BSOD on shut down of Win7 VM

B

BriBri

Bit poster
I'm getting a blue screen of death on shut down of my Windows 7 VM. It seems to have started since upgrading to Parallels 7. The info on the BSOD is varied, although it started out with DRIVER_IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, with the offending file being iastor.sys. Now it has gone on to other errors and files. I've done basic troubleshooting. Safe Mode causes the same BSOD, so it doesn't appear to be a driver issue.

I'm thinking it may be a Parallels 7 issue. By the way, it happens on both my Macs. It may also be my VM, but I wonder if anyone else is having a similar issue before I tackle reinstalling the VM?
 
Same problem here. Definitely happened after upgrading to Parallels 7. I get either the DRIVER_IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL with iastor.sys or the Bad Pool Caller error with fltmgr.sys on shutdown. I have ran the Intel Chipset Device Software and updated the drivers, but still get the BSOD... This started to happen when Windowns 7 rebooted after installing the Parallels tools.
 
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Yep, that's the same thing happening here on both my MacBook Pro and Mac Pro. Are you running Win7 x86 by any chance? I'm considering trying Win7 x64 as the documentation seems to favor the 64-bit edition for some reason.
 
Yes, running Win& x86. I think the issue is some conflicts with Parallels Tools and/or the drivers windows installs automatically after the Tools are installed.

When I first installed the Tools for Parallels 7, the VM rebooted before some drivers completed the install. Been getting the BSODs ever since. If I try to remove/reinstall the Tools, I crash every way to Sunday even in safe mode. Had to do a system restore.
 
Glad I'm not the only one! This error is killing me.. I run the VM for work all day and blue screens need to stop!
 
I bit the bullet and spent a day reinstalling Win 7 in a new VM. I did Win 7 x64 this time. Not sure if that made any difference, but everything is working again.
 
Possible solution

I seem to have a fix here. I researched the Bad Pool Caller BSOD and it's usually triggered by a driver problem. Several Windows drivers were updated after installing ParallelsTools, so there was a good chance that this was the root cause. The one possible explanation is that Parallels causes Win7 to update drivers that in turn conflict with Parallels. This seems to happen when Windows attempt to update the drivers (mostly generic) that Parallels initially installs. I can't tell what the actual root cause is. But some of the before/after devices were markedly different. In my case, it appears that the BSOD came from the Intel SATA controler and the associated iastore.sys driver.

Also, this is really frustrating considering that I was a happy user of Parallels 6. All my troubles started after installing v.7 x86 :(

Anyway, here's the workaround that seems to work (about 20 clean shutdowns so far):

1. Open the Reliability History and find the list of drivers that were updated after installing v.7
2. In the Device Installation Settings, select "No, let me choose what to do" AND "Never install driver software from Windows update
3. In the Device Manager, uninstall each one of the drivers identified in the Reliability History and check the delete driver option whenever available
4. Reboot several times until Windows stops adding new hardware

If you hit a snag, you may want to follow the foregoing steps while offline.

Hope this helps. I'll post back if I run into another issue. I'm also hoping that the Parallels team can fix this going forward.
 
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Only problem with that theory is that, in my case at least, I got the same BSOD shutting down in Safe Mode. Therefore, I assumed it wasn't a driver problem...unless, of course, it happens to be a driver loaded in Safe Mode.
 
I too had the problem in safe mode as the driver to the SATA controler was being loaded...

I still have to look at a number of other drivers that may not cause any conflict, but are plain wrong (e.g., getting a different HP model than the one I have).
 
I'm seeing this same problem in Parallels v7/Win 7 Pro 64-bit. It will BSOD with the Bad Pool Header cause when I have the VM sitting in the background while I'm doing something else on my Mac, though. I usually just suspend, not shut down. I've never had it BSOD while I'm actively working in the VM.
 
The latest update of Parallels (Build 7.0.14924, Revision 699487; October 3, 2011) appears to have fixed this problem.
 
Having exact same issue. Just upgrated to Parallels 9. (Didn't want to; was happily using 8 when my trial ran out.) Clearly, there are issues with Parallels Tools when upgrading versions. PLEASE RESOLVE ASAP!
 
Add my voice to this request. Win 7 64-bit giving a BSD with every shutdown after upgrade to P9. It looks like iaStor.sys is the problem in my BSDs.
 
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