Develop Reference

Android Emulator closed because of an internal error: GPU Found

I haven't been on Android Studios in a number of days. When I went back on my emulator kept getting killed. I deleted all my emulators and the AVD manager folder in .android. After selecting that the emulator graphics be Software GLES 2.0 the emulator works and can run the application but it is very, very slow. Only a week ago the emualtor and Android Studios worked great.
I am receiving this error messaging now after re-installing an emulator with API level 28 (Pie):

Answer that work [28. July 2021]
First of all update your graphic card with the latest driver. (Graphic Card Model can be checked through your Device Manager)
Type in your explorer the following path, where <pc_name> need to be replaced with your individual name:
C:\Users<pc_name>.android
In the above mentioned directory we will put a .ini file that I prepared and is ready to download here. This file will disable your Vulkan driver and enable your GLDirect driver that your AVDs don't lag anymore. (watch image below)
Start your AVD and you will be able to use it without any troubles.

There is a missing or corrupted file amdvlk64.dll.I fixed this by given steps.
Download amdvlk64.dll from This Link , this is for 64 bit OS, you can search fro 32 bit also.
After Download, extract the folder on your desktop.
Open Extracted folder and Copy the amdvlk64.dll file.
Now Paste this file in C:\Windows\System32
Again run the emulator, hopefully it will run.

In my case I resolved this by performing the pending SDK Tools updates in the SDK Manager.
Reference : https://superuser.com/a/1583394/961460

I get this error (Emulator is closed because of internal error: gpu found)
suddenly while I am running my code. So how I solve the problem is,
Go to AVD Manager or (Virtual Device Manager).
Edit your AVD or (Virtual Device Manager).
Select 'Software GLES2.0' option on Emulated Performance.
Click Finish.
Start AVD again

Download and install this vulkan-dll driver.
There are those who think that the comment I added is a virus, I researched the subject a lot and finally reached the address, almost 48 hours later, so I installed my emulator, my aim is just to help.

For me, the same error showed even though I have NVIDIA GPU.
Restarting the system after the NVIDIA driver update fixed the problem.

I installed Android studio in Windows 10(AMD Ryzen), the following one helped me to run the emulator smoothly. Once you installed Virtual device from AVD manager successfully, then your emulator will popup the above error like Android emulator closed....amdvlk64.dll not found and amdvlk32.dll not found.... when you try to run your code. Just follow this steps to avoid those error, hope it works:
Close your Android studio and also emulator error popup. Go to
Control Panel.
Select Programs --> Programs and Features --> Turn windows feature
on or off (which lies in the extreme right side of the screen).
A popup appears, in that check the Windows Hypervisor Platform and
Virtual Machine Platform, then click Ok.
It ask you to restart your system, allow to restart.
After restart, now open Android studio and run your emulator, hope it will
run smoothly.

At times the error might be caused by the wrong system date/time set on your computer. Try updating the system date/time and restart the android emulator. In my case it was caused by the wrong system date/time.

Android Emulator: Process finished with exit code -1073741819 (0xC0000005)

A week ago, my emulator just run seamlessly without any problem, but now, everytime I started my Android Emulator from AVD manager, I am using Android Studio 3.1.2 and Android Studio 3.2 Canary 14. I got this error
Emulator: Process finished with exit code -1073741819 (0xC0000005)
and the emulator suddenly closed. It happens frequently and this can make me crazy and messed up my work.
I have tried to delete and add a device profile, and Also I have tried clearing all the emulator cache. but still not works.
If you know or ever encounter this problem, please help.
I try to use many device profile, but same thing happens. Here I used the device profile provided by Google which included google play in it.
I have no option for changing the RAM size or Graphic settings.
Thank you.

