Latitude E6500 and Virtual PC

You shouldn't have any problems.  I run Virtual PC on a number of machines, including XP laptops (Inspiron 6000 with 1.5 GB ram) and XP desktops (Dimension 4600, 4700), and yours is a more powerful machine than any of these.  I also use it on Vista hosts--an Inspiron 530 desktop and a HP laptop, both with 3 GB of ram. 

I've installed both Mandrake and Ubuntu in guests so I can learn them.  I've never gotten Mandrake to work quite right (I think it's just that I'm not familiar with the driver issues), but Ubuntu installed easily and works great.

Except that I cannot get Hardware-assisted virtualization enabled in Virtual PC 2007 SP1 x64. All virtualization options (three of them) are enabled in BIOS, yet Virual PC settings say that it is not available on this computer.

- Jussi

the fact that your BIOS shows the settings normally indicate that the processor does have the virtualization ability.  However not all new Intel processors have this. You may have already checked this, but if not do a google search on "intel processor numbers". On the screen that appears click on your processor family. For example:

• Intel® Core™2 Duo processor  click on the family of your processor, what ever it is.

• When you click on this link a chart will appear

  Intel® Core™2 Duo processor

  Look for the colum

  V irtualization Technology
  (Intel® VT)Φ

  to be checked for your processor.

  If it is not checked you don't have that feature on your machine.  If you do the problem lies elsware.

  Φ Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT), and Intel® 64 architecture require a computer system with a processor, chipset, BIOS, enabling software and/or operating system, device drivers and applications designed for these features. Performance will vary depending on your configuration. Contact your vendor for more information.

  ° Enabling Execute Disable Bit functionality requires a PC with a processor with Execute Disable Bit capability and a supporting operating system. Check with your PC manufacturer on whether your system delivers Execute Disable Bit functionality.

Strangely enough, now VBox recognizes VT/X.... Maybe several reboots are necessary for activating it. Securable can also see the hardware virtualization capacity (it shows Locked On). Good news!

Hi,

I use ubuntu 9.04 on my E6500 without any diificulties. I use VirtualBox to run Windows XP in it. The only problem is, i'm not able to activate VT-x. I've got BIOS A13 and VMM is checked, but never the less it is not recognized by VirtualBox. I'm working on that..

--kdws

I have an E6500 with 8GB of memory and running Vista x64 SP2. I am able to enable the "hardware assisted virtualization" (I wasn't able to before I restarted Virtual PC 2007 SP1 a few times - weird).

My main problem is that the performance in the virtual computers fluctuate a lot - task manager in the virtual PC fluctuates from 0-60%, all of the time. The physical host fluctuates from 0-5%..as any normal PC. If I play any sound/MP3, I get a lot of snaps in the audio.

My e6500 came with Windows 7 professional, but I experienced the same problem there - so I went for a downgrade, which also enabled me to run Virtual PC 2007 SP1 (with the hotfix rollup package also installed). Unfortunately, downgrading didn't help. Also, upgrading from BIOS A16 to A18 didn't do any difference either. I'm running with a P8700 CPU, and hardware assisted virtualization is enabled in the BIOS.

My normal desktop PC, running Vista SP2 x86, doesn't behave like this - same virtual computers behave as fully normal computers, no fluctuation in virtual performance. My normal PC has a duo core 2 e6700 CPU, running with 4GM of memory. The services "Windows Search" + readyboost + superfetch have been disabled on both computers to allow Virtual PC to have loads of memory available + 0 waiting time on the hard drives).