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Environment:

  • Host OS: Win7 Pro 64bit
  • Guest OS: WinXP 32bit
  • VirtualBox version: 4.1.4r74291
  • Processor: Intel Core i7 2630QM with virtualization enabled

The Problem:

I need the guest system to use multiple cores. I have enabled the following options in VirtualBox:

  • IO APIC (motherboard tab)
  • PAE/NX (processor tab)
  • VT-x/AMD-V (acceleration)
  • nested paging (acceleration)

All other options on the System submenu are switched of. The 'processors' slider is set to 8.

The problem is that the guest system runs correctly, but only one processor/core is visible.

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Oct 20 '11 at 14:00

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1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote accepted

XP has 2 different HALs that are used for multi and single processor. If you installed XP when the virtual environment only had one processor then you may have to change the HAL or re-install.

You can find instructions on how to change the HAL on Microsoft's support site.

You'll need to select the ACPI multiprocessor option.

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well Microsoft site says that WinXP should automatically change the HAL - my did not. Strange thing, when I checked out my device manager there were 8 processors, but in task menager I could only see 1. So I reinstalled system and tadam - everythings fine. Thanks! – marchewa Oct 21 '11 at 19:27
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