HP Victus Win11 laptop, Windows XP VM video is slow

[Tony D]

Hi all.
I've just bought a HP Victus laptop. It runs Windows 11. Have installed VirtualBox 7.0.14 and set up a Windows XP VM.
But video in WinXP is slow. It started off very slow. Then I changed the cores from 1 to 2, which helped a lot. But video is still not right. I have VBoxVGA set as graphic controller. I am not able to change to VBoxSVGA as this gives an "invalid settings detected" error.
Video memory = 128MB. Monitor count = 1. Scale factor = 100%. Enable 3D acceleration = ON. Base memory = 1024MB. Enable I/O APIC = ON. Processor execution cap = 100%. Paravirtualization interface = default. Enable nested paging = ON.

On my previous laptop, which is just a little Microsoft SP3, I have VirtualBox (6.20) and WinXP set up and it runs perfectly. No issues with video speed at all. On the SP3 I have VBoxSVGA selected (no error message).

Do you think the video problem on the HP Victus is due to not being able to select VBoxSVGA or something else?
Are you able to provide advice on how to fix the issue?

Cheers, Tony

[scottgus1]

Windows 11 will probably have lots of services that use Hyper-V enabled. Hyper-V slows down Virtualbox. Do you see the green turtle in the VM's Status Bar?

Please start the VM from full normal shutdown, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the VM from within the VM's OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the VM with the Power Off option set.

Right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show in Explorer/Finder/File Manager. In the "Logs" subfolder, zip the VM's "vbox.log", and post the zip file, using the forum's Attachments tab. (Configure your host OS to show all extensions so you can find the "vbox.log", not "vbox.log.1", etc.)

[Tony D]

Thanks Scott. I don't see the green turtle. I have the Win11 home edition, so I think this means I don't have hyper-V (is that right?). In the "turn windows features on or off list" I have both "Virtual Machine Platform" and "Windows Hypervisor Platform" turned off.

I will follow your steps to get the vbox.log file and upload it. I've never done that before, and am fairly new to this, so it may take me a bit to work out. But I'll get it done as soon as i can.

I see the problem with an old game I have installed in WinXP/VBox called indycar racing 2. With 1 core selected it's unbelievably slow, maybe 1/10th the normal speed or less. With 2 cores selected it improves a lot, up to about 10% slow. I'll plan to run the game on 1 core, so it is at its slowest, then close it then take the steps as you suggest to get the log. Does this approach sound ok?

[scottgus1]

I have the Win11 home edition, so I think this means I don't have hyper-V (is that right?).

You very much have Hyper-V. Microsoft runs almost all their security features out of it now. (One day someone will find a Meltdown/Spectre-level problem in Hyper-V, and Microsoft's world will come to an end...) You just can't run Hyper-V VMs in Home.

With 1 core selected it's unbelievably slow, maybe 1/10th the normal speed or less. With 2 cores selected it improves a lot, up to about 10% slow.

This would only have worked if XP was installed with multiple processors. If installed with only 1 processor, XP uses a 1-processor HAL, which doesn't respond to extra processors added later.

Was XP installed into the OS with one processor or more than one?

[Tony D]

I'm pretty sure it was installed with 1 core. Do you think I should delete this WinXP and re-install again with set to 2 cores?

[scottgus1]

XP does work better with 2 processors. If you can start over and get it activated, you might try. You could also try running a reinstall in the same VM on a new drive file, so the hardware and activation can stay the same.

[Tony D]

Thanks, I will give it a go tonight.

[Tony D]

I removed the previous Windows XP and installed a fresh WinXP using 2 cores. Unfortunately the result is the same. Still running slow (about 10% slow in indycar2). I can see the green turtle at bottom right of VM screen. I had said in earlier message I didn't see it before. Now I'm not sure if that was right. I have Windows 11 Home so can't see Hyper-V state or its switches. My VirtualBox version is 7.0.14 & I've installed its Guest Additions. Some notes regarding the VM settings :
1. System : I have "enable PAE/NX" ticked. The "enable nested VT-x/AMD-V" option is greyed out & in off position.
2. Display : 128 MB video RAM. I have "enable 3D acceleration" ticked. Graphic controller is "VBoxVGA". I cannot select "VBoxSVGA". When I do this I get the message "invalid settings detected". This is the one difference I can see with the successful VirtualBox/WinXP installation on my SP3 laptop. On that one "VBoxSVGA" is selected (and there is no "invalid settings" message). The SP3 is running Windows 8.1. It's VirtualBox is 6.20.

Does this info help? What do you think should be my next step? Would you like me to extract and upload the VBox log? Do you know why I can't select "VBoxSVGA"? Do you think this might be contributing to the issue?

[Mats62]

Hi Tony D, if you're seeing the turtle, I suggest you look here:
viewtopic.php?t=107293
(but your probably already have...)