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windowsdockervirtual-machinevirtualbox

Docker causing VM's to fail - black screen


Windows 10 N Pro, version 2004

I had a few different OS VM's setup before I decided to try Docker out.

After installing it and realizing I better stick to VM's I went on my Virtualbox, tried starting my old VM's and couldn't get past the boot screen - the issue is it goes to a black screen.

I created a few new VM's all resulting in the same issue. I tried restarting the machine, Windows Restore, trying different BIOS settings, uninstalling docker, reinstalling Virtualbox, increasing VRAM to 128MB, uninstalling subsystem for Linux, disabling the Hypervisor and sandboxing. The only thing that let me interact with the VM was enabling EFI - although after choosing "boot" option I had the same black screen.

After trying all possible solutions on SO and Google I stumbled upon a comment (which unfortunately I can't find) which pinpointed that Docker installer explicitly overwrites VM/Hypoer registries or processes. I don't know if that's the issue however it is the case.

How can I get my VM's running again without reinstalling Windows?


Solution

  • It sounds like the problem is: 1) You were successfully running VMs with VirtualBox on Windows 10 Pro, 2) You installed Docker, 3) Docker broke VBox. Correct?

    Look here:

    https://superuser.com/questions/1290051/virtualbox-no-longer-works-after-uninstalling-docker-on-windows-10.

    1. Control Panel -> Programs and Features
    2. On the left side choose "Turn Windows features on or off
    3. Uncheck Hyper-V
    4. reboot
    5. After reboot you have to reinstall/repair your installation of VirtualBox with the original installer!
    6. Reboot again and it should work 🙂

    In general, please try posting these kinds of questions on https://serverfault.com or https://superuser.com. StackOverflow is for "programming" questions.