upgrade from 3.0 to 4.0 error: conflicting virtual machine

So,
I'm trying to upgrade my Parallels desktop for mac 3.0 v.5608 to 4.0 v.3810;
the installation freezes over at the detection phase, and i can't get around it. It claims i have "conflicting virtual machines" that are suspended and need to be stopped. I have nothing running on my computer, except for the installer... VM is stopped, parallels shut down.
I checked activity monitor for anything that could have something to do with this, and found that quitting "DiskImages UI agent" gets rid of the error (although i am not sure if it actually has anything to do with parallels, just trying anything at this point... ) and then the installation freezes again, did this about 4 times. Once i was able to get to the next phase after force quitting DiskImages, but got stuck at few points later, when the installer asks me to insert disk "(null)". Inserting and ejecting and re-inserting the installation cd does nothing, except prompts a new installer, that asks for me to download an upgrade... and so the cycle goes on.

I have booted the mac several times, firewall is off.
Please someone help, this is getting silly! Anyone else having the same problem? Am i just being stupid?

macbook 2.2 GHz Intel, 4GB SDRAM, Leopard v.10.5.6

 

I believe, if you create ticket in support it will be more faster to check,
http://www.parallels.com/support/desktop/request/

 

Has this issue been resolved? I have the same problem trying to apply the latest update. After a restart, there are no Windows OSs running. I can see that, activity monitor can see that - so why can't the installer see it?

First, I couldn't copy and paste using 4.0 and now, I can't install the update that might fix the copy and paste issue.

What is the deal?

 

For me the issue resolved itself; I was trying to go through the installation process one more time to get screenshots of when it gets jammed, and then it suddenly finished the thing. I suggest just stop everything, shut down computer, try again, repeat ad nauseum... I couldn't figure out what the problem was and still don't know.

Alternatively, if you could get an IT-help guy standing behind your shoulder while you do the
"See, and after that i press this button and nothing happen.. - - !!! oh! look at that! it just started working! "
it might do the trick :-D

 

Thanks for the information. Trying to install later several times didn't work for me. Fortunately the installer didn't kill Parallels 3 before it decided that it wasn't going to install the Parallels 4 update. Parallels 3 works at least and it's much faster. I can't go on in Parallels limbo this way. I'm done.

 

I believe, if you create ticket in support it will be more faster to check,
http://www.parallels.com/support/desktop/request/

 

Delete the PVS file.

I had the same problem. It would get to the shut down virtual hosts screen and show a windows xp. I just did a spotlight seach for windows xp and found "Microsoft Windows XP.pvs" and deleted it. Then it moved right along. I don't know if that means I lost all my old parallels 3 settings or whatever, but I don't care. At least it got installed.

 

Please make sure check following steps

1. Parallels Desktop version 3 or earlier is not running
2. Virtual machines you stopped are not in the suspended mode
- Navigate to Virtual machine folder and check for file with .mem and .sav extension
- Delete those files
3. Restart installation
4. If error is still there:
- Open Terminal from /Applications/Utilities
perform following commands

cd ~/Documents

rm -rf .parallels-vm-directory
5. Restart installation , and click next, on that Conflicting Virtual machines page,
(Next button should be available now)

 

John,

i swear to you that i have been online for 14 years and I have never posted before. Your response was beyond comprehension and I actually am spending the 10 minutes of time because your response was brain dead for the average person. Please respond in coherence that the average person can understand. What the hell did you say.

Ok I read Johns response and I didnt have a clue in hell what he was saying. Delete files etc. Clearly John has spent to much time in this software to understand simplicity.

- When you stopped Parrells the last time. Instead of stopping Parrells you actually put it into a suspended state. You need to get parrells out of the suspended state to install the new software. Navigate to the current installation of Parrells. You will see in red "suspended" in the screeen that is the basic screen before you go into windows" Go to View -> virtual machine - > in the suspended status parrells will not allow you to access this control panel. It will ask you if you want to suspend the virtual machine. Say yes. Now the virtual machine is STOPPED. This is where you can make changes to the virtual machine normally but since you dont want to do this. Just exit from this screen. Now go back to the install and you will see XP windows removed.

This is what worked for me and took 1 minute. I dont know what the hell John said.

 

Conflicting virtual machines "My boot camp with Parralls"

Hello all,

I am getting the following message

Conflicting virtual machines "My boot camp with Parralls" at stage 5 (Detection) of the 4 version of parralls (para).

So far I have done the following

- Uninstalled Para ver 3
- Removed Boot camp partition
- Followed all of the advice given in all of the above messages
- Reinstalled Leapord using time machine.

All have which have not worked....

 

What was "brain dead" about his post?? He posted simple instructions on how to stop a virtual machine that is suspended if the console will not give you the option, which was exactly what I was looking for and it helped me to install V4.

The only "brain dead" person here is you if you can't follow the simple instructions he posted and the fact that you chose to display you're ignorance by posting it in this forum, and is the top result in Google if you search for this problem. Congratulations, now everyone knows you're an idiot.

Thanks John. You're instructions were simple and clear and helped to fix my problem in 2 minutes.

 

Sorry

Sorry for the confusion, looking back at my post, I can see how someone reading it may get confused. I ended up contacting Parallels and below is the response that I received.
For my problem, the third method worked because even though I had removed Paralles and did everything else that I mentioned in my first post (to those who were able to understand what I wrote), there were still files left over that the Parallels 4 instal application could still see.

Once again, sorry to you all for the confusion and I hope the following helps.

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Parallels Technical Support.

As I understand your unable to install Parallels Desktop 4.

, please follow these methods in a sequence and check for the issue after each method.

Method 1

Please follow the steps mentioned in this article.

http://kb.parallels.com/en/5999

Method 2

Download the dmg file from this link and install Parallel Desktop 4.

http://www.parallels.com/download/desktop/

Method 3

Since you have removed Parallel Desktop 3, Boot Camp partition and starting a fresh Windows installation. Please follow these steps.

Follow these path, these path are for default location the virtual machine files.

/Users/<you user name>/Documents/Parallels - delete the contents of this file
/Users/<you user name>/Library/Parallels - delete the contents of this file.

Caution! in this step, if Windows is installed on Parallels, the information would be lost.


Thanks,

 

thanks!

Thank you John for the steps to fix this issue! I was having a problem with getting the upgrade on parallels to go from 3 to 4 and I finally looked into it, only a year or so after I downloaded it! The steps were easy to follow and worked like a charm. Thanks so much!