virtualbox.org

Hoping to get some help as I'm at my wits end. My host is a Windows 7 machine. I was running Virtual Box with a Windows 10 Enterprise Evaluation Edition Image I downloaded from Microsoft's VMImage download page (can't link because new member). It ran great for the entire time of the evaluation. I was under the impression I'd be able to just activate that copy once the evaluation period ended. After a 2 hour call with Microsoft I found that this was not the case.

So I had to create a new VM Guest and install the OEM version of Windows 10 pro that i just purchased specifically for this purpose on a new ssd drive. The install went fine for the most part and everything started up. I did initially have problems with the video not supporting the correct resolutions, but then found an article recommending I install the Guest Additions CD which quickly fixed my resolution problems.

The system seemed to be running fine, however when playing back video on youtube (which the video/audio goes out of sync on every time after a few mins) or watching a shared screen via slack the Guest would crash with a "the instruction at 0x67b8bfe0 referenced memory at 0x0b09f2d0. The memory could not be read." error. I did not have this problem at all with the Guest created from the MS image.

I made sure my new guest's settings matched the settings i had for the MS instance, but it's still crashing. I suspect the crash is related to either a video or audio driver, but have had no luck with any solutions I've found here or elsewhere. The only other major difference I can think of is I installed the new guest on a new SSD drive and the old guest was on the system ssd drive. Would really appreciate some help. New to the forum, but saw there's usually a request for the log, hope I did it right.

TLDR: Microsoft's preloaded guest runs great on my machine. Loaded a new Win10Pro guest that's crashing playing back video/audio. New guest is also on a new ssd drive where the old guest was running on system drive. Loosing my mind, please help.

EDIT: I did just find that the stable guest was using the "VirtualBox Graphics Adapter for Windows 8+" and the new guest is using "VirtualBox Graphics Adapter (WDDM)". The only driver it finds when i search the Guest Additions Disk is the one the new guest is using.

Please let me know if you need anymore information from me. Pretty desperate for a solution.

00:00:01.375142 NumCPUs <integer> = 0x0000000000000004 (4)
...
00:00:01.939935 CPUM: Physical host cores: 4

You have left your host with 0 cores, which can cause instability. See previous cores vs threads discussion.

Your RAM allocation seems a bit on the high side too. Does the VM need so much RAM?

00:15:08.198959 supR3HardenedErrorV: supR3HardenedScreenImage/NtCreateSection: rc=VERR_LDR_ARCH_MISMATCH fImage=1 fProtect=0x7 fAccess=0x2 \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Users\Dave\Downloads\VirtualBox-6.0.8-130520-Win.exe: Image is for 'X86_32' and contains code (0x31800), only accepting images for 'AMD64' with code.
00:15:08.203213 supR3HardenedErrorV: supR3HardenedScreenImage/NtCreateSection: cached rc=VERR_LDR_ARCH_MISMATCH fImage=1 fProtect=0x2 fAccess=0x7 cHits=1 \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Users\Dave\Downloads\VirtualBox-6.0.8-130520-Win.exe
00:15:08.218112 supR3HardenedErrorV: supR3HardenedScreenImage/NtCreateSection: rc=VERR_LDR_ARCH_MISMATCH fImage=1 fProtect=0x7 fAccess=0x2 \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Users\Dave\Downloads\SlackSetup.exe: Image is for 'X86_32' and contains code (0x1ca00), only accepting images for 'AMD64' with code.
00:15:08.221652 supR3HardenedErrorV: supR3HardenedScreenImage/NtCreateSection: cached rc=VERR_LDR_ARCH_MISMATCH fImage=1 fProtect=0x2 fAccess=0x7 cHits=1 \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Users\Dave\Downloads\SlackSetup.exe

How are you running VirtualBox from a Downloads folder? I don't believe that VirtualBox has been properly installed.

You have left your host with 0 cores, which can cause instability. See previous cores vs threads discussion.

Your RAM allocation seems a bit on the high side too. Does the VM need so much RAM?

Thanks for the reply! I actualy have 8 cores so I just gave it half of them for CPU. For the RAM I gave it 10 of 16 GB. 6GB is plenty for what I'll do with the host while running the guest.

How are you running VirtualBox from a Downloads folder? I don't believe that VirtualBox has been properly installed.

I think that's the path of where it was installed from possibly? The installed program is running from "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VirtualBox.exe" or at least that's the target of the shortcut i use.

Let me know if there's any other info I can post that might be helpful.

TheDude42 wrote:I actualy have 8 cores so I just gave it half of them for CPU

Virtualbox, for some reason, thinks you have only 4. Whether you're right or Virtualbox is, I couldn't say. However Virtualbox is deducing it has been instructed to allow the guest to use all 4 cores Virtualbox can access, and Virtualbox has always been able to access all the cores on a host. So Virtualbox can let your guest starve the host if the guest decides to, and instability will result.

FWIW Virtualbox tends to use sections of RAM that may not normally be touched by a host OS.

So, please turn the guest processors down to 2, and put the guest memory at 4GB. Then see if you have the same crash. If you do, please post the zipped log from that crashed session, and we'll see what can be done.

