During boot of VMware ESXi 3.5 install CD, I got the message
Unsupported BIOS setting (CPUID is limited). Disable 'limit CPUID value' or 'Support legacy/NT4 OS' in BIOS
After googling, this is a common problem and after following the fix at http://vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/ESXi_35_common_issues.php#CPUID_is_limited , everything worked fine.
My question is, what does this mean for me? Do I have a crippled install of VMware because I've effectively bypassed this check that obviously it really cares about? (pink screen of death). What features, if any, am I losing out on?
Having CPUID off is best. Older operating systems get confused by certain processors when querying them for information, and limiting the CPUID means the bios stops the OS getting confused about the capabilities of the CPU by limiting the amount of information returned. In such a case, you'd enable the setting, but it's unlikely to be required anymore (it's only for legacy systems).