Edit

Share via

Virtual machines are missing, or error 0x800704C8, 0x80070037, or 0x800703E3 occurs when you try to start or create a virtual machine

  • Article

This article helps fix the error 0x800704C8, 0x80070037, or 0x800703E3 that occurs when you start or create a virtual machine.

Original KB number:   961804

Important

This article contains information that shows you how to lower security settings or how to turn off security features on a computer. You can make these changes to work around a specific problem. These specific configuration changes should be made only on systems that are configured with the Hyper-V role, on actively running virtual machines, and on any servers that may be providing storage for the running virtual machines, such as a Windows Server File Server. For specific guidance about configuring your antivirus software, please work with your antivirus vendor.

Symptoms

When you try to create or start a Hyper-V virtual machine, you experience one of the following problems:

  • You receive one of the following error messages:

    • Error message 1

      The requested operation cannot be performed on a file with a user-mapped section open. (0x800704C8)

    • Error message 2

      VMName' Microsoft Synthetic Ethernet Port (Instance ID{7E0DA81A-A7B4-4DFD-869F-37002C36D816}): Failed to Power On with Error 'The specified network resource or device is no longer available.' (0x80070037).

    • Error message 3

      The I/O operation has been aborted because of either a thread exit or an application request. (0x800703E3)

  • Virtual machines disappear from the Hyper-V Management Console.

These errors may apply to the following Hyper-V host operating systems:

  • Windows Server 2008
  • Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Windows Server 2012
  • Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Hyper-V Server 2008
  • Hyper-V Server 2008 R2
  • Hyper-V Server 2012
  • Hyper-V Server 2012 R2

Cause

This problem may be caused by antivirus software that is installed in the parent partition if the real-time scanning component is configured to monitor the Hyper-V virtual machine files.

Resolution

To resolve this problem, configure the real-time scanning component in your antivirus software to exclude the directories, processes, and files according to the Recommended antivirus exclusions for Hyper-V hosts article.

Note

  • If virtual machines are missing from the Hyper-V Management console, you must configure the antivirus exclusions, and then restart the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management service.
  • If you receive error code 0x800704C8, the virtual machine configuration file was likely corrupted. If you receive this error, and you cannot resolve the issue by restarting the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management service, the virtual machine must be re-created or restored from a backup.

More information

To protect data on your virtual machines, we recommend that you install the antivirus software on the virtual machine.