Enabling Virtualization with no option in BIOS (Windows 8.1 basic, Samsung laptop)

1
votes

I downloaded and installed Android Studio but I am not able to install Intel-HAXM (hardware-acceleration for the emulator) because I am unable to turn on virtualization.

  • I downloaded Speccy and it says virtualization is disabled.

  • I got into BIOS using F2 on startup and it says Intel VT-x is disabled but there is no option to enable it.

  • When I run Android Studio I get an error saying I need Intel-HAXM installed. When I try to install intel-HAXM (running as admin) I get an error saying "This computer does not support Intel virtualization technology. HAXM can not be installed".

  • My laptop is a Samsung NP355V5C running a recent update to Windows 8.1 Basic. I do not have Hyper-V as that is only available for higher levels of Windows 8.1

Also I don't believe I'm qualified to hack my BIOS. Please help me find a way to enable virtualization or to use Android Studio for development without using Intel-HAXM.

1
android-studiowindows-8.1virtualizationhaxm

1 Answers

0
votes

Please help me find a way to enable virtualization

See if there is a BIOS update from Samsung. It is possible, though somewhat unlikely, that they have added the ability to toggle Intel virtualization extensions in a BIOS update.

Outside of that, you would need to buy a new computer.

to use Android Studio for development without using Intel-HAXM

Use the ARM emulator images instead of x86 emulator images. These do not require HAXM. However, they run a lot slower than their x86 counterparts.

Here is a screenshot of the AVD Manager from Android Studio:

Android Studio, Showing AVD Manager

The "ABI" column indicates what CPU architecture that AVD will use. Those that are listed as armeabi-v7a are ARM images, and they will work on your notebook without HAXM.

However, as I mentioned, they will be very slow, particularly for higher-resolution screens. I suggest using some fairly low-resolution screens (e.g., Nexus S) to get by.