Solved Windows 8 hangs in VirtualBox

broiyan

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I need to fix the following problem.

Sometimes Windows 8 just hangs after I look around and change some of the DVD related settings in VirtualBox. My host system is ubuntu and the guest is Windows 8.

When it hangs it is usually showing the Windows 7 desktop because I am always in that mode. I cursor to the lower left to try to the the mini-tiles but no matter what I do with the cursor, the mini-tiles do not appear. In fact, nothing works. I cannot launch any desktop applications.

In the past I solved this by simply having VirtualBox send the [DEL]shutdown[/DEL] power-off signal. Windows is ignoring the shutdown signal. Is there a Windows-centric way to fix this problem so that I can do a Windows-centric shutdown in the normal fashion or otherwise resolve or prevent this problem?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
If it's the screen/graphical part that hangs it could also be the virtual graphical driver's fault.
Does it work better without any DVD/iso inserted? Switch the virtual DVD drive in VM settings from SATA to IDE or the other way around and then try again to see if it helped.

Are you using VirtualBox WDDM graphic driver with enabled 3D acceleration in the guest?
Then yes, the screen hangs because of the buggy driver.

In that case the Scale Mode will also hang: try Ctrl+C

First try to resize the screen to see it it refreshes.
If not:

First stop the VM,
Disable 3D and the graphics would be a lot snappier without hangs.
If nothing works, uninstall the VBox graphic driver from Within Win8 Device Manager (remove driver + software) and use the built-in basic display adapter.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy DV6 7250
    CPU
    Intel i7-3630QM
    Motherboard
    HP, Intel HM77 Express Chipset
    Memory
    16GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD4000 + Nvidia Geforce 630M
    Sound Card
    IDT HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6' built-in + Samsung S22D300 + 17.3' LG Phillips
    Screen Resolution
    multiple resolutions
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 250GB + Hitachi HDD 750GB
    PSU
    120W adapter
    Case
    small
    Cooling
    laptop cooling pad
    Keyboard
    Backlit built-in + big one in USB
    Mouse
    SteelSeries Sensei
    Internet Speed
    slow and steady
    Browser
    Chromium, Pale Moon, Firefox Developer Edition
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    That's basically it.
Sorry, to be clear. I am not playing any DVD media. I am just messing with the DVD settings in "Machine, Settings, Storage" and "Device, DVD" to try to get VirtualBox's "Passthrough" enabled. It's greyed out and it seems no matter what I do I cannot get it active so that I can "check box" it.

I need Passthrough enabled because CDBurnerXP does not recognize any DVD burner present.

Reading a DVD is not a problem. It's not clear why Passthrough being disabled and greyed out does not cause a reading problem; only a writing problem.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
Burning... now that you mention it.

I never burned anything from within VBox till now because of the pass-through disabled.

Something many would say:
Why burn from within the guest? Doesn't Brasero work good on Ubuntu?

About burning in VirtualBox:
But they mention something about it in the user manual that burning is not (fully) supported and that pass-through can cause problems.

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=31459
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=21834
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=44049

In your case, it can be Ubuntu-related if the host settings of pass-through is grayed out... check also Ubuntu forums for this. But the machine must be completely turned off before enabling pass-through... so this might fix it all along.

I don't know what can be done from here but you should try the links above and try to switch the DVD drive to SATA/IDE/SCSI to check for any difference.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy DV6 7250
    CPU
    Intel i7-3630QM
    Motherboard
    HP, Intel HM77 Express Chipset
    Memory
    16GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD4000 + Nvidia Geforce 630M
    Sound Card
    IDT HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6' built-in + Samsung S22D300 + 17.3' LG Phillips
    Screen Resolution
    multiple resolutions
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 250GB + Hitachi HDD 750GB
    PSU
    120W adapter
    Case
    small
    Cooling
    laptop cooling pad
    Keyboard
    Backlit built-in + big one in USB
    Mouse
    SteelSeries Sensei
    Internet Speed
    slow and steady
    Browser
    Chromium, Pale Moon, Firefox Developer Edition
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    That's basically it.
Thanks. You were right. The guest system must be shutdown before passthrough can be enabled. Still, it is strange that the guest operating system hangs.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
Does it still hang? How exactly or when does this happen? On Desktop, by itself, during boot, when you change VM settings...

Look in previous posts about the graphics, it might be the one hanging if you use WDDM and test Scale Mode and Full Screen in the VM then minimize and restore a window. If you see some hangs with white empty screen, uninstall WDDM and try again.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy DV6 7250
    CPU
    Intel i7-3630QM
    Motherboard
    HP, Intel HM77 Express Chipset
    Memory
    16GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD4000 + Nvidia Geforce 630M
    Sound Card
    IDT HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6' built-in + Samsung S22D300 + 17.3' LG Phillips
    Screen Resolution
    multiple resolutions
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 250GB + Hitachi HDD 750GB
    PSU
    120W adapter
    Case
    small
    Cooling
    laptop cooling pad
    Keyboard
    Backlit built-in + big one in USB
    Mouse
    SteelSeries Sensei
    Internet Speed
    slow and steady
    Browser
    Chromium, Pale Moon, Firefox Developer Edition
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    That's basically it.
Hopachi, what I am doing is to shutdown the guest operating system, enabling passthrough for the device, then restarting the guest. There is no hanging in this case.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
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