Unable to suspend in PD3?

[forgie]

Whenever I try to suspend my XPsp2 VM, I get this error:

"Parallels Desktop cannot suspend the virtual machine because graphics application that uses OpenGL or DirectX is running. Please close the application before suspending."

This happens irrelevant of what applications are running. I just tried a fresh restart, then tried to suspend straight away. Sure enough, this warning comes up. I just shut down, turned off DirectX, then started up my VM, and even though I haven't loaded any apps yet, I STILL get the error message.

Can anyone else suspend their VMs in build 4124? Has anyone else seen this message?

[unused_user_name]

I have not seen this in my XP VM.

Can you post the programs that automatically start on your VM? Use msconfig.msc to get a full listing...

Can you standby while the VM is running in VGA graphics safe mode?

[forgie]

According to msconfig (on the Startup tab), there are 3 startup items:
ashDisp
ParallelsToolsCenter
sharedintapp

ashDisp belongs to Avast!, and the other two are Parallels helpers. I tried closing ashDisp via Task Manager, but still I get the error message.

How do you run in VGA graphics safe mode?

[unused_user_name]

Press F8 right after the BIOS and choose VGA mode.

If you are on a Macbook (or Macbook Pro) change your settings so that the F keys control software. (In the keyboard prefrences) before trying this.

[forgie]

I was able to suspend fine in VGA mode.

[forgie]

This bug still exists in 4128. There are two other threads with exactly the same issue:

http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=12927&highlight=suspend
http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=12525&highlight=suspend

This really sucks - it kills the way I use Parallels completely.....

[aguydude]

I'm able to suspend fine. However, once I run a program which uses DirectX, I cannot suspend, even after the program closes.

[forgie]

And here's another thread with the same bug:

http://forum.parallels.com/thread13274.html

I'm looking forward to hearing from email support....

[PatC]

Didn't see anyone with this specific problem; but I'm running Windows 2000 Advanced Server, and even with no applications running, I get the "Parallels Desktop cannot suspend the virtual machine because graphics application that uses OpenGL or DirectX is running. Please close application before suspending."

I've tried disabling Direct X support in the virtual machine, but it has no effect -- still get the same error message.

Here's what shows running in the process manager:

http://pataron.com/stuff/windows2kapps.png

If I hit F8 and enable VGA mode, Suspend works, but then it's resolution is to small to effectively run the application I want to (DHL's EasyShip).

Any ideas? Not being able to suspend the VM makes it a lot harder to use parallels day-to-day.

[luckylindy]

I second your problem, but with XP, not 2000. I sent this in to Parallels before WWDC and hope to get a reply soon. I will post here when I do. Anyone else, please do likewise.

[forgie]

I sent a tech support job a week ago today. Still no word. I have technical knowledge, development experience and have just finished my semester exams, so if the Parallels crew wants to work out how to fix this bug, getting back to me would be a good start!

[forgie]

That's two weeks and no word from tech support.

Way to go.... I'm offering debugging time for free, and they don't even contact me. :confused:

[luckylindy]

is it possible to call them? I am REALLY frustrated to have to keep rebooting every time I want to use this machine.

[forgie]

Well I'm in Australia, so the hours don't really match up, and the phone call won't be cheap!

[ridge]

I have the same problem - unable to suspend in PD3. Worked fine in previous version. Keeps telling me that something is using either OpenGL or DirectX. No evidence of either in Task Manager and I get it as soon as Windows boots with nothing running and everything bar Parallels disabled in the task bar. I am also experiencing resolution issues when swapping between windowed and full screen version that I didn't have before.

[forgie]

And there's another one:

http://forum.parallels.com/thread14000.html

Obviously this is a relatively common problem. Still no word. No email from SWSoft.... the sad thing is I know they read these forums, but for whatever reason they've decided to not respond to my support email or comment in this thread.

[luckylindy]

I am now fixed, but not exactly sure why. I had changed the name of a number of virtual machines so that they would match up with the .hdd for each. I then threw the .pvs files away and made new ones based on the renamed .HDDs. (File>New...Custom>XP>Use an existing hard disk image>select the HDD) After I created it and started it up, I was able to suspend. Crazy, huh?

