This is my first post on Windows 8. After Microsoft announced it’s first Windows 8 Developer preview edition, I downloaded 32-bit version of it and tried on my virtual computer environment. It surprised the moment I started the boot from ISO with a blue screen message, “Your PC ran into a problem that it couldn’t handle, and now it needs to restart. HAL_INITIALIZATION FAILED”. See the below picture. I read few posts in internet about this error and everywhere blame is on Microsoft that this time they gave a nice BSOD message. But I don’t see this as BSOD, it is just a installation error.
Like the message indicates, “HAL INITIALIZATION FAILED”, means my hardware is not compatible with Windows 8 Operating System. Since I am installing it in VMware, I tried all possible combinations in virtual machine settings but in vain.
Finally, I came across the “Building Windows 8” blog which gave me clear background about the error. In this article Microsoft Made it clear that, Windows 8 developer installation is supported on only below platforms.
- Hyper-V in Windows 8 Developer Preview
- Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2
- VMware Workstation 8.0 for Windows
- VirtualBox 4.1.2 for Windows
So, if you are trying to install Windows 8 on a platform which is not in the above list, sorry, you need to upgrade your virtual environment first before you start windows 8 installation.
Hope this helps.. happy learning.
Thanks,
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Parallels 7 & 8 on the Mac are supported. I’m not sure if its been acknowledged by MS yet but I have seen numerous articles about Parallels 8 and I just installed a Parallels 7 VM of Windows 8 Dev preview. VMware Fusion 3.1.3 is not supported and I will be testing VMware Fusion 4 when its released for subscriber updates
The VirtualBox works perfect for avoiding this show-stopper.
i am getting DPC watchdog violation error when installing w8 in vmware workstation 8
VMWare Player 4.0.0
Installing the x64 Windows 8 gives a “DPC WATCHDOG VIOLATION” error – Same as yalleswar. Reading around, it seems to only happen with x64 versions of Win8 (I have Win7 x64 installed as my primary OS, so that’s not the issue)
@REELIX YOU ARENT USING THE VM SOFTWARE IN THE LIST…
@REELIX YOU ARENT USING THE VM SOFTWARE IN THE LIST…
well,i have a problem,which is black screen of death showing error 0x0000000a,using linux version of virtualbox 4.14 and ubuntu 10.04 LTS
This issue occurs due to Windows Virtual PC that is causing issues with Windows 8 .. You can trying VMWare Virtual Player instead of Microsoft Virtual PC to resolve this problem..
I have loaded virtualbox and it wont load with that at all. just keeps flickering something that says your pc needs to restart and then freezes up. VMWare you have to PAY FOR… so… since this is just to test a beta FREE software any other ideas?
majorgeeks.com still has the vmware workstation download for free.
my bad. Just found out they no longer have it
I keep getting the black screen of death on VBox too… I don’t have Intel Visualization on my CPU, could that be the problem? Do you need the visualization technology to run Win 8 in a Virtual Machine?
I just downloaded the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Tried to run on VMware ESXi 4.0
and got the same error message.
I also wanted to install Consumer Preview to Vmware Workstation 8 and got the same error…
@NPeete,
I see that Vmware workstation 8.0.2 released recently(24/1/2012). Have you tried that version?
@Mario, I haven’t read any recommendations from VMware ESXi perspective. But what you can try is, if you have a windows computer in same ESXi environment with the same configuration as VM where you are trying to install, then try running “Windows 8 Consumer preview setup” (http://techibee.com/windows-8/windows-8-customer-preview-is-available-for-download/1445). It will analyze and tell you if your VM configuration supports this version or not. I will post here if I get some information about this.
I’ve downloaded both the 32- and 64-bit versions of the ISO, and tried to install both in the latest VMWare Workstation. Both have failed with the same error code.
I just upgraded to VMWare Workstation 8.02 this morning prior to installation.
Thannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnkkkkkkkk
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkksssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
please my help
Windows 8: HAL_INITIALIZATION FAILED.
give error solution
Me too. I can’t Install it in Virtual PC. I also tried all settings. I tried also to put it in Maximum. But this always appearing “HAL_INITIALIZATION FAILED”
Tannnnnxxxxxx
This really helped, i was getting all sorts of issues with Vmware 6, since the upgrade, it all came up and is working perfectly,
i am grateful.
Glad to know that, Kiage.
this is very gooood
Thanks for the info. I just encountered this problem and it really frustrates me. I though there is something wrong with the ISO. I was going to download a new ISO but thankfully found this post. 🙂
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