huge cpu load due to prl_vm_app

Hey Guys,

I am having a similar problem although I am not sure it's the same. I get a BSOD on prl_vadd and some memory reference error. Perhaps your prl_vm_app and prl_vadd are related? My issue is also a known issue and is related to the video driver. Apparently Windows doesn't like the driver and it renders the screen rrrreeeeeaaalllyyyy s l o w l y. It gets the CPU maxed out and grinds the whole machine to the speed of an 8088. Parallels needs to fix this.

I tried this fix, called "prl_fix" and it worked once. http://kb.parallels.com/en/5774 Then my computer lost power at 20% of my battery (which was weird) and when I restarted the problem was back again. This time the "fix" did not fix and now I BSOD on a regular basis.

Not sure if this will help you but it might be worth trying. I am running a MacBookPro Core2Duo 2.33.

PD4 is positively the worst upgrade to a software since Windows ME. They should not have made it a one way ticket from PD3 to PD4. If they had not we'd all be working right now and running PD3 until they figure all this out. Certainly someone must have tested this software before the rollout?!! Only thing I can figure is they were greedy for the money upgrade and released it about 6 months early.

The good thing is that PD4 has pushed me to move everything to the MAC side so my goal is by 12/1 to be completely out of windows except for one or two programs. PD4 and Bill Gates can pound sand.
 
No problem with my installation of PD4 with Windows XP or with prl_vm_app.
My CPU usage hovers around 2% which can hardly be called high, let alone excessive.
From the Profile...
Hardware Overview:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS (512MB).

Parallels is essential. Absolutely a great resource.
 
Please check your processor driver under Windows:
Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Device Manager->Processors
If you see the yellow triangle with an exclamation mark, right-click the item and say "Update Driver"
 
Cannot find any "processor" item in my hardware window... the only yellow mark is beside "parallels paravirtualization driver" - tried to update the driver, but nothing, nada. Winupdate couldn't get any update. What can I do from there ?
 

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Guess I maybe found the cure - could be an Autocad 2008 bug - found this on the web:

1. Open the drawing
2. Enter -SCALELISTEDIT in the command line
3. Type R for the following command line prompt; Enter option [?/Add/Delete/Reset/Exit] :
4. Type Y for the final command line prompt; Reset scale list to defaults? [Yes/No] :
5. Save and close to preserve the changes.

Seems to work till now - just have to repeat the command in each drawing I open.

Don't know if this can explain the issue with the CPU overload thing, but maybe it can help autocad 2008 users in the same case...
 
prl_perf_ctl output for prl_vm_app cpu load issue

Upgraded an XPSP3 VM from PD3 to PD4. Hasn't run too fast since the update a few weeks ago, but now it's horribly slow, with prl_vm_app chewing up CPU. Here is my output.

Maverick:~ jkennemer$ sudo prl_perf_ctl -a -n -l 2
Password:
Performance Counters View Utility v4.0.3540.209168
Copyright 2008 Parallels, Inc.

