Extremely Slow guest performance

[cornbread]

two days ago I started having extreme slowness issues. It seems that even the smallest task takes an extreme amount of time. Installing a printer took me over 10 minutes.

Ubuntu Gutsy Host and Windows XP Guest at all times when the guest is running it is using 100% of one of the guest's cpu cores. Host is Athlon X2 5400+ with 2GB ram.

Anything I can look at to see what the issue might be?

[human77]

I am sure you installed Virtualbox 2.1.2 . I just went back to 2.1.0 and everything works as it should. 2.1.2 is terrible for me (ubuntu 8.10 host/win xp guest)

[ppgrainbow]

I am sure you installed Virtualbox 2.1.2 . I just went back to 2.1.0 and everything works as it should. 2.1.2 is terrible for me (ubuntu 8.10 host/win xp guest)

I installed VirtualBox 2.1.2 a couple of days back and I noticed that speed on Windows XP Home Edition guest decreased by as much as 50%.

Also, I can't play FlightGear on XP Home guest, because it didn't work. I'll try filing a bug report later today to see what happens.

I can still use the Windows XP guest OS under the latest version of VirtualBox, it'll remain partially workable until a newer version of VirtualBox comes out soon.

[cornbread]

This happened to me while using 2.1.0 then I upgraded to 2.1.2. I'll give it a shot anyway though.

[cornbread]

I see a definite improvement going back to 2.1.0. I'll post back after my normal users try it out.

[cornbread]

Another user in my network reports 2.10 is giving us the same issue. There is definately something wrong. This is a fresh 2.10 windows install (not a downgrade)

[kicmac]

I went back to 2.0.6 from 2.1.2 and the network performance was increased (back) by the factor of fife (using network debug with KITL).
The host is a mac-pro, guest winXP.

[sandervl]

I believe I have fixed this regression today. If you wish to try out an internal build, then let me know by private msg.

Thanks.

[margay]

I am using openSUSE 11.0 as host and Windows XP Professional SP3 as host.
The VirtualBox version is 2.1.2. I have also a slow performance due to high cpu usage (100% for one CPU) even when no application in windows xp is started.

[sandervl]

I've received positive feedback from most users (others have other issues), so it's no longer necessary to request access to this internal build. 2.1.4 will be released soon. (hopefully next week)

[junkfer]

Actually i using Win XP guest since 2.0.6, since near 2.1.2 i have this cpu usage 100% and XP very slow effect too. I upgraded the vbox to 2.1.4 before writed this message and checked what the situation is. The single XP guest boot process is at least 5-10 minuite, with 768 mb RAM and Sempron 1,8 GHz CPU. Its a simple XP, not an everything installed.
The CPU is veawing in 20-25 sec period from 100% to 0%, but do this 0% only for 5 sec, after this runing on 100%. The mem usage is 85%, load curently 2,3.

I must say, that was there XP guest ACPI shutdown too, and Host reboot with powerbutton... I probed Defrag the Xp, but not solved the problem. Anything else wha i doing can? RTFM? Thanks the help....

[JeepeeS]

Same terrible performance with Win XP guest for me. I had installed Win XP on Virtualbox 2.1.2, but as it had an unworkable performance I gave up and hoped on 2.1.4 to fix it.
The Vbox Host is ubuntu intrepid 8.10, 1.8GHz with now VBox 2.1.4, having 1.2G Memory, using 500MB ubuntu and allocated 600MB for XP (only 240MB is used in XP when started up)
Speed is fast if you're managing windows or menus in the already active windows, but as soon as a process needs to be started and specially when it seems to perform IO , it is really unworkable.
A windows update in XP takes 15 mins while this only takes 2 mins on a non virtualized XP.
The Virtual Harddisk activity is constantly on.

Another Vbox Guest Win2K runs like lightning on the same Vbox host.
Hope that this gets fixed soon.

[junkfer]

hi Every1!

I could solve my problem. Here is what i make, with some warnings (!!!):

- Complete uninstall the previous versions of vbox. Which is:
Package removing,

(- if the virtual machines disk images (.vdi's) is in $USERHOME/.Virtualbox, then moving somewhere other directory to save.)

- rm -r $USERHOME/.Virtualbox (directory is in user home)

- after this install and configure VBox 2.1.4 , specially: knowing how the hard drives was attached in previous versions (sata or ide)

And it's finished. The guest worked for me in full speed whitout any processor or load problem.

Many thanks for the problem's solving to SUN!!!

[rbscott]

I noticed the same behavior, but it is not consistent. Sometimes, the startup time is 3 minutes, and others it will be upwards of 10. I am seeing the exact same behavior in the beta, but the variation appears to be slightly smaller. In the beta version it looks like 3 minute or 7 minutes. I am running a Windows XP host, with Debian Lenny guest running 2.6.26. Any insight into this issue would be great appreciated.

[rbscott]

Turns out it can be slow even with VT-x/AMD-V enabled, so please ignore this theory.

So I have a theory.

Many users have reported that created a new Virtual Machine and restarting with a previous image caused the virtual machine to run faster. Skeptical, I tried this (and it worked) and so I ran a diff on the config files. In the diff, most of the changes were trivial, but here are a few key differences.

• Networking, Host to NAT, (I tested with it in Host and it was fine so I ignored this one.)
• USB Is now enabled by default (previously it was disabled by default, and so this setting will not change on upgrade.)
• Audio is now enabled by default (previously it was disabled by default, and so this setting will not change on upgrade.)
• Most notably, <HardwareVirtEx enabled="false"/> is now <HardwareVirtEx enabled="true"/> by default.

Could there be a change in 2.1.4 that made machines running with VT-x/AMD-V disabled run slower? The interesting point is that even if VT-x/AMD-V is disabled, occasionally the startup times are the same as if it were enabled? I just don't understand why it wouldn't be consistently fast or slow.