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Installing Windows XP guest audio drivers fails

Posted: 14. Apr 2009, 08:30
by rhombus
I have migrated a VMware image to Virtualbox. The image works but for a few annoyances, particularly the audio.

I have activated the Virtualbox audio. It is now set to "ALSA" and ICH7 AC97. Windows detects the audio controller without a problem.

The problem comes when it tries to install the driver. It detects the device "Intel(r) 82801AA AC'97 Audio Controller" and then loads the driver files from a driver repository (it doesn't indicate where).

Then it gets almost to the end of the installation before coming to a halt and throwing up a dialog box:

'The file " on is needed.'

Obviously, something is broken here -- some fields are blank. I can't even tell it what driver to get because it isn't telling me what it's looking for. I've tried an AC'97 driver from another source but it does exactly the same thing.

What's happening here, and what do I need to do to fix it?

Re: Installing Windows XP guest audio drivers fails

Posted: 14. Apr 2009, 12:36
by vbox4me2
If you installed the Guest Additions all these drivers should be installed automatically, unless you are using a xp version made with nlite.

Re: Installing Windows XP guest audio drivers fails

Posted: 14. Apr 2009, 17:47
by rhombus
Yes, but I did install the Guest Additions.

Do we know if the "multimedia controller driver" from the Guest Additions is working properly? The dialog box suggests to me that the WDM driver template was used but not all the fields were filled in.

If that's true, I can't be the only person who has this problem.

Do I need to reinstall the Guest Additions?

Re: Installing Windows XP guest audio drivers fails

Posted: 14. Apr 2009, 17:50
by vbox4me2
You can try, see this one:
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... ver#p64169
How it suppose to work with GA.

Re: Installing Windows XP guest audio drivers fails

Posted: 14. Apr 2009, 20:16
by Sasquatch
GA doesn't supply audio drivers. XP should have the AC'97 driver build in, unless, like vbox4me2 said, you stripped it with some tool like nlite. Grab the driver from www.realtek.com.tw and install it.

Re: Installing Windows XP guest audio drivers fails

Posted: 14. Apr 2009, 20:35
by rhombus
Why the Realtek driver? Windows reports it as an Intel device. Does that matter?

I'm not using nLite, for what it's worth. This is a full Windows XP installation.

Here's what I'm actually seeing when I try to do the driver installation:
Image

Re: Installing Windows XP guest audio drivers fails

Posted: 14. Apr 2009, 22:48
by vbox4me2
It looks ok as windows is trying to install the proper driver, it seems there is something wrong with where windows thinks the files are and/or the location/contents of the inf repository, try copying the cd locally and point to it when asked again.