virtualbox.org

Hi,
I have an issue with a Windows XP64 Pro guest, namely it does not shut down. Whether I chose to shut down the VM directly in Windows or via the VM menu (shutdown ACPI), I got the same problem, the screen "Windows is shutting down" is displayed and the VM stays at this stage. I am currently running the last version of Virtualbox (4.3.10 for Ubuntu quantal_amd64) on Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS, but the issue has been happening with the last 3-4 releases of Virtualbox.
I cannot move away of Windows XP64 Pro yet as I have got some software that will run only on this platform so far.
Strangely, when I restart the VM, I do not always get a warning screen saying that Windows did not shut down properly.
Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Rv

Post edited, I was indeed talking about a Windows XP64 guest!! Sorry.

You say "Windows host", do you actually mean Windows guest?

If yes, please read Minimum information needed for assistance.

hi,
Guest indeed... sorry. I have edited my post.
Cheers,
Rv

Please click the link I gave you, and provide the requested information, particularly a VM log file.

Hi,
Ok thanks, I did not see your post, I'll get the requested log files.
Cheers,
Rv

Hi,
Sorry for the delay. Here are the informations:
Host: Ubuntu 12.04.4LTS, 16Gb RAM, core i7-2600 @ 3.4GHz
Guest: Windows XP 64 (fully updated) on Virtualbox 4.3.12 r93733, 4Gb allocated memory, 4 CPU, 128Mb of video memory, 3D enable
Please find the latest log attached.
Cheers,
Rv

The supplied log file shows the VM fully shutting down.

Please zip log files before posting them. I've done it for you this time.

OK sorry for not zipping the file, will do next time.
I manually shutdown the machine because it was stuck on the blue "Windows is shutting down" screen for ages.
Anything else I could do to help you solve the problem?
Cheers,
Rv

Typically you see this when Windows is looking for something and can not find/deal with it. I have seen the sound portion cause this, but it could be just about anything. Try using the ACPI shutdown in the top menu bar under Machine and see if it works properly.

It should be noted that Windows apparantly locking up during a shutdown is a well known problem on physical hardware too. It means that it's waiting for something else - a third party driver or server or app, or a network API - to repond to the shutdown/disconnect message.

I have had several XP guests over the years refuse to shut down completely, especially when Automatic Updates or Shutdown.exe calls for a reboot within the guest. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't, I've never been able to figure out what causes it.

On XP guests that are required to fully reboot and restart by themselves, I ensure that the guest does so even when such a seize-up occurs by having scripts running on the host and guest to notice when the guest is not responding. There's two ways I've done this, with a Guestproperty change when Guest Additions could be installed, and a heartbeat file on a host shared folder when GAs can't be installed.

The guest script is a VBS script (so it can run invisibly), triggered by the guest Task Scheduler, that will set a Guestproperty value every so often (every thirty seconds for my script). The host script can be either VBS for invisibility or a command window batch file for visual status updates. The host script resets the Guestproperty and waits a certain amount of time for the guest to set the Guestproperty again. If the Guestproperty gets set again, the guest shows it's in a position to run VBS scripts and is therefore still running. VBS scripts won't run when the guest has attempted to shut down and is seized, so the host script will time out and call Vboxmanage to kill and restart the guest.

If GAs can't be used, the guest script can write the heartbeat file to the host shared folder, and the host script can delete the heartbeat file and wait for it to come back again, killing and restarting the guest if it doesn't come back.

Hi scottgus1,
Thanks for your reply, although I have to say that this sounds very complicated to me and I do not know how to do what you suggested (scripts, etc..).
Although the problem is annoying, I do not the VM to restart by itself, I noticed the problem during automatic update and manual reboot. I think I'll live with the problem and do hard reboot/shutdown as I really don't know how to implement your solution and do not have the time to learn and implement this.
Thanks anyway for replying.
Cheers,
Rv

The script solution sounds complicated to me as well. Personally I would just look at the guest's task list just before the shutdown and guess who the culprit is going to be (I'm assuming all obviously running apps have been closed at this time). I expect the issue will be with some third party application or driver - something not as well proven as Windows. Apps can be temporarily disabled to see if they are the cause. VirtualBox GAs are quite well proven too - though not, I suppose, for 64bit XP.

I never knew how to implement it either, Rvboutin, until I took the time to figure it out. All DOS batch file commands and VBS script commands, built-into Windows, help files freely available and googlable. Not complicated at all to implement. But since it's not necessary to have auto-recover for your guest, at least you know it can be done.

I'm curious, as well, how to fix this, Mpack, as I've had it happen before, too. But I'm not seeing how to show the task manager while the guest is shutting down. Unless you mean to kill off some stuff then try to reboot and see what happens...

I didn't say to do it while shutting down. I said - just before. Basically, check out what's still running and shouldn't be.