Fix the boot issues upon installing LabVIEW in Windows 11 with Parallels Desktop

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We know that some of you might encounter the issue when installing the LabVIEW application in Windows 11 using Parallels Desktop on Mac computers with Apple silicon. Once the installation is over, LabVIEW asks you to restart Windows for applying the changes. If you restart Windows, Windows will crash, showing up a BSOD screen. The issue stems from Windows drivers compatibility issues between Intel x86_64 and Arm architectures - the app loads its x86 drivers prior to the Windows drivers. This sequence disrupts the proper loading of Windows.  

This article is created to provide you with a workaround that can help you address the boot issue.

Resolution

The issue has been addressed in Parallels Desktop 19.4.1. Click here to install the latest version. In case you still face issues with LabVIEW on your virtual machine, please contact our Support team and we'll investigate based on your individual case.

Workaround

If you're unwilling to install the 19.4.1 build of Parallels Desktop, or if it doesn't work for you, you can follow the steps below to address the issue.


Before applying the workaround we advise you to visit the National Instruments Forum and vote for a solution to this issue.


Windows 11 allows the installation of device drivers that were compiled for a different architecture.

In this particular case, the LabVIEW drivers from the installation package, are being loaded before the operating system (OS) drivers, and when that happens, you might get a BSOD window with the message “INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE” when booting the virtual machine.

1. To fix this issue you’ll need to start the virtual machine in recovery mode and then click on Advanced options > Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Command Prompt.

2. This will bring up the command line where you need to start the registry editor by running the regedit.exe command.

regedit.exe

3. Navigate to the system hive. Select the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE node and click on the menu item File > Load Hive...

4. In the opened file navigation window, click on "This PC" and go to your System Disk C:\ -> Windows -> system32 -> Config to locate the SYSTEM hive to load:

 

Important: By default, the navigation window will open in the /system32/ of the bootable recovery partition, not your installed system, and loading hive from that folder will not contain the required driver records. Please ensure to navigate to the hive of the installed Windows instance on C:\

 

Note: By default, the SYSTEM hive will be located at “C:\Windows\system32\config\”, but this path might be different, for example, if Windows is installed on a different drive.

When prompted, give a unique name to the hive to be loaded, for example, “OfflineSystem”:

Which would result in:

5. Navigate to the key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\OfflineSystem\ControlSet001\Control”.

6. Click F3 to search for the string “UpperFilters”.

Note: Alternatively, you can right-click on the "Control" key and select Find...

You will find several occurrences of this text (as a key), but only a few of them are problematic. Identifying what needs to be fixed might require some investigation and Windows knowledge, but normally for this issue the entry that you are looking for is this one:

Basically, it’s telling Windows to load the “nipbcfk” and “nipcibrd” drivers before the system drivers for the same class. Since the drivers cannot be loaded, the virtual machine just stops with the BSOD.

7. To fix the issue, we need to delete the “UpperFilters” key and repeat the same process for other problematic drivers.

8. After all keys are fixed, just unload the hive by selecting it and clicking on the menu item “File” > “Unload Hive...”.

9. Close all windows and select the option to continue.

The virtual machine should now load properly, but keep in mind that the drivers won’t be loaded, and the LabVIEW software won’t work as expected.

You might also need to look at the entries with the key “LowerFilters”. Please check below for more information:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/performance/stop-error-7b-or-inaccessible-boot-device-troubleshooting

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/install/system-defined-device-setup-classes-available-to-vendors

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