Virtualbox 5.0 or 4.3 - Unable to make windows 7 usable (very slow)

English Virtualization
#1

Hello.
Laptop HP DV9500 Intel Core Duo T5450 @ 1.66 GHz - FSB 828 MHz - ** 64bits** - 4Go Ram
Windows 7 Pro 32 bits

Install was quite impossible, so I made install on desktop 16Go ram and intel 5 processor.
I after install all updates, I put the DVI file to the laptop.

What technical info did you need to help me to make win7 usable on the laptop.

#2

Your post is very confusing, particularly if English is not your native language you have to be extra careful describing your situation.

You need to describe:

HostOS, and 64-bit or 32-bit. Perhaps the amount of physical RAM installed.
GuestOS, and 64-bit or 32-bit.

Where did you install your virtualization from?

I used to own a cousin of the laptop you’re running, and can say that it supports virtualization like a champ.

TSU

#3

Did you install the guest additions? It contains the virtualbox-specific video and other drivers that improve windows performance a lot.

What’s the DVI file? Are we talking the same thing here?

#4

It also won’t harm to check if the virtualization extension(s) are supported and enabled in BIOS, stuff like Intel VT-x or AMD-V:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_virtualization
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-xen-vmware-kvm-intel-vt-amd-v-support
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/13/html/Virtualization_Guide/sect-Virtualization-Tips_and_tricks-Verifying_virtualization_extensions.html

#5

Also, lscpu will tell you about virtualization supported:

~> lscpu | grep Virt
Virtualização:       VT-x
#6

I used to have an HP9500 T7200.

On this machine,

  • Make sure Intel VT extension enabled in BIOS.
  • Either version of VBox should be fine.
  • Don’t have a lot running in your HostOS, because you’ll need to allocate at least 3GB to Win7.
  • Make sure you have a <very> large swap file or partition in case you need it, a 4GB RAM physical limit was my main issue running virtualization on this machine.

On your other machine, you didn’t describe resources available, but if you can be generous with what you allocate to your Win7 Guest within without choking your Host.

Guest Additions/Tools can be helpful but shouldn’t be a major requirement. If your Guest is very slow from the beginning, then there is something else that needs addressing.

TSU

#7

Hello.

Up to now, on this computer, virtualbox was running (for three years) windows XP like a charm.
I am going to reinstall my XP vdi file and tell you as soon as possible if XP is running corectly.
For this test with window 7, I had reinstalled opensuse 13.2 (full clean install ) ( previously 13.1 )

Here some answers for all your questions.

Logs : http://paste.opensuse.org/99898548
Config : http://paste.opensuse.org/21912615

HOST : Laptop HP DV9530 Intel Core Duo T5450 @ 1.66 GHz - FSB 828 MHz - 64 bits - 4Go Ram
Running Opensuse 13.2 64 bits
#—
Guest : Windows 7 Pro 32 bits on virtualbox
#—
Current test is using Oracle Virtualbox from virtualbox site :
VirtualBox-4.3-4.3.28_100309_openSUSE132-1.x86_64.rpm
with Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.3.28-100309.vbox-extpack
and guest additions installed
#—
Typo error : *.vdi files and not *.dvi
#—
intel Core Duo T5450 does not support VT-x nor VT-d
#—
My bios has no configuration for VT-x nor VT-d
#—

MY-HP:~ # cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep vmx
MY-HP:~ # cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep svm
MY-HP:~ # grep --color vmx /proc/cpuinfo
MY-HP:~ # grep -w -o lm /proc/cpuinfo  | uniq
lm
MY-HP:~ # lscpu | grep Virt
MY-HP:~ #

#—
Nothing runs on the host
#—
Linux swap partition : 54 MiB
#–

#8

Lact of support for VT-x might be a serious drawback.
I don’t know how well VBox runs in full emulation mode without CPU extensions.

I’d recommend you also try running VMware Player, although all current VMware products run best with and almost require VT-x as well, VMware was able to push the performance aspects of virtualization further than anyone else by a very long way before VT-x so might still run Guests better without those CPU extensions. If there is still no improvement, I’d also look for a “pre-VTx” version of Player… I don’t remember the last Player built with that architecture, I seem to remember something like Workstation 5.2.x might have been the last and in those days Player might have had the same versions as Workstation.

TSU

#9

Using the windows 7 monitor, I found that my problem comes from microsoft “.NET”. “.Net” needs to compiles a lot of modules when a new version is installed. This use high cpu. So this make a VM running on a small machine like mine, not usable until this kind of task is finished.

Thread is closed.

#10

On 2015-08-03 18:46, jcdole wrote:

> HOST : Laptop HP DV9530 Intel Core Duo T5450 @ 1.66 GHz - FSB 828 MHz -
> 64 bits - 4Go Ram
> Running Opensuse 13.2 64 bits

> #—
> Linux swap partition : 54 MiB
> #–

I hope that figure is wrong, because it is nothing.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

#11

A bit of advice,
Ordinarily and especially as in your case on a machine with limited resources you can delay (or never) install the latest dotNET framework. MS releases updates to install Frameworks very early relative to when coders actually build applications that use the framework so that machines are prepared for when they encounter those apps.

TSU