Cautious Success: Upgrading from to PDT V4

Okay, so I decided to upgrade from my relatively stable ver 3 to 4 a few weeks ago and gave up after several fruitless attempts to get it installed properly. The two major issues I was having were - 1. My VM seemed to hit 100% as soon as I thought about clicking the Icon in my dock. 2. I kept on getting an error everytime I tried to install Parallel Tools.

So I deligently read through the threads here and with limited successes...gave up. That was until today.

After downloading and testing the "Other" VM solution, I decided to return to Parallels for one last try. I called customer service (and oh by the way, I think it was great that someone talked to me without asking me to pay for it, given how PO'd I have been. I must say, I was really...really pleasantly surprise by the response and attentiveness...

Anyway, let me get to the point, as someone might find my methods helpful, including Tech Support (wink!...wink!)

First, I removed the upgraded VM and used a new install. Afterwards my machine appeared to have gotten over the 100% CPU issues...it fell to between 15-29% (my fingers are crossed...I will have to watch this a bit longer before I declare victory).

Second, I went to re-install Tools, but I kept getting an error at the installation (Error 1714....had to do with the Windows Installer). It appeared I had a corrupt Tools install that was preventing the re-installation. I had to download Windows Installer Cleanup Utility and remove the corrupt file. By the way I did try to remove it via "Add/Remove Programs, but that would not work, I had to use the Clean up utility.

After removing the corrupt file, I attempted to install Tools again, this time it was asking me for two files - i8042.sys and mouclass.sys (both I found out later had to do with my mouse). It was looking for these file at the following location, which I gathered was created by the Parallel Tool Installation process:

C:\Windows\System32\DRVSTORE\prl_mouf_6DD810FD5032488EEB7020323ED238A4529521DB\I386 folder

Hint Tech Support - this needs to be fixed!

It took me couple iteration along with phone support to get through this, in fact the Rep even suggested reinstalling SP3 for my XP Home Edition. I basically did a search under the System32 directory, found them in a couple other folders, copy and drop them into the folder above.

That was it...the installation went well beyond that point and now I am writing about it here a few minutes later.

Hopefully this is clear enough and helps anyone who finds themself in a similar situation. I didn't mean to go on this long, but after a frustrating few weeks, I just did n't want to get through it and not try to give a hand. I am still treading cautiously, so I will update if I run into any other issue. Good luck!

Regards
Rupert