Killer Bug: WindowServer "stuck" - requires reboot

I'm desperate. Every time I fire up Parallels, sooner or later (usually sooner) it locks my whole Mac and requires a reboot. If you have encountered this and found a solution I'd love to hear from you.

Parallels kills the entire Mac interface by causing WindowServer to become a "stuck" process. This typically happens with 10 minutes of launching Parallels, but there is no apparent correlation between any particular program and the death of the OSX WindowServer process. I have been trying every build of Parallels for the past few months on my Mac Pro, and I am close to giving up on this "almost excellent" product. It bums me out that I have wasted a Windows XP and an Office 2007 activation on a VM that is effectively rendered uselss by this recurring bug.

When Parallels kills the WindowServer process the mouse keeps moving, but the desktop is completely unresponsive to clicks or keystrokes and no further window updates occur. I can SSH into the machine from another computer and use the console as much as I want. Attempts to kill and restart the WindowServer process are fruitless. Nothing I can see in the various log files reveals any useful info about the underlying cause.

I have tried everything I can think of - more memory, less memory, install/remove various drivers, change cache strategy. Nothing seems to address the problem.

Has anyone else out there encountered something that sounds like this killer bug? Did you find a solution? Thanks in advance.

Rick

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Mac Pro with dual 2.66 - latest OS and firmware updates - 4Gb ram - dual X1900 video cards

 

Same problem for me

I have this same problem, except I don't get 10 minutes of use. As Windows is starting up, at some point WindowServer becomes a runaway process and the machine must be rebooted to become useful again. This has happened since I put Beta 3 on. I Think Beta 2 did this sometimes.

 

My soloution - throw parallels beta 3 in the bin, no seriously, throw it in the bin

 

If only it were that easy!

I wish it was as simple as falling back to the previous build, but this has been going on with every build they have released since I started trying to work with Parallels months ago. I don't remember the first one I tried - it was way back. I have had several contacts with Parallels support, but they have not been effective at getting anyone to actually investigate the problem. It occurs virtually every time I start Parallels (if I leave it running for a while) and I have even offered to let their techs SSH into my crashed machine to explore. They simply haven't acted on it.

I suspect the problem has something to do with running on a Mac Pro because my colleague uses Parallels without trouble on a MacBook Pro.

Rick

 

Well, sorry to hear that mate. The mac pro is a beautiful machine, and it seems crazy to keep putting through the mills like this. It deserves better!
Maybe the answer lies in just buying a PC if certain windoze .apps are vital to your needs?
VMWARE may be worth a try (free trial available).
peace,
chrisj303

 

Its not just the MP. I've had this problem several times on my Mac mini.

 

Runaway window server

Though relatively new to Parallels, I haven't had this problem on my MacPro.

It is true that the VMWare "Fusion" beta is very stable (although slow because of built-in debug code that they include to facilitate bug extermination and reporting) while lacking in certain critical features.

I haven't done the exhaustive search of these forums that perhaps I should; but even without debug code in the application, surely there is a formal method for reporting a bug, since the current release is identified as a beta--i.e. one specifically intended to help the developers identify and exterminate bugs. And what you describe surely qualifies by any measure.

Perhaps one of the wiser heads on this forum, or even one of the Parallels team, can identify the proper method and format for reporting a bug? Then at least you and others would have the satisfaction of knowing that they had brought it to the proper attention and contributed to the ongoing development of a very promising and innovative product, rather than suffering in isolation.

 

You can easily report a bug in Parallels too. Just simply if you're in the Parallels Desktop program just go to the help in the Mac menu and click on Report a problem.

 

That's excellent as far as it goes, but it doesn't identify the "problem" as a bug that needs to be investigated, nor does it provide the information that the developers would need to track it down (logs, core dumps, etc.)

What I was talking about was a formal bug reporting process, together with the format in which the bug should be reported. Since that is a standard part of the beta testing process, I was assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that this mechanism was available to beta testers such as most of us are, since 1970 was the last formal release.