XP: Stuck on 4-bit color and choppy performance

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
Jickel
Posts: 3
Joined: 9. Aug 2008, 21:51

XP: Stuck on 4-bit color and choppy performance

Post by Jickel »

I'm currently running WinXP as guest on an Arch Linux host on an EeePC 701 with 2GB of ram. With the default XP video driver, performance is good and everything seems to work well, but with the guest addition video driver I get stuck on 4-bit color depth and horribly choppy performance (screen redraw etc).

I'm running virtualbox 1.6.4, and the XP machine is set to 512 MB base memory (tried 192 MB before) and 64 MB video memory (tried 8,16, and 32 MB before).

Once it actually flickered to a higher color depth when trying out different display modes, but it soon switched back to consistently showing 4-bit no matter which mode I had set the machine to.


I haven't found any mention of this issue elsewhere, I hope it's possible to resolve. :/
Jickel
Posts: 3
Joined: 9. Aug 2008, 21:51

Post by Jickel »

So everybody's completely clueless regarding this matter? :/ I haven't gotten any further myself, might have to try out Vmware instead then...
TerryE
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Post by TerryE »

Sorry, but its a supply and demand thing. We are dying under the popularity of VBox -- lots of Q and only a few volunteers willing to put in 4hrs a day answering them! None of the ones that do has an eeePC, so answers don't come 'off the top of the head' on this one.

What I can tell you is that many eeePC users have used VBox successfully so why not have a search? See the Forum Posting Guide for hints have to do this effectively. Also try the eeePC forums because I have seen posts there also.

Good luck if you can get VMware working; I used to use the server package a lot and I liked it. Its just that for windows VMs like XP (i) VBox is a lot more responsive and (i) the install footprint is a lot smaller.

Sorry that we couldn't help this time.
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Sasquatch
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Post by Sasquatch »

Another idea. What if you install a brand new VM? Does it do the same?
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plingboot
Posts: 1
Joined: 29. Aug 2008, 16:49

Post by plingboot »

I'm having the exact same issue with an XP guest under Ubuntu 8.04 (on an eeepc 701).

It was working wonderfully with virtualbox 1.5 but for some reason I thought I should upgrade to 1.64... mistake. Previously I could go full screen in 800 x 480 without any issues. Now I get awful choppy 640x480 in 4 bit colour.

I can get round it by uninstalling the virtualbox video driver and rebooting. I'll then get a range of 32bit resolutions (but not the native 800x480 - which makes it pretty much unusable) and I'm nagged about drivers for found video hardware... of course if I install the video driver it wants, it'll boot into 4 bit colour. Can anyone help?
EGottlieb
Posts: 3
Joined: 27. Aug 2008, 14:27

Post by EGottlieb »

just a completely off the cuff suggestion, since I don't have one of those to try it on, but does it work any different if you are connected to an external monitor? I couldn't imagine that the odd resolution could cause any problem, as I can resize my VBox screen to any size with the additions installed and it seems to work, but it was just a thought...
Turionaltec
Posts: 1
Joined: 30. Sep 2008, 06:24

I have this problem/solution

Post by Turionaltec »

I have a 701 4G EeePC running Windows XP as the host.
Once i install the guest extensions (video driver) on the XP guest, after restart it can only run 640x480x4 bit. The workaround (for XP hosts at least) is to increase the host resolution to 800x600 (the mode where it will scroll to follow the mouse) before booting the guest. It will then load the proper video drivers. Once loaded I can decrease the host resolution back to 800x480 and the guest will resize accordingly, and function fine.

i don't know how to accomplish this in Linux hosts, but yes the low resolution of the host apparently causes this.
zeke009
Posts: 6
Joined: 30. Sep 2008, 16:40
Primary OS: MS Windows 7
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Fedora, Ubuntu, Win8

Post by zeke009 »

I just setup a WinXP VM last night on my system and once it loaded WinXP SP3, this video bug started for me.

My host system is:
WinVista 64 bit
Core2 Duo 2.13GHz
6GB DDR2-800
Nvidia 8800GT 512MB
These VM's are running on a 80GB SATAII drive

Resolved
I installed "Guest Additions" and all is well now.
Chasake
Posts: 7
Joined: 21. Oct 2008, 22:40

Post by Chasake »

All of a sudden I am experiencing the same problem. I have two XP guests running on Ubuntu 8.10 beta (32 bit). I can only choose 800x600 4bit color or 640x480 4bit color. I removed my guest additions (which were quite old but still worked yesterday), installed the latest version. After reboot the amount of colors was ok, but after another reboot required by the guest additions, the colors were back to 4 bit. Both guests have the same problem.

