Excessive CPU Fan Usage

L

LarryMcJ

Member
Just bought and installed Parallels Desktop (4560) on an iMac 24 and new MacBook (fully loaded). Whenever Vista is open and just sitting there, CPU usage is high, the fans run constantly on both machines, and 2GB of resources are maxed out. Is this normal?

LarryMcJ
 
I was wondering about the same thing. The moment i start up my bootcamp partition in parallels, my macbook fans rotate at 6100rpm and its really loud. It is really the reason i use parallels so little, because the fan noise is unbearable for a long time.
 
Unfortunately, i am running the latest version. Are you sure that this is also the case for bootcamp partitions? I think i never had these kind of problems with normal virtual images.
 
Parallels Support: Any Fix for This?

I'm experiencing the same thing. Since installing the latest version of Parallels and it's updates on my MacBook Pro (running Mac OS X 10.4.10) yesterday, I've noticed that the fans run constantly when I have a Windows Vista VM open. I don't have a BootCamp partition. My CPU usage is low (2-5%) and I'm using around 75% of my 2-GB of memory. The only way to get the fans to stop is to shut down Parallels Desktop and restart my computer.

What gives???
 
I've been using Parallels since the beta's in July 2006, and I've noticed this on-and-off. Some versions of Parallels seem better, some worse. Current 5160 seems pretty good.

Some builds seems better than others, BUT, one thing that is consistent is that some process (could be in the guest or host OS), is running high-CPU. Use the Activity Monitor, or top in terminal.app to find what is consuming the highest CPU cycles in the Host (MacOSX), if it is the guest OS, then use a tool there to find the process using the most CPU cycles -- in Windows that is the Task Manager (right-click the taskbar), or if guest OS is *nix use top in a xterm, and the stop/kill that process. Very likely your CPU usage will go down.

phil
MacBook 13"/2Ghz/2G RAM/160GB HDD, Parallels 5160 running XP from image (not partition)
 
The only time I've experienced high fan speeds due to Parallels has been when I plug in a device and don't tell Parallels what to do with it (obviously I have Parallels set to prompt). This happens a lot when I plug in a mouse, for instance. Sometimes the dialog box comes up behind other windows and I forget to tell Parallels what to do. I usually get reminded when the fans spool up shortly after.

I wonder if something similar could be happening for you? Maybe a hidden dialog, or other USB-related thing Parallels is doing.
 
I have been tracking down the same problem occuring on a Macbook 2.1 running OS X 10.4.10, Parallels and Windows XP Pro. The system fans turn on and go to their highest setting whenever Win X/P came up. I found the problem by bringing up the XP task manager to see who was getting all the CPU time. Turns out it was the Windows spooler (which I've had off and on trouble with over the life of XP). The Macbook is networked to a Windows desktop in another room that has all the printers attached to it. Seems the spooler was looping trying to print remotely. Cancelled all the outstanding print jobs on the Macbook Windows and the problem went away.

Don't know if this will work for anyone else but it's worth a try to see what is driving up the CPU in your VM application under Parallels.
 
Parallels Tools also leaks on some installations and gets excessive CPU cycles... I've seen it happen once, killed the process, it re-launched itself and I haven't seen the issue on that machine again.
 
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