Hotfix Update: Parallels Desktop 4.0 Build 3810 is available

I just upgraded to this patch and all I can say is 'wow' it is performing even quicker than it's predecessor! I was a little concerned after seeing some of the above posts but ensured I was fully backed up and then upgraded. I 'updated' parallel tools' and everything runs like a top!

 

windows title bars appear as "Chinese" in Coherence

I just installed the update and ran into an odd behavior. When I'm running in Coherence mode, the title bars for some (but far from all) applications appear to be in what I can only guess is Chinese (though it could be any southeast Asian language). The text title bars in Windows appear mostly as square blocks indicating an unsupported font, however, when I minimize them into the dock, they appear in MacOS to have true "Chinese" characters. I am not sure, but the applications that have this appearance may be ones that are non-Unicode applications (MS Visual Studio, Office appear to be fine, I've found that Palm Desktop, WinSQL are broken -- and even more so, I have a ODBCTest, a Microsoft test tool from their MDAC SDK that has both Unicode and ANSI versions and the Unicode build appears to be fine but the ANSI version is not). The title bars display properly when I have the VM in a window or full screen. I am attaching multiple screen captures to show the behavior.

 

It is font corruption,
Please change font for title bar

 

John

Any response on my message below about which CPU driver to remove?

 

Changing from Tahoma to another font doesn't have any affect. It also doesn't explain why this started when installing this update, why it works fine in Window/Full Screen mode, or why there are "Chinese" characters when its in the dock. If it were a corrupt Windows font, how would Mac map it to "Chinese" characters. I also did go into my regional settings control panel and verify that everything is still set to "English (United States)" including the language for non-Unicode programs.

 

This sounds like a similar VM corruption to mine.

In post #10 I complained about things being broke when I installed the new Parallels Tools. Some title bars only having the first character of the title, and fonts changing in pull down menus were two of the things. A simple DLL I wrote no longer worked, and other programs did not work correctly which corrupted a database.

3810 seems to work fine for me as long as it was running with the 3540 Parallels Tools VM. As soon as I let it update that part, things broke again. The broken behavior is 100% consistent.

I also logged my problem [Parallels #653086] three days ago and have not received any response yet (other that it was logged) nor any response from my post here.

I started the process of downgrading to the 3540 release last night from my backups so I can get back to work. Unfortunately, the downgraded system seems to think that it needs to update to the new tools every time I start the VM up. There must be a file or something that I did not get back to square one. I have looked, but not found it yet.

Interestingly, if I let it update PT the broken behavior comes back even on the last build, sot it is a problem on the new PT update end of things that is corrupting my VM.

I will ask again here: What can I do to try to straighten 3810 out (without deleting my VM windows activation), or alternatively keep it from wanting to update PT?

 

Some windows display exactly that way -- I only see the first character of the title bar. I only see "N" in Notepad++ (although the entire title displays for the first second or 2 of startup), although this also displays only N when minimized to the dock.

I thankfully have not noticed any pull down menu corruption though.

 

Ok, your symptoms are close enough to mine to say that this is a systemic and not a random problem affecting only me. I would be careful of running anything in that state (as I have seen other problems that might corrupt things) and keep your backup of your VM before you upgraded.

I upgraded by the automatic upgrade from the program. Is that how you upgraded? What version did you upgrade from?

If you run your old VM and not allow Parallels Tools to update, does everything work correctly?

If it does, then that just about nails it that we both got hit with the same problem (bug?).
Who knows how many others are out there pulling their hair out. Where there is smoke, there is fire!

Now if we can just get some Parallels input for things to try to narrow it down further.

Regards,
Dennis

 

I downloaded and installed the update package (just my personal preference for these install updates for any software) and I have not had any of the odd behaviors you are experiencing.

 

Negative responses are not meaningful at this stage...

It would be more meaningful if you had seen the problem with an auto update, then it went away when you downloaded and installed.

If we can correlate the similarities of those who have experienced it, then we can look for specific situations that do not cause it for them.

