Guest additions eat up to 100% CPU resources with Windows XP

[gojul]

DO : launch Windows XP VM with guest additions 4.3.2 DO : run Windows Update EXPECT : all run fine ACTUAL : process svchost.exe eats all the available CPU, making any update actually impossible.

Host : Ubuntu Saucy AMD64

Reproducible on two different hosts with two different XP VMs.

[josiasmat]

Windows Task Manager showing svchost consuming 99% CPU.

[josiasmat]

I can confirm this behavior. I'm running Windows XP with VBoxHeadless v4.3.2 on a ClearOS 5.2 x86 server. Probably related to this forum post: ​https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=58147

[someguest]

Confirming here too, with Virtualbox 4.3.4 on Windows 7 64-bit host. Related to #451?

[Mihai Hanor]

This is not a bug related to VirtualBox. Real machines are affected, too... See here, as an example:
​http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1176387-xp-windows-automatic-updates-svchostexe-100-cpu-ms-did-something/page-10
​http://marc.info/?l=patchmanagement&m=138447194406363&w=2

Basically, you have to install the latest Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer, version appropriate. You can confirm that this is a Microsoft Windows bug, by downloading Process Explorer ​http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653 and checking which thread, from the svchost.exe process, is keeping the CPU busy.

[someguest]

Thanks! It seems to be working now. Maybe this should be a FAQ or even a warning inside VirtualBox until Microsoft fixes the problem (if they do)?

[Frank Mehnert]

I don't think we will add a warning. There might be already a warning somewhere in the forums but we will definitely not extend VirtualBox as this would open an endless story.