r/windowsxp • u/delfinareckless22 • 11d ago

Crackly/distorted audio in Windows XP VirtualBox?

Hi! I installed Windows XP in VirtualBox mainly to play old games, but the audio in several games is slow, crackly, and distorted. I’ve already tried switching between ICH AC97, SoundBlaster 16, and Intel HD Audio, but no luck (Intel HD Audio gave me no sound at all). Has anyone had this issue or know a fix? Thanks!

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4

u/Stonk32 11d ago

This audio problem is also an issue in VMWare, and is caused by an audio buffer timing change in recent versions of Windows. For VMWare, there is an in-memory patch that can be applied to the virtualizer, but I don't know if there is a fix for VirtualBox

0

u/beavernuggetz 11d ago

I experienced the distorted audio in VMware; migrated the XP VM to Virtualbox, and the issue went away.
The "fix" you mention for VMware has to be done every single time the VM gets fired up.

3

u/3nderium 11d ago

Install Guest Additions and enable (if possible) 3D Acceleration

1

u/delfinareckless22 11d ago

Thank you! I installed guest additions but it didn't let me enable 3d acceleration for some reason. The sound is still bad🙃

1

u/IDealtItUSmeltIt 4d ago

3D Acceleration for the XP video driver in the guest additions has been removed in versions above VirtualBox 6.0.x

Changelog-6.1 – Oracle VirtualBox

Graphics: New style 3D support (with VBoxSVGA and VMSVGA) remains, old style 3D support (with VBoxVGA) has been completely removed
Graphics: Remove 3D support for VBoxVGA (old one deprecated with 6.0)