App running really slow in VB

[sturdy2]

Hi all,

I'm running WinXp guest on VB 4.2.2 Ubuntu 12.04 host. I have only one Windows application (Family Tree Maker 2012) that is running *very* slowly, launch time is three minutes. The program is now so slow as to be unusable. The part that is strange is that I have been using a similar setup but different versions for several months which ran normally. A couple of weeks ago I re-installed WinXp and FTM because of other issues. Unfortunately, FTM had a mandatory update (FTM now requires .NET Framework 4.0) at the same time so I can't tell what is at fault. Both VB and WinXP seem to be okay. The IE8 browser launches normally as do other tools. Task Manager shows high CPU usage but not 100%. Also, kernel is eating a lot of the CPU (Core 2 Duo E8400). I don't find anything in the log but it is attached. I've created several VMs with different settings but always the same issue. Any idea where I should look to correct this? Any help is appreciated.

Regards,
Sturdy2

[Perryg]

Try using just 1 processor in the guest and see if it improves.

[sturdy2]

Try using just 1 processor in the guest and see if it improves.

Tried that but no difference. However, my original WinXP install that I used for several months was IDE and limited to a single processor. My re-installs of everything was to support a SSD so SATA/AHCI is required. My system is now all SATA.

Thanks for the response.

[BinarySplit]

Several things to try:
1) Check your display settings and make sure your color depth matches your host computer's. The 16bit->24/32bit conversion is quite slow and can easily lag the VM.
2) Make sure that your VM has enough memory that it's not using the page file, yet doesn't have so much memory that your host computer slows down. You should be able to find the numbers in Task Manager (r-click on the task bar to find it). I can't remember what the XP Task Manager looks like, but you should have no less than 50% physical ram usage, and no more than 80% when you're running the application. It may be worthwhile turning off the VM's page file completely - if it runs out of memory, programs will crash, but at least it should lag less and help you identify whether this is the problem.
3) If you're using a dynamically expanding disk, there's a good chance that's the problem. Force VBox to preallocate a bunch of space by making a large file(several gigs) and then deleting it (and make sure it doesn't just go to the recycle bin)

[sturdy2]

Thanks for the response, Binary Split. I've checked over the changes you suggested with some success but there still seems to be something more fundamental stealing CPU cycles. Here is what I found:

Several things to try:
1) Check your display settings and make sure your color depth matches your host computer's. The 16bit->24/32bit conversion is quite slow and can easily lag the VM.

Previously set for 32 bit and did improve about 25% when I reset to 16 bit depth but still not sufficient to make FTM usable.

2) Make sure that your VM has enough memory that it's not using the page file, yet doesn't have so much memory that your host computer slows down. You should be able to find the numbers in Task Manager (r-click on the task bar to find it). I can't remember what the XP Task Manager looks like, but you should have no less than 50% physical ram usage, and no more than 80% when you're running the application. It may be worthwhile turning off the VM's page file completely - if it runs out of memory, programs will crash, but at least it should lag less and help you identify whether this is the problem.

Fasted launch time seems to be 4096MB (system total physical is 8GB). As VM memory is reduced, FTM slows and paging increases. Paging seldom used if memory is 2048 or larger.

3) If you're using a dynamically expanding disk, there's a good chance that's the problem. Force VBox to preallocate a bunch of space by making a large file(several gigs) and then deleting it (and make sure it doesn't just go to the recycle bin)

Done but no joy here either.

These tweaks do provide some improvement but FTM remains unusable.

Another thought: now, when I install WinXP as a guest, I must install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers on an F6 floppy so that WinXP can see the SATA drives and the two CPUs. System has not complained and seems to work well but this a major difference. I should mention that a native WinXP install with the SATA drives provides a 1 minute launch of FTM and usage is smooth and not jerky/blocked.

[sturdy2]

Hi All,

A quick note to close the loop on my issue. There is apparently an incompatibility with my hardware, VM, OS and Family Tree Maker that does not allow my WinXP to run AHCI/SATA with VBox. I've spent several days trying to figure this out without success. Everything was fine until I changed to AHCI/SATA. I suspect the Intel chipset drivers (ICH10R) but can't prove it. I am now using VMware Player which apparently installs SATA as IDE and doesn't use the chipset drivers. All is well after some tweaking...thanks for the assist.

Sturdy2

[michaln]

There is apparently an incompatibility with my hardware, VM, OS and Family Tree Maker that does not allow my WinXP to run AHCI/SATA with VBox.

Why would you even do that? Use IDE for XP VMs. No hassle, no problems.