Windows XP extremely slow & unresponsive

[Wini]

I am running VB 4.3.6 on Mac OS X 10.6.8. I've been using Windows XP on VB since 2009. But recently, every time I try to use it, the whole VM (Windows XP) works extremely slowly, and programs--like MSWord and IE--become unresponsive. Windows keep creating error messages to itself. I'm not trying to do anything complicated. I deleted a bunch of files to increase memory but that didn't help.

I'm not a techy, so when I search for an answer, everything that comes up is much more complicated than what I'm looking for. So I hope I can get some help so I can use Windows on my Mac--which I need to do for my job.

Thanks very much for any help!!

[noteirak]

Minimum information needed for assistance.

[Royce]

Open task manager and check your CPU usage. This happened to me about a week ago and was caused by an issue with windows update using up a lot of CPU. In the end I just had to let it run (for about an hour) and after the update process had completed, everything returned to normal.

[Wini]

Royce - Thanks for your reply. I checked the CPU usage yesterday and it was bouncing around, but neared 100%. I downloaded a bunch of Windows updates and let it run overnight, then restarted Windows. Now CPU usage is at 100%! I think I need to increase the memory allotted to VB, but I don't know how to do that. According to Task Manager, I have 196080 KB physical memory. My 4 GB of memory on my Mac is divided in 2 but I just realized that I had divided it up for Boot Camp, which I don't use anymore (except maybe in an emergency when I need Windows but can't use VB). I don't know if I need to take back some of the memory from BC, since I don't use a lot of memory on my Mac-- mostly use the Web and a few documents.

I found instructions online for increasing memory on VB (which I couldn't find in the manual): http://features.en.softonic.com/how-to- ... virtualbox but I'm not really sure what to put in 'Terminal". I'm attaching some screen shots.

Meanwhile, Windows on VB is still hanging up a lot.

Perhaps the cause of the problem is Norton360. My husband uses this on his Windows computer, so since the subscription allows 3 users, I uploaded it to Windows on VB. But it's a total pain! Keeps popping up with messages, etc. And I don't think I need it. I tried uninstalling it, but it refuses to go!

Again, many thanks for your help!

Merry Christmas!

Wini

[Ramshankar]

First let's get somethings out of the way:

0. The division of your physical memory into separate DIMM have nothing to do with this problem
1. Boot camp has nothing to do with this problem.
2. It's extremely unlikely you need to resize the hard-disk of your XP VM but you can check this from within XP itself.

You say the CPU load in the VM is still 100%. Which process in XP is hogging the CPU (like svchost.exe, etc.) You should be able to see this from Task Manager within Windows XP.

Also, please upload a VBox.log for your VM. Machine -> Show Log.

[Wini]

Hi - Thanks for your reply. However, after using VB for 4 - 5 years, I decided to get a copy of Parallels, which I ordered yesterday (v. 7 on eBay). Hopefully, that will be much more user-friendly. VB has been very challenging whenever I have a problem and I don't want to spend more time on it (but most of the it's worked fine).

But out of curiosity, I checked the task manager, and it turns out that what's hogging my CPU is N360.exe -- which I realize is Norton360! So that is what's causing the problem. But as I mentioned, I haven't been able to uninstall it!

So, thanks again for trying to help!

Best,
Wini