Parallels devs,
I have been using your desktop product for almost a year now using OS X Mountain Lion. It has been literally flawless (as long as I don't overlap memory between more than one guest OS). I have never had any resource issues to date, until now. The following are my specs:
Macbook Pro 2013 Retina 15" (Purchased from Apple website in January of 2013)
CPU: 2.6 GHz Quad Core i7
Mem: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Parallels: Version 9 (Previously version 8 before my full reinstall of OS X Mountain Lion)
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Software:
Encrypted single partition
Fresh install of Mountain Lion
Fresh install of Parallels 9
Upgraded to Mavericks
Guest OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
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What I am experiencing:
1. With the laptop plugged in and charging, it takes over twice as long to charge.
2. I would NEVER hear my fans before on my laptop. I was starting to wonder if the laptop even had any fans. Now, I can no longer run Parallels without the laptop's fans kicking in and staying on the entire time, loudly I might add. Those fans never stop from the time I start Parallels until I exit.
3. While running Parallels 9 on Mavericks, my laptop is very hot to the touch. This is also a new experience. When I exit Parallels, the heat as well as the fans cooling that heat, go away.
4. My resource monitor within Windows 7 reads normal low usage. My activity monitor however shows the laptop's CPU pegged between 200(MINIMUM) and 400 percent!!
I've attached a before and after image to illustrate exactly what this is reading as in OS X. Keep in mind that when I took the 'after' screenshot, I had not started using Windows 7 yet. I had merely restored it from being suspended.
Before:
After:
This is definitive, in that it is most certainly the Parallels product causing this. I don't experience any of the above when not in my Windows 7 guest OS. I use this product to run Windows, where I do a lot of my corporate programming (day job), so this is a show-stopper. Please advise.
Lastly, I would like to add that the Parallels desktop product has been the most amazing piece of software I've used to date in the virtualization arena, and I am a senior software developer who knows good software at the highest possible standard. I've used most other virtualization products, and this one is by far, hands down, the most powerful and sound virtualization product of its kind. I hope you fix this for OS X Mavericks quickly.
Objectively,
Jason
UPDATE:
I reinstalled Parallels tools. Interestingly enough, Parallels Desktop 9 seems to be back to its unapproachable amazingness again. I am having no issues whatsoever running Windows 7, just like when running under Mountain Lion pre-upgrade. I didn't think to do this originally because once I upgraded, there was an update that was pushed that automatically had me update Parallels Tools. In any case, doing it manually after that initial reinstall of the tools has worked it seems. Hope this proves helpful to another. Ciao!
Last edited: Oct 31, 2013