4.0 100% cpu usage in Host

E

ebatte

Member
LOTS of people are having serious issues with 4.0. I am one of them. I spent about an hour on the phone with tech support with a guy who did nothing but tell me to reboot and stuff like that. Useless. My problem was escalated at which point I was transferred, stayed on hold for another 20 minutes and was finally disconnected by the auto attendant because too many people were calling in. I hope Parallels have learned their lesson with this release.

Now that my rant is out of the way let me offer some insight into my problem which I have not seen mentioned on these forums:

I'm running Mac OS 10.5.5 on a MacBook Pro 17", 2.6 ghz Intel Core Duo with 4 GB RAM (about 5 months old). After installing 4.0 and migrating my XP VM I noticed 100% cpu usage by the prl_vm_app process in the Mac OS Activity Monitor. The host was almost unusable. I was unable to resolve this so I created a new VM, reinstalled XP, all service packs and the few applications I need in XP. Same problem...100% cpu usage, but this time it was not the same process it was the Parallels Desktop process.

Tweaking the VM settings had no effect. I disabled nearly everything in the configuration with no effect whatsoever.

After more investigation I have noticed that the cpu usage in the host increases the moment the guest window is opened in Parallels. This is REGARDLESS of whether the guest is running, suspended, or off. It also makes no difference what OS the guest is. I have also tried with several VMs I downloaded from Parallels. Same thing: open the guest window and cpu usage skyrockets, and stays there even when the VM is not yet even started.

Furthermore, I noted that the cpu usage in the guest is nil while the host is going crazy. This problem therefore seems to be simply with something in Parallels itself, as the guest OS or state makes no difference.

I hope this info helps someone at Parallels diagnose this problem. Maybe others of you can check to see if you have the same cpu usage in Activity Monitor, too.

Eric
 
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otoc said:
Report#19526
See Attached.

Color Key for attachment:
Green---VM Boot
Blue-----Welcome Screen
Teal-----XP Boot

Hardware:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP31.0070.B07
SMC Version: 1.16f8

PD4 Settings:
1 CPU
Chipset "0"
Memory: Default 512MB/Pref:Automatic
WinXP Virtual: Custom Size 2046-4092

Observations:
If VM needs then Host will supply--the CPU activity graphic is from the Host. The CPU activity source is described here.

VM Boot is quick, but Welcome Page shows additional activity for some time. In PD3 there was a notice that Tools was loading and don't touch. No such notice in PD4. I assume and wait for activity to subside before selecting the User in the Welcome Screen to open the Windows Desktop. Windows startup apps load better.

When CPU was set for 2, both CPUs were pegged @100% and Host/VM were non-responsive for mouse or screen changes.

Sorry, no interest in another install to try the User experiment.

I understand this issue may be different from the OP but the observations and report will hopefully be helpful.
Click to expand...

Near welcome screen or Parallels Tools services are starting, in Parallels Desktop version 4 , we have notification , you probably clicked do nto show it again, but you can restore behavior in Parallels Desktop - Preferences - General - Hidden messages
 
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Thanks, but honestly I really can't take the time to go through all that. I have gotten PD4 to be stable enough to use without reverting and don't want to mess this up. It took a few hours. Is there any thoughts on why the CPU has a yellow warning and "no better driver" can be found after update?
 
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John@Parallels said:
Near welcome screen or Parallels Tools services are starting, in Parallels Desktop version 4 , we have notification , you probably clicked do nto show it again, but you can restore behavior in Parallels Desktop - Preferences - General - Hidden messages
Click to expand...

Thanks John, I had done that.

The reason being was that in PD3 an overlay message was present during the XP Pro boot process saying that Tools was loading and that no activity should occur until the process was over. After a while that message on the Welcome screen would disappear and I would then log in to the user and allow XP to finish the boot process for that user.

In PD4 that message that can be hidden only states "it may take up to 5 minutes". It's pretty useless.

Which is why I boot PD4 in window mode and either watch the drive activity or bring up a CPU logger in OSX to see when the activity subsides, which to me signifies PD4 Tools has loaded and it is safe to log in.

There is a difference in the manner in which PD3 & PD4 communicate with the enduser.

