virtualbox.org

I'm using Virtual Box with a Windows XP SP3 guest, the only reason I even installed Virtual Box was to use Zune on my Ubuntu 10.10 system.

For some reason any time I do anything in my guest system it spikes my cpu to 100% , just changing songs or volume and sometimes I don't do anything and it still spikes then makes my music skip and lag.

this shouldnt happen , I should be able to run 3 or 4 systems If I wanted to with out lag and cpu

Intel quad core Q6600 2.4 ghz
4 GB's DDR2 800 mhz ram
Nvidia 8800 GTS 512 MB
Asus D2X
EP45-DSL3

The first thing I'd do is change the HAL (hardware abstraction layer) for the CPU. You can find HALu-0.2.0.zip in this thread.

http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... 3&start=15

First of all, exit out of the XP guest and assign only 1 CPU to it. Then load XP back up. When you run HALu (inside the XP guest), choose ACPI PC from the drop-down menu. Reboot XP twice for the setting to completely take effect. Then open a command prompt (in the XP guest) and enter these commands.

sc config processor start= disabled
sc config intelppm start= disabled

Then shut down XP. Go into VB settings for that VM, disable "Enable IO APIC". Start XP again and you should see a significant difference in startup time and CPU usage.

The 2nd thing I'd do is change your VB default IDE controller to SATA. Since XP doesn't have native SATA drivers, you can download a great set from the Intel site

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_ ... 2&lang=eng

Download the filename IATA89ENU.exe, which should be version 8.9.0.1023. The exact sequence of getting these installed and working can be tricky and I don't want to take up too much space here. I'll try to be accurate but precise. What I do is add a new slave drive to the IDE. Boot into XP, format the slave drive, shut down XP. Add a SATA controller in VB, move the slave drive to the SATA controller (leaving your XP drive on the IDE). Boot XP, install the Intel SATA drivers (inside the XP guest), shut down XP. Remove the slave drive from the SATA controller. Remove your XP drive from the IDE. Add your XP drive to the SATA. Boot XP and it should load without any issue. SATA seems to use much less CPU during high disk reading/writing than when its on the IDE controller. Good luck.

none of the above posted is required AT ALL. Its a work around, but if people just apply this instead of providing logs to search for and kill the bug, it will just remain for the few who have it.

As for the linked SATA drivers.
the Vbox SATA controller hangs when a CDRom is connected to the SATA controller when using the matrix 8 drivers, but is not a problem in the RST 9 or 10 drivers

I use around 10 XP Pro guests, So I understand where he's coming from, as I've experienced the same issues. The HAL workaround offers a definite improvement in CPU usage and performance. If this method did no good, I wouldn't post it here. As for CD, I don't know why anyone would take it off the IDE controller, as SATA does nothing for CD performance. I leave the IDE for CD, and use SATA for hard drives. So with all that being said, VB 4 has made significant changes and improvements which I'm still in the process of learning. I'm always open to learning new workarounds.

Winipulator wrote:I use around 10 XP Pro guests, So I understand where he's coming from, as I've experienced the same issues. The HAL workaround offers a definite improvement in CPU usage and performance. If this method did no good, I wouldn't post it here. As for CD, I don't know why anyone would take it off the IDE controller, as SATA does nothing for CD performance. I leave the IDE for CD, and use SATA for hard drives. So with all that being said, VB 4 has made significant changes and improvements which I'm still in the process of learning. I'm always open to learning new workarounds.

using DVD and CD transfers often consumes IO cache on the host via IDE.