huge cpu load due to prl_vm_app

Discussion in 'Installation and Configuration of Parallels Desktop' started by patimages, Nov 22, 2008.

  1. Juankr

    Juankr Member

    Messages:
    22
    When update?? This fix is horrible...
     
  2. technonut2000

    technonut2000 Junior Member

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    16
    Hey Guys,

    I am having a similar problem although I am not sure it's the same. I get a BSOD on prl_vadd and some memory reference error. Perhaps your prl_vm_app and prl_vadd are related? My issue is also a known issue and is related to the video driver. Apparently Windows doesn't like the driver and it renders the screen rrrreeeeeaaalllyyyy s l o w l y. It gets the CPU maxed out and grinds the whole machine to the speed of an 8088. Parallels needs to fix this.

    I tried this fix, called "prl_fix" and it worked once. http://kb.parallels.com/en/5774 Then my computer lost power at 20% of my battery (which was weird) and when I restarted the problem was back again. This time the "fix" did not fix and now I BSOD on a regular basis.

    Not sure if this will help you but it might be worth trying. I am running a MacBookPro Core2Duo 2.33.

    PD4 is positively the worst upgrade to a software since Windows ME. They should not have made it a one way ticket from PD3 to PD4. If they had not we'd all be working right now and running PD3 until they figure all this out. Certainly someone must have tested this software before the rollout?!! Only thing I can figure is they were greedy for the money upgrade and released it about 6 months early.

    The good thing is that PD4 has pushed me to move everything to the MAC side so my goal is by 12/1 to be completely out of windows except for one or two programs. PD4 and Bill Gates can pound sand.
     
  3. nano

    nano Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    No problem with my installation of PD4 with Windows XP or with prl_vm_app.
    My CPU usage hovers around 2% which can hardly be called high, let alone excessive.
    From the Profile...
    Hardware Overview:

    Model Name: iMac
    Model Identifier: iMac8,1
    Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
    Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
    Number Of Processors: 1
    Total Number Of Cores: 2
    L2 Cache: 6 MB
    Memory: 4 GB
    Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
    Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
    NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS (512MB).

    Parallels is essential. Absolutely a great resource.
     
  4. patimages

    patimages Member

    Messages:
    40
  5. MakcyD

    MakcyD Member

    Messages:
    56
    Please check your processor driver under Windows:
    Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Device Manager->Processors
    If you see the yellow triangle with an exclamation mark, right-click the item and say "Update Driver"
     
  6. MakcyD

    MakcyD Member

    Messages:
    56
    I used to design a calculating complex based on Intel 8088 while I was at my third year in the University ;)
     
  7. yin_ko

    yin_ko Junior Member

    Messages:
    10
    Cannot find any "processor" item in my hardware window... the only yellow mark is beside "parallels paravirtualization driver" - tried to update the driver, but nothing, nada. Winupdate couldn't get any update. What can I do from there ?
     

    Attached Files:

  8. estrelnikov

    estrelnikov Parallels Team

    Messages:
    287
  9. yin_ko

    yin_ko Junior Member

    Messages:
    10
    Guess I maybe found the cure - could be an Autocad 2008 bug - found this on the web:

    1. Open the drawing
    2. Enter -SCALELISTEDIT in the command line
    3. Type R for the following command line prompt; Enter option [?/Add/Delete/Reset/Exit] :
    4. Type Y for the final command line prompt; Reset scale list to defaults? [Yes/No] :
    5. Save and close to preserve the changes.

    Seems to work till now - just have to repeat the command in each drawing I open.

    Don't know if this can explain the issue with the CPU overload thing, but maybe it can help autocad 2008 users in the same case...
     
  10. jkennemer

    jkennemer Bit poster

    Messages:
    2
    prl_perf_ctl output for prl_vm_app cpu load issue

    Upgraded an XPSP3 VM from PD3 to PD4. Hasn't run too fast since the update a few weeks ago, but now it's horribly slow, with prl_vm_app chewing up CPU. Here is my output.

    Maverick:~ jkennemer$ sudo prl_perf_ctl -a -n -l 2
    Password:
    Performance Counters View Utility v4.0.3540.209168
    Copyright 2008 Parallels, Inc.

