win XP VM blue screens unless i boot in "Windows VGA Mode"

[dizzysnake]

i got my converted XP machine to boot in VGA mode, but it still blue screens if i boot normally. my understanding is that the same video driver is used when i boot this way, but it is set to VGA size. i can resize it later to larger.

IE crashes if i try to run netflix "watch instantly" and trying to run simcity 4 caused the VM to hang and hung the mac so badly i had to pull the power plug out of the back.

so i think i should track down the initial boot problem.

there are no minidump (.dmp) files in the mini dump directory, although there are some old ones in there and i did confirm the XP machine is configured to produce them. i can try some different settings and see if i can get a file.

any ideas for what to look at for the boot, netflix, or simcity problems? thanks! this forum is very helpful.

james

[Technogeezer]

What did you convert the XP VM from? Knowing where it came from may help us determine how to proceed.

Are the VMware Tools installed in the VM?

When you boot into VGA mode, what does the XP's Device Manager say about the graphics device?

[dizzysnake]

the xp machine is my home machine ive had for the last 4 years. it was time to buy a new machine but i was afraid of vista so i got a mac and fusion to see if i could do a two-in-one setup.

the vmware tools are installed.

the device manager says "VMWare SVGA II" under 'display adapters'. it also says the location is: 'PCI Slot 1 (PCI bus 0, device 15, function 0)'

the driver date is 10/29/2007 and the version is 11.6.0.4

ive got 384 megs specified in settings with 2 processors and the USB turned off.

thanks for your help.

james

[getwired]

Note that the Netflix site says it requires 512 MB to work. I have a hard time believing that is the cause, but one thing to consider.

That said, can you provide a bit of information about what the crash you saw said? Would you mind posting the *.dmp file here, and I can take a look at it for you?

[getwired]

Disregard, dizzysnake - saw that this is the thread you and I had already been discussing.

Do you know what kind of CPU & GPU your old computer had? There was a fun, rare, race condition we used to see in Windows when certain motherboards were switch with certain others.

Long story short, if you have Windows XP media handy, it may be worthwhile for you to run an in-place upgrade or repair.

[dizzysnake]

i will try the mem setting with netflix, thanks.

the machine is a dell 8300, pentium 4 CPU 2.8 GHz, 1.5Gigs ram, the graphics card is a geforce FX 5200. single HD, one floppy, one DVD-R and one CD-R drive. XP SP 2.

there is a game controller card in the machine, but i uninstalled it before the last vmware image because of my problems.

another clue maybe, when i press the 'Unity Mode' button, the VM window vanishes. when i bring it up again, it is hung with a blank, black screen. the mac is almost unresponsive as well, although i did not have to pull the power cord this time. that sounds like it could be a low-level race condition.

i was able to find my XP reinstallation disk. will try a repair. thanks!

james