virtualbox.org

zakimirza88 wrote:I'm experiencing the same problem.
The VM freezes entirely with even the mouse pointer not visible.

This is not the same problem that I have. I can use the guest, it just freezes for a split second every few seconds.

Hi folks,

I've been experiencing the same symptoms for months, on multiple host machines of differing spec, and seem to have a found a solution for my issue.

tldr Disabling audio on the virtual machine configuration, or changing the audio controller from ICH AC97 to Intel HD Audio seems to completely solve the issue consistently for me.


My symptoms

Essentially, with a Windows 10 host, any time I run a non-headless VM (any guest OS) I experience stutters in either input processing or graphics output on the host. For example, if the VM window is in the background and my browser and mail client are in the foreground, when I alt-tab between them the window switcher overlay freezes for a second. Or if I type an address into the browser (or any text, anywhere, really) I have to wait for a second or two for the cursor to catch up. It makes the host *and* guest virtually unusable.

If I run the VM in headless mode, I don't get this issue. However that's only useful for pre-prepared machines as I can't get through the installation process when setting up a new one.


Observations

I noticed that the Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation process was using 3%+ CPU constantly, a few seconds after starting the guest OS boot. This was even the case on a text-mode Linux guest with no audio playing (on either the guest or the host). As soon as I killed the VM, that process returned to 0% CPU. Whenever I play audio on the host, the process jumps back to around 3% CPU but doesn't cause any stuttering or input lag, leading me to believe that the issue is in VirtualBox's audio subsystem (rather than the Windows audio driver or Audio Device Graph Isolation process).


The solution

Disabling audio on the virtual machine configuration, or changing the audio controller from ICH AC97 to Intel HD Audio seems to completely remedy the symptoms.

@fckgw, thanks for letting us know what works for you. I haven't run into guest display freezes in my 6.0.14 host, but I'll try this if I do get the freezes.

fckgw wrote:If I run the VM in headless mode, I don't get this issue. However that's only useful for pre-prepared machines as I can't get through the installation process when setting up a new one.

Running a guest headless temporarily disables 3D acceleration. Maybe 3D is the issue with the freezing, or a conflict between 3D and audio. I don't typically run guests with 3D on, so that may explain why I don't get the freezes.

FWIW running a guest 'headless' isn't a real 'headless' environment. The guest OS still has a video card. (True headless is caused by running wit the 'None' choice in the guest's Display Graphics Controller settings.) With any of the other video cards, and the guest running 'headless' or 'detachable', the guest runs with no 3D acceleration, and you can choose to have the guest window show or not. When running 'headless' you can use the guest's Virtualbox RDP server to see the guest window via a MS-RDP-compatible client viewer. Virtualbox RDP shows from the 'BIOS' screen onwards, and you can view the Installation of guest OSs over the RDP client.

fckgw wrote:tldr Disabling audio on the virtual machine configuration, or changing the audio controller from ICH AC97 to Intel HD Audio seems to completely solve the issue consistently for me.

Sadly that doesn't work for me. I've always used Intel HD Audio.
But I will try disabling audio completely. And I'll also try version 6.1.

VirtualBox 6.1.2 still has the same problem.

Another user also posted a comment to the ticket saying that a Linux guest shows the same problem. So it seems like that it isn't Windows specific after all (at least not for the guest - it might still be specific to Windows hosts).

Also freezing frequently since update from 5 to 6.1

Hi,
try to turn off transparency effects in Win10.
This helped to fix my freeze issues.

Hi!

I have the same problem.
I use Ubuntu and VB for several years.
It was rock-solid on 16.04 LTS with VB 5.2.
But unfortunately month ago I wanted to "refresh" my installation (on DELL Vostro) as Ubuntu 16.04 is closing to EOS. So I upgraded to Ubuntu 20.04 and VB 6.1.

I came through little horror, I was close to giving up and downgrading and loading all VMs from backup.
Fortunately I have found one combination where it is not freezing:
Ubuntu 20.04
VB 6.1 (currently 6.1.16_Ubuntu r140961 from Ubuntu repositories)
Kernel 4.4.247-0404247-generic #202012020839 SMP --> this one I have found after testinmg with many others.

That is the only configuration where it works for me. With all Canonical official kernels (5.4.0-65 is the last one) system freezes within 1 hour from start.
The same with 5.8.18.

In above configuration (Ub-20.04, Ke-4.4.227, VB-6.1) system doesn't freeze.
However I would really love to use Canonical&Oracle officially supported configuration!

Regards!
Gruby

I am still checking sometimes new kernel upgrades from Canonical.
It is much better now with:

Ubuntu 20.04.02
VB 6.1.16_Ubuntu r140961
Kernel 5.4.0-66-generic #74-Ubuntu SMP

As this allows me to listen music through HDMI , what doesn't work with 4.4.247,
I work more on this kernel now.
I have also found that some of my system freezes come from this unbelievable BUG

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1033386 ... bugging-it

I have also found that solution with deleting browser history described above really works.
So I can say that "system is stabilizing". That's good.

Regards!
Gruby

@grubyilysy Why are you posting your Linux system freeze problems in this thread? The topic here is short display (not system) freezes on Windows (not Linux)!

Plus the thread is 2 years old, plus the xxx_Ubuntu builds are third party builds, not supported here.

Mpack, this was my first post to the forum, please assume as mistake of a rookie.
I have searched for "freeze" and found this thread, and did not want to start posting with opening a new one.

And BTW., do You suggest that questions related to xxx_Ubuntu VB builds should not be asked here at all?
I assumed this is "community forum", not official from Oracle, and xxx_Ubuntu builds are still VirtualBox builds.
Immediately after upgrading to Ubuntu to 20.04 I worked on VB 6.0 downloaded directly from Oracle,
but system was freezing even worse, so I have reinstalled VB to build from official OS libraries,
this helped a bit so I have left it as I assume it has more chances to be compatible with host OS.

BTW after cutting Firefox history my system (when running official kernels from Cannonical) freezes only when I start some XP guest (what definately is still bad),
so far it has never stopped when I run Ubuntu or Win10 guests.

grubyilysy wrote: And BTW., do You suggest that questions related to xxx_Ubuntu VB builds should not be asked here at all?
I assumed this is "community forum", not official from Oracle, and xxx_Ubuntu builds are still VirtualBox builds.

Well, you make a good point, but this is a community forum with resources provided by Oracle and intended to support the official Oracle VirtualBox builds, because we know exactly what those builds do. We don't know how third party builds may have been modified, so for that you should go to the people who may have modified them.

In the meantime there is absolutely no reason why you can't be using an official build, downloaded from this site. And in fact we expect you to do so if you continue on this forum.

cremor wrote:But I will try disabling audio completely.

What happened when you tried that last year?

If it resolved your problems, or if you suspect them to be audio-related, please try the following VirtualBox test build:

---

VirtualBox test build(s) for audio problems

On the VirtualBox test builds page, you'll find the VirtualBox stable branch test build 6.1.23r145004 (or newer). The audio functionality underwent extensive changes, and the VirtualBox developers are interested in getting positive as well as negative feedback regarding audio playback and recording. Please mention the host OS, the guest OS, the Host Audio Driver and the Audio Controller (from the VM configuration in Settings > Audio), and describe any misbehavior as detailed as possible. Thanks in advance.

fth0 wrote:What happened when you tried that last year?

I don't remember exactly, but I think it didn't help with the problem.

I've since stopped using VirtualBox completely, so I can't say if newer versions than 6.1.2 still have the problem.