Cant start virtual machine in Virtual PC..

Welcome to the Se7enforums! vedjo01

In order to see that particular error a second instance of the Virtual PC would have to be running which would then stall the attempt to load the XP mode unless your system lacks support for virtualization for some reason. Have you downloaded the compatibility tool for this yet? http://www.microsoft.com/windows/vir...gure-bios.aspx

As for running two different virtual machines I can run the XP mode at the same time I happen to be running the SUN Portable Virtual Box. The performance on both will take the obvious deep six there however!

The first thing for you however is to make sure your cpu and board in particular support the VPC and XP mode. Some general system information might help here especially with several Intel model cpu not able to run the VPC/XP mode. if you are not running an AMD system there.

The first place to look would be in the taskmanager>processes to see there is any second item running.

Here one thing I did to have a more direct access and easy start up of the XP mode was simply go right into the "C:\users\user name\AppData\local\microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines" sub folder buried deep there and right click on the "Windows XP Mode.vmc" file in order to right click and create a new desktop shortcut.

You can later drag that onto the taskbar or into the folder used for a new quick launch toolbar. Quick Launch - Enable or Disable

I posted some screens there that show the shortcuts made here for the XP Mode as well as having Vista on a virtual hard drive later to see the 7 replacement installation there. When clicking on the shortcut to the "vmc" file when you know that you haven't somehow already started the VPC by going into the Start>All Programs that should bring up the VPC to watch the XP mode load.

Your hardware is more then adequate for sure. In fact I was hoping to had another case built here with an X4 cpu driving it. But will now wait until sometime in 2010 due to the new USB 3.0 standard coming into effect.

The one thing that might be a cause other then a bad install or misconfiguration of some type would be some part of the VPC or XP mode preloading along with Windows. Normally it wouldn't anything preset to load automatically as another startup item. But look over the processes running before trying to run it as well as trying out a direct shortcut to the vmc file itself.

One thing I should ask here is if you installed the XP Mode before the VPC went on and if both are the same being the latest RCs? The VPC has to go on first followed by a system restart before running the installer for the XP Mode itself.

If you put things on in reverse meaning the XP Mode beforehand that will stall everything. Then you have to remove the XP Mode in order to reinstall the VPC. That will be listed in the Programs&Features while the VPC is in the updates section in the Control Panel.

The shortcut method allows for custom installs on vhds as well as ease of access to the XP mode itself there. Here the 32bit RC went onto a vhd following the custom install of the 32bit Vista Home Premium. First you want to get the VPC and XP Mode running however.

Once you have the VPC on you can easily see the XP Mode go on afterwards and go through the vhd creation process required to then be able to start up the XP Mode which runs from that. Brink wrote an excellent guide for this that will take you step by step through the entire process. Windows XP Mode - Install and Setup

Look this over good and you should be up in no time!

Sorry to hear that! There has to be one or two things you are missing there simply with a look at your system info you will have to do. The finished VPC and XP Mode will be out next week on the 22nd the day 7 is released. It would help you to have the RCs running ahead of that to know things are ready to go there.