I prefer to run Virtual Server instead of Virtual PC on my notebook for my virtual machine needs.  Why?  Consolidated maintenance and screen real estate.  I don’t particularly care for the Virtual PC tray icon or the way it manages multiple windows.  Just a personal preference thing.

The only problem is that Virtual Server on my notebook would cause these annoying 5-10 second hangs every 30 seconds or so within its virtual instances.  That’s 10-20 seconds of WTF every minute.  It doesn’t make for good demos, nor does it make for a pleasant user experience in any way.

Turns out the problem is related to Intel’s SpeedStep which you really only see on notebook machines.  By disabling SpeedStep in the BIOS, my virtual machines are running at blazing speed!  I installed Windows Server 2003 the other night and it worked like it should, rather than taking 6+ hours!  In my hunt for a solution, it was also mentioned to me that on some notebooks disabling SpeedStep in the BIOS causes the machine to run at its lowest performing mode and the recommendation was to set Windows’ power management mode to Always On.  In my case, this didn’t do anything hence the reason I disabled SpeedStep in the BIOS.