Machine starting slowly all of the sudden - Windows 10

[Nikolas43234]

Hello,
machine is nvme and started fast. Now it starting very slowly. There is black screen and 4 windows windows stretched, looks like some glitch. It is clean installation and i don't use it almost for anything. Not sure what's happened. It is windows 10 pro x64. Only 3 cpu are checked and 4gb ram and other settings to default. I would give more info, but i have simply no idea what it could be... Ask me what do you need.

I included the log!

Thanks for answer.

[scottgus1]

I don't see anything awry in the log myself. 3 of 6 cores in the guest, I'd try 2, because the extra core will slow down the guest unless there's a third core's worth of data that wants to be processed. Windows gets by fine on 2 cores.

I am unclear which "machine" is being referred to here:

machine is nvme and started fast. Now it starting very slowly. ... It is windows 10 pro x64. Only 3 cpu are checked and 4gb ram and other settings to default

FWIW you have set to 6000MB, about 5.8GB, but that should not be a problem.

The part I'm fuzzy on is whether the host or guest is supposed to be using NVMe disks and has gotten slow.

If it's the host PC then it's not necessarily Virtualbox that is causing the slowness that I can see. You'd have to check the Task Manager for major resource users.

If it's the guest, the VM, that has gotten slow, then we might have a solution, if the guest was also supposed to use NVMe:

00:00:01.976976 Installed Extension Packs:
00:00:01.976992 None installed!

The Extension Pack provides NVMe, and you don't have it installed in the host main Virtualbox window.

[Nikolas43234]

I clicked on machine, which was problematic to gather log, there shouldn't be any other machines, but i dunno.

So i downloaded extension pack and in documentation: in instructions how to install... is double click file and network manager window is shown. I have vbox running and double click extension, yet nothing is shown. And there is only one download: "all supported platforms".

[scottgus1]

How to install the Extension Pack on a Windows host:

First, download the correct Extension Pack (EP). The EP version must match all three version numbers of the Virtualbox version. Examples:
Match:
Virtualbox 6.1.12, EP 6.1.12
Not a match:
VB 6.1.12, EP 6.1.10

There is only one EP for all supported host types. Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris all use the same EP file.

You must close all Virtualbox guests and the main Virtualbox window. No Virtualbox processes can be running.

On Windows hosts, you must run Virtualbox as Administrator to uninstall or install the EP.
(This is because the default location fir the EP is in the install folder for Virtualbox, which is in C:\Program Files, and writing in that folder requires admin privileges. Windows might ask for administrator permission if you start Virtualbox normally when going to install the EP, but failures have been reported on the forum. Manually running Virtualbox as Admin sets up the proper permissions from the beginning.)

Move the downloaded EP file out of your account's private Downloads folder to the C:\Users\Public\Downloads folder.
(Running Virtualbox as Admin moves the running program into the Admin account environment, and it is possible that Virtualbox will not be able to see the regular account's private folders.)

Right-click the main Virtualbox window's icon, choose Run As Administrator. Provide UAC permission and admin password.

Open the File menu, Preferences, Extensions.

On the far right, click the square icon with the green plus + :

no extension pack box.png (82.84 KiB) Viewed 3705 times

Browse to the EP file in C:\Users\Public\Downloads. Select the EP file then click Open.

In the confirmation window, doublecheck you are installing the correct version of EP, and click Install. A license window will open. (Read it, of course... ) Scroll to the bottom of the license, then click I Agree.

The EP will install, and you will receive a confirmation window. Click OK to the confirmation.

extension pack box.png (94.65 KiB) Viewed 3705 times

Click OK in the Preferences box.

Close Virtualbox and wait a minute for the underlying VboxSVC.exe to close. Don't run virtual machines while Virtualbox is running as Administrator, it's dangerous.

Reopen Virtualbox and enjoy the Extension Pack!

[Nikolas43234]

So i installed extension and it had 0 difference. Again this is basically clear system. I don't know what happens. But first time when windows is starting there was no artifact. Now i see 4 windows logos stretched on screen next to each other and they have white color only. Weird. It happens with all my machines, after while. When i installed system, it started very fast and was snappy. Now it is very laggy and launching slowly.

[scottgus1]

Please provide another zipped log.

Start the guest from full power off, 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.

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

[fth0]

But first time when windows is starting there was no artifact. Now i see 4 windows logos stretched on screen next to each other and they have white color only.

I believe this is a red herring: I'm also seeing this behavior for several years now, without having problems with my Windows VMs. It happens when Windows 10 changes the resolution from 1024x768 to the resolution of the login screen. It is probably an artifact of the VirtualBox graphics driver which is installed with the VirtualBox Guest Additions, and that's the reason you don't see it on the very first start of the VM. BTW, on some of my hosts I see the same picture you describe, on other hosts I see other graphical artifacts instead.

[Nikolas43234]

Please provide another zipped log.

Start the guest from full power off, 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.

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

So i did what you asked, there is the zipped log.

