VirtualBox and Direct X error

[kway007]

I have VirtuaBox installed and running fine on my mid-2011 27" iMac, except for Pictures to EXE. I am running Windows XP and when I try to open PTE, I get the following message:

"Pictures to EXE requires hardware acceleration of video card. Please make sure that you have installed DirectX 9 or higher. It's highly recommended to update or re-install drivers of video card."

My iMac came with Lion preinstalled, so I have no DVD with Windows video drivers to install. Has anyone gotten PTE to work in VirtualBox yet? If so, how?

Thanks!

[Conflow]

Kway007,

Windows XP came in 4 variants:- XP-Basic, then XPSp1, and XPSp2, and finally XPSp3.

XPSp2 is still supported by Microsoft and can be upgraded to XPSp3 provided you have

all the Microsoft 'Critical-Updates' installed first. These are also available but you must

have an 'original' Installation-Disc with its Reg-Code.

From XPSp1 onwards ~ Must have the 'Direct-X9 Module' Installed for XP to work correctly.

This can be downloaded from Microsoft and it will refresh any previous version installed.

(The XPSp1 Upgrade checked for that and installed DirX-9 automatically)

There are issues running XP on a MAC with Virtual-Box ~ essentially it doesn't work !!

However "How-to-Geeks" have come up with 2 solutions to fix this isssue and below is

a Link to this procedure which may help you. Other suggestions also feature on the Site.

N.B. Its important that you read the User-Notes at the bottom of the Instructions.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/12309/install-xp-mode-with-virtualbox-using-the-vmlite-plugin/

Best of luck,

Brian.(Conflow)

[kway007]

There are issues running XP on a MAC with Virtual-Box ~ essentially it doesn't work !!

However "How-to-Geeks" have come up with 2 solutions to fix this isssue and below is

a Link to this procedure which may help you. Other suggestions also feature on the Site.

N.B. Its important that you read the User-Notes at the bottom of the Instructions.

Thanks for the reply, Conflow. I've got SP3 installed and it is running just fine ... everything except PTE.

Did you mean to say that running *PTE* on a Mac with VirtualBox doesn't work, or Windows XP? Like I said, XP SP3 actually runs great on my 2011 iMac.

Thanks

[crossfade]

]Windows XP came in 4 variants:- XP-Basic, then XPSp1, and XPSp2, and finally XPSp3. XPSp2 is still supported by Microsoft and can be upgraded to XPSp3 provided you have all the Microsoft 'Critical-Updates' installed first. These are also available but you must have an 'original' Installation-Disc with its Reg-Code.

Nope. XP came in two main versions, Home and Professional. There was also a 64 bit and a Media Center version but not that many people used either one. The service packs are free updates and SP3 is the only one that is currently supported.

There are issues running XP on a MAC with Virtual-Box ~ essentially it doesn't work !!

Wrong, it works fine.

However "How-to-Geeks" have come up with 2 solutions to fix this isssue and below is a Link to this procedure which may help you. Other suggestions also feature on the Site. N.B. Its important that you read the User-Notes at the bottom of the Instructions.

Like before, it doesnt need fixing since it isnt broken and that link is about XP Mode in Win7.

[crossfade]

I've got SP3 installed and it is running just fine ... everything except PTE.

What version of VirtualBox do you have? You need at least 3.0. These links should help:

http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#guestadd-3d

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/virtualbox-3-directx.html

Did you mean to say that running *PTE* on a Mac with VirtualBox doesn't work, or Windows XP? Like I said, XP SP3 actually runs great on my 2011 iMac.

Sure does. I use Vmware but I know people who use VirtualBox without a problem. PTE works great.

[Conflow]

Kway007,

I assumed you were using XP-Sp2(Basic) Home and not XP-Pro ~thanks for that confirmation. As I had written there were 4 variants

of XP-Basic, the final variant being XP-Sp3 which is an optional upgrade from XP-2. As I had also written you must download all the

"critical-upgrades" for XP-2 before you can get XP-3 to run properly and in particular you must have the latest DirectX-9 upgrade.

The current version of DirectX-9 is 4.09xxxx0904 as of today the 18/11/2011.

Extract from your Posted-Log:-

"Pictures to EXE requires hardware acceleration of video card. Please make sure that you have installed DirectX 9 or Higher".....

Ignore the word "Higher" as that applies to Vista and Win.7. (The correct DirectX for XP is DirectX-9)

On an XP-Machine-->Clk the Start-Button--> select 'Run' and type in the Dialog-Box ~ dxdiag ~ then press O.K You should get a

Window as shown below in "DirectX9 Gif". If this is up to date with version 4.09 it will be shown on bottom of that Window.

Now if it runs all the 'Button-Tests' properly then your copy of XP-Sp3 is running properly.

1) So you have confirmed your Mac is running properly.

2) Confirm that Win XP-Sp3 has the current DirectX-9 (4.09).

Now your problem must be either one of the following:-

4) Your PTE-Slideshow may not be configured properly to run on the Mac.(Reopen PTE and go to Create-EXE for Mac)

5) There may be something admiss with your version of Virtual-Box. (You could follow Crossfade's suggestions).

In that numeric order above, I hope this helps...

Brian.(Conflow)

[kway007]

Conflow: Thanks!

I ran the test that you recommended and passed all parts, except it reported that 3D acceleration was not enabled and the box to enable it was grayed out, so I couldn't get it to work right. That told me all my drivers were up to date.

Crossfade: Thanks!

I went to the pages you linked to and found out that to install the 3D acceleration part of Guest Additions, I would have to reboot in safe mode. Once I did that it allowed me to install Guest Additions and PTE is working beautifully now.

Thanks to you both for your assistance getting PTE to work for me in Virtual Box.

This really is a great program. I even added the Windows XP Virtual machine to the desktop as an alias so now all I have to do is double click on the Windows icon and it boots ... much much faster than Windows has ever booted for me before.

I appreciate your help. I've been a Mac user for about 18 months now and hated always having to reboot into Bootcamp to run PTE or run a slideshow. Now it is very easy.