Windows 7 Virtual Machine boots then Displays Black Screen

[Mickster]

I am running VirtualBox 4.2.10 on a new iMac. I set up the Virtual machine running Windows 7 and everything worked great. I went to use it a week later and now once I launch the Windows 7 virtual machine the Oracle screen appears and then the Windows 7 boot up screen appears for about a minute and then the screen goes black. All the icons in the lower right hand corner of the virtual machine seem to indicate that the machine is running fine but I have no display and the main screen where the Windows machine should show is black.

Does anyone know how to resolve this?

[mpack]

VM log file?

Minimum information needed for assistance
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=48476

[Mickster]

To address questions asked on details of setup:

Host machine: is MAC OS X LION 10.7.5 Memory 16GB 1333MHz DDR3 running Virtual Box 4.2.10 (just upgraded from earlier version hoping it would correct problem but it didn't)
Virtual Machine is running Windows 7

I have attached a Screenshot of the Virtual machine settings and the log file from when the last session was started. The Virtual machine appears to be running and have network connectivity but video display goes blank for the virtual machine only. It appears to be running with no errors. The display goes out after it says WIndows 7 with the four colorful shapes moving around.... then the screen appears blank so you never get to see the Windows desktop. I have tried messing with the Video Memory and System Base memory but it does not appear to resolve the issue.

How do I determine if I installed Guest Additions? We are new to using this product. I have it running on another computer successfully for a few weeks now.

Please advise.

[mpack]

The provided log is of an incomplete session - please shut the VM down before grabbing the log.

[Mickster]

The log I previously attached is what is produced once you have the blank screen. From there the session will just run with no display. Since I cant see the VM session screen to shut Windows down properly, I will have to close the window which forces the session to stop. I can do that and reattach a log for you if that helps. The VM session would continue to run though if I didn't force it to shutdown.

[Mickster]

OK - Attached is an updated log where I closed the window to shut the session down. Since the screen is blank/black there is no way to shut Windows down.

[mpack]

Ok, I see nothing noteworthy in the log. VirtualBox seems to be perfectly happy. I noticed that you only have 1GB RAM assigned to this VM - the official requirement for Win7-64bit is 2GB.

How long are you leaving it? It could just be taking a long time to do something on the network, especially a broken network connection. Win7 IME has a habit of doing things like that.

[Mickster]

Yes as you noticed the VM appears to be happy and the state shows as running. Also the Oracle VirtualBox icons in the lower right hand corner of the screen appear to be normal too including the network connection shows it has a valid connection. The VM session appears to be running fine. The problem is that the display is blanked out and I cannot see the Windows Desktop screen at all. It just appears as a black window. I had tried upping the RAM to 4GB and restarted the VM session but that did not resolve it and I tried starting the VM session and letting it run in the background for two hours and nothing ever changed. The VM session continually appeared as Running with no complaints but I do not have anything displaying on the VM session window except a black/blank screen with the little VirtualBox icons showing in the lower right hand corner.

Please advise.
Thanks

[rpmurray]

Have you tried changing the number of CPUs to 1 in the settings for the guest? How much video memory do you have the guest set for?

[ChipMcK]

You did activate Windows, yes?

[defjab]

I'm having the same issue. Running OSX 10.8.3 64 w/ VB 4.2.10 win 7 64 bit. It was working ok, except I had just upgraded Guest additions with the experimental WDDM Drivers. When running IE10, the screen got corrupted and eventually the host aborted. So I uninstalled the guest additions, with intentions of reinstalling with standard directx support. When rebooting from the uninstall it would stick on the black screen for a good 5 minutes before I got impatient and shutdown. I have successfully booted into safe mode and use IE10 w/o issue. I then reinstalled the drivers in safe mode, rebooted as required with the install, and it booted as expected.

So to the user having issues, I'd suggest booting in safe mode and installing guest additions. My guess is it's something to do with display drivers.

[ChipMcK]

Black Blank Screen with Windows, especially 7

Times this occurred for me

• Forgot to activate
  Forgot to turn off Sleep when Idle via Power Management
  • Clicked the screen furiously, nothing
    Went and played some hands of Solitaire
    When the vm came back; in Microsoft Update, Restart button

[Mickster]

Yes I had activated WIndows 7 when I first set it up and it was working. My issue is not the same as the other person who posted on my ad as Windows has never crashed or errored out. I see Virtualbox load and Windows 7 begin to load and all the Virtualbox icons show things as running successfully except the display turns black - only a black window appears - no errors, no crashing just no display. If it wasnt a virtual machine one would assume you had a bad monitor but the iMac display is fine so it has something to do with my virtual session and the display. Any ideas are appreciated.

[Mickster]

I did try changing the number of processors from 2 to 1 and back but it did not correct the problem. Video Memory is set to 18MB. I have noticed that in these configuration screens that it always says across the bottom - "Non-optimal settings detected" but I dont see where to see what settings it sees as not optimal.

[Perryg]

Video Memory is set to 18MB

Is more than likely not optimal. If you installed the wddm drivers when you installed the guest additions you need a minimal or 128MB. 256MB seems to help as well but not 100% necessary unless you have dual monitors.