virtualbox.org

First, I'd like to say thanks for VirtualBox. I love it!

VirtualBox Version: 5.0.8 r103449 (but I've reproduced the problem on several older versions)
Guest Additions: Not installed, because I get a BSOD before I can un-install the Linux distro version
Host: Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
Host Memory: 8192 MB
Guest: Linux Mint 17.2 "Rafaela" - Cinnamon (64-bit)
Guest Memory: 8192 MB
VM Log File: Attached
VBoxStartup.log: Couldn't locate this
msinfo32.txt: Couldn't attach. File too big.
WinDbg.txt: Attached

I just got a new laptop, and installed VirtualBox. I was able to get the install of Linux Mint 17.2 to go OK, but anytime I'm running the guest, I will get a BSOD within 1-10 minutes. I've downgraded to several different versions of VirtualBox, and I still get the BSOD. I'm getting a generic STOP: 0x00000124. WinDbg says that the process is "System" and the module name is "GenuineIntel". The error is:

WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR (124)
A fatal hardware error has occurred. Parameter 1 identifies the type of error
source that reported the error. Parameter 2 holds the address of the
WHEA_ERROR_RECORD structure that describes the error conditon.

I don't believe this is a hardware error though, as I have done the standard hardware tests, and I have not experienced a BSOD when VirtualBox is not running. I'm happy to provide more information if needed. This is very puzzling to me as I have VirtualBox running on several other boxes with Windows 7 and have not seen this issue. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

No suggestions at all? Are there any VirtualBox devs on this forum? I really need to get VirtualBox running on this laptop so I can develop when I'm on the road. Thanks!

This is a forum from users for users, some developers appear from time to time...

You have configured the guest VM with 4 cores which doesn't leave a physical core free for the host to run Vbox. Try lowering it to 3 or 2.
Also 8GB RAM for the guest is a bit much with only about 12GB free.

Hey Martin, thanks for the reply. It turns out that I finally figured out what the issue was. I had to Google for a week until I hit the magic combination. I'm suffering from this: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/14641. My laptop has an i7-5700HQ, which is one of the affected processors. Can't get a bios update, so I got a refund, and now I'm trying to verify that the 6700HQ doesn't suffer from the same issue. Hopefully this will save somebody the time I spent to figure it out.

A newer BIOS is not the only way for the CPU to receive the right microcode update. The OS can also update the CPU firmware. A system driver can also be designed to do it.
I haven't tested it, but look here: https://labs.vmware.com/flings/vmware-c ... ate-driver

Later edit: I have tested the VMware CPU microcode update driver, it seems to work under Windows 8.1. My Intel CPU already has the latest microcode, the driver only reported that an update is not necessary.