Converting laptop OS problem

[janger]

I think I read in these forums somewhere the following is a valid way of importing my laptop XP system into VMware 6.5:

1. Image the system with ATI 11.

2. Create a new VM with a hard disk the same size as the laptop.

3. Restore the ATI image to the VM disk.

4. Run the built-in converter on this VM.

Well it worked and the OS boots up, but the "Found new hardware" wizard keeps popping up wanting to install "PCI Standard PCI-to-PCI bridge". After many times of letting it install, it still pops up, and Device Manager ends up being filled by PCI bridge devices. I tried doing the above again but using the standalone converter and still the same result. Is there anything I can do to fix this? Or is it a problem with trying to create a VM from certain laptop systems and their strange hardware?

Thanks,

Dave.

[wila]

Hi,

There's about 30 PCI-to-PCI bridges, so having it popup over and over is normal... until you passed that mark.

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Wil

[wila]

Hi,

Here's the link to some doc on this issue:

The documentation is about VMware Fusion, the issue is the same in VMware workstation

snippet:

PCI-to-PCI Bridge Loop When Upgrading Virtual Hardware?

Upgrading a virtual machine's virtual hardware may trigger many notifications about PCI-to-PCI bridges being detected.

Explanation

Fusion 2.0 understands a newer virtual hardware version than Fusion 1.x does; you can keep the old virtual hardware version (probably a good idea for older guests might get confused by the new hardware and which won't benefit anyway) or upgrade. Upgrading a virtual machine's virtual hardware may trigger Windows to show many notifications about PCI-to-PCI bridges being detected. It's not a loop, there are just a lot of them (32 or so). There's not much we can do about this - Windows is the one providing the standard driver, and Windows is the one deciding to show the prompts. This should be a one-time event.

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Wil

[janger]

Thanks very much. I thought I'd let it install 50+ times but obviously not quite enough! Working fine now.