Sorry i delete my answer before.
I ever have the same problem, i just restart my Android Studio and create a new device in AVD MANAGER then I increased the RAM size of emulator and it works nicely.
I think it happens when you close emulator during building the App in to emulator.
Or You Can Try This
Tools -> AVD Manager -> (Edit this AVD) under Actions -> Emulated Performance (Graphics): select "Software GLES 2.0"

Waiting for Target Device to Come Online

I recently updated to Android Studio 2.3, and now when I try to run the application, the emulator does not come online. It times out after 300 seconds.
Additionally, The app has been experiencing a FATAL EXCEPTION ERROR (OOM), and I am not sure how to fix that either, or if that is part of the emulator problem.
Any help is much appreciated. Again, my knowledge in the program is very limited so if your answer can be kept simple, that would be great.

Following worked for me on Android Studio 3.x.
Step 1:
Open AVD Manager.
Step 2:
Right click and Wipe data for the virtual device you're testing on.

I too had the same problem, then I went to AVD manager and right click on the emulator and stopped it and I RUN the application again and this time it worked.
It may be a temporary solution but works for the time being.
Tools -> AVD manager -> right-click on the emulator you are using -> Stop
Now Run your application again.
Note: Sometimes closing the emulator directly is not working for the above-mentioned problem but stopping it from the AVD manager as mentioned is working.

In case you are on Mac, ensure that you exit Docker for Mac. This worked for me.

Three days on this, and I believe there's a race condition between adb and the emulator. On a request to run an app, with no emulator already running, you see the "Initializing ADB", then the emulator choice, it starts and you get "Waiting for target to come online". An adb kill-server, or a kill -9, or an "End Process" of adb with the task manager will cause adb to die, restart, your APK installs and you're good to go. It does seem funky to me that an "adb kill-server" causes adb to die and then restart here, but that's another mystery, maybe.

Another case is Android Emulator should be reinstalled. This can happen, when you install a higher version of Android Studio, then update SDK for it, and go back to previous one.
Tools - Android - SDK Manager - SDK Tools - Android Emulator -
uncheck, apply, check, apply
Disable Docker app if you have it (Mac users).
Restart emulator:
Tools - Android - AVD Manager
(or kill adb process in task manager).

Go to AVD Manager in your Android Studio.Right Click on your emulator,and then select wipe data.Then run your app again.
The emulator will perform a clean boot and then install your apk then your app will finally run.
Summary:AVD Manager---Right Click Emulator----Wipe Data----Run App Again
If the problem presists,then simply go back to your avd manager ,uninstall emulator,then add a new emulator.Once the new emulator is added,in your avd manager,run the emulator...Then run your app.
Its much simpler if you have an emulator already running from the onset before running your application for the first time

After trying all these solutions without success the one that fixed my problem was simply changing the Graphics configuration for the virtual device from Auto to Software (tried hardware first without success)

This solution works for me :
Tools -> AVD Manager -> click drop down arrow -> select Cold Boot Now

Below steps work for me
Close running emulator
Go to AVD Manager
Choose available emulator
In that action tab (last one), click on drop down arrow & select COLD BOOT NOW
Finally run your application

Seems like Android Studio (using version 3.5.1) gets into a weird state after a while. This worked for me.
File -> Invalidate Caches / Restart -> Invalidate and Restart

Go to AVD Manager right click on your device and select Wipe Data and Cold Boot Now.
For me it worked correctly.

After trying almost all the solutions listed above, what finally worked for me was to create a new virtual device using a "Google APIs" image instead of a "Google Play" image.

Seems that in my case the problem was in that the "Google APIs ARM EABI v7a System Image" wasn't automatically installed during installation of Android Studio.
After installing the image, the emulator began to work.
Screenshot of the SDK manager

Did not read all the answers. Anyway Accepted one didn't work for me. What did was upgrading the android studio to last stable version and then created a new virtual device. I guess my nexus 5p virtual device got out of sync with the android studio environment.

This worked for me on Android studio 4+ and Mac OS
Delete all AVD's that you currently have.
Go to Preferences > Appearance & Behavior > System Settings >
Android SDK > SDK Tools
Uninstall Android Emulator
Restart Android Studio.
Re-install Android Emulator from the same place.
Create a new emulator!

