Continuing Issues with Coherence and Parallels 3.0

Discussion in 'Installation and Configuration of Parallels Desktop' started by eon, Jan 21, 2008.

  1. eon

    eon Junior Member

    Messages:
    15
    I've posted several threads in the past about issues with Coherence I've had running Parallels builds later than 4128 on my Mac Mini. I got a call from someone at Parallels marketing last Friday asking about my satisfaction with the product, and was about to dump the entire history I've had trying to get Parallels to work on this machine, when he noted that a new build had been released, build 5584. This morning, I installed build 5584, installed the Parallels tools, and I still have the same Coherence and performance issues I've had with other builds.

    I'm running:
    Mac OS 10.4.11 on a Mac Mini with a 1.66GHz dual core CPU and 2GB RAM.
    Windows XP SP2 in a VM configured with 768MB RAM.

    When I run this environment under Build 4128, I have good response from the VM (better than the dedicated PC desktop I had been using, actually), when I switch between Mac apps and Windows apps in Coherence mode, the switch is almost instantaneous, and I am able to jump between the various apps I have open in both environments (basically, Outlook 2007 and an IE7 window on the PC side; Firefox, Adium, Thunderbird, Mac Mail, and the MS RDP client 2.0 for Mac on the Mac side).

    Any newer build that I install, and I see the following:
    Overall performance of Windows is slower - Switching between IE and Outlook can take several seconds for focus to completely move over.

    Switching between Mac apps and Windows apps brings Parallels to the foreground (as far as the Mac Dock and the Application Menu are concerned), but the most-recently-used Mac app is still visible on top of the Windows app I've selected. For example - I'm in Firexof on the Mac and I get a new e-mail. I click on the Outlook window. I see Parallels Desktop in the application menu bar, and the Outlook window shows "active" and all keyboard activity goes only to the Outlook window. However, I can only see the portion of the Outlook window that was not already covered by the Firefox window. If I Command-Tab between Firefox and Parellels, most of the time I can get Outlook to display as the foreground app. Sometimes it will not. If I have Firefox open in the foreground and click on Parallels from the Dock, most of the time Parallels and all the Windows windows will move to the foreground. Sometimes they will not.

    I have gone through all of the recommended workarounds that I've found in the forums. I've gone into the Coherence setup in Parallels and enabled the "Group all Coherence Windows" setting. I have completely uninstalled and reinstalled Parallels Tools with reboots inbetween. I've adjusted the amount of memory allocated to the video system. I've done a complete uninstall and reinstall of Parallels.

    I have tested this same VM under Leopard with later builds of Parallels, same behavior. I'm really wanting to switch over to Leopard, but I cannot get build 4128 to run under Leopard (separate issue).

    I would love for later builds of Parallels to give me the same functionality/performance I'm getting from build 4128. So far, none of the updated builds have been able to.

    I would really, really like for someone from Parallels to contact me directly about this. I obviously can't stay on build 4128 forever, but as it's the only build right now that lets me be productive in my job with Parallels, it's what I'm having to fall back on. I will gladly work with someone at Parallels to look over the machine config and see what might be causing the issue. It's worth my time to assist with troubleshooting this issue, because I have a number of clients out there with Parallels installed, and if they could potentially hit this issue, it's in my interest to make sure it's going to get fixed before I recommend that the upgrade to later builds.

    Please let me know what other info you need from me to continue troubleshooting.

    -Eriq
     

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