[fth0]

00:03:35.627290 /TM/CPU/00/cNsExecuting           13054863427 ns
00:03:35.627294 /TM/CPU/00/cNsHalted             180554439049 ns
00:03:35.627297 /TM/CPU/00/cNsOther               19098668572 ns
00:03:35.627301 /TM/CPU/00/cNsTotal              212707971048 ns

First of all, the guest OS is halted most of the time, and the corresponding pauses can be witnessed in many timestamp differences after Booting from Hard Disk....

00:00:02.030439 [/Devices/ahci/0/LUN#0/Config/] (level 5)
00:00:02.030441   Path       <string>  = "D:\Program Data\Virtual Machines\Snapshots\Windows sandbox testing\{a53f67fa-48da-4c2f-beee-cae44fc0e97c}.vdi" (cb=110)

00:00:02.030443 [/Devices/ahci/0/LUN#0/Config/Parent/] (level 6)
00:00:02.030444   Path   <string>  = "C:\Users\Montana\VirtualBox VMs\Windows sandbox testing\Windows sandbox testing.vdi" (cb=84)

00:00:02.030455 [/Devices/ahci/0/LUN#2/Config/] (level 5)
00:00:02.030457   Path       <string>  = "D:\Program Data\Virtual Machines\Snapshots\Windows sandbox testing\{1b5ef0af-0503-4985-b84d-4743f5e25d16}.vdi" (cb=110)

00:00:02.030458 [/Devices/ahci/0/LUN#2/Config/Parent/] (level 6)
00:00:02.030459   Path   <string>  = "D:\Program Data\Virtual Machines\Windows sanbox testing\Windows sandbox testing_2.vdi" (cb=86)

What's peculiar, is your arrangement of the two virtual hard disks and their snapshots, being situated in three different folders on two different physical hard disks. Note that because of the nature of snapshots, the first virtual hard disk is the union of all disk sectors of the two files containing them. The disk accesses to the two different physical hard disks will probably be synchronized by this, leading to bad consequences. You can see the amount of data accessed on the two virtual hard disks here:

00:03:35.627205 /Public/Storage/AHCI0/Port0/BytesRead   688725504 bytes
00:03:35.627209 /Public/Storage/AHCI0/Port0/BytesWritten 51460096 bytes

00:03:35.627248 /Public/Storage/AHCI0/Port2/BytesRead     5691904 bytes
00:03:35.627252 /Public/Storage/AHCI0/Port2/BytesWritten   262144 bytes

[Nikolas43234]

First of all, the guest OS is halted most of the time, and the corresponding pauses can be witnessed in many timestamp differences after Booting from Hard Disk....

I boot from NVME.

What's peculiar, is your arrangement of the two virtual hard disks and their snapshots, being situated in three different folders on two different physical hard disks.

Wait what? What concerns this machine, i have on NMVE main disk on which is installed system in Guest OS. Than second disk in Guest, is just for data and i use normal hard disk. Than in other folder there is a snapshot. I don't want this to be taking space on NVME. But what concerns other, it is other virtual machine. I don't know if you can take log only from 1 machine. I did as you asked me.

Note that because of the nature of snapshots, the first virtual hard disk is the union of all disk sectors of the two files containing them. The disk accesses to the two different physical hard disks will probably be synchronized by this, leading to bad consequences. You can see the amount of data accessed on the two virtual hard disks here:

So you shouldn't take snapshots, if your machine has more than 1 disk? So you think, this cause this issue?

I think best would be reinstall and avoid using snapshots what so ever. I don't need them for this machine, that much...

[fth0]

So you shouldn't take snapshots, if your machine has more than 1 disk? So you think, this cause this issue?

In a normal setup, you have one folder per VM, containing the virtual computer (.vbox file), the initial virtual hard disks (.vdi files), and a subfolder named Snapshots containing the newer contents of the virtual hard disks (.vdi files).

In your setup, the first virtual hard disk has its initial part on C:, and its newer part on D:. Imagine your guest OS loading several hundred files one after another when booting, and the files are distributed over C: and D:, and this is already the simplified picture. You should decide to put the whole VM folder either on C: or on D: (speed vs. size).

[Nikolas43234]

So you shouldn't take snapshots, if your machine has more than 1 disk? So you think, this cause this issue?

In a normal setup, you have one folder per VM, containing the virtual computer (.vbox file), the initial virtual hard disks (.vdi files), and a subfolder named Snapshots containing the newer contents of the virtual hard disks (.vdi files).

In your setup, the first virtual hard disk has its initial part on C:, and its newer part on D:. Imagine your guest OS loading several hundred files one after another when booting, and the files are distributed over C: and D:, and this is already the simplified picture. You should decide to put the whole VM folder either on C: or on D: (speed vs. size).

It doesn't even makes sense, i put one on C and than i created 2nd disk on D for data. Don't know how that even happened. But thanks. I reinstalled it and now it is fine and i rather created backup inside machine.