Problems virtualizing Windows 8 OEM using VMware Converter 5.1 and Player 5.02

[Chris_Pudney]

G'day,

I recently purchased a Dell XPS8700 workstation which came with Windows 8 installed.

I want to install Ubuntu (not dual-boot) on it but before doing so I wanted to virtualize Windows 8.

So, I downloaded VMware Converter 5.1 Standalone, and used it to create a VM of Windows 8. So far so good.

I then tried to run this VM in VMware Player 5.02 (both the Windows and Ubuntu versions). Player recognises the VM correctly but when I try to power it on I see a black screen for a few seconds and then it exits. There are no error messages produced in the logs that indicate what the problem is.

Has anyone had success virtualizing Windows 8 for use with VMware Player?

Thanks,

Chris.

[POCEH]

Are your VM has EFI, and which hardware version you set?

[Chris_Pudney]

G'day,

Thanks for responding:

POCEH wrote:

Are your VM has EFI, and which hardware version you set?

Yes, the Windows 8 client I'm trying to convert has UEFI.

I've tried converting to VMware Player 4 & 5, and ESXi 4 (I think, perhaps 5) will need to check.

None of the conversions have succeeded.

Regards,

Chris.

[POCEH]

Check your hardware version to be >= 8; also check the new VM settings that EFI was set.

[Chris_Pudney]

G'day,

POCEH wrote:

Check your hardware version to be >= 8; also check the new VM settings that EFI was set.

Yes, I've tried both v8 and v9 with no success.

How do I check that EFI was set with VMPlayer?

Thanks,

Chris.

[POCEH]

To be sure set the hardware version to 9 and check for 'firmware = "efi"' line in VMX file. HTH

[Chris_Pudney]

G'day,

POCEH wrote:

To be sure set the hardware version to 9 and check for 'firmware = "efi"' line in VMX file. HTH

Thanks - both are set but still no success.

Regards,

Chris.

[POCEH]

Look at WS community...

[Mark_D1]

I think that the answer to your question you can find at the link:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=200512...

there is a fragment:

"... Note: If you are running an OEM version of Windows, the migration may fail. VMware cannot support OEM copies of Windows migrated to virtual machines as this is a violation of Microsoft licensing conditions. If you purchased your computer with Windows pre-installed, you are most likely running an OEM version of Windows. To check whether you are running an OEM version, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 310104. ..."

Regards

Mark