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Windows XP Guest Reboots Continuously

I recently purchased a new Lenovo T410 with an i7 processor to replace my T410 with an i5 processor. While I’m a heavy user of Dropbox for files and portable versions of many applications I use on a daily basis, I tend not to place my Virtual Machines on Dropbox … go figure :-p. This saves me a ton of time when setting up a new machine since my documents, photos, etc. are automagically copied to the machine once Dropbox has been installed. Add LAN sync to the picture and you’ve got a pretty fast way to provision a new machine

In the process of preparing my new machine, I installed VirtualBox and manually copied over the VDI and XML configuration files. Everything was looking good, until I tried starting one VM which of course had some very important software running on it.

The VM kept rebooting, again and again without stopping to show me the BSOD detailing why. Figuring it was something to do with the drivers I booted into safe mode and tried uninstalling and reinstalling VBox Addons. After rebooting, I was once again caught in the never ending reboot cycle.

I jumped back into safe mode and disabled the automatic reboot after a BSOD (See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/174630 for details on doing this) and rebooted once again, with my fingers crossed.

Success! I was finally able to see the cause of of the BSOD:

Stop 0x000000CE (0xF7A3C8F8, 0x00000000, 0xF7A3C8F8, 0x00000000)

Stop: 0x000000CE (0xF7A3C8F8, 0x00000000, 0xF7A3C8F8, 0x00000000)

intelppm.sys

So now I have something Google/Bing that actually describes what’s happening. Moments later, I come across a Tickt #420 – http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/420, which references this Stop error, but isn’t an exact match to my symptoms. At this point, I’m willing to try pretty much anything to get my VM back up and running, so I follow xok’s instructions

  1. Boot Into Safe Mode + Networking (F8 @ startup)
  2. Go to %Systemroot%\Inf\ and delete all OEM#.inf
  3. Search for intelppm.sys in the c:\windows\ (search for hidden directories and system files) – Delete the 3 results of intelppm.sys
  4. Reboot the Guest
  5. Reinstall VBox Additions (might need to do this a couple times to get everything functioning @ 100%)

And BOOM! I’m back alive.

{ 13 comments… add one }
  • Eric March 7, 2013, 4:32 pm

    Your post here helped me migrate from VMplayer to Virtualbox, thank you.

  • John April 26, 2013, 5:05 pm

    helpful post thanks!

  • SegFault May 21, 2013, 2:06 pm

    Works like a charm. Lifesaver!

  • Fernando Figueiredo July 19, 2013, 7:19 pm

    Great post!

  • Jeremiah Johnson September 8, 2013, 4:46 pm

    Fantastic – thank you!

  • Tim Brust November 4, 2013, 4:20 am

    You sir are a genius!
    This solved the problem when I tried to run the modern IE VM!
    Thank you.

  • Frank Thomas December 29, 2013, 5:39 am

    Bestens
    VDI wurde mit VAIO erzeugt.
    Durch Systemwechsel auf Lenovo T420 kam es zu diesem Fehler.
    Lösung – einfach die intelppm.sys (1x) aus dem SYSTEM32 Verzeichnis und die OEM# Einträge löschen.
    2x Starten und es läuft!

  • Artur January 9, 2014, 8:35 am

    Greetings!

    One more guy saved by the author of the post!

    Please accept my deepest words of a thank you!

    Sincerely,
    Artur

  • Gilberto Ramos January 17, 2014, 9:22 am

    Thanks man!! You’re awesome..

  • Suvigya January 20, 2014, 9:00 pm

    Thanks Man! Awesome! Back Again………

  • Marcelo March 13, 2014, 8:00 am

    It works for me. Thanks man!

  • Julio May 21, 2014, 7:21 am

    Hey Randall,

    Thanks a lot for this post is awesome and just straight-forward.
    It worked for me using LinuxMint 16 “Petra”, and trying to run my VM with WinXP.
    Thanks!

  • Anonymous September 26, 2015, 8:37 am

    Thank you. It saved me.

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