id summary reporter owner description type status component version resolution keywords cc guest host 8948 VBox unable to start virtual machine due to strange character in .vbox file => Fixed in SVN Andre Carvalhais "Hi, After launching Virtual Box, on my Linux Host (Debian Squeeze 64 bit, VBox binaries from the official virtualbox.org repositories) one of my VM's (Windows 7 Guest 64 bit) is listed as not being accessible according to the following error message: {{{ PCDATA invalid Char value 3. Location: '/home/carvalhais/Máquinas Virtuais/Win 7 - Trabalho/Win 7 - Trabalho.vbox', line 618 (3), column 36. /home/vbox/vbox-4.0.8/src/VBox/Main/src-server/MachineImpl.cpp[679] (nsresult Machine::registeredInit()). Código de Resultado: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005) Componente: VirtualBox Interface: IVirtualBox {d2de270c-1d4b-4c9e-843f-bbb9b47269ff }}} Googling around, I came across some other users having the same issue (see topic http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&p=187762 in user forums), and as one of them suggested, editing the .vbox file revealed a strange character that was preventing the machine from start (in my case I just removed it, and the VM started working again). Apparently in none of the cases anything was done to introduce the error. I also noticed we were all running 64 bit Debian based hosts and 64 bit Windows 7 guests, so this may be a particularized error. I cannot confirm this error was introduced after upgrading VBox itself or the Guest Additions (as it is suggested in the user forums topic), since I was able to run the VM after the upgrade without any problems for a couple of times. However, the problem appeared after Windows did an automatic update (I do not know if this can interfere with VBox engine). Attached is my original .vbox files (with the strange char still in it). Thanks in advance, wishing to hear from you soon, André." defect closed other VirtualBox 4.0.8 fixed invalid char, unaccessible Windows Linux