virtualbox.org

Host: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, fully updated
Client: Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit, fully updated
VirtualBox 6.1.4r136177

I am getting a supR3HardenedWinReSpawn error on a virtual machine that has worked flawlessly for quite a while. The problem started after a power failure while the VM was running. The VM is supposed to boot from a physical disk, and I can indeed boot Linux on the real machine from that disk with no problems. I've read what I could find here and elsewhere, but couldn't find enough guidance to solve the problem. I've run System File Checker. I've uninstalled VirtualBox and then reinstalled it from scratch, selecting Run as Administrator. I've deleted the virtual machine and created a new one. I've made sure virtualization didn't somehow get turned off in the BIOS.

1/3 of the way down in the log file I see

1fb0.1b3c: Error -104 in supR3HardenedWinReSpawn! (enmWhat=5)
1fb0.1b3c: Error relaunching VirtualBox VM process: 5

The only other thing that looks like an error is near the end:

1fb0.1b3c: supR3HardenedMonitor_LdrLoadDll: error opening 'C:\Windows\system32\wintab32.dll': 127 (NtPath=\??\C:\Windows\system32\wintab32.dll; Input=C:\Windows\system32\wintab32.dll; rcNtGetDll=0x0
1fb0.1b3c: supR3HardenedMonitor_LdrLoadDll: returns rcNt=0xc0000034 'C:\Windows\system32\wintab32.dll'

That refers to a file tha doesn't exist on my system, or on either of the other two Win7 systems I've got, so I doubt that's the problem.

So can anyone help me figure this out? I've attached my log file.

This hardening log is unfinished, meaning (I think) that some part of the guest process was still running when you copied the log. So it's missing the final exit code that can point to a solution, see Diagnosing VirtualBox Hardening Issues

The Wintab error is not important. Wintab32.dll is a Windows driver for a tablet input device. The error never stops the hardening from OKing the guest. All of my Windows host's hardening logs point out this error, and all my guests run just fine.

I'm not sure about the "Error relaunching VirtualBox VM process: 5".

Try to get a log that ends with "supR3HardNtChildWaitFor: Quitting: ExitCode=0x'something' ", then zip and post it. Close the guest window before taking the log.

Funny, this time it's actually a little shorter. Something's non-deterministic.

FWIW, here are captures of the popups:

The new log seems to end fully with "ExitCode=0x1". See the Diagnosing tutorial linked above.

Unfortunately most of what the tutorial points out to do is what you've done already:

pderocco wrote:I've run System File Checker. I've uninstalled VirtualBox and then reinstalled it from scratch, selecting Run as Administrator.

I do not recall what "Microsoft Security Essentials" looks like in the hardening log, but that "Microsoft Malware Protection" sounds just a bit squiffly to me. I might be wrong. Do you have any official Microsoft antivirus running? Some bad guys try to fake things to look like you're getting official programs when you're not...

It is possible for a live power loss to kill a file then render that file unable to pass security checking of various sorts. If another "sfc /scannow" doesn't do it, then I am at a loss.

I'm still trying to get this to work.
I used System Restore to unwind Windows back to before the problem occurred. No change.
I redid Windows Update to get back to the "present" (at least for Windows itself). No change.
I reran SFC, and this time it found and fixed a couple of errors, probably unrelated. No change.
I uninstalled VirtualBox, and then installed the latest. This time, it actually tried to boot, but said there was no bootable drive.
I tried again and hit F12. It showed me one SATA drive present, but when I selected it, it said it wasn't bootable again.
I rebooted my physical machine from that Ubuntu disk just to make sure it was still bootable. It was.
I rebooted back into Windows, and tried VirtualBox again. Now I'm right back to the same old hardening error.

This is crazy. It's telling me that it's getting a VERR_INVALID_NAME (-104) - Invalid (malformed) file/path name, but it's not telling me what the malformed name actually is, let alone what it thinks it is trying to open or for what purpose. The log it produces is pretty huge, but there's nothing in it that seems helpful. (And nothing that seems meaningfully different from the last time I tried this.) How do I diagnose this? Do I have to pay for support or something?

I wouldn't care, except that I can't get VMWare Player to work either, for unrelated reasons. And I'm not aware of any other VMs that will let me run Ubuntu under Windows. My only other option is to buy another physical machine to run this on.

Your situation sounds quite frustrating, and I wish there was more info we could give you. So far the hardening tutorial is all we've got.

There is a less expensive solution/workaround to your PC's problem: Switch out the PC's physical disk with a new disk. Install the host OS again fresh, then install Virtualbox to see if you get the hardening error. Then use WSUSoffline https://download.wsusoffline.net/ (version 11.9 is the last supporting Windows 7) to run the updates much faster than Microsoft can do them. Then try Virtualbox again. If no hardening errors, install each of the other programs you had installed on the original host disk, one at a time, then a reboot, then try Virtualbox. If you get through the whole list of programs and Virtualbox still works, sometimes a reinstall fosters coexistence.

If you run into a hardening error after a install/reboot, then that program might be causing the problem. Uninstall it, then try Virtualbox again. If you find that hardening error happens after WSUSoffline finishes, wipe the drive and reinstall the W7 OS, then manually run each layer of WSUSoffline, rather than let it restart itself, with a test run of Virtualbox.

Another consideration: W7 is EOL, and as of late 2019 Microsoft was letting people license W10 for free with their W7 license. They might still be doing so. Try getting W10 with MS's Media Creation Tool and upgrade.