Parallels crashed Mac during Teams call with webcam

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by DavidR56, Oct 1, 2020.

  1. DavidR56

    DavidR56 Junior Member

    Messages:
    10
    Every time I have a Teams call in Windows 10, using my Parallels 16 VM using the FaceTime camera from my iMac, the call is OK for a few minutes, then freezes a couple of times for 10 seconds a time, then after a few minutes the VM crashes completely making it unusable for a few minutes, and then the iMac restarts. I then have to reset the VM to get it to restart as the resume fails once it has re-booted. This is starting to make Parallels un-usable for me, as I spend most of my day on Teams and in Teams calls now. I have MacOS 10.15.6, and Parallels Version 16.0.1 (48919). I have tried disabling TRIM, as others have mentioned for similar issues. and it makes no difference.
     
  2. TheodK

    TheodK Member

    Messages:
    40
    Hello, DavidR56, this is a known problem with Teams in version 15 and 16 which troubles users for months now. Work around: I installed the Teams app in OSX despite the possible security and privacy issues which I decided to take for granted. No more crashes. The same counts for the Microsoft Office 365 desktop client problems which are less severe. If you really need to use Windows + Office in a Parallels VM, I noticed that it helps a lot to select only one processor at the CPU & Memory settings. This was a tip by a user in another thread in this forum (many thanks). He noticed: the more processors selected, the more problems he got. My MacBook Pro is a lot more silent now, doesn't have the constant 100% CPU peaks anymore and didn't crash yet (fingers crossed). Good luck!
     
    DavidR56 likes this.
  3. DavidR56

    DavidR56 Junior Member

    Messages:
    10
    Thanks for the insight - I could try taking it down to a single CPU. Yes agree the Teams app on OSX works without problem, but all my work stuff is in Windows and I need to share my desktop etc. so not workable to do it from OSX. I'm thinking maybe to try an external web cam rather than using the iMac FaceTime camera. You'd think Parallels would be identifying this problem and rolling out a fix - it's been going on for months. Time to go back to a native windows machine I think.
     
  4. TheodK

    TheodK Member

    Messages:
    40
    Installed the most recent Parallels update 15.1.5 (2020-10-02). It looks like most of the problems have been dealt with, except for the Microsoft Teams stops and crashes. Big disappointment!
     
  5. LeeH8

    LeeH8 Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    I purchased a 16" MBP recently after not having a Mac since around 2016, the idea was to keep anything work related inside of a Windows 10 VM. It's really disappointing this issue is still happening even inside Parallels 16, MS Teams would cause the entire system to hang when on a conference call using the Webcam and/or screen sharing - reducing to a single core just isn't an option for me.

    In the end I just resorted to a second account in native MacOS for work purposes. Obviously this runs way faster, but to be honest, so it should. If I need to screen share anything from Windows I will just share my entire (Mac) display on the call and just flip to the full screen Win VM.

    It's disappointing because it's making me wonder why I even purchased Parallels in the first place, when something as basic as using Microsoft Teams isn't possible it makes me wonder why I didn't just use Virtualbox which would have cost £0.00.
     
    DavidR56 likes this.
  6. DavidR56

    DavidR56 Junior Member

    Messages:
    10
    I totally agree, this is exactly the reason I bought Parallels was to have all the work stuff separate in a Windows VM, but with Teams not working, that's so fundamental to what I do, and having to split applications and access to things across the two with screensharing just isn't an option for me. I hadn't heard of Virtualbox before - I'll check that out, thanks.
     
  7. DavidR56

    DavidR56 Junior Member

    Messages:
    10
    Just to report back, Virtualbox is great, and Teams calls work fine using the FaceTime camera, so not looking like I'll be renewing my Parallels subscription given the total lack of response from Parallels support on here, or on Twitter where I reported the same problem.
     
  8. DavidR56

    DavidR56 Junior Member

    Messages:
    10
    I had a breakthrough with this that I found a solution on a different forum on paralells.
    https://forum.parallels.com/threads...ows-crashes-the-mac.348218/page-4#post-873216
    In this post tech support suggested to add this Boot flag : video.metal=0 (VM Configuration -> Hardware-> Boot order -> Advance settings).
    This solved my problem.
    Teams calls with Video Camera are working fine now. So maybe I will renew the subscription.
     
  9. TheodK

    TheodK Member

    Messages:
    40
    Hello DavidR56,
    Glad it solved your problem. I know about this solution. I tried it and it didn't work for me. The latest Parallels Desktop update solved a lot except for the FaceTime camera problem with Teams and Skype for Business. I simply solved this by installing both apps (and also Zoom) in the native OSX environment. I don't need the connection with Outlook, SharePoint, etc. so this works for me. But I know there are still people out there who need this to be solved properly. And let's be honest the "video.metal=0" solution is just a stop-gap, isn' it?
     

Share This Page