Fixing Sound Stuttering or Crackling in VirtualBox 7 on Windows 11

If you're running VirtualBox v7 on Windows, you might have noticed a sound issue where the audio stutters or crackles. This can be frustrating, especially if you're trying to play music or watch a video. Fortunately, there's a simple solution to this problem.

The issue seems to be related to the audio settings in VirtualBox. By default, VirtualBox uses the "Intel HD Audio" controller, which can cause the sound to stutter or crackle. To fix this, you can switch to a different audio controller.

Here's how to do it:

•     Shut down your virtual machine if it's running.
•     In the VirtualBox Manager, select the virtual machine you want to change the audio settings for, and click "Settings".
•     In the settings window, select the "Audio" tab.
•     Under "Audio Controller", select "Windows DirectSound".
•     Click "OK" to save the changes.
•     Start your virtual machine and check if the sound issue is resolved.

That's it! With this simple fix, you should be able to enjoy your virtual machine's audio without any stuttering or crackling.

VMware: How to merge vmdk files

Multiple vmdk file

You might end up in situation where you will find xxx-000001.vmdk , xxx-000002.vmdk and so on (these are quite big files) in your virtual machine (vm) folder, they are usually accompanied with .vmsd or Snapshot1.vmsn files

Something like this:
28/04/2017  16:31           210,055 vmware-0.log
27/04/2017  17:02           201,055 vmware-1.log
27/04/2017  12:20           205,308 vmware-2.log
11/05/2017  10:41           192,162 vmware.log
06/02/2017  10:52             4,380 vprintproxy-0.log
02/02/2017  17:06             4,380 vprintproxy-1.log
02/02/2017  16:19             4,383 vprintproxy-2.log
06/02/2017  11:44             4,380 vprintproxy.log
11/05/2017  10:41    14,624,489,472 virtual_machine-000002.vmdk
02/03/2016  16:11        43,488,006 virtual_machine-Snapshot1.vmsn
11/05/2017  10:41             8,684 virtual_machine.nvram
02/03/2016  16:09    14,404,091,904 virtual_machine.vmdk
04/03/2016  13:39               471 virtual_machine.vmsd
11/05/2017  10:41             4,121 virtual_machine.vmx
04/03/2016  13:39             3,300 virtual_machine.vmxf

Merging the vmdk 

First thing you need to do is backup the entire vm folder!

There is a tool to merge these vmdk - but it belongs to VMware Workstation, so if you only have VMware player you will have to download this tool from Vmware at this link

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1023856

You will have to move this file into c:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Player\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe

otherwise it will dump with this error:

SSLLoadSharedLibrary: Failed to load library libeay32.dll:126

Win32 object usage: GDI 4, USER 1

After you will have to move into the vm folder and launch the utility as:

C:\Users\user1\Documents\Virtual Machines\vm11>"c:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Player\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe" -r "virtual_machine-000002.vmdk" -t 0 singleDiskFile.vmdk

Creating disk 'singleDiskFile.vmdk'

  Convert: 1% done.

The conversion will take some time to write the new vmdk file, when it is finished you can delete all the previous vmdk and snapshot file and rename it as the previous name.

the result will be something like this:

11/05/2017  12:52    21,381,054,464 virtual_machine-000002.vmdk

11/05/2017  12:52             8,684 virtual_machine.nvram

11/05/2017  12:47                 0 virtual_machine.vmsd

11/05/2017  12:52             4,202 virtual_machine.vmx

11/05/2017  12:47               274 virtual_machine.vmxf

I also removed the log files during the process - but that is totally optional