i7 X980 6 3.33GHz core not recognized

I've been using parallels desktop on my mac, and now I'm doing development on a PC. I hate HyperV, and so I'm doing a trial of parallels workstation.

During the install, I got a "Virtualization not supported with this processor, you will be limited to guest OSs running 32bit one processor only." Hyper V runs on this, I've set up the virtualization option in BIOS, and I have 6 processor cores, with HT on both of them. 12 GB RAM. This computer is more than capable, as I'm currently running server 2008 x64, win7x64 and win8 on it simultaneously (but in hyper V, which I dislike).

My host OS is server 2008 R2 64 bit.

My CPU doesn't show up on the supported CPU list making me think that the installer is just checking against a list rather than actually checking the CPU capabilities. Is there a patch or something that'll tell workstation that my CPU doesn't suck?

If not, then I guess I'll stick with hyper V.

 

I think the problem is not with your CPU.
I don't see any server version of windows listed as a supported host in the README file .
I was just reading it with regard to a Linux host question I posted, and still had it open when I read your post.

32-bit:
Windows 7;
Windows Vista SP1, SP2;
Windows XP Pro SP2, SP3;
Windows XP Home SP3;
Debian 6.0;
Fedora 14, 15;
RHEL 6, 6.1;
SLED 11 SP1;
Ubuntu 10.10, 11.04, 11.10.

64-bit:
Windows 7;
Windows Vista SP1, SP2;
Windows XP Pro SP2;
Debian 6.0;
Fedora 14, 15;
RHEL 6, 6.1;
SLED 11 SP1;
Ubuntu 10.10, 11.04, 11.10.


I strongly suspect the server version of windows hooks into the the processor's virtualization support, preventing Parallels from installing its own hooks.

 

This is brilliant, thanks! It makes me wonder if it's the hyper-v manager in particular that does it. It'd be nice if removing that role would allow me to run other virtualization products.

 

Hi Doofusdavid,
The problem most likely doesn't relate to Windows Server 2008, but rather to VT-x support. In rare cases VT-x may be enabled in BIOS but it is not recognized by the system properly. Please try to perform the recommendations given in this article http://kb.parallels.com/en/8195. Especially pay attention at the sixth step:
"6. Now the hardware virtualization is enabled. Save the settings and exit BIOS. Then shut down your computer and unplug the power cord from the electrical outlet. After that, plug the power cord back into the electrical outlet and turn on the computer. The settings will take effect after the host operating system boots up."

Does that help?

Best regards,
Victor