Vista - error: Virtual PC could not open the Virtual Machine Network Servicesdriver

The motherboard went out on a machine running Vista 64-bit and I
replaced it with a newer, slightly different motherboard. The system
boots up fine and everything works except Virtual PC 2007 SP1. Each
time I start a VM an error pops up "Virtual PC could not open the
Virtual Machine Network Services driver". It recommends two courses of
action:

Reenable the Virtula Machine Network Services driver -- it is already
enabled.

reinstall Virtual PC -- uninstalled, restarted, installed. no effect.

Not sure if it is relevant, but I noticed Virtual PC has a slightly
different name (below, first) than the name Windows refers to the
connection as (below, second):

Intel(R) 82566DM Gigabit Network Connection
Intel(R) 82566DM Gigabit Network Connection #2

Any ideas before I reformat the hard drive?

On Sun, 3 May 2009 07:56:13 -0700 (PDT), bkroeter@xxxxxx wrote:
What is your problem?
Which hard drive are you going to *re*-format? And why?

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

bkroeter@xxxxxx wrote:
So, you had a thread that you started over a month ago on this topic
(http://groups.google.com/group/micro...220d30facfa2fb).
Then you *reply* a month later to your own post but don't bother to
quote any of the original post (to make this one look like a new
thread). Don't expect users to go hunting around for your month-old
postings. To users, this new post would appear to be a new thread since
many users do not keep articles around for a month, and usually for a
lot shorter, like a couple weeks. That means your new post would look
like a new thread and provide absolutely no context regarding the
problem you described in your month-old post. To users, all they see is
your Subject and "Any ideas..." line which gives them nothing to go on.

Did you ever try uninstalling and reinstalling the Virtual Machine
Additions inside the virtual machine?

What happened when you did as suggested and uninstall and reinstall
VirtualPC? The .vhd and .vmc files should remain after the uninstall so
they are available for reuse in defining new VMs in the new install of
VirtualPC (but you might want to copy or move them elsewhere before
doing the uninstall just in case).

<bkroeter@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:b5c62a25-449b-48c4-8d48-a32bdea49969@xxxxxx
About what...?


--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

> That means your new post would look like a new threadI apologize for breaking protocol. It was not intentional, but rather
I am not aware of the limitations of viewers others are using. I use
google groups to access this group. It would be redundant to requote
the post because google shows each thread in its entirety without the
issues described. Looks like this to me:

http://groups.google.com/group/micro...f7313e9?hl=en#
I uninstalled, restarted, reinstalled, restated and it does not help.
Keep in mind the subject error pops up *immediately* in the host
machine when launching every single VM before the VM even boots. See
error image here:

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/u...ter/vpcerr.png

I tried both suggestions in this popup message but the error persists.

On Sun, 3 May 2009 19:13:24 -0700 (PDT), bkroeter@xxxxxx wrote:
Did you try updating the NIC driver direct from Intel (not WU)?

And, I assume, when you say in the OP that the VMNS is enabled, that
you've checked under the NIC properties, correct?

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/

bkroeter@xxxxxx wrote:
From your old post, you said:

----------
Not sure if it is relevant, but I noticed Virtual PC has a slightly
different name (below, first) than the name Windows refers to the
connection as (below, second):

Intel(R) 82566DM Gigabit Network Connection
Intel(R) 82566DM Gigabit Network Connection #2
----------

Not sure what that meant. Did you mean that:

- In Windows' (host OS), under Network connections, your LAN connectoid
(of which you have only one?) is called "... Gigabyte Connection #2".

- In the guest OS, in its VM settings, the network adapter is called
"... Gigabit Network Connection" (i.e., no "#2" in its name).

I'm pretty sure that VPC needs to use the same LAN connectoid as is
defined in the host OS. That the guest OS specifies a different name
means it probably is not pointing to the same binding as the LAN
connectoid as the host OS.

In the VM settings for the guest OS, when you click the drop-down
listbox to select a network adapter from the host to use by the guest,
is there no selection that matches the name of the host's network
adapter? Could be you have multiple network adapters defined in the
registry (i.e., some old ones are around) that you won't see listed in
the host OS but VPC finds them. Look under the registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network

The {4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} subkey is for defining
network adapters. How many subkeys are under there? In the
"Connection" subkey is the name give to the network interface. For
example, I have 2 that are for LAN connectoids named "LAN Connection 2"
and "LAN Connection". I don't see "LAN Connection 2" in my list of
connectoids under the Network applet in Control Panel so I don't know
why it is there. There's another for the i394 connection but I don't
ever use the Firewire ports. For me, the 2nd one named "LAN Connection"
points to a vendor ID in the PnpInstanceID data item which would be for
the NIC on the motherboard. So the "LAN Connection" is my current real
connection.

The first one name "LAN Connection 2" has a class ID in its
PnpInstanceID data item. It points to "Microsoft TV/Video Connection"
which is via NdisIP.sys. This is Microsoft's IP driver (see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810023). So that was a wild goose
chase. As a result, I only have the "LAN Connection" network adapter
defined in my host OS. Look under the above registry key to see if you
also have a "LAN Connection #2" network adapter defined. It could be
some remnant of when you changed your NIC card, inserted a USB network
adapter, or some hardware change was made that made the OS think that it
needed to define another network adapter resource in the registry. I
know that I've done that in the past and gotten stuck with #2, #3, and
so on in the connectoid's name but didn't want it so I had to edit the
registry to change the resource's name (the rename of the connectoid in
the Network applet in Control Panel did not fix the name when presented
in other applications).

Bingo, solved thanks for all the tips!

In the dropdown list for the VM Networking settings it shows Not
Connected, Local Only, NAT, and the "Intel...connection #2" adapter
which was selected which seemed correct. I clicked "Local Only", and
then back to "Intel...connection #2" and it fixed the problem--no more
warning dialog and the VM can access the web again. Then fixed the
other VM's successfully using this same method.

On Sun, 3 May 2009 19:13:24 -0700 (PDT), bkroeter@xxxxxx wrote:
Your posts *all* appear as *new* threads in a proper news reader and
they all have slightly different subjects with varying amounts of
whitespace between words.
I'd advice to use a real news reader instead in order not to break the
threading of your posts.

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)