Wit's End -- XP powers down immediately upon startup

[camsna]

Afternoon (or morning or evening wherever you are) folks! After hours and hours, I'm too lost to continue and I hope you can help.

Particulars:
Host OS - Mac OS X 10.6.8
Guest OS - Windows XP, SP3
VB Version - 4.2.16 r86992

Symptom:
Guest OS powers off immediately after (maybe even while) the Windows loading splash screen. No BSOD. Doesn't reboot; powers off.

Precipitating conditions:
VM was running. Went to lunch. Came back -- VM was in "powered off" status.

What I've tried:
Booting in avery kind of Safe Mode, last known good configuration, disabled restart on BSOD -- no joy
Disabling all of the unnecessary host hardware (serial, USB, NIC, Audio, etc.) -- no joy
Creating a new virtual machine and importing the existing disk image -- no joy
Messing with various parameters and settings out of sheer desperation -- no joy
Soaking chicken bones in witch fat oil and burning them in sacrifice -- no joy

I'm out of ideas. I'll attach the .log file. I'm suspicious of the following lines, as I can't imagine what, within the guest OS, would be requesting a power down:
PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: IDLE IMMEDIATE, CmdIf=0xe7 (-1 usec ago)
PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: aborting current command
Guest requests the VM to be turned off
Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'POWERING_OFF'.


Lil' help?

---
Cam

[socratis]

00:00:11.234514 Guest requests the VM to be turned off
00:00:11.234575 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'POWERING_OFF'.

Your XP guest is requesting the power-down. I would suggest to check the energy/power settings on XP and turn them off.

Also I would strongly suggest that you upgrade to the latest and greatest VirtualBox 4.3.20.

[loukingjr]

Don't know that it will fix your issue but your extpk and vb version don't match.

[camsna]

Thanks for the advice. I had checked for updates within VB, and it said I had the latest version. Obviously (derp), this isn't the case. So I'ma install the latest edition of VB in the morning and report back.

Also, I can't get XP to boot up, so I can't modify its energy settings.

Thanks again!

---
Cam

[mpack]

Actually, it doesn't matter if you have the latest VBox version or not. All that matters is that you install the matching version of the extension pack.

If that doesn't fix your problem then tell us where this XP image came from?

[camsna]

Updated VB to 4.2.18
Verified that the extpk and VB versions match
Still no joy

The disk image is a Windows XP installation that I did through Virtual Box a couple of years ago. It has worked (except for the occasional minor hiccup) since then.

[mpack]

You should post a new log if the current one is no longer accurate.

Otherwise, I'm seeing no evidence that the VM is faulty - the guest seems to be powering down itself. It seems to me that this might be an OS activation issue. Perhaps this is something you should ask about on a PC support forum.

[camsna]

What I've done:
Updated VB to 4.3.20
Booted the VM to ERD Commander and did a chkdsk followed by a system restore of XP to a time just before I started having this problem

Where I'm at:
Same damn place. Except now the VM in the VB Manager list says 'Aborted' as opposed to 'powered off.' I suspect this is just an interface update between the previous and current versions of VB. I've attached a new log of a single boot attempt. It's virtually identical to the previous log. I'm particularly interested in these lines:
PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: IDLE IMMEDIATE, CmdIf=0xe7 (-1 usec ago)
PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: aborting current command
Guest requests the VM to be turned off
Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'POWERING_OFF'.

I understand that it seems like the guest OS is requesting a power down, but I can't divine why that would be. I've made no relevant changes to XP (so far as I can tell or imagine). And I restored the OS back to a pre-problem system restore checkpoint. And, before I had this problem, it was working. All I did was leave for lunch, like I do nearly every day. And when I returned the VM was powered down, unlike how it is when I return from lunch nearly every day.

Any new ideas? Thanks!

[socratis]

Yours and my XP VMs and logs are almost identical. I simply have 768MB RAM and PAE enabled. So, a couple of thoughts:

• Lower your RAM to something less than 2GB. PAE, I don't think it matters.
• If that doesn't work, install a 2nd XP VM, then attach your 1st HD as a secondary hard drive and do a chkdsk. Or, if you have a rescue ISO which can check and fix NTFS, do that (assuming that your VM has NTFS). You may have disk corruption in your VM.

[Perryg]

Can you start the guest in safe mode?

[camsna]

Thanks!

I can NOT boot into safe mode. Same problem. Starts booting -- powers off ("Aborted"). I have already done a chkdsk. It found and corrected a couple minor errors.

No joy. *sad trombone*

[socratis]

Can you please post a zipped "/Users/imac/VirtualBox VMs/Stonehaven Windows/Stonehaven Windows.vbox"?

[camsna]

Can you please post a zipped "/Users/imac/VirtualBox VMs/Stonehaven Windows/Stonehaven Windows.vbox"?

Sure thing. I'll post the current .vbox as well as the previous .vbox.

In case you haven't followed my ramblings. When the OS wouldn't boot, I created a new VM using the same VDI. Accordingly, I've attached the .vbox from the NEW VM as well as the previous VM. Both refer to the same VDI file. I'll post them as .TXT files in another post.

[camsna]

.TXTs of the old and new VBOX files...

[socratis]

I created a new VM using the same VDI. Accordingly, I've attached the .vbox from the NEW VM as well as the previous VM. Both refer to the same VDI file.

That's not what I meant. The problem seemed from the get-go to be with the .vdi, not with the .vbox. What I meant is:

1. Create a new VM called TestVM.
2. Install Windows XP. Fresh. Minimal.
3. Once installed, shut down TestVM, and add as a second hard disk the "Stonehaven Windows.vdi".
4. Boot TestVM and run disk tests on the "Stonehaven Windows.vdi"

Alternatively to installing XP, try to boot your existing VM from the Hiren's BootCD (http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/) and continue with the above steps. It's much faster if you ask me...

Of course, remember three words: Backup, backup, backup.