I ran another machine using the same harddisk VDI on another PC with Ubuntu 8.04 (64 bit), but the problem persists.

Any clues? The Windows driver says under 'list all modes' that only 800x600 and 640x480 is supported, both in 4 bit.

If I start Windows is VGA modus the colors look a lot better. Not sure if this is 8- or 16-bit. The strange thing however is that when going into display preferences, it says it is in 4-bit mode, although it absolutely does not look like that.
Sasquatch
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Post by Sasquatch »

Check the parameters you can pass to the installer of the Guest Additions. Once you know how to skip the video, remove the GA, reboot so Windows will use it's VESA driver, and install the GA without the video driver. This seems to be a limitation of VB on the EEE laptop. If there isn't already, please open a bug ticket with this issue. See the VirtualBox FAQ for a link to the tracker. You do need a separate account to create and add info to bugs.
Read the Forum Posting Guide before opening a topic.
VirtualBox FAQ: Check this before asking questions.
Online User Manual: A must read if you want to know what we're talking about.
Howto: Install Linux Guest Additions
Howto: Use Shared Folders on Linux Guest
See the Tutorials and FAQ section at the top of the Forum for more guides.
Try searching the forums first with Google and add the site filter for this forum.
E.g. install guest additions site:forums.virtualbox.org

Retired from this Forum since OSSO introduction.
Chasake
Posts: 7
Joined: 21. Oct 2008, 22:40

Post by Chasake »

I do not own a EEE PC but a MSI Wind, also having a screen with a lower-than-average resolution (1024x600). The problem seems to have something to do with this.

I did find a solution: if you see the sloppy 4-bit screen, just log into Windows as normal. It will look ugly at first, but as soon as you switch to full screen mode, the screen turns normal again. When you switch back after this, the screen remains ok :).

I assume this is a guest-driver problem, maybe I will file a bug report later.
metacircle
Posts: 6
Joined: 17. Nov 2008, 16:16

Post by metacircle »

I am experiencing the same problem on my eeePC 1000. I doubt that it is a problem with the graphics chip, as it is a usual Intel onboard 945.

Still haven't found a solution to solve it...
Sasquatch
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Post by Sasquatch »

metacircle wrote:I am experiencing the same problem on my eeePC 1000. I doubt that it is a problem with the graphics chip, as it is a usual Intel onboard 945.

Still haven't found a solution to solve it...
It could very well be that video chipset. A friend of mine has the same video chipset in his laptop, though not a EEE or Wind, and has some glitches when displaying two OpenGL windows. That isn't the case on my laptop with an ATi Mobility Radeon x1400.
Read the Forum Posting Guide before opening a topic.
VirtualBox FAQ: Check this before asking questions.
Online User Manual: A must read if you want to know what we're talking about.
Howto: Install Linux Guest Additions
Howto: Use Shared Folders on Linux Guest
See the Tutorials and FAQ section at the top of the Forum for more guides.
Try searching the forums first with Google and add the site filter for this forum.
E.g. install guest additions site:forums.virtualbox.org

Retired from this Forum since OSSO introduction.
Emess
Posts: 1
Joined: 28. Nov 2008, 10:41

Post by Emess »

I'm having the same problem in Arch with an nVidia 8600GT. Low 4-bit graphics and 640x480. I tried to install Guest Additions in the hope that it's video drivers would clear up the problem but now the windows guest just hangs at splash.

E~
kRoLLh
Posts: 1
Joined: 10. Apr 2009, 16:21
Primary OS: Ubuntu 8.10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: XP

Re: XP: Stuck on 4-bit color and choppy performance

Post by kRoLLh »

Hi all, i'm italian so excuse me for my english ;).
I've resolved this problem on my virtualized XP running a command....
But i need a pleasure... i want to know what was the default configuration so if someone can post the output of this command
will make me happy ;)
The command to get configuration is:

> VBoxManage getextradata global enumerate

The command (works for me) to resolve the problem is:

> VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/MaxGuestResolution 1024,600

Good Bye All
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