Software starts on an XP VM on a Win7 host, but not Win8.1

[Slizbury]

I have an older piece of software ("Apex IV Windows v1.40", an old property sketching software) that I'm having the strangest problem with. I'm a long-time VirtualBox user and have never run into something quite like this.

I have a Win8.1 host running VirtualBox (right now it's a 4.x version, but the same problem persists across 5.x, 3.x, 2.x, I've tried!) with a Windows XP VM created. When I install and run the older software mentioned above on the XP VM, it starts with no problem, but as soon as it gets to a particular part of the software (it opens a "Draw" options window when it starts) the software crashes (just closes immediately, with no error referenced or shown). I'd never seen the software crash before, so was surprised. Made sure XP was fully updated, tried again, same problem. Checked any logs I could find, and the software package really doesn't have any to speak of, so didn't find anything.

Out of curiosity, and thinking it was the software itself, I installed it on another XP VM I have that's running on a Win7 host. Installed it, ran it, and -- it started just fine within the XP VM on the Win7 host! No problems at all! So it seems it's not VirtualBox or some sort of problem with VirtualBox, but rather some sort of compatibility problem with the underlying host machine I guess. I've even gone as far as copying the hard drive VDI from the Win7 host over to the Win8.1 host (and matching the VirtualBox versions), and starting the working install on the VDI from the Win7 host while on the Win8.1 host, and the software crashes! So only on the Win8.1 host!?!?

What in the world could be going on behind the scenes that would cause a piece of software WITHIN the VM to NOT run on one host, but run fine on another? Doesn't VirtualBox basically "shield" me from that type of problem, by design? Does anyone have any suggestions on any additional log locations or anything else I can do? I've tried running various SysInternals tools on the XP VM to further analyze what might be making the program crash but haven't found anything helpful yet.

FWIW, the only difference between the Win7 and Win8.1 host machines is that the Win8.1 box is newer and has UEFI and SecureBoot instead of just standard BIOS. I mean, there's obviously different hardware and such as well, but the UEFI/BIOS difference is the only thing I can think of that seems like it could possibly make a difference. COULD that be affecting anything?

[socratis]

So only on the Win8.1 host!?!?

I would suspect primarily the differences between the graphics card in your two hosts. Here are a couple of things you can try:

• Update your host's graphics drivers.
• Try to disable 3D and/or 2D acceleration on the VM settings.

[Slizbury]

@socratis, thanks for the reply and thoughts. I also thought it might be video related and had updated the host machine's video drivers from the Intel web site to their latest version, but to no avail. At this point both 2D and 3D acceleration are disabled in VirtualBox, but I tried it with them enabled as well, also to no avail. And unfortunately the Win8.1 host machine is one of those "small form factor" type of cases with a tiny motherboard so there are literally NO expansion slots in it, not even a 1x PCI-X! I might be able to find a USB video adapter and can try that, to see if it makes a difference.

[Slizbury]

OK, I've now tried an external DisplayLink USB -> VGA adapter, and it's still doing the same thing, the software inside the VM is still crashing even under completely different host video drivers. So it's something else -- perhaps still video-related somehow, but not related to the on-board built-in display adapter. Does anyone else have any further thoughts or notions?