Agonizingly slow startups.

Are you experiencing this same problem?

  • Yes!!! It's killing my productivity!

    Votes: 8 72.7%

  • I don't know what you're talking about.

    Votes: 3 27.3%
  • Total voters
    11
  • Poll closed .
slow start up here too

I've been reading this thread with hope of resolution. I'm experiencing the very same slow Parallels start up time. There was never a problem with build 5608 UNTIL I updated to Vista. Now, when I start parallels, my machine goes unusable for about 5 minutes while my CPUs alternate at 100%. The main screen eventually comes up and I can launch Vista with no problems. It's just the initial start up THAT IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!!

I've tried uninstalling, reinstalling ...etc ... all the same things the previous poster has tried to no avail. Please help!!

Mac Pro ... OS 10.5.4 ... 8 megs ram ...
 
mattknutson said:
I've been reading this thread with hope of resolution. I'm experiencing the very same slow Parallels start up time. There was never a problem with build 5608 UNTIL I updated to Vista. Now, when I start parallels, my machine goes unusable for about 5 minutes while my CPUs alternate at 100%. The main screen eventually comes up and I can launch Vista with no problems. It's just the initial start up THAT IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!!

I've tried uninstalling, reinstalling ...etc ... all the same things the previous poster has tried to no avail. Please help!!

Mac Pro ... OS 10.5.4 ... 8 megs ram ...
Click to expand...

Vista is a red herring. It has never been anywhere near my computer. This has nothing to do with the guest OS because it happens before you even get to pick which VM to run.
 
John@Parallels said:
Please reply in support ticket
Click to expand...

I have. Judging from the kinds of questions they're asking me they haven't got a clue what the problem is. They're not looking in the right place.

My ability to help them with this is pretty limited now that I'm not using Parallels anymore, not that I ever really would have found it practical to use my system as a test mule for Parallels while I'm also using it to make a living.

As far as I'm concerned, I've already fixed this problem. The fix is: uninstall Parallels Desktop, archive VMs, Install VMWare Fusion, build new VMs. The time it takes to do this is about the same as recovering from one of these startup disasters.

My advice to you would be to take people who are reporting this a lot more seriously a lot sooner and start working with them before they throw in the towel and switch to VMWare or find another solution. You've missed the boat with me, but Maybe Matt Knutson can help you.

Matt, if you're reading this and you want to help them, send them copies of your windowserver.log files every time one of these incidents occurs. Insert comments indicating the time Parallels was launched and the time it finally displayed the initial screen. As far as I have been able to determine, this log file is the only one that shows any effects from this issue, but unfortunately, it only shows that something is wrong; it doesn't show exactly what it is or what is causing it. Since you've probably had to trash your preference files, I suggest you leave all your preferences in their default conditions. This will avoid any speculation about how your configurations might be causing problems, and it will make it easier to determine if preference corruption is part of the picture because any changes to the preference file were not as a result of user input.
 
same problem - slow startup of parallels

Also have same problem: slow startup of parallels (not necessarily windows - that gets going just fine) ... icon in dock bounces for a while (minutes) and may initiate (or not).

I noticed this change in behavior when i went from a quad core to 8 core mac pro - i.e. no problems of this kind when running the quad core mac pro.
 
iammattu said:
Also have same problem: slow startup of parallels (not necessarily windows - that gets going just fine) ... icon in dock bounces for a while (minutes) and may initiate (or not).

I noticed this change in behavior when i went from a quad core to 8 core mac pro - i.e. no problems of this kind when running the quad core mac pro.
Click to expand...


Could you please clarify following:
1. What do you consider slow startup - in sec?
2. What kind if VM you are using Boot Camp, or on virtual hdd?
3. Is there antivirus on Mac OS?
4. Is VM on the same hard disk as Mac OS, or on another?
5. What software is running on Mac OS , when you start VM?
6. is Time Machine running at that time?
 
Agonizingly slow startups - me too

I too have had this experience many times on my MacPro 3 GHz quad 4 Gb RAM (not short of power I'd say).
Today I launched Parallels, my machine became unusable, I went away for a few minutes in the hope it would settle down and returned to static screen saver which did not respond to mouse clicks or keyboard.
I used ssh to run top from another machine and discovered WindowServer was using 99% of the CPU.

