VT-x features locked error resolution while setting AX2012 R2 VPC on Windows 8-64 bit machine.

Hi Friends,

I want to share this experience, recently I was configuring AX2012 R2 VPC which I downloaded from Microsoft information source, on my new HP machine having  Windows 8 64 bit operating system and Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3630QM CPU @ 2.40 GHz processor.

I was configuring it in an Oracle VM virtual box using Oracle VM Virtual Box Manager.

I found some really good blogs having detailed description of how to do it :

http://www.doens.be/2011/11/how-to-run-a-microsoft-ax-2012-hyper-v-on-virtualbox/

http://dynamicsnavax.blogspot.in/2011/04/how-to-run-ax2012-hyperv-on-virtualbox.html

http://axretail.blogspot.in/2012/08/ax-retail-2012-vpc-configuration-on.html


So I followed them and once the setup was completed, I started the virtual machine. To my surprise I got the below error message on starting it :
"VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR.(VERR_VMX_MSR_LOCKED_OR_DISABLED)"

So I again checked my setup and made sure that Hardware Virtualization is enabled in my VM settings, it was enabled but still I was getting the error.




So I started searching for the solution in various forums, I even went to Intel forums to read more about hardware virtualization. Fortunately I came across one of the forum mentioning that by default hardware virtualization is disabled in BIOS settings of most of Intel processor laptops by vendors for better performance and in order to enable it we need to go to host machine BIOS and turn on the virtualization technology.

Keeping my fingers crossed I restarted the machine, jumped into the BIOS of the machine and under system configuration group I found virtualization technology option. It was actually disabled, I turned it on then then saved the settings and exited from the BIOS. I also captured the screen through my mobile camera.

Now when I ran the AX virtual machine, it started up smoothly. Never thought that to start a VM we might need to change BIOS settings.

P.S --> The above information is based on my experience and in case you are getting the same issue that please change BIOS on your own risk or contact your vendor technical support team.