On Microsoft Surfaces, once you use power+volume to access BIOS, how to enable AVX2?

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On Microsoft Surfaces, once you use power+volume to access BIOS, how to enable AVX2?

Am Pacific42 0

Copilot suggests that Illegal instruction (core comped) from libtensorflow_framework.so.2 on the guest-OS, plus lack of "AVX2 - 1" in VirtualBox's logs, is due to BIOS disabled AVX2.
But have not found CPU extension options through Microsoft Surface BIOS.

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Answer 1

Hi There,

Thanks so much for reaching out! I totally understand how important it is to get the most out of your Surface device, especially when you're working with software that may rely on AVX2 support. I’m here to help you through this.

To make sure I guide you correctly, could you help me with a few quick details?

Which Surface model are you using? (e.g., Surface Pro 9, Surface Laptop Studio, etc.)

Is your device running on an Intel or ARM processor? AVX2 is only supported on certain Intel chips, and ARM-based models like those with Snapdragon unfortunately don’t support it.

Are you trying to enable AVX2 for a specific app or task? If yes, what’s the name of the software?

Just a heads-up:

AVX2 is a hardware-level feature. If your processor supports it, it’s usually enabled by default and not something you can toggle manually in BIOS especially on Surface devices, which have limited BIOS customization options.

Once I have your model and processor info, I’ll be able to confirm whether AVX2 is supported and what your options are.

Looking forward to your reply!

Am Pacific42 0 Reputation points

2025-08-29T08:19:45.4266667+00:00

The issue is that if if Windows Sandbox is installed (through "Turn Windows feature on or off", the whole system gets stuck with "Hyper-V" (which is undesirable; this prevents VirtualBox from use of AVX2, as shown from VirtualBox logs of AVX2 - Advanced Vector Extensions 2 = 0 (0), plus on guest OS from cat /proc/cpuinfo).
Thought that AVX2 was disabled through the BIOS somehow, but as soon as Windows Sandbox was uninstalled, VirtualBox shows AVX2 on guest+host (log is AVX2 - Advanced Vector Extensions 2 = 1 (1)), plus guest OS lists avx2 from cat /proc/cpuinfo.

As soon as Windows Sandbox is reinstalled, can not use AVX2.

One of VirtualBox's staff One of VirtualBox's staff says that you have to uninstall Windows Sandbox for this that you have to uninstall Windows Sandbox for this. Want to know how to install Windows Sandbox but not break VirtualBox's AVX2.

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On Microsoft Surfaces, once you use power+volume to access BIOS, how to enable AVX2?

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