So I thought I'd see if this is a known problem and if there is a fix. The answer seems to be no.

It is real shame because once Parallels is running it works pretty well but I'm not sure I can wait that long.

Come on Parallels this is a bug that needs fixing.
 
Now I've got to be fair. I had killed WindowServer remotely and logged back in to my machine. Then when I clicked the Dock icon, Parallels was up and running in an instant - unbelievable.

So that makes it an intermittent problem but still very serious.
 
Answers to questions

Could you please clarify following:
1. What do you consider slow startup - in sec?

I have seen >600 seconds or ten minutes.

2. What kind if VM you are using Boot Camp, or on virtual hdd?

Not using Boot Camp. Using Virtual HDD

3. Is there antivirus on Mac OS?
Yes, Sophos. Never catches anything.

4. Is VM on the same hard disk as Mac OS, or on another?
Yes, same HD. I could easily move the Windows image if you are sure it will help.

5. What software is running on Mac OS , when you start VM?

Lots! Mail, Safari, Word, Excel, Entourage, Preview, Timbuktu, iTunes, iChat, NetNewsWire, Activity Monitor with the possibility of many more.

6. is Time Machine running at that time?

Time Machine is enabled and so could be backing up at any time. Again I could turn it off if you are sure it will help.
 
1. What do you consider slow startup - in sec?

VMWare Fusion only takes a couple of seconds, so anything more than that would be slow in comparison, but that's not the real problem. The real problem is that it frequently doesn't start at all and causes total paralysis of the user interface that requires a forced restart to recover from, and this results in loss of productive time and loss of data if there are any unsaved changes in any documents in any open applications.

2. What kind if VM you are using Boot Camp, or on virtual hdd?

I have never run bootcamp on this machine. I have two VMs that were imported from Virtual PC using Parallels' import utility. But, as I have said repeatedly before. the VM has nothing to do with this issue because the disaster occurs before any VMs are loaded.

3. Is there antivirus on Mac OS?

No. I've never had a virus, unless you count Parallels, which is really a trojan.

4. Is VM on the same hard disk as Mac OS, or on another?

Same.

5. What software is running on Mac OS , when you start VM?

See my previous answer to this question. But please, remember that this issue is not about starting VMs!!!! The paralysis occurs when Parallels Desktop is launched, before the VM to run is even selected. This has nothing to do with VMs!!!!

6. is Time Machine running at that time?

No. I and other users experienced this problem while running Tiger, so Time Machine is not involved.
 
Last edited:
Upton O'Good
Previous user case was clear , I hope, you can see, in your case it is very hard to investigate without logs, nevertheless I think, the problem is on Mac OS side.
My suggestion is:
Install Tiger on external USB drive and install Parallels with it, and check is it still slow to start?
 
I just wanted to point out that I have this same problem you are describing. It's been happening for months.

I double-click on the *.pvs file to launch the Parallels image (Windows XP Home) and the Parallels icon starts jumping on the dock and the entire Mac slows to an absolute crawl, reacting to mouse clicks only every few seconds. I don't mean an annoying crawl, I mean the Mac becomes totally unusable.

I have noticed that when this is happening, when I look at the Activity Monitor, the WindowServer task is using 99.9% of the CPU. I rightclick on the Parallels icon on the dock, after a few seconds the pop-up menu appears, I choose Quit, and if I'm lucky within a minute I'll see the "Kill the task are you sure?" dialog box (or whatever it says). I say 'yes' to kill Parallels, then everything goes back to normal.

I've noticed that this doesn't *always* happen -- but it happens at least half, maybe three quarters or the time. Also, I find I have better luck getting Parallels to launch correctly if I double-click the *.pvs file and then do *nothing* else. No mouse movement, no clicking on other Finder or Safari windows. Just double-click and then hands-off the Mac, I have a better chance of Parallels starting.

I hope this helps. I don't plan on putting in a ticket or anything about this, but I hope someone will post a solution here.
 
is VNC or Screen Sharing is enabled?

No VNC. No Screen Sharing. Just FYI, no anti-virus software on the Mac or on the Windows image. It's Apple's latest Mac OS X 10.5.5, Windows XP Home, and Parallels Desktop for Mac Build 3224 (December 19, 2007).

Thanks.
 
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