Problem installing Vista Ultimate 64-bit guest

[Dace]

Host details: Vista Ultimate 64-bit SP1, VBox v2.2.2 r46594 PUEL, AMD Athlon 64 x2, Gigabyte M59SLI-S5 w/ F8 BIOS, 6GB RAM

I'm trying to get Vista Ultimate 64-bit SP1 running in a VM so I have a clean environment with which to integrate SP2 however I'm having problems getting to the install stage.

Booting from an image of the 64-bit DVD shows the initial "Windows is loading files" screen but once that vanishes the VM hangs on a black screen. Waiting serves no purpose; I left it running for an hour or more on one attempt but to no avail.

VBoxManage.exe showvminfo "Vista SP2 Integration" run while the VM is in this state produces the following.

Code: Select all

Name:            Vista SP2 Integration
Guest OS:        Other Windows
UUID:            b8aa540e-23e9-4cb3-9a10-002e028257d4
Config file:     C:\Users\Dace\.VirtualBox\Machines\Vista SP2 Integration\Vista
SP2 Integration.xml
Memory size:     2048MB
VRAM size:       64MB
Boot menu mode:  message and menu
ACPI:            on
IOAPIC:          on
PAE:             on
Time offset:     0 ms
Hardw. virt.ext: on
Nested Paging:   on
VT-x VPID:       off
State:           running (since 2009-05-29T20:39:56.044000000)
Monitor count:   1
3D Acceleration: off
Floppy:          disabled
SATA:            disabled
IDE Controller:  ICH6
Primary master:  J:\Vista SP2\VM\Vista 64-bit SP2 Integration Testbed.vdi (UUID: c387f3a9-f27c-4bf5-a601-ab06acaee700)
DVD:             J:\Vista SP2\Vista SP1 64-bit.iso (UUID: 317e57f2-d077-4e91-a686-ad149cdea0a6)
NIC 1:           MAC: 0800270213B9, Attachment: Bridged Interface 'NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller', Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps
NIC 2:           disabled
NIC 3:           disabled
NIC 4:           disabled
NIC 5:           disabled
NIC 6:           disabled
NIC 7:           disabled
NIC 8:           disabled
UART 1:          disabled
UART 2:          disabled
Audio:           enabled (Driver: DSOUND, Controller: AC97)
Clipboard Mode:  disabled
Video mode:      640x480x0
VRDP:            disabled
USB:             disabled

USB Device Filters:

<none>

Available remote USB devices:

<none>

Currently Attached USB Devices:

<none>

Shared folders:  <none>

VRDP Connection:    not active
Clients so far:     0

Guest:

Statistics update:                   disabled

I note that the video mode is listed as 640x480x0. Surely that can't be good.

I've tried using the different IDE controllers and I've also tried enabling the additional controllers but it makes no difference to the outcome unless I use either of the SCSI controllers at which point the VM crashes as soon as it attempts to boot. At least that's something different though.

OK, this is new. Having just tried disabling PAE/NX I got this stop error. I then tried switching the IDE controller type from ICH6 to PIIX4 which exhibited the same behaviour. Changing the IDE controller to PIIX3 and restarting the VM resulted in the same hung state I described earlier however switching the IDE controller type back to ICH6 or PIIX4 did not result in the VM crashing again but instead produced the hung state.

I'm giving up on the damn thing for the moment; if more information is required than what I've provided let me know.

Almost forgot: Booting from the 64-bit DVD instead of from the image produces the same result. Booting from the 32-bit image seems to work fine.

[Perryg]

Have you looked in the BIOS and made sure that you have and have turned on the hardware virtualization?
From what you describe it appears that there might be a problem with VBox and Vista seeing the 64 bit hardware-v.

[Dace]

Virtualisation is enabled.

[Perryg]

Version 2.2.4 was released yesterday and has some fixes for the 64 bit machines. You should try to install it and see if it works then. Also I have seen a few rare cases when updating the BIOS fixed problems like these. Might be worth looking into.

[Dace]

Huh. Didn't realise it'd been so long since I last checked this.

OK, my BIOS is now updated to rev F9C, the latest available for my board, and VirtualBox has been updated to v2.2.4. Aside from SCSI drives no longer crashing VirtualBox there's been no change in behaviour.

[vbox4me2]

Read the Forum FAQ for 64bit Guest issues and requirements.

[cdragon]

I had same problem with VirtualBox 3.0.6 under XP 32 trying to install Vista 64. Setting the display to 640x480 bpp=0 was the last message in the log. I have VT-x turned on (you can't even select a 64 bit guest OS for a virtual machine without VT-x turned on).

I tried many different options before I saw someone say that 3.0.6 had problems with 64 bit virtualization that 3.0.4 did not, so I downgraded to 3.0.4 and now it's working so far... Except the VirtualBox log viewer froze with an hourglass when I tried to enter Find mode during Vista install... half an hour later when it finished installing and I tried to shut it down, it hung on shutdown. Log viewer was still frozen and I had to kill the whole thing. Virtual Machine state said "aborted" when I started again, but it booted and then shut down properly.