Time to buy a Windows box, methinks

I have lived for the day when I could run Nuance Voice Recognition software under Parallels, as well as the only other Windows application that is really important to me - MindManager 7.

I thought that sorting out the USB issues, as promised for 3.0, would get my dulcid tones into the Windows window without that dreadful snap, crackle and pop. Not yet.

And this evening, after installing the latest 4128 build, Coherence is somewhat less than coherent and throws a Virtual Machine Error. So, tried to go fullscreen and full resolution my two joyous 30" Apple screens. Nope, no chance of that either - we're down to a dreadful 2048 by 1280.

So, no boot camp because Hal screwed that up. And a less than functional Windows system because 3.0 has cataracts or something. It's enough to make a diabetic reach for the chocolate.

On the one hand, I understand the hassles that the Parallels development team face, but their support (which I assume is a marketing function) is truly appalling. I think it's time to stop messing about beta testing software I paid for and add a decent Windows laptop the stable to cover those two apps I need. (I know that MindManager has a Mac version, but the Windows version has a bunch more features that I want.)

I won't be asking for my money back. It's not worth the hassle right now. Hopefully, when it works as advertised, they will pop me an email to sell me Version 4.

 

Why buy a new laptop? Why not just reformat your Boot Camp partition and reinstall Windows?

 

I would redo bootcamp if that is an option... or wait for Leopard to have all the bugs worked out if it. My Laptop has Bootcamp for my GPS which does not work in Parallels. I will go with BootCamp on my iMac as soon as I get around to upgrading to the new 1TB drive... my 750 nearly full so I can't.

As for your money back, one of todays threads has a link buried in it where they supposedly will do that.

Good luck.

 

I tend to have a whole bunch of Mac stuff open that I want to be able to see - and the sheer visual aspect of the interface inspires the heck out of me. A laptop for the VR stuff - forum posts, articles, and books - which happen throughout the day (so constant rebooting to get to Windows would be a real pain) would solve that.

Of course, having said that, maybe it's time to get some discipline and bottle it all up for a quick session once a day. And now that I think about it, Timothy Ferris (The 4-Hour Work Week) suggests handling email once a week. Heck, maybe productivity will improve.

Now that I think about it, maybe the fact that 3.0 does not work might be the best thing that ever happened to me. (No sarcasm intended!) The joys of working for yourself.

 

I dunno if I could go 4 MINUTES without my Push Mail.... LOL

 

What have you tried to attach the USB device?

The reason I ask is that I have an Irda USB device that does not have a MAC driver, so I had to play with it to figure out how to make it attach to the XP VM. It does not initially show up on the Parallels device list.

What worked for me is this.
0) Make sure USB Autoconnect is OFF. Shut down your VM and Parallels.
1) Unplug the USB device
2) Start Parallels and Boot up your VM.
3) For me, I think the correct driver was already built in to Windows XP SP2. If this is not the case for you, install your driver in XP, following the instructions that came with your USB device.
4) Plug in the USB device to an open USB port.
5) After 10 seconds or so, you should see the USB device in the Parallels Device Menu. Click on it to place a check mark next to the device. The device is now available to the VM.
6) The device will now be in your device listing for Parallels. You will not have to unplug every time. HOWEVER WHEN YOU REBOOT OSX, YOU WILL HAVE TO REPEAT STEPS 1,2,4, & 5.

I don't know if this will work for you but it is worth a try.

If it does not, see the thread on how to send USB problems to parallels and if possible a link to the manufacturer's web page, and they can fix it in a future release.

 

That's a very interesting work around. I will try it with my scanner and gps... soon as I get the OTHER problems fixed... LOL