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Model: HP Compaq 6910p, Windows 7 ultimate. Virtualbox is only showing 32 bit options and the base OS is 64 bit, what to do? Also bios is asking for setup password which I don't know.

Burgi
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Chaitali Gaitonde
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    Please be precise when and where does Virtualbox showing only 32 bit options? At installation time or at run-time? Have you enabled the virtualization options in your PC BIOS? What CPU has your notebook -> what virtualization options does the CPU support? – Robert Feb 19 '20 at 18:31
  • @Robert if you have used VirtualBox, then you recognize this to be a problem of not being able to create x64 VM's and only x86 can be made, which means any of the options in my answer are present. So your question is a bit redundant. – LPChip Feb 19 '20 at 19:44
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    @LPChip I am tired of users too lazy not writing concrete information. Too often I had to delete answers because in the end the users after some hours finally presented the info that it was something totally different mentioned in the question as everybody thought. IMHO we should train the users to write complete questions that can't be misunderstood. In this case half of a sentence like "When I create a new virtual machine..." would have been enough - 36 extremely helpful characters. – Robert Feb 19 '20 at 19:59
  • @Robert in an ideal world, that would be preferred indeed, but it will always be the new users who do this and it does not matter how much you ask for information, if you feel like you don't want to help people because they lack information, it is better to simply not answer questions. I agree that if information is lacking which prevents you from answering it, it is okay to ask, but in this case it was clear to me what they meant, which is something only possible from experience. So no hard feelings towards you, although your question shows no attempt to research yourself either. – LPChip Feb 19 '20 at 20:08
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    Possible duplicate of this and this and this – Ramhound Feb 19 '20 at 23:08

2 Answers2

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VirtualBox will only allow 32 bit OSses when one or more of the following criteria are met:

  • You are running a 32 bit OS.
  • You are running a 32bit version of VirtualBox.
  • You do not have one of the VT-? extensions enabled in the BIOS or your computer is not capable of this feature.
  • You have another VM product installed which claims access to the VT-? extensions and as such VirtualBox is not able to claim it, defaulting back to 32bit mode.

Keep in mind that Microsoft's HyperV solution can be installed on the system, and will be if you are playing around with Docker. You need to uninstall any VM solution other than VirtualBox, then reboot in order for it to switch to 64-bit mode, if all other criteria are not met.

If you have checked that all are met, with the exception for VT-? extensions being enabled in the BIOS (this is usually turned off by default), then you will have to gain access to the BIOS before you can do anything else. This usually involves clearing the CMOS battery in one way or another, or ask for the BIOS password, or ask someone who knows the BIOS password, to enable this setting for you.

LPChip
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  • FWIW Hyper-V does not run on Windows 7 so is not an issue in this particular case. Other third-party VMMs might still be relevant. – Bob Feb 19 '20 at 21:16
  • @Bob Ah, it was called Virtual PC back then wasn't it... – LPChip Feb 19 '20 at 21:51
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bios is asking for setup password which I don't know.

I assume that you want to access the BIOS to check if Virtualization is enabled. If you've forgotten your BIOS password this is how you can can reset / remove a BIOS password on your HP Elitebook 6910p:

  1. Remove the battery.
  2. Unplug charger from laptop.
  3. Open keyboard
  4. Remove CMOS connector from motherboard
  5. Press and hold power button for 30 second
  6. Reconnect CMOS connector with motherboard
  7. Connect the charger to the laptop.
  8. Press power button
  9. When display shows press F10
  10. Access the BIOS.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG50SDfxd9w

(If you aren't confident to do the above or have a company laptop, better to let IT or HP support to do it).

Once you can access your BIOS, you can check the status of Virtualization and enable / disable it. This discussion thread on HP community site has good information on how to do it through the BIOS or with Windows: How to Enable Intel Virtualization Technology (vt-x) on HP Pavilion 23-b026in All-in-One Desktop PC?

sfxedit
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  • You are jumping the gun here, and your answer does not really explain why this is correct and what to do next. I have to vote it down because of that, even though there is some valuable information in here. On SuperUser, we do not just post instructions, we carefully read the question and mold the answer in such way that it actually does answer the question of the person asking it, not giving them more questions. – LPChip Feb 19 '20 at 19:49
  • OP asks why his VirtualBox only shows 32 bit VM options, and nowhere in your answer does it actually answer this. As addendum, they mention they cannot access the BIOS which the part your answer attempts to answer. You post a link to what possibly is going to be the actual answer, but posting link only answers is highly frowned upon here at SuperUser, because links can become invalid which invalidates your answer. Then again, by posting a link, you do not actually state why the user should change this, so they have no idea what to look for. – LPChip Feb 19 '20 at 20:11
  • Don't get me wrong here. I'm very happy that you are answering questions here at SuperUser, but if the answer is not going to help OP, I'd rather help you improve your answers and a downvote is used for two reasons. 1. to help you motivate to do better and 2. to make OP understand they need to be careful executing the answer unless they finally understood the answer and know what and why they need to do it. – LPChip Feb 19 '20 at 20:13
  • As @Robert pointed out this question is poorly phrased and that is why each of us draws our own inference to it. When he referred to not being able to access the BIOS, I obviously inferred that he wanted to change some setting in the BIOS related to the issue with virtualbox (why does OP want to access the BIOS with regards to using virtual box?). And thus I answered the question based on that inference. You didn't make any such guesses and offered a plethora of possible causes and solutions. And now you are just making the assumption that my inference (and thus my answer) is wrong. – sfxedit Feb 19 '20 at 20:23
  • Fair enough. I've retracted my vote. In order to do so, I had to make a change to your answer so it has the status edited since downvote. – LPChip Feb 19 '20 at 21:02