No screen refresh, but VM screen preview working when in game, Windows 2000 guest

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vhojt
Posts: 4
Joined: 26. Jul 2021, 02:49

No screen refresh, but VM screen preview working when in game, Windows 2000 guest

Post by vhojt »

Hello all,

I have done A LOT of Googling and looking around here trying solve this issue.

I have Windows 10 host - but I have also tried it on a Mac OS X host (laptop with only its own monitor) with the same result.

When trying to open a game Links LS 2000 - the guest screen goes black and won't refresh unless I change the view of the virutal machine (e.g. from full screen to windowed in the VirtualBox menu), but the preview screen is updating and showing the game quite happily. This does not happen on another Windows 98 guest with drivers found here at the wordpress result on googling "display driver virtualbox windows 98".

The screen will refresh if I enter and exit full screen for the virtualbox VM window.

I have installed guest additions in the Windows 2000 guest, and am using VBoxVGA with no 3D acceleration, and have set 64MB graphics memory (my Windows 98SE host has same settings with 32MB video ram).

I have tried VBoxSVGA, 3D accel, reinstalling guest additions each time etc. but no luck.

Basically - the preview screen is working, but not the actualy display. I can see my mouse moving around in the preview and the game working.

I have attached a zip of the Vbox log./

Hopefully one of you knowledgeable fellows might be able to help me?!

Cheers,
Rudy
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mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: No screen refresh, but VM screen preview working when in game, Windows 2000 guest

Post by mpack »

I have tried VBoxSVGA, 3D accel, reinstalling guest additions each time etc. but no luck.
The oldest OS that VirtualBox 6.1.x supports with 3D accelerated graphics is Windows 7. Win2K is way too old. You have to stick to VBoxVGA and no acceleration.

If the game requires Direct3D then there's no way it can run correctly. But it couldn't on Win98SE either - VirtualBox has no GAs whatever for the DOS based Windows versions.

You seem to be having some kind of audio issue as well ("scheduling hint" warnings), but I don't recognize it or know if it's an actual problem.
vhojt
Posts: 4
Joined: 26. Jul 2021, 02:49

Re: No screen refresh, but VM screen preview working when in game, Windows 2000 guest

Post by vhojt »

Hello,

Thanks for your reply.

Ah, I have not noticed anything funny happening with audio.

It is so strange this issue - the preview screen is updating fine, just not the actualy guest window.

Is it worth a ticket do you think? Seems to be a VB problem - as I say, Windows 98SE runs it fine.

Cheers
vhojt
Posts: 4
Joined: 26. Jul 2021, 02:49

Re: No screen refresh, but VM screen preview working when in game, Windows 2000 guest

Post by vhojt »

Problem solved using this driver here:

url deleted by mod = 32bit-color-in-windows-2k-on-virtualbox-no-guest-additions

Only downside seems to be a lower refresh rate, which I can cope with for a golf game!

So seems to be something to do with VBOX display driver for Win 2000.
Last edited by mpack on 27. Jul 2021, 10:33, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Delete dangerous URL.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: No screen refresh, but VM screen preview working when in game, Windows 2000 guest

Post by mpack »

That link is BS, I would be extremely suspicious about it: VirtualBox has never had any problem providing 32bit colour in a Win2K guest.

Only DOS based Windows ever had that limitation under VirtualBox since, as already mentioned, VirtualBox does not ship with Guest Additions (i.e. driver packs) for Win3x/Win9x/WinME.

p.s. I just took a look at the link. It turns out to be just a ludicrously outdated (Sun Microsystems era!) copy of the standard VirtualBox Guest Additions. I marvel at the brainiac who put that ISO together. I didn't check all the files to see if any were hacked.
vhojt
Posts: 4
Joined: 26. Jul 2021, 02:49

Re: No screen refresh, but VM screen preview working when in game, Windows 2000 guest

Post by vhojt »

Yes It does seem to be quite old - but at least that display driver doesn't cause the lack of refresh problem in this case. So must be something to do with the more modern guest additions driver?

Only downside is refresh rate is slower and experience is not silky smooth like the modern VirtualBox Guest Additions display driver.

If only I could find one that managed both!

Cheers

PS sorry about the URL
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