Build 1970: High CPU usage and instablility

J

jrobcet

Junior Member
Build 1970: High CPU usage and instability

After upgrading to build 1970 this morning I immediately began to have problems. The first problem I noticed was the fan in my MacBook spun up to 6200 RPM. Activity monitor showed Parallels using between 95-150% of CPU. This went on for about a half hour until Parallels suddenly shut down without warning.

I started Parallels again, booted XP, and had the same exact problems I've described above. After a few tries I decided to revert back to 1940 ( I needed to get some work done), and have not had any trouble since.

When I have some free time, I will upgrade to 1970 again and see if I have the same problems.

But in the meantime, I thought I would see if anyone else was seeing similar problems, or if this is just an isolated problem with my machine.

MacBook 2.0Ghz
2GB RAM
60GB hard drive
OS X 10.4.8
Running XP Pro SP2 in Parallels
 
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Did you update the Parallels Tools too, or just the application? (not sure if it's necessary, but it's something I always do and haven't run into a lot of the problems that others have in past updates, as yet)
 
The guest cpu load was hovering close to 0% at idle. Which, along with the screaming fan, led me to take a look at the activity monitor in os x. Which of course is when I noticed Parallels using more than its share of cpu.

I have some extra time this morning. I will upgrade to 1970 again and report my results.
 
Well, I'm really not sure what to say. I've upgraded to build 1970 again and have not had any of the problems I experienced yesterday. I guess all I can do at this point is keep an eye out and hope the problems don't return :confused:
 
Might be worth changing your Cache Policy to Mac OS X - you will find it in Edit Config, Options, VM Flags.
 
I also noticed CPU usage rocketing and the fans coming on much more frequently around the time I installed 1970. However, it doesn't appear to be directly related to Parallels. The same thing is happening without Parallels running. The MBP is also running slower than it was and can't run as many programs simultaneously as it used to without me spending rather longer than I'd rather watching spinning beachballs. It also refuses to go to sleep on occasion. Some people have pointed at the last firmware upgrade, but some of these problems were starting to make themselves felt before that too.

Can't make up my mind whether it's the cumulative effect of successive program updates progressively consuming more resources (especially affecting programs running through Rosetta) or whether I've got something like a logic board problem here. I'm not enough of a tech to really be able to tell.
 
i had the some problems too, but after a couple of restarts the system turned out to be stable. As for the CPU usage I have noticed that the the svhost thread is causing this and by killing it you will have a stable CPU usage. Try it and let me know if i helps.
 
Just ALWAYS reboot after upgrading Parallels

I had a lot of similar problems with various Parallels versions until I started to follow one strict rule - always reboot Mac OS X after installing or upgrading Parallels. I wonder why Parallels does not enforce this; I guess it would reduce "issues" with new versions.

For me, since I really follow that rule (beta 6), all Parallels updates were smooth.
 
I tested this after rebooting, but before letting Microsoft install IE7. I cloned my base XP sp2 and ran one with IE6 and one with IE7. Neither browser was started. I found that once started and all applications loaded (virus scanner etc.) Parallels was using around 15-16%, when I did the same on the clone with IE7 I found it using 18-22%. So if you update to IE7 maybe thats using a few more cycles?
 
wael said:
i had the some problems too, but after a couple of restarts the system turned out to be stable. As for the CPU usage I have noticed that the the svhost thread is causing this and by killing it you will have a stable CPU usage. Try it and let me know if i helps.
Click to expand...

Can I have that in plain English for a non-tech user please? What's the svhost thread?
 
wendyh said:
Can I have that in plain English for a non-tech user please? What's the svhost thread?
Click to expand...

A quick way to kill Windows. If you use task manager to kill the running svhost processes eventually yo will kill windows.
 
JohnnyGTO said:
A quick way to kill Windows. If you use task manager to kill the running svhost processes eventually yo will kill windows.
Click to expand...

So what would be the advantage in doing that then? Seems like it kind of defeats the object of the VM. Not that Windoze isn't easy enough to kill as it is ...
 
It's now toward the end of my work day, and I've had none of the previous problems. I'm confused as to why the problems occured but happy that they have not resurfaced.

And just to clarify - the guest OS did not seem to be the cause for the high CPU load. The CPU load (as reported in XP's task manager) was hovering right at the 0% mark the entire time it was idle. However, Activity Monitor in OS X showed Parallels responsible for 95-150% of CPU load.
 
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