Don’t install build 6.0.11990 or later!

Discussion in 'Installation and Configuration of Parallels Desktop' started by Hans Balen, Jan 2, 2011.

  1. JIRL

    JIRL Junior Member

    Messages:
    10
    Hi John,

    I have been in touch with Parallels support regarding this issue throughout last week. After an hour long support session and finally replacing Microsoft Security Essentials (free from Microsoft) with Kaspersky (pushed by Parallels and costs €) I was left with the same issue! I get the impression that Parallels know full well that they have a problem and are just "threading water".

    Based on your reply it would appear that you may have been through other "cycles of despair" with this product, as you have been using it since V3. Is this the case? I am coming to the conclusion, having trawled through various forums and websites, that this product has always been unstable and that there is a fundamental issue with the underlying software architecture.
     
  2. mH2

    mH2 Member

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    33
    Have you tried the 11828.6151 roll back/download that was suggested earlier in this thread? You are obviously licensed for it.
    It might be a bit less of a nuisance ...
     
  3. jtcedinburgh

    jtcedinburgh Bit poster

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    6
    Hi JIRL,

    To be fair, v6 is the first time I've had any real problems with Parallels other than actual performance (v5 was very slow on my laptop but that turned out to be largely a ram and disk thing (I had big problems with a WD Green drive that didn't get on well with OSX and as a consequence Parallels). Running on the i7 iMac, with so much grunt it's quite staggering, it runs very well in terms of performance (v5 and v6 that is) but it is only with v6 and the latest build that I have seen any instability.

    For now I am back with the version that's included on the upgrade disc, and that's fine apart from the minor niggles I mentioned, but it does dishearten me to see so little evidence of Parallels actually trying to engage with its customers - many of whom (myself included) have been loyal to the product for a number of years now.
     
  4. Peter Linsener

    Peter Linsener Junior Member

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    First of all, yep, 11992 turned out a kernel panic nightmare for me too, I find it _extremely_ frustrating to see Parallels support to be absent in this thread ... unbelievable ... and moreover not to make the last stable version publically available, thanks to the guys who uploaded and linked to it in this thread, I will try to revert to 11828 as I need my computer to work ...
     
  5. Tony Carreon

    Tony Carreon Hunter

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    it's been a few days since i rolled back to 11822 and so far things seem to be back to "normal"

    i even had to reboot a few times for software install / changes which usually is when windows would puke, but it rebooted just fine.

    add me to the "roll back" crowd.

    also a note. it appears i was lucky enough that my VM did not get corrupted too bad and windows was able to repair itself, something it tried to do several times in the newer build but was never able to.
     
  6. MikeMo

    MikeMo Member

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    Well... after months with no real issues, my VM is degrading rapidly. It seems that every time I reboot the mac, there is a problem with the VM. Reverting back to a snapshot I created on the 2nd fixes the problems.. but it always creeps back.

    Problems:

    1. Can't get my XP (SP3) VM to consistently log into our domain. When I can get it to log in, it can see other computers on the network just fine... However, when I run a work-related database application, the app cannot connect to the SQL database on our server. I have two apps installed on this VM.. and this is the most important one. Reverting back to my snapshot fixes the issue (until I reboot the VM).

    2. I have the VM configured for 4 GBs of ram.. but Task Manager says only 2.75 GB is installed.

    This VM is mission critical. My work bought me this iMac because I said it wouldnt be a problem.

    I literally have one application open in this VM and never change anything. For it to degrade like this with no provocation is totally unacceptable. Reverting to previous versions or rebuilding the VM from scratch will cost me a lot of time.. I have no support for this computer.. it's all on me (which I can handle). This is literally the only "official" Mac in this hospital.. and Parallel's instability is going to be a big problem for me.

    I'm running version 6.0.11990, btw.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2011
  7. SvenP

    SvenP Bit poster

    Messages:
    5
    Downgraded to PD5 and have no issues anymore. Contacted Parallels Support because of this and waiting for an answer (a download link to the old build would be sufficient for me, until the Problem is sorted out). As mentioned earlier, my work VM is running elsewhere. Crashing my "game" machine is a bit annoying, but not such a problem.

    Sorry to say, but I trust the alternative Company more in the field of Virtualization in Business (coming from the Windows side, they where in Virtualization Business a VERY long time - Only the Mac came later. But the Hypervisor is great and stable). Maybe the VM Performance is a bit lower, but for work I don't care. I want a rock solid system.

    Parallels is great for gaming, and that's where their Product has it's strength. And that is where I will keep it for in favor over the competition.

    MikeMo: If you can afford, give the other product a try and you will be amazed. All my Linux, Windows VMs for work run there. If the VM is still functioning (or you got a backup) you can import it. No need to reinstall.
     
  8. MikeMo

    MikeMo Member

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    Thanks for the advise. The lack of "official" responses by Parallel's staff in this thread is troubling.. to say the least. I may have to give the competition a try.
     
  9. Hans Balen

    Hans Balen Member

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    I have send this trouble ticket again. I hope that there will be a response now.

    Dear Parallels,

    I'm disappointed that you give no comment on the problems with build 11990 and higher. No response on the support tickets and also not on the topics on this forum.
    http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=107483
    http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=107260
    http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=107422
    http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=107211
    http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=106836
    http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=107010


    By the absence of a reaction several customers of you steps over to a competitor. Is that what you want?
     
