virtualbox.org

I'm having a problem getting a vista 64 guest to install.

The guest is not identifying the processor as 64 bit.

Relevant information Hardware:
-core i7 965
-gigabyte x58-extreme
- 12GB memory
-VT-x enabled in bios.

Relevant virtual machine settings:
-enable ACPI on
-enable IO APIC on
-enable VT-x/AMD-v on

Other relevant info:
-Host is windows vista 64 bit
-virtual box version - 2.0.6
-No other virtual machines running

Virtual Machine installation process:
-Installed Vista 64 bit
-Received an error from windows boot manager on first reboot during
installation.
Attempting to load a 64-bit application however this cpu is not
compatible with 64-bit mode.

Thanks for any help!

As per the Forum FAQ:

Forum Moderators wrote:Q: Does VB support 64 bit guests?
A: Support for 64 bit guests was introduced at version 2.0.0. If you wish to create 64 bit guests then we recommend that you upgrade to the latest version. Note that VirtualBox also supports 64-bit guest operating systems, under the following conditions:

1. You need a 64-bit processor with hardware virtualization support (see User Manual chapter 1.2, Software vs. hardware virtualization (VT-x and AMD-V), page 10) and a 64-bit host operating system.
2. You must run a 64-bit version of VirtualBox on that OS (Windows Vista, Linux or OpenSolaris). This can then run both 32-bit and 64-bit VMs; a 32-bit VirtualBox can only run 32-bit VMs, regardless of the hardware.
3. You must enable hardware virtualization through your BIOS; software virtualization is not supported for 64-bit VMs.

The VM features of the chip must be turned on after POST by the BIOS. Many BIOSes (including my Dell laptop's) do the opposite, preventing VirtualBox supporting 64 bit guests. VMware also supports software virtualization for 64-bit VMs and so can tolerate this.

And don't forget to enable PAE, which you didn't mention. That is quite relevant too, as 64 bit use this extension to be able to allocate the memory.

PAE is automatically enabled when 64 bits guest support is active.

Thanks for all the posts.

It looks like it is a problem with the bios on my motherboard not setting VT enabled properly.

Here is the relevant posts for anyone else with the same problem.

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/intel-v ... eme-28964/

i have the exact same motherboard and an i7 cpu with the exact same problem.

yes its a bios problem and looks like we will haveto wait for an update to get this resolved properly.

however, i got mine working, would you like to know how?

you won't believe this ...

... i turned OFF virtualization supprt in the advanced cpu settings in the bios for this motherboard.

stupid but it works.

this motherboard has another odd quirk, where the ethernet card simply stops working. to fix it you haveto power off the machine totally, pull out the power cable just to make sure and turn it back on to get the ethernet ports working.

as things go, not bad, at least the stuff works even though its quirky and needs some debugging.

I think that for motherboard problem, you need to go to the vendor's support forums. However, I have used often used Gigabyte boards and I think that they do a good job in general. Have you checked to see if there are any BIOS or chipset driver updates?