I wasn't going to reply because I keep inadvertently breaking your rules so I'll be brief but detailed so as to faithfully answer the question.socratis wrote:Could you do that in a 1-line post so that we all can benefit from your experience?
I don't know what eventually allowed 64-bit selections to be available in the "version" field of the "New > Create Virtual Machine" wizard.
Mod: DELETE THIS BELOW IF IT'S TOO DETAILED FOR YOU BECAUSE IT"S JUST A LIST OF THINGS I TRIED THAT DIDN"T WORK!
In the interim, I ran many Windows diagnostics (e.g., Start > Run > msinfo32.exe) including a new download of the Microsoft Malicious Software Recovery Tool, and I downloaded a plethora of 3rd-party diagnostic tools (e.g., Belarc Advisor, CPUID CPU-Z, GPU-Z, KeyFinder, SiSoft Sandra, etc.) and I ran the AMD-specific exhaustive diagnostic tool (aka AMD-V Technology and Microsoft Hyper-V System Compatibility Check), and I ran a bunch of Windows diagnostic commands to determine such things as the BIOS system-information board status (which HP calls an SSID) and I ran a few HP-related query tools downloaded off of the HP support web site. I also installed ccleaner and deleted EVERYTHING that I didn't recognize as a useful program (I was looking for AV programs but didn't find any other than Avast, which I kept, and Windows Defender, which runs in the background).
I didn't keep a log of the deleted programs because that was an offshoot tangent (since there weren't any programs of the names that the FAQ listed), nor of all the startup programs that I removed using CCleaner (nor of the numerous registry repairs that are typical with Ccleaner runs).
My hail-mary drastic-step goal was to update the BIOS, as the AMD diagnostic tool very clearly reported in bright-red letters "This system is not compatible with Hyper-V", but two things stopped that dead, which were (a) none of you guys thought that pretty obvious indicator from AMD themselves was worth anything, and more show-stoppingly (b) there are no BIOS updates available from HP anyway.
The oddest occurrence was that I finally gave up on using a 64-bit guest OS, so I duly downloaded the 32-bit Ubuntu ISO, and then deleted (for the fourth or fifth time) and re-installed VirtualBox so that it would be a clean install, when... all of a sudden ... inexplicably ... I was shocked to see 64-bit options suddenly show up, for the first time, after days of trying.
What did it?
I don't know.
I'm writing an HP-specific AMD-specific tutorial for other noobs to follow which I intend to post on the Usenet for others to benefit from (since my motto is to both follow and increase the tribal knowledge in every endeavor).