Minute and a half lag before VM boots into XP and screen resolution question.

I'm running Parallels Desktop for Mac build 3120 on a MacBook Pro (C2D). I've installed XP Pro Corporate on a FAT32 partition on an external drive through Parallels from a CD.

It seems that when I initially set everything up, Parallels booted XP really fast. But now when I click start VM the program takes a minute and a half to start the XP boot sequence.

I've uninstalled/reinstalled Parallels and the XP image on my laptop HD as well as the external partition, but still get a huge lag prior to the boot sequence. The actually boot sequence is really fast. Once in XP everything runs fine.

Is this lag normal?

Also when I first had Parallels installed, the VM screen resolution would change automatically when I switched from OS window to Fullscreen. After my many uninstalls/reinstall sequences, the resolution is now a fixed ratio....So what looks great in the OS window looks like crap in fullscreen. How do I set it to be a low ratio when in OS window, and high ratio in full screen without manually having to do it each time in XP? It was behaving like this when I first had XP installed, now it's fixed at a set ratio.

 

Turn on the OS X performance monitor and see if you can determine if there is a resource depletion problem. The obvious areas to look are CPU and memory. Have you experimented with different memory allocations for Windows and for Parallels? For that matter, how much RAM is installed and how is it apportioned?

 

Thanks for the reply.

I have 2G of RAM and 512 megs allocated to this VM.

How do you bring up the performance monitor on a MAC? I'm a new mac user...

I forgot to mention sometimes when XP boots it runs a disk check before booting into XP.

 

Welcome to the exciting world of OS X! Using a Finder window, navigate to the Utilities folder - it is in the Applications folder. There you will see the Activity Monitor. Bring it up, spend a bit if time reviewing it's buttons and reports - most things should be self explanatory. Specifically, it is useful to know what the numbers are for memory usage and CPU before and after you start Parallels, and after you start Windows in Parallels and while it's loading.

Memory allocation is done in two stages. The first place is found in the Parallels Preferences menu. The second is in the Virtual Machine parameters page which is seen after opening the VM but before starting it. The memory given to Parallels needs to be larger than the amount given to Windows. Experiment - figure at least 15% to 25% overhead for Parallels. Starting numbers could be 740k for Parallels, 512k for Windows.

 

Originally, my Parallel preference menu the memory was set to automatic and the VM was set to 512megs....


I've set the preferences to 740M and VM to 512M, and still get the hang.....

I took a look at the activity monitor before and after launching Parallels, and while during the VM launch...

I've included screen shots....

There no real changes before and after launching Parallels....But DURING the 1.5 minute hang, under process name the activity monitor says Parallels is not responding...

 

A disk check is telling you that XP was not shut-down properly!

ajm

 

The disk check happens only intermittently. I shutdown the VM by either "shut down" via XP or by stopping the VM in Parallels.

Is there any reason why Parallel fails to respond during the lag before boot? I've tried different memory combinations only the get the same result.

 

This may also be related to what processes are starting up in Windows. I use Norton SystemWork and Window Washer and they take some time to load even on a "dedicated" Windows box. The Start menu, etc are all unresponsive during those startup sequences.

 

This lag happens in OSX before the VM boots...I get the spinning beach ball for a about a minute before Parallels flips into the boot sequence.

Could this still be attributed to Windows processes? The only app I have installed is PC Cillin from Trend Micro, and this lag was present before I installed the program.

 

You might also want to try renaming the .sav file and try starting "fresh". I don't use PC Cillin so I don't know what it might, or might not, contribute.

I also have allocated 1024 GB of RAM, not 512. You might also try modifying that setting to see if it makes a difference.

Another suggestion is to suspend the VM after it starts, then start it again using the green arrow button. I've not had slow startups but, then again, I do the suspend trick and I tend to leave my system on so I don't do reboots of either XP or OSX unless I specifically need to for some reason.

 

Where/what is the .sav file?

I've tried allocating 1280M to Parallels and 1024M to the VM but still get the lag.

This behaviour wouldn't bother me if this lag had happened all the time. I know when Parallels was initially installed the boot sequence was super fast.

 

The <nameofVM>.sav file will be in the <your user name>/Library/Parallels/<nameofVM>/ folder.

 

I only have four files in this folder:

1) Bug Reports folder
2) Help folder
3) Tools folder
4) License text file


Am I missing something here? My VM image is stored on an external HD.


I've uninstalled Parallels using the .dmg and reinstalled it several times now...Is there a way to retrieve this .sav file?