I prefer the PD3 method (assuming it was accurate in ending the message when tools was loaded). I find less issues (conflicts with XP start up apps) with running the XP BootCamp VM when I wait for Tools to load before I log in.

To me this is a downgrade in a feature set.
 
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This issue seems to have gotten off-track. I am experiencing this issue as well, so let me summarize what I'm seeing:

1. CPU jumps to 100% as soon as the Guest OS window is opened. NOTE: THE GUEST OS IS NOT EVEN STARTED
2. This issue is not limited to any particular Guest OS, it happens for ANY VM (Windows, Linux, whatever). This is further reinforced by point 1.

Because of these two points, any solution which involves the doing something to the Guest OS is nonsense. I was able to solve the problem by uninstalling Parallels and re-installing, but the problem recurred about a week later (after a reboot of my machine).

Please forward this on to engineers immediately. This is a HUGE bug and basically makes the software unusable. I would downgrade back to Parallels 3, but I can't back-convert my VMs.
 
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It hasn't really gotten off track. What you describe is exactly the same as what I have experienced. The only solution I am aware of is to install Parallels 4 as a different user with admin privileges. I have now had to do this 4-5 times as the solution doesn't seem to stick indefinitely. Regardless, it still seems to work for some time.
 
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That doesn't help. That directory was empty. Can this problem be reproduced by your engineers. Just to be clear, literally all I have to do is start Parallels and then open up the Guest OS window WITHOUT STARTING ANYTHING. This has to be obviously broken code.
 
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Having same problem - 100% CPU usage at startup

I have had the same problem. After installing Parallels 4, the background program (forgot the name, and it's not currently installed) takes 100% of the CPU. I think if it is set to use only 1 CPU then only pegs at 100%. This can be stopped by force-quitting the background application (go to Activity Monitor and click on CPU; it will be on top).

So, I've tried to uninstall Parallels 4 and re-install Parallels 3. As VMs have been modified, I'm not sure how to make it work with Boot Camp again. However, another issue is that upgrading beyond v3 build 4560 is impossible. I get the message "Please uninstall Parallels Server". I found out that some of the Parallels 4 files can make the installer think that Parallels Server is installed. However, I've used the Parallels 4 uninstaller, and it says that it's not installed. I've also removed files using Terminal according to the following page: http://kb.parallels.com/en/5714

However, both the Parallels Server and Parallels 4 uninstallers report that neither is installed, but when I try to upgrade using Parallels 3 (e.g., builds 5638 or 5626), the installer won't let me, and reports "Please uninstall Parallels Server".

At this point, I have nothing. HELP!!!!
 
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CPU Usage 100%

I have this problem too, but I dont really want to uninstall and re-install parallels if I dont understand why I am doing it. When I have my VM running (I use 1 CPU and 1024 MB Ram) it uses 100% CPU even if I have nothing happening on my VM. My Macbook gets ridiculously hot and the battery life doesnt last very long.

This is very annoying, especially after forking out money for an UPGRADE.

Has anyone solved this yet???????
 
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I have tried installing parallels as a different user and I still have a problem.

When I click to see all processes on the guest OS it shows me svchost and wmiprvse processess are using all the cpu. does anyone know why that might be?
 
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So I found a fix for my issue. In the virtual macine configuration under shared folders, I stopped sharing the windows disks with Mac Osx and my issue was resolved. It may have been con-incidence, I can't be sure.
 
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Search the forums for 'Delphi freeze' and you'll find my fix to restart the Parallels Tools. This solved the Delphi freeze issue, but seems to help my macbook regarding the 100% cpu issue as well...
 
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Processor driver fix

I had the 100% CPU loading issue today after upgrading from 3.0 to 4.0.3846. Found the following article http://kb.parallels.com/en/5810 and indeed the processor driver had the dreaded yellow exclamation point. Tried to update the driver automatically as explained in the article but that didn't work. Decided to try doing it manually. Upon selecting the processor driver type (the 3rd or 4th step in the manual update process), it gave me two selections "Intel Processor" and "Processor". Selecting the "Intel Processor" driver resulted in the same 100% CPU utilization (even though I'm running Intel Core 2 Dual processors). Tried the generic "Processor" driver and that fixed it. Bottom line - if you have the 100% CPU loading issue and updating your driver using the auto selection feature doesn't work, try it manually.
 
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