T60p: Can't install Win7 in Virtualbox

[pete_h]

Hi, I'm a first time poster, long time Thinkpad user. Did a quick search on this forum and couldn't find the answer to this anywhere so opened up a new topic (sorry if I missed something relevant).

I have a T60p (2007YS3) w/the following specs: T7600/2.33 GHz (Core 2 Duo), 3GB RAM (2x1), ATI RV530/IPS SXGA+, 250GB/7200rpm Hitachi HDD, Linux Mint Xfce 32bit. and have tried well over 15 times to install Win7-32bit on Virtualbox 4.2.24 using numerous combos of settings. All attempts have resulted either in messages indicating corrupt files in the iso (not correct -- used the same iso to successfully install W7 in a t61p -- can give the specs on that if you like) or the BSOD. Latter indicates different errors (e.g., attempt to write to read-only memory; 0x0000008e, 0x000000be, etc...a particular driver was never singled out though).

Every other program I have runs fine on this machine and I've successfully installed XP in Virtualbox on it. Web searching indicates that it might be a hardware issue -- but my RAM seems fine and as far as I can tell, all my drivers are up to date (again, I'm running Linux Mint 16 Xfce 32bit with no other issues). I've also updated my BIOS recently to 2.27 using a bootable BIOS CD provided by Lenovo (I think the previous version was 2.13 -- dated 2007).

I've gleaned many useful insights from this forum and I know there are many very knowledgeable and helpful people here...Thanks for all that you guys do...Any suggestions in my case would be greatly appreciated!

[pete_h]

PS If it helps to know, the install *always* crashes at exactly 87% of the "expanding files" stage. So frustrating! I'm at my wit's end here...

[ilakast]

Is Intel Virtualisation Technology enabled under BIOS > Config > CPU ?

I can't thing of anything else. I had a T60 with an ATI GPU and Virtualbox run Win7 fine under Debian.

[pete_h]

To anyone: Would the type of hard drive have anything to do with it? I tried the install again by putting my t60p hard drive into my t61p but got the same error message there (recall that I was able to install/run it on the native HDD of the t61p with no issues). This is thoroughly puzzling...

ilakast - Yes, I enabled that in BIOS but it doesn't seem to make any difference (same error with or without it). Good to know that there's some hope since you were able to run it in Linux on a t60 -- was that an ATI RV530 GPU by any chance?

[ilakast]

ilakast - Yes, I enabled that in BIOS but it doesn't seem to make any difference (same error with or without it). Good to know that there's some hope since you were able to run it in Linux on a t60 -- was that an ATI RV530 GPU by any chance?

No, it was an X1400. Try to install once more and while doing that, have a terminal open watching dmesg output, e.g.

Code: Select all

watch "dmesg | tail -60"

And see what error messages -if any - come out during the process.

[RealBlackStuff]

On this forum the RV530 GPU from the T60p is commonly known as ATI FireGL V5200 or V5250.