Microsoft Windows XP SP3 - 08:54:11 +2 sec
kernel.ide.irqs 68318
kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_change 7
kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_write 7
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.genexc 3
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.pagefault 2889
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.prot 2881
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.success 5
kernel.vcpu0.activity.idle_percent 1
kernel.vcpu0.activity.mon_mcs 14910
kernel.vcpu0.guest_switch_vtx 2927
kernel.vcpu0.hardware_interrupt 12
kernel.vcpu0.irq_process 32090
kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host 15
kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host_switch 15
kernel.vcpu0.pic.setintrequest 150111
kernel.vcpu0.sendapirequest 34210
kernel.vcpu0.vtx_interrupth 407416
kernel.ws.pages 240468
Microsoft Windows XP SP3 - 08:54:13 +2 sec
devices.ide0.read_requests 66
devices.ide0.read_total 935936
devices.ide0.write_requests 3
devices.ide0.write_total 20480
kernel.ide.irqs 68393
kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_change 1114
kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_write 1114
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.genexc 470
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.pagefault 387557
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.prot 385300
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.success 1787
kernel.vcpu0.activity.idle_percent 1
kernel.vcpu0.activity.mon_mcs 1943282
kernel.vcpu0.async_thr_activate 73
kernel.vcpu0.guest_switch_vtx 392408
kernel.vcpu0.hardware_interrupt 856
kernel.vcpu0.irq_process 32163
kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host 1264
kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host_switch 1264
kernel.vcpu0.pic.setintrequest 150352
kernel.vcpu0.sendapirequest 34219
kernel.vcpu0.vtx_interrupth 407750
kernel.ws.pagein 5
kernel.ws.pageout 164
kernel.ws.pages 240309
net.nic0.bytes_out 62
net.nic0.pkts_out 1
video.frames 2
Microsoft Windows XP SP3 - 08:54:15 +2 sec
devices.ide0.aligned_writes 12
devices.ide0.read_requests 43
devices.ide0.read_total 435200
devices.ide0.unaligned_writes 48
devices.ide0.write_requests 13
devices.ide0.write_total 94720
kernel.ide.irqs 68455
kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_change 813
kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_write 813
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.genexc 451
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.pagefault 389023
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.prot 387136
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.success 1460
kernel.vcpu0.activity.idle_percent 1
kernel.vcpu0.activity.mon_mcs 1936720
kernel.vcpu0.async_thr_activate 61
kernel.vcpu0.guest_switch_vtx 394800
kernel.vcpu0.hardware_interrupt 1759
kernel.vcpu0.irq_process 32223
kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host 2444
kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host_switch 2446
kernel.vcpu0.pic.setintrequest 150580
kernel.vcpu0.sendapirequest 34228
kernel.vcpu0.vtx_interrupth 408373
kernel.ws.pagein 7
kernel.ws.pages 240316
video.frames 1
Microsoft Windows XP SP3 - 08:54:18 +2 sec
devices.ide0.aligned_writes 10
devices.ide0.fsync 4
devices.ide0.read_requests 44
devices.ide0.read_total 458752
devices.ide0.unaligned_writes 30
devices.ide0.write_requests 27
devices.ide0.write_total 162816
kernel.ide.irqs 68536
kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_change 1170
kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_write 1170
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.genexc 273
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.pagefault 385960
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.prot 384220
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.success 1443
kernel.vcpu0.activity.idle_percent 1
kernel.vcpu0.activity.mon_mcs 1927477
kernel.vcpu0.async_thr_activate 79
kernel.vcpu0.guest_switch_vtx 391090
kernel.vcpu0.hardware_interrupt 1195
kernel.vcpu0.irq_process 32305
kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host 1745
kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host_switch 1743
kernel.vcpu0.pic.setintrequest 150830
kernel.vcpu0.sendapirequest 34238
kernel.vcpu0.vtx_interrupth 408838
kernel.ws.pagein 2
kernel.ws.pages 240318
net.nic0.activate 1
net.nic0.bytes_out 119
net.nic0.pkts_out 1
Microsoft Windows XP SP3 - 08:54:20 +2 sec
devices.ide0.aligned_writes 11
devices.ide0.fsync 4
devices.ide0.read_requests 63
devices.ide0.read_total 258048
devices.ide0.unaligned_writes 24
devices.ide0.write_requests 11
devices.ide0.write_total 86016
kernel.ide.irqs 68620
kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_change 354
kernel.paging.vcpu0.cr3_write 354
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.genexc 100
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.pagefault 379730
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.prot 379101
kernel.paging.vcpu0.pf.success 528
kernel.vcpu0.activity.idle_percent 1
kernel.vcpu0.activity.mon_mcs 1876496
kernel.vcpu0.async_thr_activate 82
kernel.vcpu0.guest_switch_vtx 384255
kernel.vcpu0.hardware_interrupt 2335
kernel.vcpu0.irq_process 32392
kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host 3252
kernel.vcpu0.mon_ret_to_host_switch 3252
kernel.vcpu0.pic.setintrequest 151084
kernel.vcpu0.sendapirequest 34258
kernel.vcpu0.vtx_interrupth 409659
kernel.ws.pagein 13
kernel.ws.pages 240331
 
Paravirtualization Driver Version

I tried to reinstall Parallels tools as previous posts have mentioned. Since then, the Parallels Paravirtualization Driver shows an exclamation in Device Manager stating it did not load properly. I rolled back to the 11/8/2008 (4.0.3525.9304) version and the system began to respond much better.

Sounds like a fix is needed ASAP.
 
Last edited:
What I think that Parallels Tools installation is somehow messed
Try to uninstall Parallels Tools
and in c:\windows\system32\drivers delete all prl and prl_ files
(or move to c:\backup)
Reinstall Parallels Tools
 
Thanks for the clarification. I did this and the system is telling me it needs to install hall.dll. I have mislaid my windows disk - any way to clear this up without finding the disk? I'm getting messages about missing dlls every time I boot up that I cancel out of (two with each boot). FYI - I did the switch to two processors than back to one processor then back to two processors and at least at the moment that seemed to help with the CPU usage a lot. I'm now down at 10% CPU for prl_vm_app - the lowest I've seen it get to since the upgrade to 4.0.
 
For what it is worth, I am getting the High CPU usage problem when running MacOS X Server as a guest. This is NOT simply a windows issue. Parallels is so unstable with MacOS X Server guest, I have to do a complete reinsatll twice now, and finally revert to using a single CPU with MacOS X server guest.
 
ralphrmartin
Your case is very interesting,
Could you please set 2 CPU and submit problem report,
I 've never seen that in Mac OS guest 2 CPU usage may cause 100% usage
 
An end user's comment

I noticed that my MacOS programs slowed to a crawl (running safari, itunes, iphoto, photobooth, and finder with parallels 4.0) and some crashed (photobooth) when running Parallels 4.0 -next time I run it, will have to check and see what is causing it.
 
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