I discovered that having a running instance of Docker on my machine (OSX) prevented the Android Emulator from running (see Android Studio Unable to run AVD)
Previously, my emulator would appear to start, then fail before any device window was shown.
I also had to use 'kill -9' (as per #MarkDubya ) to get Android Studio to connect to the virtual device.

Like urupvog's answer, make sure that you aren't running any other virtual machines like VirtualBox. When I restarted my computer, AVD worked until I started Vagrant for backend development (then it wouldn't launch).
See Android emulator and virtualbox cannot run at same time for more info.

Check you don't have the deviced unauthorized, unauthorized devices reply the same error in the Android Studio, check the emulator once is on with the adb command.
$ adb devices
List of devices attached
emulator-5554 unauthorized
If you have of this way the emulator the Android Studio is waiting for be authorized and maybe this can solve the problem.
Authorized Devices
This is a error I have solved in Windows 10 with Android Studio 2.3.3

Fix for this issue is simple :
Go to SDK tools > SDK Tools
Check Android Emulator and click Apply
and sometimes you might see there's an update available next to it, you just need to let it finish the update

For those stuck on this problem on a device and not the emulator, make sure your app isn't set as the device owner.

Question is too old but may be helpful to someone in future.
After search many things, most of them is not worked for me. SO, as per my try This solution is worked for me. In short uninstall and install "Android SDK Tools" in Android SDK.
Few steps for that are below:-
go to "SDK Manager" in Android Studio
go to "SDK Tools" tab
Uninstall "Android SDK Tools" (means remove check(uncheck) ahead of "Android SDK Tools" and Apply then OK)
Close and Restart Android Studio
Install "Android SDK Tools" (means check ahead of "Android SDK Tools" and Apply then OK)
Image of Uninstall and Install Android SDK Tools again

The problem is that there is no link between ide and the emulator.
In our case - we lowered version of android for the app, that frustrated ide in emulator linking.
If we install Android 25 and bind project to it, and AVD Device on Android 25 as well - it links and apllies changes on the fly. If we downgrade to Android 14 and device on android 14 - it doesn't.
Used Android Studio 2.3.
To play with versions you can set in Gradle Scripts - build.gradle (Module: app):
android {
compileSdkVersion 25
defaultConfig {
minSdkVersion 15
targetSdkVersion 15
}
}
As a result app won't run on an Android 25 device with a message:
Installation failed with message Failed to finalize session : -26:
Package ru.asv.test new target SDK 15 doesn't support runtime
permissions but the old target SDK 25 does.. It is possible that this
issue is resolved by uninstalling an existing version of the apk if it
is present, and then re-installing.
WARNING: Uninstalling will remove the application data!

I also ran into this problem and probably found the solution that may help. The key is launching the AVD in the emulator first then run your App.
Following are the steps:
In the Your Virtual Devices screen, select the device you just created and click Launch this AVD in the emulator
Once the emulator is booted up, click the app module in the Project window and then select Run → Run
In the Select Deployment Target window, select the emulator and click OK.

For Linux users using KVM and facing this problem try setting the Graphics option on the Android Virtual Device to Software instead of Automatic or Hardware . As previously mentioned in this answer.
I can confirm that the method works for Arch Linux, Ubuntu 16.04, as well as windows with or without a proprietary graphics card using Android Studio version 2.3.1+

I am working on notebook, Windows 8. I solved this issue change mode from battery saving mode to balanced mode. Before that, an emulator didn't work and I see "Target Device to Come Online". Also didn't work Genymotion

I had a similar problem when updated my android studio. Somehow it changed my SDK path. I just changed it to my updated SDK path and it worked.
Android Studio -> File -> Settings -> Appearance & Behaviour -> System Settings -> Android SDK
Here you will find Android SDK location just click on edit link in front of that and browse and select the Android SDK from the file browser. Select and click on Apply.
Select AVD manager and start Emulator. This solution worked for me.

