I think the photo above says it best. Guest is at 91% idle, parallels is at 57% utilization. V 3 - MBP 2.16 Ghz Core Duo. This does not bode well for performance or battery life!
[click on the image to see the activity monitor] So, what's parallels doing with all my CPU cycles? Did you guys install SETI into the app?
Try removing the USB connector from the VM and see if your CPU usage goes back down. I had this problem in Vista as well, there seems to be a bug in it in parallels 3. Ross
Cpu I have the same problem. I upgraded to 3.0, then un-installed and went back to build 3188. That is when I noticed the CPU usage problem. 3.0 must have some left over settings that is messing up build 3188. I tried deleting the system preferences for Parallels, but that didnt help. Also, this image was never used with 3.0, so I know that isnt the problem.
What do you all mean by remove the USB Connector? My VM isnt currently using any shared USB devices.....
I tried this and it knocked my CPU usage down to 40% from mid 50s. This is still not right. I used to run around 15% idle. I am not even running the trial of version 3 anymore, so I dont know why I am having this problem.
Agreed, it's still not what it once was, but it's better than nothing (unless you need USB. ) Anyhow you said you are not running the trial 3.0 anymore, does that mean you are not running 3.0? Perhaps the 2.5 installer detected newer kernel extensions and left them. If you want to downgrade, try following this thread: http://forums.parallels.com/thread11880.html Manually remove the extensions reboot and reinstall 2.5 is the short of it.
OK....now it gets stranger. I just did a clean install of build 3188 on a brand new Macbook Pro with 3GB RAM that has never even had 3.0 installed and it run XP Pro at 40% idle. Maybe its something with the 3188 build as well? I cant remember what build I was using when I had the CPU idle at 15%. (pre 3188??) what did your CPU used to run at when Parallels guest was idle?
I've had a low idle in 3188, but I'm committed to 3.0 so I just cannot roll back and check - sorry about that. Really, what drew me in to check was poor performance problems, waiting a few seconds to launch apps, that sort of thing. Even though the counter is high, are you feeling a performance hit or is everything humming along nicely?
seems to run alright. I dont seem to notice that its running worse. But it just bothers me to see the CPU % is so high when It didnt used to run like that.
Problem Solved! I had recently started running Skype in my guest OS instead of running it in OSX. I exited Skype and now I am idle at 15-20%! The odd thing is that XP taskmgr says Skype is idle....but activity monitor reports Parallels running at 65%. Are you running skype too?
My parallels cpu usage at idle is between 15% - 20%... Using XP (w/other stats shown in my signature)... The USB settings are set to whatever the defaults are...
well you see what the screenshot shows... Idle guest, active parallels.. Could be a problem with the Parallels Tools and Vista.... Could be something else. I'll leave it to the Parallels team to diagnose and fix.
