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Dragon NaturallySpeaking won't start in Windows guest

Posted: 6. Sep 2010, 01:41
by zzantozz
I've got VBox 3.1.8 r61349 in an Ubuntu 10.04 host, and I'm trying to install Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10. I've tried it on two VMs: Win XP Home 32-bit and Win 7 Enterprise 64-bit. In both cases, the install goes fine, but in both cases, when I try to launch Dragon, the splash screen appears, and it just sits there indefinitely using 100% CPU. In searching, I've found numerous reports of people who are able to run Dragon on a VBox guest without a hitch, but I haven't found anybody who seems to have the problem I'm having. Any suggestions?

Re: Dragon NaturallySpeaking won't start in Windows guest

Posted: 6. Sep 2010, 01:45
by Perryg
Audio in a Windows 7 guest is dicey at best. It should run in the XP guest if the settings and what-not are adequate.
Post the XP guest log file (as an attachment) and let us have a look.

Re: Dragon NaturallySpeaking won't start in Windows guest

Posted: 6. Sep 2010, 02:29
by zzantozz
I'm happy with getting it running in whichever guest. Historically, Dragon has been more at home with XP 32-bit, which is why I tried that one specifically. I've attached the VBox.log from running it again just now. After starting the VM, I let it sit idle for a while, then started Dragon, which shows up as a DLL loading at 00:01:14.112 in the log. It did its splash screen + 100% CPU thing. I let it sit for several minutes and shut down Windows, which starts at 00:07:21.729 in the log. Dragon had to be terminated forcefully. It's worth noting that there are no errors apparent in the Dragon logs, either. Also, all of the Dragon logs are written within the first few seconds of running except for the last log entry that happens about 3 minutes in.

Re: Dragon NaturallySpeaking won't start in Windows guest

Posted: 6. Sep 2010, 02:57
by Perryg
Only suggestions that I can give at the moment is to upgrade to the latest VirtualBox version ( 3.2.8 ) as there has been numerous improvements since 3.1.8
Also since the host is using Pulse audio. Install the pavcontrol and leave it running on the hosts desktop and see if it works that way. If so let me know and I will tell you where to look for your answers.

Re: Dragon NaturallySpeaking won't start in Windows guest

Posted: 6. Sep 2010, 03:33
by zzantozz
Perryg wrote:Also since the host is using Pulse audio. Install the pavcontrol and leave it running on the hosts desktop and see if it works that way.
Do you mean "pavucontrol" (http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/pav ... /#overview)? Isn't that just a GUI for controlling the sound system?

Re: Dragon NaturallySpeaking won't start in Windows guest

Posted: 6. Sep 2010, 03:59
by zzantozz
Installed pavucontrol and opened it, then ran VBox and Dragon with the same result.

Uninstalled virtualbox-3.1 package and installed virtualbox-3.2 (version 3.2.8-64453-Ubuntu-lucid) from the repo. Same thing again.

I'm going to completely reinstall Dragon and try it again.

Re: Dragon NaturallySpeaking won't start in Windows guest

Posted: 6. Sep 2010, 16:10
by zzantozz
Same thing after reinstalling Dragon.

Re: Dragon NaturallySpeaking won't start in Windows guest

Posted: 6. Sep 2010, 16:22
by Perryg
http://www.google.com/search?q=Dragon+N ... n+starting

I see a lot of reasons here. Maybe one will help you.

Re: Dragon NaturallySpeaking won't start in Windows guest

Posted: 19. Sep 2010, 02:53
by zzantozz
Solved!

I completely reinstalled everything from the host OS up, and now Dragon starts normally. I suspect it was a problem with the hard drive--the physical hard drive, that is--as I ran into some other odd problems and specifically got a lot of errors when trying to modify my partition tables. I reinstalled Ubuntu 10.04 (my host OS), wiping my existing partition tables, then installed a Windows XP Home 32-bit guest and Dragon, and it works fine. Thanks for all the help.

Re: Dragon NaturallySpeaking won't start in Windows guest

Posted: 19. Sep 2010, 02:56
by Perryg
Great.

Re: Dragon NaturallySpeaking won't start in Windows guest

Posted: 23. Sep 2010, 14:58
by mrodent
Hello,

Do you have adequate quality for the mike in this setup? I have DNS 8 pref in XP guest in a Ubuntu 10.10 (beta) host with a good USB mike ... sound comes thru but it is SCRATCHY... too low quality for dictation.

Have you guys got around this at all?

Re: Dragon NaturallySpeaking won't start in Windows guest

Posted: 4. Oct 2010, 20:09
by WhisperingChaos
Using VirtualBox version 3.2.8
Host OS Windows 7 64bit
Guest OS Windows XP SP3 32bit.

Encountered the same problem symptoms above: on an attempt to initiate Dragon, Dragon Splash (logo,banner) screen would appear and then the process would hang at this phase - just displaying the splash screen. This occurred in an XP Guest that was installed to a VirtualBox VM (not p2v). This guest was configured to support IO-APIC and multiprocessors (2) cores. Dragon 10.0 was initially installed from a CD and when this didn't work, installed service pack 1 for 10.0. Still no luck. Since I had been experimenting with single/multi processor support, I decided to disable the multi processor IO-APIC support and configure with only a single processor. To do this:

1. Obtain a copy of the single processor HAL kernel drivers. They're on the CD somewhere but it was easier for me to simply install the OS. Make sure that you're installing or will upgrade to the same XP service pack level as the multiprocess XP Guest that hosts the Dragon software.
1.1. Create VM with typical defaults but ensure IO-APIC and multprocessor support is disabled.
1.2. Install Windows XP to this newly created VM.
1.3. Copy the following files: hal.dll, ntkrnlpa.exe, and ntoskrnl.exe from the "?:\Windows\System32" directory of this newly installed single processor image to a USB key.
2. Return to the running multiprocessor Windows XP Guest.
3. Make copies of the multiprocessor HAL kernel drivers - permits you to easily restore (dynamically) multiprocessor support.
4. Copy the HAL single processor drivers, from the USB key, over the current multiprocessor ones located in the "?:\Windows\System32" directory.
5. Windows Hardware wizard will notify you of a change that requires a reboot. Turn Off the machne.
6. Change the VM settings to disable IO-APIC and reduce the supported processor total back to one.
7. Start the VM.

When you power up the VM, you'll be running a single process non IO-APIC configuration. Once you are able, start Dragon Naturally speaking. It will now finish loading itself and be ready for training.

I credit "Scott R" for providing the necessary procedure to affect the HAL kernel drivers in his blog here: http://scottr27.blogspot.com/2010/03/ad ... to-32.html. As stated in his blog, I'm not responsible if the above procedure renders your VM unbootable.