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2011
  10. EricKuhn

    EricKuhn Bit poster

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    4
    Sorry as this has probably been covered but could someone step-by-step me through uninstalling v 6.0.11992 and re- installing 6.0.11828.

    I just dont want to over write or loose any info/configurations in the process.

    I have the disk image for 6.0.11828

    Is it as simple as using the uninstaller for 6.0.11828 to deinstall 6.0.11992 and then running it again to install 6.0.11828? will everything be preserved.

    I read through this thread and just want to make sure this is the case.

    Cheers
     
  11. Andrew @ Parallels

    Andrew @ Parallels Parallels Team

    Messages:
    1,507
    Builds 11990 and 11992 compatibility issues with Mac OS X 10.6.5/10.6.6

    Dear Customers,

    Thanks a lot for your reports and please be sure that we are working on this issue very hard. Currently we believe that the issue is related to the memory management degradation in Mac OS X 10.6.5 and Mac OS X 10.6.6 which affects certain memory usage modes in Parallels Desktop 6 Builds 11990 and 11992. We reported issue to Apple and helping them with investigation.

    Please check the following forum topic for more details and available workaround:
    http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=108642
     
  12. Hans Balen

    Hans Balen Member

    Messages:
    64
    At last. Thanks for this response.

    It Is possible that you make build 11828 downloadebel in different languages again.
     
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2011
  13. Hans Balen

    Hans Balen Member

    Messages:
    64
    Yes it is as simple as you describe. Deinstall build 1199x and install build 11828.

    But first, try the solution as described below. Let us know if it works.

    Please check the following forum topic for more details and available workaround:
    http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=108642
     
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2011
  14. MikeMo

    MikeMo Member

    Messages:
    42
    I made a few changes today and have not had any issues for the last few hours. This is what I did:

    Uninstalled Microsoft Security Essentials

    Turned off all drive sharing (Virtual Machine/Configure/Options/Sharing)

    unchecked "Use Crystal Mode" in the Virtual Machine/Configure/Options/Coherence menu

    Made sure my VM's network settings were correct (DNS addresses and such.. im using a domain login under Bridged Network. The Mac and VM have their own ip addresses)

    Re-joined our domain (I could not log into the domain this morning).

    Going through the Event viewer in the Window's VM, there were a lot if networking/domain errors... re-joining seems to have helped. There may be an issue with the Parallels ethernet adapter or Parallels Tools.

    I'll see if it still works tomorrow. If it doesn't, im switching to another program (VMF) and not looking back.
     
  15. hughjaas

    hughjaas Junior Member

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    15
    try the fix in the kb article:
    http://kb.parallels.com/en/9697

    it seems to have avoided many issues listed here especially performance. I was finally able to restart without getting messages saying I didn't shutdown properly etc.
     
  16. Peter Linsener

    Peter Linsener Junior Member

    Messages:
    19
    This workaround is not working for me , I keep getting kernel panics. Maybe because I have 8 Gb Memory, though the article says you need to have a Quad Core at least (I'm on Macbook) ...
     
  17. EricKuhn

    EricKuhn Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    Thanks for the reply.

    I tried the fix in http://kb.parallels.com/en/9697

    It didn't help, i am using a macbook pro with 4 gb ram.

    I am going to deinstall and reinstall using 6.0.11828 as parallels is now virtually unusable (as well as bringing my machine to a crawl)

    Hopefully this fixes my issues- will report back.
     
  18. alev

    alev Parallels Team

    Messages:
    462
    Hi, Eric!

    Could you please send us a problem report (Help-Report a Problem) before you downgrade and post a report ID there.
     
  19. JIRL

    JIRL Junior Member

    Messages:
    10
    http://kb.parallels.com/en/9697

    Hi Eric,

    Same here - Mac Book Pro with 4GB ram and also tried the kb fix (supposedly not for the Mac Book Pro - go figure!).

    Anyhow, luckily I am also trialling VMware Fusion V3.1 so I could do some comparison tests with the indicated fix for Parallels. What I have seen is that the Parallels platform is more stable but it is running slower than Fusion. The boot sequence is better but timing seems to have been affected i.e. it seems to drag in places.

    Starting an application takes a long time and sometimes it requires a number of attempts to get an application running only to find that there are multiple instances running when the application finally appears on the screen. Parallels is fast coming into the "click and pray" arena!

    Its a pity Parallels support could not be more pro-active in dealing with this issue as its not doing the "world of VM" any favours whatsoever. Not to mention the number of lost hours/days tracking down the various issues - what a waste of our time!
     
  20. EricKuhn

    EricKuhn Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    Alev, Sorry didn't have time to mess around with this any more and started the process of downgrading before i saw your post. In the process right now of finishing install 11828. Hopefully it will make my windows side usable again.I have work to do that needs to happen on my windows side and this is becoming increasingly frustrating.

    Also while i have your ear, is there any way to adjust the pause settings (when there is not an application running on windows side). Mine kicks in almost immediately and i end up trying to click to launch an application only to have it pause again. This can happen multiple times until i can finally launch an application, and then i end up with multiple instances of the app being launched. A huge waste of my time (and very frustrating)
     

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