Maybe you need the other 2 out params to not be NULL?

D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL level = 0;
ID3D11DeviceContext* pContext = 0;
D3D_DRIVER_TYPE driver = D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_REFERENCE;
D3D11CreateDevice(pAdapter, driver, 0, 0, 0, 0, D3D11_SDK_VERSION, &pDevice, &level, &pContext );

[Edit] Also, did you see this restriction? It implies that pAdapter should be NULL for a reference driver.

If you set the pAdapter parameter to a non-NULL value, you must also set the DriverType parameter to the D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_UNKNOWN value.

Maybe you need the other 2 out params to not be NULL?

D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL level = 0;
ID3D11DeviceContext* pContext = 0;
D3D_DRIVER_TYPE driver = D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_REFERENCE;
D3D11CreateDevice(pAdapter, driver, 0, 0, 0, 0, D3D11_SDK_VERSION, &pDevice, &level, &pContext );

[Edit] Also, did you see this restriction? It implies that adapter should be NULL for a reference driver?

If you set the pAdapter parameter to a non-NULL value, you must also set the DriverType parameter to the D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_UNKNOWN value.

Maybe you need the other 2 out params to not be NULL?

D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL level = 0;
ID3D11DeviceContext* pContext = 0;
D3D_DRIVER_TYPE driver = D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_REFERENCE;
D3D11CreateDevice(pAdapter, driver, 0, 0, 0, 0, D3D11_SDK_VERSION, &pDevice, &level, &pContext );

[Edit] Also, did you see this restriction? It implies that adapter should be NULL for a ref device?

If you set the pAdapter parameter to a non-NULL value, you must also set the DriverType parameter to the D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_UNKNOWN value.

Maybe you need the other 2 out params to not be NULL?

D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL level = 0;

ID3D11DeviceContext* pContext = 0;

D3D_DRIVER_TYPE driver = D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_REFERENCE;

D3D11CreateDevice(pAdapter, driver, 0, 0, 0, 0, D3D11_SDK_VERSION, &pDevice, &level, &pContext );