    Microsoft Windows XP SP3 - 08:54:11 +2 sec
    kernel.ide.irqs 68318
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_change 7
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_write 7
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.genexc 3
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.pagefault 2889
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.prot 2881
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.success 5
    kernel.vcpu0.activity.idle_percent 1
    kernel.vcpu0.activity.mon_mcs 14910
    kernel.vcpu0.guest_switch_vtx 2927
    kernel.vcpu0.hardware_interrupt 12
    kernel.vcpu0.irq_process 32090
    kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host 15
    kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host_switch 15
    kernel.vcpu0.pic.setintrequest 150111
    kernel.vcpu0.sendapirequest 34210
    kernel.vcpu0.vtx_interrupth 407416
    kernel.ws.pages 240468
    Microsoft Windows XP SP3 - 08:54:13 +2 sec
    devices.ide0.read_requests 66
    devices.ide0.read_total 935936
    devices.ide0.write_requests 3
    devices.ide0.write_total 20480
    kernel.ide.irqs 68393
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_change 1114
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_write 1114
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.genexc 470
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.pagefault 387557
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.prot 385300
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.success 1787
    kernel.vcpu0.activity.idle_percent 1
    kernel.vcpu0.activity.mon_mcs 1943282
    kernel.vcpu0.async_thr_activate 73
    kernel.vcpu0.guest_switch_vtx 392408
    kernel.vcpu0.hardware_interrupt 856
    kernel.vcpu0.irq_process 32163
    kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host 1264
    kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host_switch 1264
    kernel.vcpu0.pic.setintrequest 150352
    kernel.vcpu0.sendapirequest 34219
    kernel.vcpu0.vtx_interrupth 407750
    kernel.ws.pagein 5
    kernel.ws.pageout 164
    kernel.ws.pages 240309
    net.nic0.bytes_out 62
    net.nic0.pkts_out 1
    video.frames 2
    Microsoft Windows XP SP3 - 08:54:15 +2 sec
    devices.ide0.aligned_writes 12
    devices.ide0.read_requests 43
    devices.ide0.read_total 435200
    devices.ide0.unaligned_writes 48
    devices.ide0.write_requests 13
    devices.ide0.write_total 94720
    kernel.ide.irqs 68455
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_change 813
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_write 813
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.genexc 451
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.pagefault 389023
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.prot 387136
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.success 1460
    kernel.vcpu0.activity.idle_percent 1
    kernel.vcpu0.activity.mon_mcs 1936720
    kernel.vcpu0.async_thr_activate 61
    kernel.vcpu0.guest_switch_vtx 394800
    kernel.vcpu0.hardware_interrupt 1759
    kernel.vcpu0.irq_process 32223
    kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host 2444
    kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host_switch 2446
    kernel.vcpu0.pic.setintrequest 150580
    kernel.vcpu0.sendapirequest 34228
    kernel.vcpu0.vtx_interrupth 408373
    kernel.ws.pagein 7
    kernel.ws.pages 240316
    video.frames 1
    Microsoft Windows XP SP3 - 08:54:18 +2 sec
    devices.ide0.aligned_writes 10
    devices.ide0.fsync 4
    devices.ide0.read_requests 44
    devices.ide0.read_total 458752
    devices.ide0.unaligned_writes 30
    devices.ide0.write_requests 27
    devices.ide0.write_total 162816
    kernel.ide.irqs 68536
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_change 1170
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_write 1170
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.genexc 273
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.pagefault 385960
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.prot 384220
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.success 1443
    kernel.vcpu0.activity.idle_percent 1
    kernel.vcpu0.activity.mon_mcs 1927477
    kernel.vcpu0.async_thr_activate 79
    kernel.vcpu0.guest_switch_vtx 391090
    kernel.vcpu0.hardware_interrupt 1195
    kernel.vcpu0.irq_process 32305
    kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host 1745
    kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host_switch 1743
    kernel.vcpu0.pic.setintrequest 150830
    kernel.vcpu0.sendapirequest 34238
    kernel.vcpu0.vtx_interrupth 408838
    kernel.ws.pagein 2
    kernel.ws.pages 240318
    net.nic0.activate 1
    net.nic0.bytes_out 119
    net.nic0.pkts_out 1
    Microsoft Windows XP SP3 - 08:54:20 +2 sec
    devices.ide0.aligned_writes 11
    devices.ide0.fsync 4
    devices.ide0.read_requests 63
    devices.ide0.read_total 258048
    devices.ide0.unaligned_writes 24
    devices.ide0.write_requests 11
    devices.ide0.write_total 86016
    kernel.ide.irqs 68620
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_change 354
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_write 354
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.genexc 100
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.pagefault 379730
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.prot 379101
    kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.success 528
    kernel.vcpu0.activity.idle_percent 1
    kernel.vcpu0.activity.mon_mcs 1876496
    kernel.vcpu0.async_thr_activate 82
    kernel.vcpu0.guest_switch_vtx 384255
    kernel.vcpu0.hardware_interrupt 2335
    kernel.vcpu0.irq_process 32392
    kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host 3252
    kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host_switch 3252
    kernel.vcpu0.pic.setintrequest 151084
    kernel.vcpu0.sendapirequest 34258
    kernel.vcpu0.vtx_interrupth 409659
    kernel.ws.pagein 13
    kernel.ws.pages 240331
     
