The l1vhlwf service failed to start due to the following error: A hypervisor feature is not available to the user.

Question

My PC gets no display when I start the game it runs for a few minutes, and then the display is gone. I have to shut down and start the PC forcefully.

In the event logger, I find this
The l1vhlwf service failed to start due to the following error: A hypervisor feature is not available to the user.

You can look into the event logger here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Atbm5pHjpVnEgd1HoxSNCQZNv6XY0A?e=8SSRtL

Answer 1

I had this same problem and found the answer. I was running a Win11 in Hyper-V.
The registry editor search revealed what "l1vhlwf" service actually is:

"l1vhlwf" is Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-Hierarchical-NIC-Switch

Solution for me was to delete the switch from Hyper-V Manager's Virtual Switch Manager and (after reboot of Host) I was able to get back in to Guest.
The whole thing started when I was very eager to restart VM and constantly tapped enter at that point as stress test. There is a bug(s?) in current restart procedure as it stalls twice during restart demanding user input.
Then removing the the whole adapter from Hyper-V Manager's Virtual Machine's Settings Hardware/Network Adapter and adding it back with same Hardware/Add Hardware and rebooting Host allowed me to get internet back on for Guest.
It seems generally any remove of any virtual machine's network adapter demands rebooting of Host. I spent several hours before I got that hammered in so I hope you don't need to.

Answer 2

This will not work for me but thanks for updating on your solution.

On my main machine I don't have Hyper-V installed when I check Windows Features so there is no Hyper-V Manager, I don't run VM on host machine natively only through VMWare workstation 17.

On my Surface Pro it's the same Hyper-V isn't installed and I don't use any VM products as the host doesn't have enough resources.

Both will throw the l1vhlwf service error unless it is disabled in the registry.

Answer 3

Do you have the insiders build of windows? I'm having the same problem, and I wonder if it's because of that

Answer 4

Hello，Suraj Vishwakarma

Thank you for posting in the Microsoft community.

The error message “The l1vhlwf service failed to start, the reason for the error is: the user cannot access the virtualization features” is usually caused by the virtualization features in the system not working properly.

Virtualization is a technology that allows multiple virtual machines to run on a single piece of physical hardware, and there are a number of games and software that rely on virtualization. The requirements may vary from game to game, may I ask which specific game you are experiencing this error?

The virtualization feature can be enabled in the following locations, please follow the steps in order to check.

1. BIOS setting problem. The virtualization function needs to be turned on and configured in BIOS, if there is a problem with the BIOS settings, it will cause the virtualization to not work properly, please follow the computer manufacturer's instructions to enter the BIOS settings page.
2. Driver conflict. Graphics cards, motherboards and other hardware drivers if there are compatibility problems with the virtualization function, will also cause this error, please go to the computer manufacturer's official website to download the corresponding latest version of the driver to be installed into the system, and restart the computer to make it run normally.
3. Security software conflict. Some security software such as anti-virus, firewall, etc. may conflict with the virtualization function, resulting in the related services can not start normally.
4. System setup problems. If you have enabled the kernel isolation function, some of the operations required to run the game may not have access to the privileges, according to the following program to disable it. Enter and open Windows Security Center in the bottom search bar, select the “Device Security” tab, and check the status of the Kernel Isolation feature in the “Kernel Isolation” section.
5. System privilege problem. Sometimes the user account privileges are not enough, so please change the account and run the software to check if the problem recurs. This will help troubleshoot if there are any errors under the current account profile, and if they are resolved in the new account, replacing the account will be the least laborious way to do it. Your data files will not be lost during the testing and migration of the account and can be found and copied to the new account directly from File Explorer under the C drive.
   • Click on the Start button in the bottom left corner of the screen and select the Settings icon (gear shape).
   • In the Settings menu, select the “Accounts” option.
   • To add a user, click on “Family and other users” and then click on “Add another user” in the “Other users” section. For changing users, select the user account you want to change and click “Change Account Type”.
   • Follow the prompts, enter the required information (e.g. email or username), set the new account type, and finally click “OK” to save the changes.
   • You can refer to the following link for more detailed steps: Manage user accounts in Windows - Microsoft Support

After you refer to the above steps, you can share some information in this thread and I will answer your questions further. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!

Best Regards，

Rota|Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Answer 5

I don't think I had any nested operation going on. And the re-adding the switch was needed.
They say: This service is intended to be used when using the nested virtualization (Nested Hyper-V) function on Azure virtual machines.

I did not use any such thing so why it was there?
What is Azure:
Azure is a trusted cloud platform for building, deploying, and managing innovative solutions. 

Absolutely not on my machine or setup.
I used just standard Hyper-V virtual machine running simplest possible Windows 11 Pro with simplest possible out of the box setup.
The error in my case went away with the procedure I described which is to reinstantiate the adapter totally through deleting and adding process.
When l1vhlwf service (which should not have been there in the first place - I learn now?) went down it also took down the whole networking for the guest.