Go to terminal and type android avd. Select your AVD and select "Edit". Make sure you do not see No CPU/ABI system image available for this target - it will show in red font at the bottom. Change the target to the one that is available or download the ABI image. Sometimes, if you create an AVD from inside Android Studio, it does not ensure this requirement.

None of solutions above worked for me, so I had to wipe content of
C:\Users\your_name\.android\avd
and re-create emulated device

I've had the same problem (AVD not coming online) in a Linux system. In my case, I have solved it setting this environment variable:
$ export ANDROID_EMULATOR_USE_SYSTEM_LIBS = 1
This case is documented here: https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/variables.html#studio_jdk

Finally, I solve this problem by setting the right export path in bash file:
export ANDROID_HOME=/Users/[username]/Library/Android/sdk

Why emulator is very slow in Android Studio?

I just setup Android Studio on my PC, which is new launch to develop Android application.
My problem is that, when I try to run my small app in emulator, it take to much time to launch and after then emulator is working slow too.
AVD settings
AVD Name: Glaxy
Device: Glaxy Nexus (4.65", 720x 1280: xhdpi)
Target: Android 4.2.2 - API Level 17
Memory Option: Ram 500, VM Heap 64
Internal Storage: 200MiB
I have good window pc: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.93Ghz and Ram is 3gb
I am new in Android development and java.

The Best Solution is to use Android Emulator with Intel Virtualization Technology.
Now if your system have a Processor that have a feature called as Intel Virtualization Technology, then Intel X86 images will be huge benefit for you. because it supports Intel® Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (Intel® HAXM).
To check that your processor support HAXM or not : Click Here
You need to manually install the Intel HAXM in your system. Follow these steps for that.
First of all go to - adt -> extras -> intel -> Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager
Make sure that Intel Virtualization is enabled from BIOS Settings.
Now install Intel HAXM in your system and select amount of memory(i prefer to set it as default value).
After installation create new Android Virtual Device (AVD) which should have a Target of API Level xx
Now set the CPU/ABI as Intel Atom(x86).
If you are on Windows then do not set RAM value more than 768 MB while setting up an emulator.
Run the emulator. It will be blazing fast then ordinary one.
Hope it will be helpful for you. :) Thanks.

Just edit the AVD settings as below,
Enable snapshot options and please use INTEL HAXM software for speedup.just visit https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-hardware-accelerated-execution-manager-intel-haxm and download...

I tried all the suggested remedies and none had any impact. The Android Studio emulator experience was simply unusable with my setup (Windows 10, AndroidStudio 3.5, Quadcore 3.2 Ghz, 32GB with SSD drive).
I tried Updating Studio, Installing Intel HAXM, Changing the memory settings via SDK, using an actual device, excluding the various folders from in the Windows Anti-virus among other things.
The solution that made it work like a breeze was to exclude the Android Debug Bridge (adb.exe) "as a process" from the Windows Security / Virus Protection. You can either do it yourself or read the details below to know how to do it.
I suggest verifying the severity of the speed issue yourself. The same will be used to verify the difference immediately after you apply the remedy. Running the options from within Android Studio just makes it more complex.
Steps to check the issue:
Get the path for your Android SDK Tools. You can find it from SDK Manager -> Appearance and Behavior -> System Settings -> Android SDK.
Open a command prompt or terminal window. You can do right click on Windows (Start) Icon -> Run and execute "cmd". This should give you a windows command prompt or terminal window.
In the terminal window, change your drive and path to your Android SDK folder using the CD command. Now change to the sub-folder Platform-tools.
You will find the Android Debug Bridge (adb.exe) in this folder. This plays a very crucial role in operating the emulator as well as the actual device.
In the terminal window, execute the adb.exe tool with the command adb. It should instantly return back with the help parameters for adb.
Now execute adb.exe with a command like - adb devices. This should simply stall and take several seconds to come back with the information even if you have no devices or emulator running. In my setup it took almost 30 seconds. This is the issue.
Anything you do with the emulator goes via adb and gets stuck here. Once the remedy is applied, it should execute the adb devices command as instantly as the simple adb command without any parameter.
Steps to remedy:
Go to Windows "Virus and Threat Protection" setting. There are several ways to reach it. You can use Right Click on Windows (Start) Icon and choose Settings. Choose Update & Security, then Windows Security, then Virus and Threat Protection.
You will find the option Virus and Threat Protection Settings. Select it. You will find several options, look for Exclusions. Select the option Add or remove exclusions. This will take you to the list of Files, Folders, Processes which are presently excluded by the windows anti-virus. It may be empty or may have some data.
Select "+ Add an Exclusion". You will find 4 options - File, Folder, File Type and Process. This is critical. Please choose Process.
In the "Enter Process Name" input box type in the name adb.exe. Please dont forget to type in the extension, just putting adb will not work. Accept the input with "Add" button.
You are done. Now goto the command prompt again and follow the same steps you did earlier to check the issue. Hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised and your entire Android Studio emulator experience should become seamless.
Note that the steps may slightly vary depending upon your version of Windows, Android Studio and SDK tools however it should still apply.