[ridge]

Tried recreating the pvs file (didn't rename hardrive). Didn't work; pity.
On a positive note - Resolution problem fixed. Support got back to me with a setting in Preferences. (Preferences, Appearance menu and uncheck "Change MacOSX resolution" - for anybody with a similar issue)

[ridge]

:) I have finally sorted this through a process of elimination through the startup items (and many reboots) using MSCONFIG. The offender turned out to be a thing called drawsrv that runs on startup as part of the Teamboard electronic whiteboard package I have installed. Disabling drawsrv once it is started has no effect on reenabling SUSPEND in Parallels, so it must kick off something else that is actually causing the problem. I haven't had any luck identifying what this might be as (as far as I can tell) manually starting drawsrv (after I removed it from startup) only seems to fire a drawsrv process and nothing else.

[operator911]

:) I have finally sorted this through a process of elimination through the startup items (and many reboots) using MSCONFIG. The offender turned out to be a thing called drawsrv that runs on startup as part of the Teamboard electronic whiteboard package I have installed. Disabling drawsrv once it is started has no effect on reenabling SUSPEND in Parallels, so it must kick off something else that is actually causing the problem. I haven't had any luck identifying what this might be as (as far as I can tell) manually starting drawsrv (after I removed it from startup) only seems to fire a drawsrv process and nothing else.

Wow, fortunate for you to have found that was the item. Unfortunately I'm not running that app right now so there must be other culprits for this as well.
Really hope that the team responds to this thread soon because this is a very big problem for me that substantially reduces the usability of parallels at all - I HATE rebooting into windows whenever I want it.

[luckylindy]

I am dead in the water again :-( Seems you can do a suspend for a period of time until whatever it is that loads up 'loads up'. I just hadn't waited long enough.

Then I had two brainstorm workarounds:

1) Instead of shutting down, Hibernate! Windows went through all of the motions but then, when it should have shut down, it came back up and said Hibernate failed. :-(

2) Take a Snapshot of my current setup! Unfortunately, Parallels sees that function as a suspend, as well, so up comes the "Unable to suspend...DirectX/OpenGL" message.

Arghhhh! Someone at Parallels, c'mon, what's going on here? You've got loyal, otherwise happy customers seriously frustrated first by the problem and, second, by your unresponsiveness. Even a "Gee..dunno right now" would be SOMEthing; at least we'd know you're aware of the issue. But as it stands now, are we and the other topic folks having the same issue just talking to each OTHER?

As a marketing guy, I'm telling you now: don't make customer service second to product. It's as--if not MORE--important. You lose your customers' trust, and you lose your customers (read the Quark case study and you'll see how shoddy CS eats away at a company's sales.)

[jerecoh]

I'm running Windows XP SP2, Parallels Build 4128 and am getting the same error. This is *really* annoying. I didn't have a problem prior to upgrading to Build 4128.

I ran msconfig.exe and disabled iTunesHelper and QTTask under the Startup tab, leaving only ParallelsToolCenter, sharedintapp, ClamTray (Clam Antivirus), and some unnamed app enabled. Rebooted, left the Selective Startup in place and can now suspend again without problem.

This is wonderful!

Edit: http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm has great info on disabling startup items set in the Windows registry. I found iTunesHelper and QTTask folders, deleted them from the registry, and now use the Normal startup mode in msconfig.

[forgie]

I don't have iTunes or QuickTime installed on my VM, so that ain't gonna help me....

[spectre]

Guys,

We are aware about this problem and working on fixing it.
For now, disabling DirectX support under VM configuration - "Video" should work as temporary workaround for the most cases.
For anyone who wants to make some manual troubleshooting and help us in investigating the problem:
That error message happens when some of the programs you have running in Windows is using DirectX (OpenGl in some rare cases) functions. If you can manually pinpoint the exact program causing it (by manually disabling startup items, for example) and provide us with the program name and main executable file name - it will be helpful for our developers.

[luckylindy]

You didn't indicate where to send our findings to, so I am posting here.

I, too don't have iTunes, and I disabled qttask.exe. (in my case, disabling DirectX didn't fix the issue, either.)

After disabling startup items one by one, I finally found the culprit: our company uses an electronic software delivery system called Marimba Castanet. The client for that system--Tuner.exe--seems to have been the startup item that caused the problem. I had seen this and force quit it in Task Manager in the past AFTER it had been loaded. Duh...never thought that unless I restarted with it not loading again, its effects would always be present. But, as similar posts indicate, I did not have this issue in Parallels 2.x builds, so this is clearly a newbie (which I hope you can fix; this app brings me changes to security and critical company apps that I don't want to ave to be without for too long.)

