Windows crash dump won't work properly with additions installed => Fixed in SVN

[bifferos]

Guest: Windows XP, SP2. Host: Slackware 13.0 (also reproduced on Windows 7 host) Reproduced with these versions: v3.1.4, v3.1.6

Steps to reproduce: My computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Startup and recovery. Ensure memory dump is on.

Set the following registry entry (assumes PS/2 keyboard):

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters]
"CrashOnCtrlScroll"=dword:00000001

(Don't forget to reboot) This will allow you to 'blue screen' on demand.

Hold down right ctrl and press 'scroll lock' twice, to get crash dump.

Without additions installed, Windows writes a memory dump as expected.

With additions installed, the guest locks up, consumes 100% cpu and no memory dump appears. Sometimes (but not always) the machine recovers and reboots, but in either case no dump is written.

[bifferos]

This may have something to do with the mode switch back to text mode for the blue screen. I suspect it's due to the additions graphics driver incorrectly dealing with that scenario.

I've just recalled (although it didn't occur to me before) that on shutdown I often get the guest freezing and I'm forced to power off the VM. It could be a related issue.

[Mihai Hanor]

I have tested Windows XP SP3 as guest OS with GA installed and Notmyfault app to generate a BSOD inside it
​http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/Notmyfault.zip

The VM hangs with some screen corruption.
If I attempt to close the VM window, the Close Virtual Machine window appears, while the content of the VM window changes in the background, displaying part of the actual BSOD screen image. By canceling the Close window, the whole BSOD screen becomes visible.

[Thijs Brobbel]

I ran into the same problem, invoking the 'kill VM' window results in the BSOD.

Uninstalling the GA-tools results in a working BSOD out-of-the-box.

[Mihai Hanor]

it's same thing with 3.2.4

[bifferos]

Bump. Still seems to be an issue in V4.0. (v4.0.4 tested). It's a real nuisance, can someone look into it?

[sunlover]

We are aware of this problem. It is caused by VBox graphics driver. We will see what can be done to fix it, but it is not the highest priority here.

[bifferos]

I guess you don't have too many users developing windows drivers, so I can understand it's not a priority. The problem for me is that there is no work-around. Not using the VBox driver is not really an option as it makes using the virtual machines difficult. My machine may exhibit a problem perhaps once in a month, and I need to get the crash dump when the machine is in exactly that state to track down the problem. I can't go back in time and disable the display drivers once a fault has occurred. I will really appreciate if you can fix it, or even provide some kind of work-around, like "Run program X before taking the crash dump". Anything will be better than nothing! Thanks.

[sunlover]

There is a new additions ISO with a partial fix for the problem:

​VBoxGuestAdditions-r73849.iso

The guest is able to write the crash dump but to see the BSOD screen you'll have to Pause and Resume the VM. I hope this is better than nothing :)

[bifferos]

@sunlover - Of course it's better than nothing :-D. Tested on Win XP and working nicely. I haven't analysed the crash dump but it looks the right size.

Thank you very much for taking the time to fix this, you probably have many demands on your time!

[Frank Mehnert]

We think that we finally found and fixed the problem. The fix will be part of the next 4.3.x maintenance release.