Windows Phone 8 emulator fails to start

2
votes

I'm getting the following error when attempting to run a Windows Phone 8 app in the Windows Phone 8 emulator (via Visual Studio 2012):

Windows Phone Emulator wasn't able to ensure the virtual machine was running

The Windows Phone Emulator wasn't able to ensure the virtual machine was running:

Something happened while starting a virtual machine: 'Emulator 720P.joel' could not initialize. (Virtual machine ID 7320013C-0597-4408A-9CCF-049166CE9926)

There's no other indication on what might be causing this problem. I have ensured the following:

  • I'm running Windows 8.1 Pro x64
  • I'm on a machine that supports SLAT (It's a Core i5)
  • There's no other virtualization software installed or running, other than Hyper-V
  • I've tried cleaning the existing switches from Hyper-V using XdeCleanup.exe, with no luck
  • I've tried uninstalling and re-installing both the Windows Phone 8 SDK and Hyper-V. Neither helped.
  • The Windows Event Log reports no errors with regards to Hyper-V or starting the emulator
  • I've tried reducing the processor count on the VM to 1 processor (from the default of 2). No effect.

At one point in the past (a few months ago), the emulator was working. It was around that time that I got a Windows Phone 8 device, so I started developing it. I've been wanting to test a few things out on the emulator rather than having to use my actual phone. The only thing that I can think of that changed since then, was that I upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1.

Does anyone here have any idea what might be happening, or know of anywhere else I can look for any hints on what might be the problem?

5
windows-phone-8windows-phone-8-emulator
Have you installed all the updates for VS 2012? In update 3, there were many issues fixed with Win 8.1 compatibility. There were also many phone tool updates. The latest update is VS 2012 Update 4. – Scott Wylie
Yes, Visual Studio is running the latest updates. – Joel B
Have you solved this? – Nic
This was so long ago, I don't even remember if I got it working! I haven't done any Windows Phone 8 development in roughly 2 years. Sorry that isn't much help. :( – Joel B

5 Answers

1
votes

Well I can't say this will work for everyone but for me it was a matter of simply turning off windows firewall.

I had checked all other settings (BIOS, SLAT, etc) and even uninstalled/installed the Hyper-v feature but Hyper-V had been working fine. In fact I could open and run the emulator - just could connect from VS. Once I turned the firewall off everything worked.

You would think you could establish a range of ports to use but who knows what they would be?

0
votes

I had the same issue and even now it, when I disable my wireless actually totally remove wireless lan and disable my bridged networks. Everything works fine. Please also make sure that internet sharing is not enabled on LAN.

0
votes

that mean that you don't have insufficient RAM to be able to start your Emulator. try to stop some running programs or services. and try again

0
votes

I had the same problem and I solved it as follows:

First disable the LAN connection. This can be done by going to Control panel > Internet Properties > Connections > LAN Setting > Remove the tick mark(deselect auto-detect setting) Press OK.

If any anti-virus is installed, then disable the firewall.

Then go to Hyper-V manager and delete all emulators present. Restart your emulator and it will work.