I have been using Windows Server 2008 for several months, along with HyperV running several virtual machines. Today when I arrived at work, I found that my virtual machines weren't running, and were missing.

When I tried to re-add the virtual machines, I received the following error from Hyper-V.

Failed to add device 'Microsoft Synthetic Ethernet Port'.

After receiving this message I tried a reboot, then tried adding the virtual machine again, with no network and still received the same message.

Failed to add device 'Microsoft Synthetic Ethernet Port'.

Two things that had changed were
1. Trend Micro Antivirus had been installed yesterday.
2. A windows update for Internet Explorer was installed and forced a reboot last night (thanks Microsoft).

The first thing that I tried after the initial reboot was to uninstall Trend Micro Antivirus, and attempt to add the missing virtual machines back in again. It worked. Trend Micro was indeed the culprit.


They say that computers and software are there to make us more productive, but thats not the case today. 1 hour wasted tracking down the issue doing the reboots, and reconfiguring the virtual machines.

I hope that someone finds this posting and uninstalls their Trend Micro antivirus before they waste a bunch of time trying other things.

I just created a new website to submit questions and get answers.

Try it out at http://questions.civicvoice.com/

I am still working on it, but it looks like it could be fun.

I have just finished all of the paperwork. For spring quarter 2009, I will be teaching a SQL Server DBA class at Western Washington University.

The class is for the SQL Server 2005 Specialist Certificate program at WWU. It is part of the Extended Education program.