Computer hangs running Windows XP guest

[didierg]

My host configuration is the following:

• Gigabyte GA-790FXTA-UD5 mother board with AMD Phenom II X4 945 Processor
• Gigabyte ATI HD4650 graphic board
• Fedora 3.1.1-1.fc16.x86_64

My guest configuration is the following :

• Windows XP 32 bits SP3

I use the virtual host mostly for videoconferencing with Microsoft USB webcam.

Until few months ago, this configuration worked fine but now I experience hangs. When a hang occurs, both guest and host are affected and I have to do a hardware reset. Of course, If I have Linux applications opened on host, I lost data from these applications.

I try to run XP with 3D disabled and with both 3D and 2D disabled but hang still occurs.

I run memtest86+ during nights with no error and my systems is rather stable if I dont have virtual machine running.

[didierg]

Log of VM but without probleme

[Bryan R Festa]

This issue is also impacting me running Windows 7 64-bit guest, but it doesn't matter what version of Windows. 32/64 bit, XP/Vista/7, they all have random hanging. Using no video acceleration reduces the number of hangs, but it still happens.

Replying to didierg:

My host configuration is the following:

• Gigabyte GA-790FXTA-UD5 mother board with AMD Phenom II X4 945 Processor
• Gigabyte ATI HD4650 graphic board
• Fedora 3.1.1-1.fc16.x86_64

My guest configuration is the following :

• Windows XP 32 bits SP3

I use the virtual host mostly for videoconferencing with Microsoft USB webcam.

Until few months ago, this configuration worked fine but now I experience hangs. When a hang occurs, both guest and host are affected and I have to do a hardware reset. Of course, If I have Linux applications opened on host, I lost data from these applications.

I try to run XP with 3D disabled and with both 3D and 2D disabled but hang still occurs.

I run memtest86+ during nights with no error and my systems is rather stable if I dont have virtual machine running.

[didierg]

In my case this problem was due to a bug in AMD Phenom II X4 945 Processor as described in AMD note :

    379 DDR3-1333 Configurations with Two DIMMs per Channel May
    Experience Unreliable Operation

    Description
    In systems with more than one DDR3-1333 unbuffered DIMM on a channel, the processor memory
    subsystem may exhibit unreliable operation over the allowable VDDIO voltage range.
    This erratum does not apply to DDR3-1333 configurations when only one DIMM per channel is
    populated.

    Potential Effect on System
    Memory system failure leading to unpredictable system behavior.

    Suggested Workaround
    In a configuration where two unbuffered DDR3-1333 DIMMs are populated on one channel, BIOS
    should derate DDR3-1333 system memory to 533 MHz operation (DDR3-1066) by setting the
    DRAM Configuration High Register[MemClkFreq] (F2x[1, 0]94[2:0]) to 100b and adjusting
    memory subsystem timing parameters accordingly.

    Fix Planned
    Yes

This note is note longer available on AMD site but is available at ​http://bbs.ocer.net/attachment.php?aid=249547&k=abca0d6eecd6ec492b235dcb4a822ce7&t=1322831057&sid=9qqbq5

I removed two DIMMs and it solved my problem.

[Frank Mehnert]

bmfesta2009, as the problem was a hardware problem for didierg, is this still an issue for you?