Virtual Windows XP Installation Failed

[steve45]

I'm getting tired of fighting this, hope someone knows the answer.

I've been trying to install Virtual Windows XP on a new installation of Windows 7 Pro. I've gone through the validation, etc. then do the installation. At the end, it says that it failed.

Windows XP Mode shows up in Virtual Machines, the status is Powered Down.

I went to Windows Features and made sure that Virtual PC Mode was checked.

I've tried to make sure that virtual hardware is enabled in the BIOS, but can't find it.

I'm running an MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 board with BIOS E7721AMD V2.2. The processor is and AMD A4-5300. This processor is supposed to support virtualization, but when I try to run the Hardware Assisted Virtualization Detection software from Microsoft, it doesn't seem to work.

Would I have better luck trying to install Virtual Box? If I do that, can I install WinXP 32 bit in a 64 bit machine? (I have a 32 bit disk). I'm guessing that you can't install the Microsoft Virtual WinXP into Virtual Box, correct?

Would I be better off just setting up a dual boot system?

Many thanks!

 

[mibix19]

Hi. Use virtual box. I have win 8, Win 7, Vista, Linux And Win XP all running in Virtual box. If you have enough memory you can have more than one running at the same time. If you install Virtual Box, install the extension pack and guest additions. You can run 32 or 64 bit.

 

[steve45]

Thanks, mibix19! Do you know if I have to worry about virtual hardware support in the BIOS? I'll give it a try when I get home tonight.

Also, as a side note, if I were to do a dual boot setup with Win7 and WinXP, I guess I'd have to reduce my RAM memory. I've got 4 GB now.

I'm thinking of just running two computers...

 

[mibix19]

Hi. You do not need to mess in your bios looking for hardware support settings. The extension pack and guest additions do it all for you. Also you do not have to remove any ram for dual booting. Win 7 will use all the ram you can give it and Windows XP will ignore any more than than its limit (4gig)

 

[steve45]

OK. I'll try it. I did have to remove RAM in the past to get WinXP to install, then add it when finished.

 

[mibix19]

When you install XP in Virtualbox it will ask you how much ram you want to use. This is taken off your 4gig. If you were to remove any ram you would not have enough to run Win 7. Leave all your ram installed and just allocate 1 -1.5 gig to Xp when asked, as you will be running win7 at the same time and you need at least 2gig for that.

 

[steve45]

Before throwing in the towel and going with VirtualBox, I tried a couple more things. Thought I'd share them, even though I wasn't successful.

For some reason, my computer would not download the HAV Detection tool. When you hit the download button, a small window would flash on the screen for about half a second and that was it. It never gave any results, nor could I find anything about it in the Downloads folder. I downloaded the HAV Detection tool to a USB drive on another computer, then ran it on the ailing computer. It worked fine and found that my system DID support virtual hardware.

I was concerned that the WinXP Mode was shown as 'Powered Down'. I was finally able to fix this by going to Services.msc and changing the settings to Automatic, but the WinXP Mode disappeared from the Virtual Hardware folder. I reinstalled WinXP Mode again, certain that I had it figured out, but, alas, it failed to install again.

At least I'm learning more about Win7.

 

[steve45]

I FINALLY got it working!!!

I'd like to thank mibix19 for the suggestions, but I decided to keep fighting it and install VirtualBox if I could not get it to install by 'conventional' methods.

It turns out that my research on the AMD A4-5300 processor wasn't as thorough as I thought. I thought the AMD Bulldozer problem with WinXP Mode only applied to the FX series processors. WRONG! My A4 also falls into that category, EVEN THOUGH IT PASSED THE COMPATIBILITY TEST.

Trying to enable Hardware Assisted Virtualization in the BIOS was also a challenge, as I couldn't find any reference to it. Turns out that on the MSI board that I'm using it's in the Overclocking section of the BIOS, and it's called SMV. In my case, it was already enabled, but I turned it off and back on anyway. Every time I made a change I rebooted the system.

I uninstalled my prior WinXP Mode installation, and uninstalled the Virtual Machine update, then rebooted.

In the command prompt, I went to services.msc, then started the Virtual Disk and made it's startup automatic. I don't know if this actually helped or not, but it sounded good.

I installed WinXP FIRST (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=160479) which failed. Next, I installed the Virtual PC (Windows6.1-KB958559-x64.msu), then rebooted. Finally I created a folder and unzipped the Microsoft AMD hotfix (430158_intl_x64_zip) to it, then installed it.

I left the room and when I came back, WinXP was alive and well!

Hope this helps someone else!

 

[mibix19]

Excellent result. Glad you are up and running. I congratulate you on your determination and persistence