Question - black screen of death on Virtualbox

[cad-guy]

Hello;
Thank you in advance for any help/advice. I'm running Windows XP as a guest in Virtualbox with Xfce as the main OS. I'm interested in figuring out two prblems. The first is that if Virtualbox or the computer itself gets restarted, I get the 'black screen of death' black-screen.jpg. With no pointer input or OS. The only workaround has been to use the 'restore snapshot' option which resets the machine. This isn't great but it works. Where the problem occurs is the second issue. That question is how to get VirtualBox to expand beyond 800x600. virtualbox-screensize.jpg.
I went to the Portland linux forums and someone suggested to 'install guest additions' which is fine and good but at the end of installing, it insists on rebooting windows. Which leads to the first problem - the black screen of death
♫ There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza dear Liza ♫

[trainhappy]

Hello,
Are you trying to use an iso for windows xp, or a windows xp install disk? If your using an iso, it might be the iso. If your not using an iso, can you try installing Windows XP on VMware Player (vmware.com/products/player/overview.html) and let us know what result you get with that?

[cad-guy]

The windows was origionally installed on a previous computer and the .vdi was transferred to this computer which saved me the huge effort of re-installing all of the programs (Photoshop, Autocad, Sketchup). A windows update disk was used as an .iso with a virtual CD drive on Virtualbox.
Does that help?