unable to change power settings in windows guest.

[Ann]

This is the option which i am unable to change to "Never"

Error.JPG (51.73 KiB) Viewed 2362 times

Hello,

Guest os : windows 8 64 bit
Host os : windows 8 64 bit
RAM : 8 GB

i am unable to change the option " Hard disk turned off " to never in windows 8 guest . because of this the windows 8 guest is powered off automatically after 20 minutes if it is in idle state. this making me to start the guest os again and again. i changed the sleep mode to "never" then also no change in the issue.

i tried to change the value to '0' also but it is not accepting any value. if i increase the value to some thousand minutes say 200000 minutes then also it is powering off after 20 minutes.

the issue is in all windows 8 guests only ( i have 3 windows 8 guests). but windows 7 and windows 8.1 guests are working fine.

i am attaching the image above.

can anyone solve this?

Thank you.

[mpack]

Which VBox version? VM log file?

Please read Minimum information needed for assistance.

[Ann]

Win 8 2014-08-11-12-02-35.log

Windows 8 guest log file

(88.41 KiB) Downloaded 7 times

Hello,

1 ) The virtual box version is 4.2.6.

2 ) I didn't install Guest additions.

3 ) Please find attached log file.

Thank you.

[mpack]

I'm not sure how power management configuration works in Win8. I don't recall anyone reporting problems with 4.2.6 power management (and incidentally, 4.2.6. predates Win8). However, what happens if you select a different power profile in that pulldown menu, the one which currently says "Balanced"? I'm think that Win8 itself won't let you change a power saving profile into a non power saving one.

I stopped using 4.2.6 quite some time ago, however I can tell you that in 4.3.12 I am able to set the hard drive timeout to "Never" in an XP guest, and it does store this setting.

I should also mention that I'm not at all sure that these settings have meaning. The hardware is virtual, so it draws no power regardless.

[Ann]

Hello,

log in with the administrator user and change the settings then check. this will solve the issue.

[Ann]

i am unable to change the option " Hard disk turned off " to never in windows 8 guest . because of this the windows 8 guest is powered off automatically after 20 minutes if it is in idle state. this making me to start the guest os again and again. i changed the sleep mode to "never" then also no change in the issue.

please check the license of windows 8. if the license is expired then try to activate it. and check for windows update settings and choose " install updates automatically " if and only if your windows 8 license is activated.

because it often checks for updates and validates the license and power off the machine if license is not activated.

so activate license as soon as possible.

Thank you.

[BillG]

I am running Windows 8.1 on Windows 8.1 with VirtualBox 4.3.14 and, although it doesn't offer the "Never" option, I can set it to a six digit number without doing anything out of the ordinary. That's a lot of minutes!

[mpack]

Still, that's a workaround rather than a fix. Do you agree with the OP that it doesn't allow 0?

[BillG]

Yes, it will display Never if you scroll past 2.

[loukingjr]

I believe Ann is correct. I just checked my Activated 8.1 guest and have no trouble setting the Hard Disk setting to Never.