virtualbox locks laptop when i try to install windows xp
 

Hello, I have a dell computer that runs kubuntu very nicely. Virtualbox runs in it great and i installed windows xp in a breeze.

My dell laptop however freezes up when i try to boot my windows install cd. I'm running kubuntu on it as well (both run 10.04) and both were just freshly installed with kubuntu.

I just can't boot the cd for some reason. Laptop totally locks up and you have to press the power button for 5 seconds to turn it off.

It's an amd turion 64 x2 dual core processor in my laptop, whereas my desktop is an intel e5200 cpu. That's the only thing i can think of that might require special settings or something in virtualbox. I've played around with all the cpu settings in virtualbox, but every single time, it totally locks up the computer.

Any ideas?

-Thanks

Which computer and OS is the host? Which version of VirtualBox is it running? What are the steps of your procedure to install WXP in the guest? Are you able to boot any other CD or DVD in the guest?

Does your host crash when you try to boot it off the Virus CD? Or does it happen in the VM? Or in both?

You have already been replied to, so i will venture a guess if you don't mind. Could it be lack of sufficient disk space?

Ok, I am using the dell windows xp disc that came with the laptop. It works fine if I want to install windows onto the laptop, but freezes kubuntu when I open it through virtualbox.

The laptop has 2gb ram and an 80gb drive with 70gb or so free, so disk space is not the issue.

Any other ideas?

Also, what crashes is the entire laptop. Total freeze. No ctrl alt backspace, not even caps lock does anything. Can't ssh into the laptop. Nothing.

Thanks

Chances are DELL has a non-standard hardware or BIOS which the "dell windows xp disc" uses and that VirtualBox does not provide the same -- so when the "dell windows xp disc" tries to use the non-standard feature, VirtualBox freezes the host OS. Strange no one has posted about it before though.

Special interest to reply to your issue is because you have AMD Turion.
> Dell Windows XP installation CD will not work with VirtualBox as it s customized OEM version to work with Dell BIOS only <as reported by catkin>
> If you are using Standard WindowsXP Installation Disk; You may check your resource allocation paramteres. HDD allocation, Mem Allocation.
> Enable Virtualition Support in DellBios for optimized hardware virtualization. You Should enable same in Virtualbox (VT-x, AMD-v).

Thanks for confirmation of suspicion :)

Ok, well, i've used the dell windows xp cd on my dell desktop and it works great. In fact, I also had another dell laptop before this one and the dell windows cd from that laptop worked great too in virtualbox. So it can't be that.

Even my kubuntu disc freezes the host when i try to boot it through the virtual machine. So it's gotta be something crazy going on here.

Also, virtualization is enabled in the bios.

Any ideas what to check or try?

OK, i am now able to get virtualbox working. I had to go into the dell bios and disable the virtualization features of my processor. Then i had to disable the AMD specific virtualization features from within virtualbox.

It works, but what a terrible solution. Next time I am going with an Intel chip.

Anyone else have any sort of similar issue or solution?

You have one of the best micro-processors on your laptop. AMD provides very good solutions at competitive prices. NestedPaging did not probably work on your laptop becuase of several other reasons & not because you have a bad proc. Pls do regular patches., BIOS updates from DELL., to have a fully funtional hardware.

Allthebest.

OK, I'll see if there are any dell updates available (bios, etc) and report back when I have a chance.

Thanks for the refutation :)