config:
  • CPU: Intel i7-960
  • RAM: 16GB
  • Storage: Hardware RAID5, SATA
• Guest: Windows Server 2012 Standard
• Config:
  • CPUs: 3
  • RAM: 2GB
  • PAE/NX
  • VT-x
  • Nested Paging
  • IOAPIC
  • Absolute Pointer Device
  • PIIX3 Chipset
  • Display 128MB, 1 Monitor
  • 3D enabled, 2D enabled
  • 35GB SATA, IDE/CD-ROM, PIIX4
  • No audio, no serial
  • USB 1.0/USB 2.0
  • One shared folder w/ the host
• Using VBox 4.2.0 Guest Additions (see note below on why the version mix).

I think what bit me is the 3D driver bug that also affects VMWare users. I tried their solution for getting into Safe Mode, but that is a no-go. Safe Mode, Boot logging, etc, none of these options seems to activate the video driver properly. The repair your computer option, however, does show an interface, but once you try to boot into the OS, it's just the black screen all over again. There is CPU and Network activity, so it points further towards the 3D Driver bug. I think at this point, my only option is to totally scrap the VDI (I'll use a disk shredder on it to get some satisfaction back, *grumble*).

As for mixing VBox 4.0.16 w/ a 4.2.0 driver, well, I have several VMs with some rather archaic OSes. Including NetWare 6.5. As of mid 4.1.x, NetWare is utterly broken in VBox, and you get a GM_INVALID_GUEST_STATE error, or an ABEND (NW's idea of a BSOD or Oops), depending on your luck at that given moment. I've opened a ticket (#10728 through 10730) on this and a few other NW errors, but virtually no response from the developers. So I am stuck on 4.0.x until someone fixes NetWare support. That all said, the 4.2.0 driver worked fine. I went through multiple reboots, even fully shut the VM down to do snapshots (but not the VM control panel thing). But once I fully closed the VM panel and started it up a day later, that guest OS is totally fubared now.

Anyone else run into this and knows of a fix by chance?