If such a blatant fault happened to everyone who did an auto upgrade, it would not have been released. It is only going to happen under specific circumstances of configuration or updating sequence. How many will fall into that situation is unknown, but it looks like two found this thread so far looking for an answer.

 

I uninstalled Parallels, then threw away every file related to Parallels that I could find the the Library and user Library and the folders too. The only file I did not throw away was my VM. Then I downloaded a fresh copy from Parallels website and installed it. I must not have gotten every file, because it still knew that I was registered. Then I started my VM and it auto installed Parallels Tools. When I started my program up, the symptoms had not changed.

I restored my VM from its pre-Parallels Tools update and it works again. In other words I am right back to where I was before I tried a fresh install with no change. So the method of installation did not matter.

I have come full circle and once again think it is something in Parallels Tools that has changed that is somehow corrupting my VM when it installs or runs.

And I still can't keep it from trying to auto install PT every time I start up.

Next I created a new VM. I pointed to my old VM disk image for the source. It went through a lot of work installing new hardware restarting and installing the Parallels Tools and restarting. I ran my program and it seemed to work except it was stuck on my right hand monitor, so I shut down the VM and clicked on the option for multiple monitors. When I restarted the VM, it used both monitors. However, the old corruptions were back!!!

Next, I shut down and turned off multiple monitor support for coherence again. Restart, and it is working again!!

I don't know how much more I can narrow this bug down at this point.

When I run with previous Parallels tools, it works with coherence multiple displays checked.
When I run with the updated Parallels tools, it does not work with coherence multiple displays checked.

Come on Parallels Team, a little help here, you going to make me do all the work ;-)

 

In device manager check for CPU device - right click opn node and select update drivers

 

My upgrade was an auto-upgrade as yours was. I forget the version number I upgraded from, but it was the most recent one prior to 3810.

Its non-trivial for me to go back because this is a boot camp virtual machine.

I'll try making some of the other changes (disabling multiple monitor support), etc in addition to turning on/off coherence to see if I can limit it down any further.

 

My CPU driver is version 5.1.2600 from 01.04.2004. When I right click it and choose update it stays the same version. Can you send me the driver update? Can I uninstall the update and use the VM with the previous version?

Stephan

 

High CPU Utilization Problem Solved

I was able to solve this problem using Mac OSX Activity monitor. It turns out that the problem was due to a rogue? print monitoring process (sorry, I don't recall the exact name). Activity monitor showed this process consistently above 90% CPU activity -- even after rebooting/restarting Mac OSX. After killing the process, both cores quickly dropped to the 8-10% activity range that was normal for my MBP C2Duo. The problem was clearly resolved as I have not observed it over the last several days. What is strange is that the problem began almost immediately after I performed the build 3810 update. Hopefully this will help someone else.

 

John,

When I choose "update drivers" it says the driver I have installed is the most current driver. Does this mean this observation (below) that you mention in 3810 release is only somtimes true? How do we know we have the right driver?

"A wrong CPU driver is installed in a virtual machine that was initially migrated from a Virtual PC, then used with Parallels Desktop 3.0, and finally converted to Parallels Desktop 4.0 format. This results in high CPU usage in host OS with no application using CPU in the guest OS. To workaround the issue, reinstall CPU drivers in Device Manager inside the guest OS."

 

I am not sure, what do you mean,
Actually I am suggesting the same thing, reinstall and update is the same

 

John,

it means it WON'T update what is there becasue what is there is the same driver that it has to update with. I did as you stated, open device manager and right clicked on update driver and it came back with a message that the driver INSTALLED is the same or only driver it has. Which I assume, to me means that the installation of 4.0 did not use 3.0 driver or they are one in the same. I still don't have a way to check and see what the right one is?

 

John

I am also having MAJOR problems running large programs (they are very very slow) (e.g. Quickbooks) What do you suggest I look at to figure out what the issue is.

 

I reinstalled the first version of Parallels 4.0. After installing the tools everthing runs fine again. This proves that it is an isue of the latest update.

Stephan