Windows XP crash and activation issue

[KlausDieter]

Virtual Box Version 5.0.14 r105127 + guest additions
Host: Windows 10 Pro Version 1511 64-Bit, 8 GB RAM
Guest: Windows XP Home SP3

Hello,
I try to transfer my former OS (Windows XP Home SP3) into a virtual system of the new pc. My former OS was installed on a Dell. I backuped the system partitions of the Dell by Paragon software. I used the P2V (physical to virtual) copy of this software. The result was a Oracle Virtual Box (version 4) file which I took to build a new VM. In safe mode I can start this VM without a problem. But if a try to start the VM in the normal way I recognize the following problems.
After the logon the hint "Windows Product Activation - This Windows copy has to activated by Microsoft before you are able to log in. Activation buttons "yes"/"no"." pops up and immediately the screen freezes with a red and a black bar at the top. Then blue screen with the error message: "Page_fault_in_nonpaged _area ..... Technical information Stop: 0x00000050 (0xFFFFFFE8, 0x00000001, 0x80522975, 0x00000000)".

I think that there are two problems. 1. the activation issue. .... 2. the reason of the crash. Is there a solution? Thank you for hints.

[mpack]

The activation issue is quite normal: the VM hardware is different from that of the original PC. But, you should avoid activating for as long as posisble - until you're quite sure you won't be making any more VM changes.

The crash would probably be due to a device driver not behaving very well. In safe mode you should look around for non Microsoft device drivers and delete them: all virtual hardware has native Windows drivers, which is of course why VirtualBox choose to simulate that hardware.

Finally: out of all the logs available, I'm not sure why you chose to post the hardening log. You clearly don't have a hardening issue - the primary symtom of which is that the VM (not the guest OS) doesn't start. VBox.log is the best log to post, provided the VM is shut down before you collect it.

[KlausDieter]

I've deleted several device drivers and started the VM. But again the screen freezes (blue screen). The log file and the list of the actual device drivers are attached. Should I delete further device drivers or is a device driver missing?

[mpack]

There shouldn't be any missing drivers since, as I said above, all virtual hardware provided by VirtualBox is known to be supported by native XP drivers. But, you can look at the device manager in safe mode to see if any devices don't have working drivers. I would also install the Guest Additions while you're in safe mode.

You can delete the battery manager from the VM recipe: the VM doesn't have a battery.

Likewise you can delete all of those network adapters I see. You should only have one network adapter, which for an XP guest should be the PC-net FAST III (Am79C973).

Microsoft natural keyboard: again the VM doesn't have one. The simulation is of a standard PS/2 keyboard.

Perhaps you should try creating a new XP VM from scratch, and use that as a guide to what devices should be present.

[KlausDieter]

Likewise you can delete all of those network adapters I see. You should only have one network adapter, which for an XP guest should be the PC-net FAST III (Am79C973).

The recommendation of the user manual for XP seems to be: "Intel PRO/1000 T Server (82543GC)". "The T Server variant of the Intel PRO/1000 card is recognized by Windows XP guests without additional driver installation" according to the user manual. Furthermore In my device manager it's possible to deactivate but not to deinstall unnecessary network adapters in safe mode.

I posted the log file. Would you please have a look at this log file. Maybe there is a certain hint about the specific reason of the crash.

[mpack]

The network card I mentioned is the VirtualBox default, selected when you choose the XP template. I'm not sure what XP user manual you are referring to.

I see nothing interesting in the log. In any case the log tells us nothing about crashes inside the guest OS, it deals purely with VirtualBox issues, mostly on the host.

I do see a number of things I don't like about the graphics behaviour.

• You do have the Guest Additions installed.
• I notice that the display goes to a surprisingly high resolution (1280x1024, then 1600x1200) for safe mode. Are you sure this was safe mode?
• Graphics RAM is set to 28MB, which is IMHO low for such a high resolution. I'm surprised if the settings dialogs aren't warning you about this. You have plenty of host RAM to I'd set graphics RAM to 128MB.
• The display mode is set to 24bpp. This is unusual in the modern era: typically it would be 32bpp, I'd say particularly so on a Win10 host. Did you force this to 24bpp somehow? You shouldn't, because it could have a severe impact on performance - and might well trigger bugs.

[KlausDieter]

Thank you for the hints. I will keep track.
I referred to the user manual of Virtual Box, chapter 6.1 about virtual networking hardware: "The PCNet FAST III is the default because it is supported by nearly all operating systems out of the box, as well as the GNU GRUB boot manager. As an exception, the Intel PRO/1000 family adapters are chosen for some guest operating system types that no longer ship with drivers for the PCNet card, such as Windows Vista.
The Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop type works with Windows Vista and later versions. The T Server variant of the Intel PRO/1000 card is recognized by Windows XP guests without additional driver installation."