Solved Cannot Create External Virtual Switch (Grayed out)

gsparx

New Member
Messages
2
Hi,

I had Hyper-V and Ubuntu running on Windows 8 no problem. I've since done a fresh install to 8.1, and I can no longer create an External Virtual Switch. The button for "Create Virtual Switch" is grayed out when I select "External". I can create Internal and Private switches, but not External. There's no error or message so I'm having difficulty troubleshooting. All of the tutorials I've seen don't talk about any configuration I would need to do before creating an external switch. Any ideas? I have the default Windows 8.1 firewall and antivirus stuff.

Thanks,

Garrett

Update:
I tried creating the Virtual Switch in PowerShell with the following commands
Code:
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-NetAdapter

Name                      InterfaceDescription                    ifIndex Status       MacAddress             LinkSpeed
----                      --------------------                    ------- ------       ----------             ---------
Ethernet                  Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller            3 Up           B8-97-5A-13-7C-E6         1 Gbps


Code:
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> New-VMSwitch -Name "TestNew" -NetAdapterName "Ethernet" -AllowManagementOS $True

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]New-VMSwitch : Cannot find a physical network adapter named Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller.
At line:1 char:1[/COLOR][/B]
+ New-VMSwitch -Name "TestNew" -NetAdapterName "Ethernet" -AllowManagementOS $True
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  [COLOR=#ff0000]  + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller:String) [New-VMSwitch], Virtualizati
   onOperationFailedException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ObjectNotFound,Microsoft.HyperV.PowerShell.Commands.NewVMSwitchCommand[/COLOR]

I'm not really sure why it couldn't find my physical network adapter, since it shows up with the Get-NetAdapter command.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
Solved

So I think it was the Nvidia network chipset drivers that were causing the problem. I just went into device manager, uninstalled my Realtek ethernet drivers, and reinstalled. Hyper-V can now create an external switch. Just in case anyone runs into this issue again.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
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