  11. jkennemer

    jkennemer Bit poster

    Messages:
    2
    Paravirtualization Driver Version

    I tried to reinstall Parallels tools as previous posts have mentioned. Since then, the Parallels Paravirtualization Driver shows an exclamation in Device Manager stating it did not load properly. I rolled back to the 11/8/2008 (4.0.3525.9304) version and the system began to respond much better.

    Sounds like a fix is needed ASAP.
     
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2008
  12. John@Parallels

    John@Parallels Forum Maven

    Messages:
    6,333
    What I think that Parallels Tools installation is somehow messed
    Try to uninstall Parallels Tools
    and in c:\windows\system32\drivers delete all prl and prl_ files
    (or move to c:\backup)
    Reinstall Parallels Tools
     
  13. scowls

    scowls Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    Thanks for the clarification. I did this and the system is telling me it needs to install hall.dll. I have mislaid my windows disk - any way to clear this up without finding the disk? I'm getting messages about missing dlls every time I boot up that I cancel out of (two with each boot). FYI - I did the switch to two processors than back to one processor then back to two processors and at least at the moment that seemed to help with the CPU usage a lot. I'm now down at 10% CPU for prl_vm_app - the lowest I've seen it get to since the upgrade to 4.0.
     
  14. John@Parallels

    John@Parallels Forum Maven

    Messages:
    6,333
    You need to select correct boot option, I suppose you have Boot Camp, and thus you need to select Windows Xp, immediately after boot
     
  15. ralphrmartin

    ralphrmartin Member

    Messages:
    58
    For what it is worth, I am getting the High CPU usage problem when running MacOS X Server as a guest. This is NOT simply a windows issue. Parallels is so unstable with MacOS X Server guest, I have to do a complete reinsatll twice now, and finally revert to using a single CPU with MacOS X server guest.
     
  16. John@Parallels

    John@Parallels Forum Maven

    Messages:
    6,333
    ralphrmartin
    Your case is very interesting,
    Could you please set 2 CPU and submit problem report,
    I 've never seen that in Mac OS guest 2 CPU usage may cause 100% usage
     
  17. ralphrmartin

    ralphrmartin Member

    Messages:
    58
    Sorry, I am on holiday now until January, so this will have to wait until after Xmas. This was on a Mac Pro with 4 CPUs.
     
  18. ralphrmartin

    ralphrmartin Member

    Messages:
    58
    When I set to 2 processors, the VM immediately gave a kernel panic and stopped again.

    Problem report 26324 sent in.
     
  19. Birdman

    Birdman Member

    Messages:
    64
  20. docpark

    docpark Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    An end user's comment

    I noticed that my MacOS programs slowed to a crawl (running safari, itunes, iphoto, photobooth, and finder with parallels 4.0) and some crashed (photobooth) when running Parallels 4.0 -next time I run it, will have to check and see what is causing it.
     

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