The new Android Studio incorporates very significant performance improvements for the AVDs (emulated devices).
But when you initially install the Android Studio (or, when you update to a new version, such as Android Studio 2.0, which was recently released), the most important performance feature (at least if running on a Windows PC) is turned off by default. This is the HAXM emulator accelerator.
Open the Android SDK from the studio by selecting its icon from the top of the display (near the right side of the icons there), then select the SDKTools tab, and then check the box for the Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator (HAXM installer), click OK. Follow instructions to install the accelerator.
Be sure to completely exit Android Studio after installing, and then go to your SDK folder (C:\users\username\AppData\Local\extras\intel\Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager, if you accepted the defaults). In this directory Go to extras\intel\Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager and run the file named "intelhaxm-android.exe".
Then, re-enter the Studio, before running the AVD again.
Also, I found that when I updated from Android Studio 1.5 to version 2.0, I had to create entirely new AVDs, because all of my old ones ran so slowly as to be unusable (e.g., they were still booting up after five minutes - I never got one to completely boot). As soon as I created new ones, they ran quite well.

Check this: Why is the Android emulator so slow? How can we speed up the Android emulator?
Android Emulator is very slow on most computers, on that post you can read some suggestions to improve performance of emulator, or use android_x86 virtual machine

As #Xavi mentioned, Android Emulator is normally slow and lags a lot. Either test your app on an actual device or use an alternative emulator such as BlueStack or Android-X86.
Another tip for using emulator is to not close if you ain't done testing your application. Just leave it open. In this case you skip the time it takes to launch.

Use x86 images and download "Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager" from the sdk manager.
See here how to enable it: http://developer.android.com/tools/devices/emulator.html#accel-vm
Your emulator will be super fast!

The emulator is much much faster when running on Linux. In Ubuntu 13.04, it launches within 10 seconds, and it runs nearly as smoothly as on a physical device. I haven't been able to reproduce the performance on Windows.
EDIT:
Actually, after the first boot, when using the Atom arch. and GPU acceleration, the Windows emulator runs nearly as well as in Linux.

Try increasing your ram of intel HAXM by reinstalling it..
Worked for me..
In my pc HAXM setup's location was here:
C-Users-Pc's_name-AppData-Local-Android-sdk-extras-intel-Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager

Check this list:
install Intel HAXM
just use x86 AVD
use small size screen

I tend to load AVD through snapshot which can be setup in the AVD Manager > Choose AVD > Details... > Checking Emulator Options: Snapshot, and then to run the AVD, Select AVD in AVD Manager > Start... > Select Save To Snapshot and Launch from Snapshot. The first time, ensure that save to snapshot is chosen, as no snapshot exists to launch. The next time onwards choose launch from snapshot.
Slightly apprehensive to suggest this as well, but I have noticed a peculiar behavior when loading and running AVD. When I have the laptop battery being charged on my Lenovo laptop - 64 bit Windows 7, 4GB, 2.5GHz machine, the emulator loads and runs slightly faster and also lags less. I wonder if it is the configuration on my laptop to slow down high computational processes. Would be nice to know if someone else has noticed this behavior? Unplug the charger when the AVD is loaded and see if the AVD slows down.

