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vt-x amd/v hardware virtualization error

Posted: 26. Oct 2009, 22:43
by Pi Sang
Hi there,

Sorry to bother you but I have a problem with virtualbox 3.0.8 on a windows host. Maybe it has been written somewhere but I can't seem find it. I have found something on the internet but that does not solve the problem.
I have installed Virtualbox for the first time on windows xp 64bit. When adding a guest everything goes fine until I want to install an OS in the guest (any OS). I get the error message the vt-x/amd-v has been enabled but not operational. My hardware does not support hardware virtualization and therefor it can't be enabled. So why is this option enabled and even more why is it greyed-out and can't be changed?

I have manual editted the xml file and changed the value <HardwareVirtEx enabled="true"/> to <HardwareVirtEx enabled="false"/>.
Even now when the checkbox is not selected anymore and the xml file is changed I still get this message.
Is there another place where I should change some settings?

Thanks for the help.

Re: vt-x amd/v hardware virtualization error

Posted: 27. Oct 2009, 00:20
by Sasquatch
How strange. My AMD system doesn't give this kind of error while it doesn't support AMD-v either (socket 939), but the checkbox is ticked but greyed out (makes sense, no support).
Please post your Host hardware specs so we can figure out if there is actual support on your system for AMD-v and that VB tries to force it.

Re: vt-x amd/v hardware virtualization error

Posted: 28. Oct 2009, 20:19
by Pi Sang
The host is a Asus A8nE motherboard with 4GB of ram. The processor is a AMD Athlon x64 4200+. The graphical adapter is a Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS and the Soundcard is Creative Audigy 2ZS.
The harddisk Windows xp64bit boots from is a PATA 80GB. and the second harddisk in the system is a SATA for data en virtual machines. At the moment I have installed Vmware and Virtual PC. This should not conflict with Virtualbox. The reason why I would switch to Virtualbox is to test if I can do all my work with only one program for virtualization instead of two.
Windows is up to date with hotfixes and servicepak 2 is installed.
As you can see this system does not support amd/v. I have never ever installed Virtualbox before and both vmware and virtualpc are operational. I find it strange that Virtualbox found support for amd/v while both other programs do not. Also that it is not possible to disable the enabled amd/v ( even adjusting the xml file does not work ).
Hope I have given enough information.

Re: vt-x amd/v hardware virtualization error

Posted: 28. Oct 2009, 22:15
by Sasquatch
Ok, you have the same processor family as I do, so that's one thing down. Now, as I said before, the box is ticked but it won't be used. The only thing I can think of, is that one of the other virtualization programs somehow makes it appear that AMD-v is available. Please remove them and see how VB responds to that. You should not loose the VMs in VPC and VMW.