[Forum FAQ] Resolve virtual machines fail to start issues

Question

After you restart the Hyper-V Host server and the guest virtual machines, you may encounter the error:
An error occurred while attempting to start the selected virtual machines(s).
Here are three common issues.
Issue 1
On a Windows Server 2008-based machine that has the Hyper-V role installed,
or on a Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008-based machine, you encounter the following:
• When you try to connect to a virtual machine, error occurs:
Cannot connect to the virtual machine because the authentication certificate is expired or invalid. Would you like to try connecting again,
• When you start a virtual machine, error occurs (Figure 1):
An error occurred while attempting to change the state of virtual machine
‘VMname’
'VMName' failed to initialize.
Could not initialize machine remoting system. Error: ‘Unspecified error’ (0x80004005).
Could not find a usable certificate. Error:
‘Unspecified error’(0x80004005).
Figure 1: ‘Unspecified error’ (0x80004005).
Cause:
This issue may occur if the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management service (VMMS) certificate has expired.
Solution:
Install the Hotfix.
You cannot connect to a virtual machine when the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V VMMS certificate has expired
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/kb967902/en-us
Workaround:
Follow the steps below to generate a new certificate.
1. Shut down or save all virtual machines.
2. Restart the Hyper-V VMMS.
3. Start the virtual machines.
Note:As the Hyper-V VMMS certificate is valid for one year, the update has to be applied to prevent this issue from occurring in the future.

Answer 1

Issue
2
If there is no enough system resource, this error may occur (Figure 2) and you will receive Event ID 3040.
Figure 2: No enough system resource
Product:
Windows Operating System
ID:
3040
Source:
Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-Worker
Version:
6.0
Symbolic Name:
MSVML_WP_INITILIZATION_ERROR
Message:
'%1' failed to initialize. (Virtual machine %2)
Troubleshooting:
You need to check the following:
1. Permissions of the configuration files, memory files and all VHD files.
2. Prior messages in the event log.
3. Available RAM on the system.
4. Free disk space for the storages of the memory files and expanding virtual hard disks.
In addition, if you are using the VMMS, please restart the VMMS service.
CMD:
net stop nvpswmi
net start nvspwmi
PowerShell:
C:\PS>restart-service vmms
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd581971(v=ws.10).aspx