A quick fix if using Android Studio (or Eclipse) is to disable the boot animation.
1) Select Run > Edit Configurations
2) Android Application > YOURAPP
3) Select the "Emulator" tab and check the "Disable boot animation"
This is will stop the "ANDROID" image from loading and boot directly to the lock screen, then keep your the emulator open. Also, to avoid problems, don't rotate the device before launch (Cmnd + Ctrl + F11), and don't try to run the app more than once during installation.

Android Development Tools (ADT) 9.0.0 (or later) has a feature that allows you to save state of the AVD (emulator), and you can start your emulator instantly. You have to enable this feature while creating a new AVD or you can just create it later by editing the AVD.
Also I have increased the Device RAM Size to 1024 which results in a very fast emulator.
Refer the given below screenshots for more information.
Creating a new AVD with the save snapshot feature.
Launching the emulator from the snapshot.
And for speeding up your emulator you can refer to
Speed up your Android Emulator!:

Try using another android virtual device. You can create one by adding a new device by going to the AVD Manager. Select the screen size 3'2 and API-10 (gingerbread).
This worked for me, and it is super-fast now.
P.S.- My laptop used to take forever to load the emulator, and It never got started due to insufficient memory(4.2). I used to get restart again and again. This solved my problem.

Google Launches Android Studio 2.0 With Improved Android Emulator And New Instant Run Feature
New Features in Android Studio 2.0 :
1.Instant Run: Faster Build & Deploy
You can quickly see your changes running on your device or emulator.
Enable Instant Run follow this steps:
1.open Settings/Preferences
2.go to Build, Execution, Deployment
3.Instant Run. Click on Enable Instant
Please see this video of Instant Run --> Instant Run
2.GPU Profiler
For developers who build graphics-intensive apps and games, the Studio now also includes a new GPU profiler. This will allow developers to see exactly what’s happening every time the screen draws a new image to trace performance issues.
click here for more details about the GPU Profiler tool
Getting Started Guide for Android Emulator Preview
For more detail about android 2.0 Biggest and best update of 2015 you can see very good article Author by #nuuneoi :
First Look at Android Emulator 2.0, the biggest and the best update yet in years

In my case, the problem was coming from the execution of WinSAT.exe (located in System32 folder). I disabled it and issue solved.
To turn it off:
Start > Task Scheduler (taskschd.msc)
Find Task Scheduler (Local)
Task Scheduler Library
Microsoft > Windows > Maintenance
Right click WinSAT
Select disable.
The Reference
Also, suppress it from Task Manager or simply reboot your machine.
Point: In this situation (when the problem comes from WinSAT) emulator works (with poor performance) when you use Software - GLES 2.0 and works with very very poor performance when you use Hardware - GLES 2.0.

Aside from what everyone has already said about HAXM and other configuration settings as solutions for this problem, my solution had nothing to do with software configuration or processor limitations.
I setup Android studio on an older HDD and I had Visual Studio running an android emulator on an SSD. My bottleneck was the old HDD - the SSD I had resulted in more speed.
The solution - albeit not the best for you - is to look in installing an SSD. This is not a very feasible solution in 90% of the cases but for me the root cause was linked to my hardware - not my software config.
Hope this helps another person facing a similar problem!

