Solved Hardware Acceleration - Good or Bad?

[streetwolf]

No disrespect, Street wolf is on the wrong street. The issue is NOT hardware accleration for video. Stand by...

None taken my six legged friend.

 

[Antman]

I can not find specific language at Dell. Numerous webites/forums list complaints that this model, irrespective of processor, DOES NOT support hardware virtualization.

There is a smalla pp that will verify this. It is linked somewhere here at SF. Stand by...

 

[Antman]

My bad. That is an app to test for 64-bit compat. It seems taht you do not have this feature.

Remove the two check marks on Settings/System/Acceleration, proceed.

 

[The Blessed One]

My bad. That is an app to test for 64-bit compat. It seems taht you do not have this feature.

Remove the two check marks on Settings/System/Acceleration, proceed.

I tried that but VBox keeps automatically changing it back when I click settings/acc. to check. Anyway I get the same error message, after ignoring the message and pressing "continue", VBox has a massive crash. It seems my system doesn't support this Intel VT thing...

Edit: I think it does actually but Dell haven't bothered to support it in the BIOS.

 

[Antman]

It will work if you install Win7x86. But that is a dated reference. I am looking at Sun's page but it is a most unforgiving site/forum.

 

[The Blessed One]

It will work if you install Win7x86.

Yes I tried that a few days ago and x86 works. Can you confirm that this problem will only appear in the VM of 64-bit Win7? Meaning if I were to install the 64-bit Win7 as a host (clean install) then everything should be fine? Because the only reason I was installing in VM was to check if some modifications I had made to the ISO were working.

Thanks.

 

[Antman]

First, a wise test.

Second, the "problem" is the Dell, not VBox or Win7. And it is not a problem, per se.
I have found at least two references to Sun recommending to disable VT-x but that is not confirmed at this desk.

64-bit OS does not require the setting.

7x64 is going to work well on your laptop. I will not guarantee that, but you can buy me lunch if I am wrong

 

[The Blessed One]

First, a wise test.

Second, the "problem" is the Dell, not VBox or Win7. And it is not a problem, per se.
I have found at least two references to Sun recommending to disable VT-x but that is not confirmed at this desk.

64-bit OS does not require the setting.

7x64 is going to work well on your laptop. I will not guarantee that, but you can buy me lunch if I am wrong

Lol thanks for the help anyway. I guess I will just have to do a clean install of 64-bit Win7 tomorrow and hope everything works well. It's my first time getting 64-bit, from what people tell me, I should have made this step a long time ago...

And have some +rep!

Blessed One.

 

[DataMan47]

To clarify...

* If you are running a 32-bit guest, you don't need hardware virtualization "acceleration"... the virtual machine manager will dynamically recompile code as necessary, and you will suffer a performance penalty, but it will still work

* If you are running a 64-bit guest, you need to have hardware virtualization

* By default, virtualization is disabled in a Dell BIOS

* If your processor does not support virtualization (and many of the OEM processors that Dell gets for cheap have VT disabled as a way of price segmentation; Dell will often charge an extra $100 for a CPU of the same speed that does support VT), then the Dell BIOS will not even list the option

* There is no disadvantage to having VT enabled; it basically enables some new instructions that eliminates the need for the virtual machine to emulate ring-0 calls, and it helps performance significantly (and in some cases, such as when the VMM is not dynamically recompiling to compensate for the lack of VT, the difference with VT can be as stark as day and night)