/tags/troubleshooting/ Recent content in Troubleshooting on My Blogs Hugo en-us Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 /posts/setup-esxi-8-in-an-optiplex/ Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 /posts/setup-esxi-8-in-an-optiplex/ <h2 id="-problem">🧩 Problem</h2> <p>I attempted to install ESXi 8 on my Dell OptiPlex homelab machine, but during boot, I encountered a <strong>Pink Screen of Death (PSOD)</strong> with errors like:</p> <ul> <li>Fatal CPU mismatch on feature</li> <li>HW feature incompatibility detected</li> </ul> <h2 id="image-description">This prevented ESXi from installing or booting successfully. !<img alt="Image Description" loading="lazy" src="/images/Pasted%20image%2020260320194350.png"></h2> <h2 id="-root-cause">🛠️ Root Cause</h2> <p>The issue is caused by modern Intel CPUs (12th Gen and newer) using a <strong>hybrid architecture</strong> with:</p> <ul> <li>Performance cores (P-cores)</li> <li>Efficiency cores (E-cores)</li> </ul> <p>ESXi expects uniform CPU cores, so it crashes when it detects different core types.</p>