This worked for me. My size on disk was just too high for the emulator to run correctly. Wiping the data took it from 4.9 GB to 2.9 GB.
Click on the AVD manager at the top right and it will pull up a screen with all your devices. In row with your device the very last icon will be a drop down arrow, click it. Click 'Wipe Data' then 'Cold Boot'

For those who enabled HAXM and the emulator still works slow here is what you should do:
If Avast antivirus is running on your computer, it is most likely the culprit.
as per HAXM Release_Notes.txt (Version 7.5.2):
On Windows, Avast Antivirus may interfere with HAXM and cause Android Emulator or QEMU to run very slowly. A workaround is to uncheck "Use nested virtualization where available" in Avast Settings > Troubleshooting.
So open your Avast dashboard > Menu > Settings > Troubleshooting and disable "Enable hardware-assisted virtualization"
Give a higher priority to your emulator's process in the Task Manager:
Locate your emulator's process in the Task Manager > Details tab:
Right-click on it and Set Priority -> Above normal
Sorry that the screenshot is not in English but you got the point, right?
That helped me significantly! I hope it will help you as well.
Also, one thing as per the Release Notes:
On Windows 8, 8.1 and 10, it is recommended to disable Hyper-V from Windows Features in order for the HAXM driver to properly function.
In my case, I didn't have any "Hyper-V" feature on my Windows 8.1 but you probably should try it, just in case. To locate and disable that feature see this article: https://support.bluestacks.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004254383-How-do-I-disable-Hyper-V-on-Windows-

This is probably because incomplete files in your sdk . Sometimes firewall of ur office or somewhere blocks it and hence error message comes saying peer not authenticated I was facing the same problem but after downloading all the files by getting firewall access
My emulator is working properly and much faster than before

Android AVD not showing anything. only "ANDROID" in the middle of the screen

I am an Android Newbie! please help.
I have been following googles introduction tutorial and managed to install everything with no problems. but whenever i try to run the HelloAndroid example the avd launches but doesnt show anything.
cone somebody help please?

After you create an AVD it really does take a long time to initialize. On my less than year old Core2Duo 2.8 GHz running Win7x64 and 4Gb of RAM, initializing a 2.2 version took at least 5 to 10 minutes (if not longer). Once it starts initializing you can watch the logcat in the DDMS panel of eclipse and watch it unpack and install all of the apps in the emulator.

It is quicker to export the file to your phone using USB cable, install it by selecting the .apk file with a file manager and run it from your phone. This also gives you "real" simulations of the app. It is quicker also. If your app has flaws, it is quicker to find them on your phone then wait for the AVD to load only to find your app doesn't work!
Goto File -> Export, select android folder then android application.
On the next page, select the application you want to export.
Create a keyfile and an alias.
Eject your phone, then open your file manager of choice, and click on the app.
Run using android package installer, you will need to enable no market application install in your settings
Open the app after the install is complete.

You can always run 'adb shell' or 'adb logcat' from another window to see what is happening...

I had the same problem but I fixed it by deleting .android folder from C:\Users\User\
Now everytime I start Eclipse or AVD, I delete that folder. After that everything works charm.
OPTIONAL : If the problem still persists, try to clone the NEXUS S AVD.

How long did you wait for it? On my (admittedly older and slower) home computer, it can take some time for the AVD to initialize the first time. I've just tried it and it takes about 90 seconds for the "ANDROID" in the center of the screen to be replaced with the home screen, then about another 30 seconds for the application to run.

I had the same problem. It was because i hadn't restarted my system after installing ADT plugin. It worked fine after restarting my system.

Occasionally i've found that it just hangs up on the loading screen, and if you restart it, it comes right. Also, from memory it can take awful long to load first time.

For Ubuntu (I use Xubuntu):
Mine Android Virtual Devices didn't started because i used NVIDIA drivers for ubuntu. After changing drivers to Nouveau it booted in 15sec.
Go to "Settings Manager" -> Software & Updated -> Additional Drivers chose: "Using X.org x server -- Nouveau display driver (open source)"
NVIDIA F# U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55XVnJ_0qhg

Yeah It took too much time to start....
Try Switching on Visualization in the system BIOS Settings....
For me before switching it didn't show up anything. After changing it took 3 mins to initiate
System Specs:
i5 Dual Core
4Gb
Nvidia 2G

Stop the emulator --> Open ADV Manager --> Edit the Virtual device --> Click Show Advanced Settings --> Set the Ram size 512mb --> Start the emulator