virtualbox.org

I installed virtualbox 3.2.10 on my windows 7 laptop dell latitude d600. Then i used that to install windows xp pro in the program and the guest addtions. It was all working fine up to that point. Then my laptop stoped working it would boot up in to windows but i would get no display on the lcd or extenal monitor. So i replaced the motherboard on my laptop. Nothing on my hard drive was changed. Now when i try to load my vm in virtual box 3.2.10 i get an error and it does not load. failed to open a session for the virtual machine windows the vm session was closed before any attempt to power it on result code :E_FAIL (0x80004005) component: Machine Interface: ISession {12f4dcbd-12b2-4ec1-b7cd-ddd9f6c5bf4d} I told a friend about this and he told me to backup the .virtualbox folder and delete the vm in virtualbox and readd it back to virtualbox. I did that and the vm loaded up but still it does not get to the desktop of windows xp pro. It will come to a screen that tells me that windows xp pro did not load right and i can pick what i want to do so i picked windows normal boot. I left it on for 2 hours and t still did not boot in to the desktop. So i restarted the vm and got the same screen and picked safemode and still i did not get to the desktop. How can i fix this problem so i do not have to reinstall my windows xp pro vm again?
Thanks for all your help.
Yasir Faheem

It may be easier to install again. You can try changing the HDD to PIIX3 or PIIX4, but it sounds to me like it became corrupt when the MB died.

Please do not cross post. Your other topic about this has been deleted.

I do not think because of the motherboard video card dyeing that the vm does not work any more. At the time the video card died in the laptop the vm was not even turned on. So i really do not think that is why i am having the problem. I really do not want to install again. There must be a way to get this to work again.

You didn't respond to Perry's suggestion of checking the IDE controller type. To generalise that you need to find the old machine .xml settings file, and manually ensure that every setting in the old VM is identical in the new VM.

I made a backup for the .virtualbox folder before i started to mess with it can i just copy that folder on top of the one that is in my docs now?

Possibly you can. But make another backup of the current contents first.

Nothing worked so i am reinstalling the vm. I still have the backup of the vm that i started out with. This is nuts that there is not a way to make the old vm work with out reinstalled the vm. Well they do say you get what you pay for. So free is free. I can not be the only one that has or had this problem. What i am finding is that if i move a working vm to another computer i will just have to reinstall it everytime. This is just not right. There has to be a way to make it work. I am not useing it for servers, but if i was then what? You mean i reinstall and set the settings everytime? This just does not fly with me.

The main problem as far as I see it is the lack of working knowledge with the software. I move VDI files all over the place and do not have a problem getting them to work. Perhaps you should create one and then move it around and learn how it is done. You do need to write down the original settings as these must match the new install. You can move 32-bit to any other OS but 64-bit will not work on a 32-bit host.

Perryg wrote:The main problem as far as I see it is the lack of working knowledge with the software. I move VDI files all over the place and do not have a problem getting them to work. Perhaps you should create one and then move it around and learn how it is done. You do need to write down the original settings as these must match the new install. You can move 32-bit to any other OS but 64-bit will not work on a 32-bit host.

Yes i may not know what i am doing. But your post was not that helpful to me. Please tell me how to do it so i can learn too. I am not dumb and a quick learner. My settings did match the original settings with the new install.

If the image is not damaged all you need to to is create a new guest and when asked if you want to create a new HDD or select one that is already created (not exact wording) you select the one that is already created. At this point you then must make sure that the settings are as close to the original as possible including the IO APIC, and PIIX3 or PIIX4. These two are the most important for a Windows guest. Changing either of these will cause the guest to not work properly or not at all.

If you have started the guest with the IO APIC enabled even once and it was not enabled on the original you have already changed the new guest to where you are going to have real problems getting it to work.

You can always turn off audio, network, shared folders, and USB to begin with so they are out of the way when trying this to begin with and add them one at a time after you have the base working. You may even need to boot in safe mode to correct driver issues but not always.

One other thing that you can do is post the guest log after the guest fails (as an attachment) so we can actually see what is going on.

Finally in my defense I did make a suggestion that I never got a reply to on whether you actually tried it or not. Only that you did not think that I was right. How would you have replied to a statement like that?

I had a similar problem after i changed my harddrive from one notebook to a other of the same type.
Win7 System was running after a 2 reboots and automatic installs without any problem. But i had one XP Guest witch couldn't boot or reboots after the Loginscreen or was running for 2 Minutes....
This happens always for maybe 30 times ..... after a reset from the IO-APIC and NewStart with the same Problem and again a set from the IO-APIC Flag and Start the Error was gone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
VERY STRANGE ..... i had a other XP Guest without any Problems running but not with the IO-APIC !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Eric