Screen frozen on "Starting Windows" when building Server 2008 on Server 2012 Hyper-V

Symptom:

When trying to build a Windows Server 2008 (R2 in my case) on Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V, the VM would not get past the 'Starting Windows' screen.

Fix:

Recreate the VM in Hyper-V and ensure 'Gen 1' is selected ('Gen 2' will only work for Server 2012 +)

SMS log location (WinPE 2.0)

During the WinPE build stage you can find hit "F8" (providing you have enabled command prompt support on the boot wim file) to launch a command prompt. From the command prompt visit x:\Windows\Temp\SMSTSlog and launch the SMSTS.log with notepad (notepad.exe smsts.log).

Hint, use SMStrace to read the log. Its your best friend!

Windows Server 2008 R2 - Mouse performance slow, server hangs when modifying video hardware acceleration settings in the registry (video1,2,3,4 keys)

Symptom - Windows Server 2008 R2 hangs when accessing the registry to modify the VSA video settings (Video1,2,3,4) via the console (not RDP) in VMware ESX (now vSphere).

Resolution - Even with Video hardware acceleration on, in order to succesfully view and modify the video registry key through the console and have a stable server, you must upgrade your ESX farm to 3.5 Update 5 or to vSphere 4 Update 1 (Thanks to Luyt and Danks on this one).