A second XP VM keeps restarting in my back

F

fpillet

Junior Member
I'm seeing a really weird issue. I have several Windows XP SP2 VMs setup. Since I installed build 3170, the "main" VM I work with most of the time keeps restarting in the background whenever I run another Windows XP VM and something triggers it to start. For example, when I log in to another XP VM, when I touch the Automatic Updates panel, etc.

I've been using Parallels since the pre-1.0 betas, and it's the first time I'm seeing something like that. Is there anything to do to solve this ? I'm not exactly sure why Parallels thinks it needs to start this "other" XP VM, this is very strange.
 
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ksenks said:
I need some information: RAM on your Mac, reserved memory limit in Parallels, memory on your VMs.
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Mac is a MBP CoreDuo 2.0Ghz with 2Gb RAM, reserved memory limit in //s is set to "automatic", my Windows XP VMs all have around 768Mb RAM allocated. I filed a bug report this morning, detailed config should be included.
 
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ksenks said:
Please try to set reserved memory limit in mode manually on maximum.
And allocate 512Mb to every VM Windows XP.
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This didn't work. I configured both my VMs with 512 MB and the memory limit to max (1628 MB) to no avail. I start my secondary Windows XP VM, then if I open XP's Security Center, Parallels starts my other VM as soon as I click the "Automatic Updates" item in the Securiy Center.

Now what's even more weird: running the two VMs in OS window, when I click Start Menu -> Turn Off Computer in the first VM I started, Parallels brings the other VM (the one that automatically started) window to front! There's definitely some black magic going on there. I suspect an issue with Parallels Tools :confused:

Now following jrv's advice seemed to work. I put each VM in a separate subfolder of my VMs folder and this seemed to cure the problem. This is good, because I was not comfortable working with only 512Mb in at least one of the VMs. Visual Studio is a memory hog.

Thanks for the help! I still believe you have a bug lurking there ;-)
 
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itsdapead said:
Try turning off "show applications in dock" in the Parallels preferences.

See this thread: http://forums.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=8401 - basically, application launch events from the guest OS are getting "reflected" back by the host - most windows apps ignore these reflections, a few don't. Now, if the app (say, Automatic Updates) were associated with a different VM that could give rise to your effect...
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Ouch! This sounds like it's what the problem was. I found a Windows Applications folder in my VMs folder with many duplicates, supposedly coming from the various VMs I'm using. Good catch, and thank for the hint.
 
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fpillet said:
Ouch! This sounds like it's what the problem was. I found a Windows Applications folder in my VMs folder with many duplicates, supposedly coming from the various VMs I'm using. Good catch, and thank for the hint.
Click to expand...
Or, as I said above, don't store the VMs all in one subdirectory. If each VM is in a different subdirectory the each has its own Windows Applications.
 
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