Re: Help with Windows XP in qemu-system-i386

[Programmingkid]

> On Feb 5, 2021, at 4:08 PM, Programmingkid <programmingkidx@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On Feb 5, 2021, at 3:49 PM, Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com> wrote:
>> 
>> On Fri, Feb 05, 2021 at 03:25:00PM -0500, Programmingkid wrote:
>>> Hi, I'm noticing that my Windows XP Service Pack 3 VM is causing 
>>> qemu-system-i386 to experience 100% host cpu usage even when the guest is 
>>> at idle. I was wondering if you are seeing this issue as well on any 
>>> version of Windows guest? Windows 2000 doesn't seem to have this problem so 
>>> I'm wondering if this is a bug with QEMU or a problem with my VM. Any help 
>>> would be appreciated.
>>> 
>>> Thank you.
>> 
>> Just tried an xp guest, stays below 10% for me. Suggest discussing this
>> on the mailing list.
> 
> Thank you for the reply. Which service pack is your Windows XP VM using?
> 

Hi Michael. I noticed what was the cause of Windows XP using so much CPU time 
when idle. When I used the '-smp 4' option Windows made a change then 
restarted. After restarting the screen was black. Does this happen to you? 
Please make a backup of any image file you have before experimenting. Windows 7 
doesn't have this problem. I am qemu-system-i386 at commit 
1214d55d1c41fbab3a9973a05085b8760647e411.

Removing the '-smp 2' option does make Windows XP start up again, but the high 
host CPU usage at idle remains...

I reported this bug here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1914294