A cautionary tale...

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Parallels User

I was sitting here last evening, fat dumb and happy, on my Macbook Pro completing some work and needed to run an app in Windows. (I'm running the latest Parallels with Windows 10) After bringing up Parallels and Windows 10 starting up, of course, I had updates.. the updates downloaded and then started the install process. A request to restart popped up so I restarted Windows 10 as requested. Up it came no big deal.

Then more updates... then the fans started running up ending at full speed, then I felt the heat from the Macbook on my lap. It got hotter and hotter fans now running flat out. I quickly tried to shut down Parallels but nope it kept running. Before I could get up to the Apple logo to select "Force Quit"... poof.. my Mac died. It was so hot it shut itself down. I was not aware it had the ability to do this but obviously it does. It was so hot.. and fans still running but slowly now I stuck it in our freezer to cool it more quickly.

My Macbook came back to life after a few minutes in the freezer and is now running fine again but it scared the hell out of me; not wanting to spend a bunch of money on a repair or a bundle on a new Macbook.

I brought up Parallels again and let Windows 10 finish its updates IN THE FREEZER. All went fine.

This brings to mind now why those building PCs add so much cooling. Water coolers, multiple fans etc and I wonder if Windows 10 is now so poorly written and the IO so extreme a mere Macbook can barely handle it any more.

MacOS doesn't do this... Linux does do this... Solaris doesn't do this only Windows. WTH..!!!
 
The saga continues.... my Macbook Pro is in the repair shop with a burnt motherboard. Apple can't provide parts so I have to buy a new machine now.

My question then is: how do I get a new license for Parallels so I can use it on my new Macbook?
 
MichaelF7 said:
My question then is: how do I get a new license for Parallels so I can use it on my new Macbook?
Click to expand...
There's no need to get another license. We see in the records that you already have a license for Parallels Desktop 13. Once you get the new Mac, download the setup file for Parallels Desktop 13 and run the same to install the software (more details here). Then, apply your Parallels license to this copy.
 
Update: My Macbook Pro is dead. Burnt motherboard due to excess heat. Apple no longer supports my 2011 machine so no parts. I must now purchase a new Macbook, but the one thing I will no longer require is Parallels. I also bought a cheap PC and run what I need from Windows on that.

People, including me have long complained about the running fans and the heat while using Parallels but little has been done to solve it. For me lesson learned. NO MORE PARALLELS OR WINDOWS ON ANY MAC I OWN. I'm done.......
 
What you're experiencing, experienced, is probably the gulf between configuring for a laptop and for a pc. Any virtualisation is going to look like a full fledged computer to most guests. Sounds like Windows 10 was set up to run full tilt based on the hardware that it thought it had to work with.

For anyone else using Windows this way on a laptop my suggestion is to set all the power settings in windows control panel (not the settings menu) to tame the beast. I had 10 running in a system in a super tower (cosmos II) with enough cooling that if every fan ran full tilt it could blow the circuit (hence being on one hell of a UPS). And some things like video encoding and SQL parsing could get it warm to the touch.

Windows in a vm/hv situation will always require some tuning . Especially on a laptop.
 
lostinlodos. said:
What you're experiencing, experienced, is probably the gulf between configuring for a laptop and for a pc. Any virtualisation is going to look like a full fledged computer to most guests. Sounds like Windows 10 was set up to run full tilt based on the hardware that it thought it had to work with.

For anyone else using Windows this way on a laptop my suggestion is to set all the power settings in windows control panel (not the settings menu) to tame the beast. I had 10 running in a system in a super tower (cosmos II) with enough cooling that if every fan ran full tilt it could blow the circuit (hence being on one hell of a UPS). And some things like video encoding and SQL parsing could get it warm to the touch.

Windows in a vm/hv situation will always require some tuning . Especially on a laptop.
Click to expand...


Parallels is also a problem. It has run up the fans overheating as far back as Parallels 8 and it's never been fixed. I have found Windows 10 works fine in Oracle Virtualbox and it's free. Why pay for Parallels that kills your machine when Virtualbox being free does a better job?? It doesn't run hot. It doesn't run up the fans and it's easier to set up. I'm done with Parallels and for the most part Windows. I only have two apps I use it for and one is a tax program I use only once a year. I have a new MacBook Pro (old one burned out the motherboard) and it's quite happy without Parallels.
 
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