Server 2008, Hyper-V Guest Clocks on Dell Studio XPS i7?

[ADB100]

I have a really weird problem with two identical (almost) Desktop PC's I am using as Server 2008 Hyper-V hosts.

I have a Dell Studio XPS 430 Desktop PC, Intel i7 920 & 2.67GHz, 12GB RAM and two 1TB drives mirrored. I use this for development and testing as it allows me to test a lot of things from home. I have various Windows servers as guests. I had a hard drive fail recently and as I have a mirror it was fine, if not degraded until I replaced the drive. I decided it might be an idea to get another machine of a similar spec just in case the whole system fails and with all the important servers as Hyper-V guests it's pretty easy restoring stuff assuming I have backups of the VHD's.
Anyway I bought another Dell Studio XPS 430 with an almost identical spec - the only difference being the Graphics card, both PCIe ATI cards but different models. After getting Server 2008 installed, patched and Hyper-V installed I started a sysprep'd 2003 Server and noticed it behaving 'funny'. After a while I noticed the clock on the guest was slow and so I double-clicked the clock in the taskbar and noticed the second hand wasn't actually moving. Well it was but sporadically and loosing time rapidly. The host machine's clock appears fine.
I have verified the BIOS version and settings between each PC and they are the same. I have re-installed Windows Server 2008 on the 2nd one and still I have this issue.

I am now a bit stuck as to where to look. I have searched online and have found comments about disabling some features in BIOS for the CPU but these options aren't available in the Dell BIOS. I am at a loss now and need some help...

Thanks, Andy

 

[kmcferrin]

Did you install the Hyper-V Integration Components into the new VM? Server 2003 by itself isn't Hyper-V aware, and what you're seeing sounds like the clock time is only advancing when the clock is getting CPU time.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[ADB100]

Thanks for the reply, however I don't think you read my post fully..

I have guest OS's that work perfectly on one system, however when they are started on the 'new' machine they have this clock issue. Both 'Servers' have been build identically - Windows 2008 x64 Standard, Hyper-V role installed and all Windows Updates applied. They both have identical hardware except the Graphics card; both cards are ATI but one has a Radeon 4670, the other a Radeon 3450.

I have now had the 2nd system replaced and I am still seeing the same behaviour. I think I am going to swap the graphics cards over and see what happens.

Does anyone else have any clues? Both systems are Dell Studio XPS 435MT's.

Andy

 

[kmcferrin]

So was that a "yes" or a "no" to my question?

In case you weren't aware, installing the Hyper-V Integration Components as I suggested will replace the default display, network, and storage drivers with the Hyper-V enlightened VMBus drivers. This may also smooth out any difficulties that you are seeing because of mismatched display adapters.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[ADB100]

Yes the integration components are installed. What I have done is create sysprep images of XP, 2003 Standard, 2003 Enterprise etc. All these have the integration components installed. I have also re-installed the components and the behaviour is the same.
This is pretty black & white between the two systems - the guest on one works perfectly, on the other the clock is almost stopped.

Andy