Compatibility of Parallels 7 With Older Macbook Pro

I have an older Macbook Pro (2GB ram, 2.33 Ghz). I recently upgraded to Snow Leopard, and then installed the latest upgrade to Parallels 6. Booting up Windows XP is much, much slower, and now I can't get Internet Explorer to connect. I suspect that optimal performance of Lion and Paralllels 7 on a Macbook Pro might really require more memory and a faster processor. Is it possible that my older machine is not fully compatible with the demands of Lion and Parallels 7, and rather than seeing improvements in speed, it will actually slow down?

 

Just to see if I got it right: Did you upgrade to Snow Leopard or to Lion? Lion seems to be optimized for the recent machines (esp the Core i... CPUs). My 2010 MBP (Core i7) works beautifully, uses the cores better and needs less battery. My 2007 MBP (C2D) performed so bad with Lion that I reverted to Snow Leopard which still is a little bit less responsive than Leopard (that came with the machine originally), but runs absolutely decent on that old machine.

Aside from that: Try a RAM upgrade. If your MBP is about as old als mine, you got a chipset that only can recognize 3 GB RAM but the one additional GB is quite a speed bump especially with VMs. And finally: Did you ever think about using a SSD instead of a HDD?

 

Caution regarding compatibility

I just want to make sure you're aware of the system requirements for Parallels 7 because you cannot use it on any machines which do not have 64-bit capability. My older MacBook Pro tells me in the "About..." listing that I have only 32-bit available and I do not run Lion either.

The folks here at Parallels have made the assumption that anyone using Lion will already have the required system to upgrade to their P-7 release. There are no asterisks on any of the material or purchase pages warning people like me who cannot upgrade without having a 64-bit capable machine.

If you check your About... dialogue and read the System Software Overview item on the Profiler page you might see this:

System Software Overview:
System Version: Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549)
Kernel Version: Darwin 10.8.0
Boot Volume: yada yada
Boot Mode: Normal
Computer Name: Computer
User Name: xxx.xxx.xxx
Secure Virtual Memory: Enabled
64-bit Kernel and Extensions: No

If any of this looks the same as what you see on your machine you shouldn't upgrade until you have newer hardware.

Just tryin' to help...

 

I posted this on the other thread as well where dAve posted this info, the above info from Dave is incorrect.

PD7 runs on a 32 bit kernel.

Lion can also run a 32 bit kernel.

 

Don't take my word for it.

I've also made reference to this remark in the "other post" I made on the subject.

The short version of my reply is that I was confused by a dialog box which came up during the installation process.



This prompted me to exchange a few e-mail messages with Tech Support (and others at Parallels). They seemed to be confirming my suspicions to the point of offering a refund on my downloaded purchase.

If we get to hear from someone in development that would probably cap the conversation, but it is important with most technical threads to include details of your machine or system. So, to add to what I put in my previous note I will include my hardware summary:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro1,2
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 2 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP12.0061.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.5f10
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

The person who posted the question about compatibility has a faster CPU.

My situation may be completely unique to my machine. I'm just trying to make sure others don't buy it and try it the way I did.

Cheers, Dave

 

Please see our system requirements here: http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/system-requirements/