[Solved] guest windows xp does not start

[Perryg]

I believe the reason that it is seeing the guest as needing VT-x is because IOAPIC is enabled for the guest and that would require VT-x

Note: if this was ever working with IOAPIC, removing it could damage the guest. Be sure you have a good backup before you disable it.

[scottgus1]

From the working guest's .vbox file, IOAPIC is enabled.

[Perryg]

Yup. But was it using it and was it actually using IOAPIC. this usually was done to force an XP guest to use SMP. I have seen it enabled but not actually using it. But as I said if it ever worked with it then you would have problems. because it installed the MP HAL. Only way to tell is to try after a good backup of course.

[socratis]

if it ever worked with it then you would have problems. because it installed the MP HAL

Why is that a problem? You can have the SMP HAL and have only one processor. Unless that HAL requires VT-x. Otherwise I can drop my 4-CPUs WinXP down to 1 and it runs just fine...

EDIT: I just tried it. The 1 CPU is not the problem. Disabling IOAPIC after WinXP was installed with IOAPIC enabled, freezes the guest.

[mpack]

Disabling IOAPIC after WinXP was installed with IOAPIC enabled, freezes the guest.

The reverse is also a problem. That's a pretty significant motherboard change after all.

[Perryg]

Like I said if you have the mp hal installed it will fail. But if it was installed without it and you enable the ioapic later it would still work because the guest was not really using it. It all falls down to the hal. If you have the mp hal installed even with only 1 cpu you can not disable ioapic.

[socratis]

If you have the mp hal installed even with only 1 cpu you can not disable ioapic.

Excellent! That sums it up nicely.

[Expert]

In the not working log:
00:00:03.436317 WARNING! 64-bit guest type selected but the host CPU does NOT support HW virtualization.
00:00:03.512460 HM: HMR3Init: Falling back to raw-mode: VT-x is not available

Although the guest type is being reported as Windows XP, like my XP 32-bit guests are, something about the failing guest thinks it should be 64-bit, and the host PC claims to not have VT-x to support it. The CPU, "Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU N3520" if I read right, does have VT-x. See I have a 64bit host, but can't install 64bit guests

ezzzzzzzz it's works !!!
in OptionalFeatures.exe i'm disabled for the "Hyper-V" option, and it worked, and I'm happy

Take this opportunity, I want to ask, - Why not installed Extension Pack ?

I reinstalled the VirtualBox a few times and the last time I can't to install extension pack. Start up the file Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.1.14-112924, and instead of running the installer, launches directly VirtualBox, and installation is not performed.

[scottgus1]

Ah, yes, hyper-V, that'll do it.

As for the extension pack:
First, try opening the main Virtualbox window, then go to the File menu, Preferences, Extensions, click the little yellow down-pointing triangle, and pick the Extension Pack.

If you have any errors, close the main Virtualbox window, then re-open it by right-clicking it and choosing "Run As Administrator". Try the Extension pack install again as above. If the Extension Pack installs without error, close the main Virtualbox window then re-open it normally, not with Run-As-Admin.

If you still get errors, post back and we'll try another idea.

[Expert]

scottgus1, so it installed.
Thanks for the detailed steps, to everyone who helped me.

ps/ Somewhat strangely, when disabled(unavailable) VT-x/AMD-V, not displayed software messages about not launching possibility VM for this reason. Because this can save a lot of time in search of a problem running.

the problem considered closed.

[socratis]

There are so many things that can go wrong, that it doesn't make too much sense to have specific instructions for a gazillion cases. That's why you throw "An error occurred" and you log it in the VBox.log.

I marked the topic as [Solved]...