[Solved] WinXP Guest Blue Screen on Ubuntu Host 3.0.2

[mswal2846]

Background:

Host: Ubuntu 9.04 on Lenovo x200 2G of memory, Intel Core 2 Duo CPU
Guest: WinXP 1G of memory, 30MB of Video Memory
VB 3.0.2 r49928

Scenario:

1) Upgraded to VB 3.0.2 from 2.x
2) Started WinXP, installed 3.0.2 vb tools, it asked for a reboot, rebooted and got into a circle of blue screens and reboots. I was able to boot up in recovery mode, restored to a point prior to installing vb tools, no joy
3) Restored my WinXP from a backup I had taken back in May of the WinXP file. Booted up just fine. It went through the normal windows stuff on updating, applied 27 security updates, asked for a reboot, upon reboot, it fails the same way: a circle of blue screens and reboots. This is even with leaving the v2 vb tools.

So there seems to be some incompatibility between VB 3.0.2 and the latest security patches for winxp?

By the way, Windows 7 is working fine, even with the v3.0.2 VB Tools.

Any suggestions on how to fix my WinXP?

Mark

[Perryg]

Version 3.0.x adds the functionality of SMP.
Make sure that you do not have IO APIC turned on in the guest settings when you start the Windows guest, unless your PC has hardware-v turned on and you want to install the SMP kernel in Windows.

[mswal2846]

Thanks, I did have it checked. I unchecked it and I still get the blue screen and reboot loop. Any other ideas?

Mark

[Perryg]

The main things are the IO APIC and VT-x/AMD-v
If it booted once with IO APIC on then it more than likely has tried to update the XP kernel. Can you boot in safe mode?
Press F8 as soon as you start the guest.

[mswal2846]

Yes, I am able to boot in safe mode.

[Perryg]

While in safe mode you can try to run the restore point to before the the system tried to or did change the kernel. Be sure that IO APIC is off though before you start.

[mswal2846]

Well, so I booted up in safe mode, restored to prior to installing all the fixes and rebooted ... only to the same problem. Seems to me that the system is working with a "bad" video driver in XP .... How would I reset that?

Mark

[vbox4me2]

Delete the video driver in device manager and reboot the VM.

[mswal2846]

Still no joy. My WinXP guest is unusable.

I'm going to try over ... restore the vm again and make sure that IO APIC is not checked upon initial boot up and see if that makes a difference...

Any other ideas?

By the way, thanks to everyone for helping!!

Mark

[mswal2846]

JOY!!

So here is what worked.

1. Insure that the IO APIC is unchecked.
2. Restored the VM from backup
3. Booted and updated just fine

Thanks for the hint on the IO APIC!

[Perryg]

You are welcome. Sorry you had so much trouble.