virtualbox.org

I am trying to run XP 32-bit but it will not detect any audio drivers. I have tried Windows DirectSound and Null Audio Driver. ICH AC97, Intel Hd Audio, and SoundBlaster 16 do not work under Null Audio Driver or Windows DirectSound. Please help! I am frustrated!

Post the guests log file ( as an attachment )

Internet will not work either. Tried Bridged Adapter.

Ok, Xp detected the cable, now it wont set up the connection properly. I have broadband, like any normal person would have.

Very confusing log. Why would anyone assign 17GBs of RAM to a Windows XP 32bit guest? I believe Microsoft set an artificial limit of 4GB on XP even with PAE. Why is the virtual drive called "Vista.vhd"? I think XP requires the PCnet-FAST III network adapter unless you installed the drivers for one of the PRO/1000 adapters. Why would you try the Null Audio Driver if you wanted audio?

The AMD CPU with 4 cores and 8 GPUs could be a problem.

I tried to get a vista vm... settled for xp to try to run fallout 3 and test viruses

Lou's post has made me think that your XP guest's settings have all been changed from the defaults, perhaps without needing to, or there's considerable difference in the settings between XP and Vista (Vista being one of those OS's I have never even held an install disc for).

A new guest seems in order, using the XP guest template, perhaps with 1 or 2GB memory, maybe 32 megs for video memory, and one processor. If you want two processors, which I usually use myself (though others recommend against it, there being a slight overhead which slows the guest down a hair) you'll need to have IO-APIC checked, too. You may even be able to disconnect the virtual disk from the old bunged-up guest and attach it as the boot drive to the new guest, provided the processor count and IO-APIC settings are the same. The OS should find all the new hardware and load drivers for them automatically.

Windows XP should work "out of the box" using the "ICH AC97" sound card with Host Driver "Windows Direct Sound", and using the "PCNet Fast III" network adapter. You may be able to get other options to work, but you will have to find drivers for them, because they are not included with Windows XP. (These are both different from Vista which will work by default with "Intel HD Audio" and "Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop".)

The other main difference from the Vista template, which you must have discovered, is that XP cannot easily be made to work with a SATA hard disk interface. You need to connect you hard disk to IDE.

However, further alterations I would make are to reduce the RAM size. Windows XP is supposed to work with up to 4Gb RAM (certainly not more) but I have sometimes found it unstable with more than 2Gb. Also, I would use just one CPU until you have everything else working correctly.

@dlharper, sound advice. Pardon the pun.

dlharper wrote:Windows XP is supposed to work with up to 4Gb RAM (certainly not more) but I have sometimes found it unstable with more than 2Gb.

Not in my experience. This physical host I'm using now runs XP Pro and has 3.49GB RAM usable (4GB installed). Obviously a physical PC doesn't give me access to the entire RAM complement - presumably the hardware and BIOS needs some.

XP was designed to run well with 256MB. It runs great with 512MB. I wouldn't give a VM more than 2GB.

It sounds like the OP has used the wrong template, ignored the expert selected defaults, and run into problems - surprise surprise.

mpack wrote:XP was designed to run well with 256MB. It runs great with 512MB. I wouldn't give a VM more than 2GB.

I think that is what I meant. I have never tried running a physical XP machine with more than 2Gb. I did try a VM once with a bit more, but it didn't work well, perhaps because it didn't leave enough RAM for the host. I don't remember details now.

dlharper wrote:I have never tried running a physical XP machine with more than 2Gb. I did try a VM once with a bit more, but it didn't work well, perhaps because it didn't leave enough RAM for the host.

Possibly, or if you were still using a 32bit Windows host at the time then it may not have been possible to assign more than 2GB to any application: Windows conventionally split the 4GB address space (not the actual RAM) into 2GB for the system (executable code, drivers) and 2GB for user data. This wasn't a problem until it became common for users to populate the entire address space with RAM and users wondered why their apps couldn't have more than 2GB of data.

There's a boot option in Windows to change the split to 1GB (system) : 3GB (data).

Obviously, RAM allocated to a VM is seen as data RAM by the host.

Obviously (2) this is a limitation of 32 bit Windows hosts, not something you would encounter on physical hardware.