Windows 8.1 guest freeze with black screen after resume from standby on host

[cremor]

If my Windows 8.1 x64 guest is running while the Windows 7 SP1 x64 host is set to energy saving mode, it is unusable after the host is resumed. At least the main screen is completely black, sometimes the second screen too. But even if one screen isn't black, to guest doesn't respond to input. I've had it one time (first shutdown in the log) where it responded to the "Shutdown with ACPI" command, but usually even this doesn't work (second shutdown in the log).

I'm also running other guests (Windows 7 SP1 x64 and openSUSE 12.3 x64) on the same host and those don't have that problem.

VirtualBox 4.3.12 with Extension Pack, Guest Additions 4.3.12 Host: Windows 7 SP1 x64 Guest: Windows 8.1 x64 CPU: Core i5-2500K, all 4 cores assigned to guest RAM 16 GB on host, 6 GB assigned to guest VT-x/AMD-V and Nested Paging active Tested PIIX3 and ICH9 chipsets and PAE/NX enabled and disabled 2 Screens No 2D or 3D acceleration enabled (but installed in the Guest Additions since you can't disable that on Windows 8)

[cremor]

Seems like the freeze only happens when the Guest Additions are installed.

[Frank Mehnert]

Does this also happen if you assign less than 4GB RAM to your guest?

[cremor]

Weird, now I can't reproduce it any more. So maybe my previous comment about the Guest Additions is wrong too and something else fixed it for me. But I can't think of anything that could affect it. All my tests with different VM settings were done on a snapshot which was later reverted.

[cremor]

Just got the freeze again, attached the log of it.

This time it was a bit weirder than usual. The host was on standby during the night. The guest worked fine after the resume (22:48 in the log). Then I started a second guest (Windows 7 SP1 x64) and put the host to standby again (23:56 in the log). After resuming the guest window flickered between the correct desktop and a black screen. I could even shortly see the Windows 8 lock screen. After a few seconds it went black and froze. I had to force shutdown the guest.

Then I did a fresh boot of both guests and tried it again, but this time everything was fine after the resume.

[cremor]

I think my problem is realted to #13068. I've also seen some freezes after mounting or unmounting an image in the drive and I just found the same DWM error in the event log of the guest. Seems like the flickering was caused by the restarting DWM, since the error is listed 9 times in just 13 seconds.

I've executed the command bcdedit /set useplatformclock true that is mentioned in the other ticket in my guest now. I'll report back if the freeze happens again.

[aeichner]

Please reopen if still relevant with a recent VirtualBox release.