Virtual Box seems to know there's 8 cores and it looks like it recommends (through the slider color) that I don't use more than half, but it will let me select more. I'll try running 2 cores and 4gb of ram, but I'd really like to be able to use those resources. The other image didnt have these problems and I even ran it with 5 cores and 12gb of ram.

TheDude42 wrote: Thanks for the reply! I actualy have 8 cores so I just gave it half of them for CPU.

Only according to AMD definitions of "core", which are extremely suspect. To everyone else, a core is a complete standalone CPU, several of which may be included in one package. To AMD, each ALU module on the chip counts as one core, even if everything else on the CPU is shared. People have sued them over this, though I believe the lawsuits failed since the common definition of a core doesn't form a contract.

The core count provided by VirtualBox is what the host OS reports. Ultimately the meaningful definition for VirtualBox will be the granularity at which AMD-v context switching applies, and as to that I have no idea. I would go with what the OS says.

It looks like they are logical cores (see screenshot), however my old guest was able to run 5 cpus and 12gb of ram and didnt crash a single time. The new host will crash even when only using 3 cpus and 10gb of ram after about 3 - 5 mins of any youtube video or trying to watch a screenshare in slack. It seems like there must be something else causing it since the original host runs solid. It feels related to video drivers since it seems to happen when i watch video or screenshares. And I did notice that the old more stable guest is using a different video driver than the new one. I just cant seem to find the old guest's driver for the new guest...
Let me know if there's any more info you need or if there's anything else I can try on my end.

Thanks!

FWIW, After the screenshot says "AMD FX(tm) Eight-Core Processor", it does say that there are 4 cores and 8 "logical processors". You should only assign three cores max to one guest. It is possible to over-provision a host with guests that total more processors than the host has cores, but don't let them all go full-throttle down the trench to keep the fighters off their tails. It is also possible to give one guest more cores than the host may have. but it is not recommended and there could be trouble.

TheDude42 wrote:I did notice that the old more stable guest is using a different video driver than the new one. I just cant seem to find the old guest's driver for the new guest

This is interesting. Are you installing special video drivers in your guests? The only valid video drivers that should be in the guest are the drivers installed by the Guest Additions, since the "video card" seen by the guest is virtual, emulated by Virtualbox. If you have installed other drivers in the guest, remove them, then remove Guest Additions, then reboot the guest, then reinstall Guest Additions.

That makes sense. But why would the stable host run rock solid with 5? Not a single crash. I only run 1 guest at a time, just trying to get the new host to be more stable. I haven't installed any other drivers, i just installed the guest additions cd for the new guest and I'm assuming the one that came preloaded from microsoft did too but with a different version of the disk. The stable guest was using the "VirtualBox Graphics Adapter for Windows 8+" and the new guest is using "VirtualBox Graphics Adapter (WDDM)". The only driver it finds when i search the Guest Additions Disk is the one the new guest is using.

I've pretty much matched up all the settings for the new guest to what i had with the stable guest. The video driver is the only difference I noticed. I did also try lowering th cpu count to 3 and ram to 10gb, but still crashed all the same.

I'm having a very similar problem with a very similar setup. Base OS = Windows 7 Ultimate. VirtualBox Graphical User Interface
Version 6.0.4 r128413 (Qt5.6.2). Guest additions for full-screen with right-CTRL-F. My guest OS is Windows 10 downloaded from Microsoft (and not activated). I get several of these type of crashes per day, the latest was this afternoon when I was hosting a very important call to executives then I couldn't advance the slide deck and felt like a fool! (I use this guest VM to VPN into my work as Cisco VPN doesn't work on Win 7 anymore). Using VirtualBox Graphics Adapter (WDDM) on Windows 10.

I run exactly 2 applications on W10: CISCO AnyConnect, and Remote Desktop Connection.

VirtualBoxVM.exe - Application Error 
   The instruction at 0x78b8bfe0 referenced memory at 0x0a5bf520. The memory could not be read. Click on OK to terminate the program
Application popup: VirtualBoxVM.exe - Application Error : The instruction at 0x78b8bfe0 referenced memory at 0x08d1f880. The memory could not be read.
Application popup: VirtualBoxVM.exe - Application Error : The instruction at 0x78b8bfe0 referenced memory at 0x08d2f2c0. The memory could not be read.
Application popup: VirtualBoxVM.exe - Application Error : The instruction at 0x78b8bfe0 referenced memory at 0x0a4ff7c0. The memory could not be read.

How do I tell what's at 0x78b8bfe0 and what's causing this problem?
-Joe
P.S. Images are on www DOT orost DOT org/VMIssue

Just thought I'd update. Never got my issue resolved. Ended up moving away from Virtual Box because of it.

TheDude42 wrote:Just thought I'd update. Never got my issue resolved. Ended up moving away from Virtual Box because of it.

What is a good alternative?
-Joe

It seems that mine crashes mostly when I'm sharing audio from the guest OS to the host OS, so I try to avoid doing that.

Snoopyjc, please start a new topic, and provide Minimum Info Needed for Assistance.

Start the guest from full normal shutdown, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the guest from within the guest OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the guest with the Power Off option set.

Right-click the guest in the main Virtualbox window's guest list, choose Show Log. Save the far left tab's log, zip it, and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab, in the new topic.