Screen refresh problem 10.6.5 / Win 7 / Parallels 6

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by dwrowley, Nov 29, 2010.

  1. dwrowley

    dwrowley Junior Member

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    Screen refresh problem 10.6.5 / Win 7 / Parallels 6 - WORKAROUND FOUND

    Have been having a strange screen refresh problem lately - where certain windows sub-windows blank to white once a minute or so, and then will redraw when the mouse hovers over those areas.

    See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8l_soyPkpY for an example screencast

    It MAY be related to upgrading to 10.6.5.

    Running Parallels 6 (Build 11828), Windows 7 Ultimate x64, 1gb memory for guest, 10Gb memory, 8-proc Mac Pro host

    Anyone else seeing this?

    Thanks

    UPDATE: Parallels tech support identified that it was the task that synchronizes the VM's clock with the Mac -- so if you turn off sync (Configure > Options > Advanced > Synchronize time with Mac) then the problem goes away. Hopefully a fix will be available in a future release, but this workaround works fine for me.
     
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2010
  2. totvos

    totvos Member

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    I can confirm this, and that it is not a MacOS upgrade issue. I was running v5 successfully for many months, up until this morning when I upgraded to v6. I immediately began seeing this redraw issue, and submitted a problem report for it as well as a support ticket.

    I'll update this thread if I hear something.
     
  3. dwrowley

    dwrowley Junior Member

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    Great that you are confirming it - I was surprised that I couldn't find anyone else seeing it!

    I noticed this behavior before I upgraded to 6.x (in fact I upgraded to 6.x hoping that it would fix it).

    David
     
  4. totvos

    totvos Member

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    I saw no such behaviour in v5, and I used // virtually every day...intensively. As a software developer, I tend to use the same tools over and over, and the tool I noticed this on this morning is almost always open for me. I don't think I have seen it in Visual Studio yet today, so it must be some unusual way this particular tool is calling the Windows API, but nonetheless I end up with a large white rectangle in the middle of my screen. I think it might be related to scrolling, but I cannot say that categorically.

    -- tomo
     
  5. dwrowley

    dwrowley Junior Member

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    I noticed one additional aspect of the problem. The screen blanks happen exactly 60 seconds apart -- seems like it is some kind of periodic refresh that is getting screwed up.
     
  6. totvos

    totvos Member

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    And for me, there is no periodicity, but is also happening in text fields. Very unnerving, typing and not seeing letters. I am millimetres away from going back to v5 until this version is fully baked.
     
  7. totvos

    totvos Member

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    The new 6.0.11990 build of Parallels Desktop seems to have resolved this issue, although I have had only one day of testing. But fairly reproducible redraw problems were not evident with this build, so my fingers are crossed.
     
  8. totvos

    totvos Member

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    Build 11990 still working for me, so I would call this issue fixed.
     
  9. alev

    alev Parallels Team

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    I am glad that you have this working, tovtos!
    Thank you for report.
     
  10. SpacyStacy

    SpacyStacy Bit poster

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    not fixed by update

    I've been using XP and never had this problem in any Parallels version.
    A few days ago I tried Windows 7 for the first time, and I am seeing this awful bug.

    I'm using Build 6.0.11992 (Revision 625164; December 17, 2010).
    I am using Coherence.

    Every few (60?) seconds the application's window redisplays, an ugly glitch.
    Also, some windows get blanked out.

    Since I have the latest version, clearly that didn't fix it.
    The person who reported that it was fixed was either faked out,
    or did something else to cure the problem.
     
  11. dmagin

    dmagin Bit poster

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    2
    yes same problem on my mac

    parallels version: Build 6.0.11994

    any solution ?
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2011
  12. alev

    alev Parallels Team

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    Could you please try disabling time synchronization?

    Virtual Machine-> Configure-> Options-> Advanced-> Time: uncheck "Synchronize with Mac"
     
  13. dmagin

    dmagin Bit poster

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    yes that's the workaround :)

    have fun to find the bug in the time sync code :)

    but thank you. now it is much easier to work with the soft :)

    daniel
     

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