Sound not working on an imported Windows 7 guest from VirtualBox

[infobleep]

Hi there

I created a virtaul Windows 7 in VirtualBox over a year ago on my MacBook running Snow Leopard. It took time but I eventually got the sound working by installing the realtek ac'97 sound drivers manually.

As I've found VirtualBox rather slow on my system I decided to try out VMWare. So I exported the Windows 7 machine and then imported it using ovftool.

However now I am running Windows 7 in VMWare Fusion the soundcard drivers are appearing under other devices and I'm getting no sound. I've tried to manually install the AC'97 drivers but it doesn't work. I've enabled the sound via the Fusion settings so that isn't the issue. I have the latest bootcamp drivers installed.

I also have a base system device appearing on the other devices but I think, from what I've read on-line, that, that might be the bluetooth device not working or perhaps the isight camera. There not so critical.

So far I must say that VMWare is much faster than VirtualBox so I think it is highly like that I will purchase VMWare Fusion, providing I can get the soundcard issue resolved.

To be honest I was expect more problems once I had figured out a way of importing the machine across. I had one or to issues when I first started but these may have been related to the fact the machine was still set to other in WMWare options and not Windows 7 64 bit, since I had to add the --lax option to ovftool when importing.

Kind regardsind regards

[WoodyZ · Accepted solution]

On a default install of Windows 7 under VMware Fusion and without VMware Tools installed there will be two objects under "Other devices".  The "Base System Device" is taken care of with installing VMware Tools and Sound is taken care of by Windows Update and is shown in the image below after updating the driver via Windows Update.  As you'll see VMware Tools in not yet installed hence "Base System Device" still shows under "Other devices".

[infobleep]

Thanks for your reply WoddyZ. I thought I had installed VMware tools when I first started Windows 7 but I hadn't. This I am now doing.

Kind regards