[solved] Black screen before installing Windows 7

[Peaso]

Hi,

I've been using VB since I get my MBPro, virtualising a physical image from an old PC laptop without problems. I'd like to create a new Win7 installation in other virtual machine. I've created a new one with the "standard" configuration. When I run it for the first time, I select the ISO image with the installation disk of Win7, the VM starts (I see the Oracle BIOS) but nothing else happens: I only see a black window with an underscore (low dash) symbol in the top-left screen. Any idea?

I've been reading these and other forums and tried a lot of different combinations of the parameters, without success.

More info:

- The host is a MacBook Pro 15' (mid 2009)
- I'm using the last release of VB (4.1.
- There's no activity at all. No DVD (ISO), no HD, no USB, no net controller
- I tried with 512MB and 1024 of RAM (ensuring that there's sufficient RAM in the host machine), with and without VT-x acceleration, same with 2D and 3D, changing the Chipset, enabling I/O APIC, enabling PAE/NX, removing the SATA controller and installing a IDE one...
- Please find attached the log file

Thank you in advance!

[rpmurray]

Have you tried editing the Settings so that under the System tab the Boot Order has the CD/DVD-ROM check-marked and first in the list?

[Peaso]

Yes. Well, I only had unchecked the Floppy, but now DVD is the first of the list.

More: if I enter in the boot menu, "CD-ROM" is the only device that shows the black screen. The other (HD, Floppy, LAN) show the normal "no bootable media found".

By the way, thank you!

[rpmurray]

When I run it for the first time, I select the ISO image with the installation disk of Win7

What steps did you use to do this? When you go to the Storage tab in Settings, does the ISO show under the IDE Controller?

[Peaso]

What steps did you use to do this?

For creating the VM (translation "on air", I have the spanish version):

New > Name: Windows 7, OS: MS Windows, Versión: Windows 7 > RAM: 512MB > Create a new virtual disk > type VDI (the standard for VB) > dynamic allocation > Name: Windows 7, Size: 30GB > Create

The first time I load the Windows 7 MV:

In "Media source" (or something else), I browse my disk and select the Win7 installation ISO.

When you go to the Storage tab in Settings, does the ISO show under the IDE Controller?

Yes. The ISO is shown under the IDE Controller and the image (Windows 7.vdi) under the SATA Controller.

[Perryg]

It sounds like the iso file is corrupt. Your log file does not show a problem that VirtualBox has detected, so I assume you select to shut down. Do you and how long do you wait?

[Peaso]

I've waited several minutes before shutting down it (cmd+Q > stop the machine) and yes, I didn't detected any error in the log.

Mmmm... I'll have to test the ISO. The simplest answer and probably the correct one. My mistake! Tomorrow I'll say something.

Thank you!

[Peaso]

Hi again!

As Perryg suggested, I've got another version of the ISO and it works without problems. So, the conclusion is that the problem was with the ISO image, and not with the VB configuration.

Problem solved. Thank you very much!