FYI, here is the company link (http://www.bmc.com/products/products_services_detail/0,,0_0_0_1301,00.htm)

[spectre]

luckylindy,

Thank you. Sorry if I wasn't clear - it's OK if you post the requested info in this thread. I'll pass this info to our developers.

[cmm0460]

Spectre, here's my info. I don't have a problem suspending until after I launch my development environment and work with an OpenGL ActiveX control. DirectX use is not enabled, and even after I quit my app, I can't suspend. I've disabled OpenGL acceleration for the control, but that doesn't seem to make any difference. I don't mind taking a little hit in graphics performance if it means I can suspend (or whatever has to happen to get me back to where I was with 2.0 (wrt suspension anyway). I'd prefer a preference that would allow me to enable/disable hardware graphics acceleration on a per VM basis if suspension is incompatible with it.

Thanks,
Chris

[forgie]

Guys,

We are aware about this problem and working on fixing it.
For now, disabling DirectX support under VM configuration - "Video" should work as temporary workaround for the most cases.
For anyone who wants to make some manual troubleshooting and help us in investigating the problem:
That error message happens when some of the programs you have running in Windows is using DirectX (OpenGl in some rare cases) functions. If you can manually pinpoint the exact program causing it (by manually disabling startup items, for example) and provide us with the program name and main executable file name - it will be helpful for our developers.
Is there a utility that can be used to find out what exes are actually using directX? (like Apple's "OpenGL Driver Monitor")

As far as I know, the only application I have set to run in the background at startup is Avast (antivirus).

[forgie]

This damn bug is still there in 5060. Now my taskbar is missing in OS Window mode. So far, PD3 has delivered me no new working features, and a whole lot of broken older ones.

Is anyone else still suffering from this problem of being unable to suspend?

[forgie]

I just did a cleanup, and uninstalled all the software on my VM that I don't actually use. After then switching off every non-MS service and startup item in msconfig, and using a divide and conquer technique, I found that the culprit was "matlabserver.exe", which was installed as part of Matlab. Matlabserver isn't even needed to run Matlab itself, so it is no loss to disable it. Suspend now seems to work fine, although I uninstalled Avast! in the process of elimination, so I'll report back when I've got the system back to normal.

[bodhost.com]

I think there is one more option instead of MSCONFIG. you can run Services.Msc it is more safer than Msconfig.

[katskratch@mac.com]

Indeed there are. This is a shell of a machine: no gaming, no graphics apps, no movie editing, it's main job; run Quick Books. Are we left to fend for ourselves because this is now the norm? It has become tollerable, preferable even to force what was once the consumer who paid for product, service, candy bar to now also participate in self service quality control. Thanks Paralleles... for not surprising us with results.
Kat

[kpfn]

Anyone make any progress with this? It's been a few months now, and I'm still having this problem. I can't find the offending app (assuming there is one) and the DirectX option is turned off, but it's still the same old story.

[brkirch]

Anyone make any progress with this? It's been a few months now, and I'm still having this problem. I can't find the offending app (assuming there is one) and the DirectX option is turned off, but it's still the same old story.

The latest update (http://forums.parallels.com/thread16150.html) should allow you to suspend, even if you can't find the OpenGL/DirectX application that is running.

[katskratch@mac.com]

So I take it there's still no actual answer to this? Confess I know little about PC's. Haven't owned one in years till 10/06 on this platform. Someone mentioned Prefs. Where's Prefs on PC? All I do on this thing is quick books, some excel with macros and try, I repeat try to get my phone voice mail. Having problem also with Java permision file I don't have. And can't see messages until I get it worked out. Related?

[jordan314]

I'm having the same problem with the latest build (5582), XP and Leopard.

[Xenos]

Hello,

Jordan314, please check if "Enable DirectX Shaders (experimental)" is disabled in Configuration Editor - Video tab.

Minimizing Hardware Acceleration level could probably help as well (Start -> Control Panel -> Display -> Settings -> Advanced -> Troubleshooting).

If none of this will help, you should find the application using OpenGL and terminate the process.

Best regards,
Xenos