Guest PC Stops Responding, Unexpectedly Restarts, or Generates an "Unrecoverable Processor" Error Message (824664)

SYMPTOMS

When you try to start a Microsoft Windows 2000-based guest PC or a Microsoft Windows XP-based guest PC for the first time on a new host PC, you may experience any of the following symptoms:

The guest PC stops responding (hangs).
The guest PC unexpectedly restarts.
You receive an error message that is similar to the following:
Unrecoverable processor error

CAUSE

This behavior may occur after Symantec Ghost is used to copy an image from one computer to a guest PC. If the source of the image and the guest PC have incompatible hardware abstraction layer (HAL) types, the guest PC may not be able to start.

Note Because the computers have incompatible HAL types, this means that they do not have the same HAL driver installed.

Potential HAL incompatibilities include the following:

Number of processors
Support for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)

RESOLUTION

If you cannot start your computer correctly because the wrong HAL driver is installed, start the Emergency Repair process. To do this, use one of the following methods, as appropriate to your guest PC operating system.

Windows 2000

Start the guest PC by using the Windows 2000 CD-ROM.
At the Welcome to Setup screen, press R.
At the Windows 2000 Repair Options screen, press R.
Press M to manually select repair options. Click to select the Verify Windows 2000 system files and the Inspect startup environment check boxes.
When the repair process is complete, remove the CD-ROM, and then restart your guest PC.

Windows XP

Start the guest PC by using the Windows XP CD-ROM.
When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message is displayed on your screen, press any key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM.
Press ENTER when you receive the "To set up Windows XP now" message, and then press ENTER on the Welcome to Setup screen. Do not select the option to use the Recovery Console.
In the Windows XP Licensing Agreement, press F8 to agree to the license agreement.
Your current Windows XP installation is listed, and then you are prompted to select an option. Press R to start the automatic repair process.
When the repair process is complete, remove the CD-ROM, and then restart your guest PC.

These steps install the correct HAL and rebuild the device tree to match the virtualized hardware in Virtual PC.

MORE INFORMATION

Virtual PC for Windows versions 4.x and 5.x implement a single-processor PC without ACPI support. If the source computer that is used to create the ghost image matches this configuration, the cloned image should run fine on a guest PC. However, most desktop computers and portable computers that have been manufactured during the past several years support ACPI.

Note Some computers permit you to disable ACPI in the BIOS Setup program.

For additional information about HAL issues, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

237556 How to Troubleshoot Windows 2000 Hardware Abstraction Layer Issues

For more about this issue with Ghost, visit the following Symantec Web site, and then search for article 2001022206484225:

http://search.symantec.com/custom/us/techsupp/enterprise/kb/query.html

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