Mouse cursor doubling in 3.0

J

jlachoff

Member
I'm using build 5600 of P3.0 on a MacBook Pro 2.6 GHz Leopard 10.5.2 with 4 GB RAM (1.5 GB for guest OS) Running Vista. I run parallels environment on an external 24" cinema display, and my Mac OS on the laptop screen.
My problem is that I can't get no cursor satisfaction! Here are the two variations on BAD that I am experiencing:
1. No mouse synchronization (this is unnerving);
2. Yes mouse sync, at the cost of having the Mac's black arrow cursor shadow the Vista cursor everywhere;
2a. Sometimes, the Vista cursor gets left behind wherever I last clicked in Vista, and the only cursor I see is the Mac black arrow cursor.

Before upgrading to version 3.0 of Parallels, I had no problems like this. I have already uninstalled/re-installed Parallels Tools. I have played around with video and acceleration ad nauseum. Can someone from Parallels PLEASE comment on this issue-- is it a known issue? Are you working on a fix, if so? If there is already a fix (besides turning off mouse trails, which has no effect and was never on in the first place), can you please point me to it?

Thanks,
Joe
 
Please try this
1.Parallels Desktop -<Virtual Machine name>-Edit-Virtual Machine-Video increase memory to 64 mb
2. In Windows - Start-Control Panel-Appearance and Themes-Display -Settings -Advanced- Troubleshoot and set Hardware acceleration to full
 
Thanks for this info John. I already had bumped video memory to 64MB- when the problem first started happening, (when 3.0 first came out) I had read posts here for similar but unrelated issues that recommended that. Unfortunately, these same posts recommended REDUCING hardware acceleration, and at the time I was playing with these settings, I seem to remember that that had helped reduce the severity of the problem. Something must have changed with Vista or Parallels since then, as now the full acceleration setting has restored the proper behavior.
Thanks for the help!
 
Okay, I spoke too soon: Now Mouse synchronization is working, but when I'm writing in MS Word or composing email in Outlook (arguably two things I do A LOT OF all day long), when I begin to type, the cursor disappears entirely. I can 'trick' the Vista cursor into reappearing by hitting ctrl-opt keys to show the mac cursor, and then re-clicking in the guest os-- this forces the vista cursor to reappear-- but that's not exactly convenient.

Any suggestions?
 
Further detail: The cursor disappearing only happens in full screen mode, (remember, I'm using a Macbook Pro + external cinema display, with Parallels on the cinema display). I just discovered a workaround of running Parallels on the cinema display in Single Window mode, with the window maximized to fill the screen- now the cursor behaves. This is acceptable, but would prefer not to have the Mac window chrome... Full screen mode should work, no?
 
When you typing and cursor disappear ti is normal, you can change behavior in Keyboard preferences in Windows, or do you mean you can even can't show caret position?
 
Thanks again for this response John. No, what I am experiencing is not the normal Windows behavior you are referring to (and, by the way, that feature is disabled in my guest OS). To reiterate: When in full screen mode, as soon as I begin typing in Word, Outlook, or even in a Windows OS dialog box (like password), THERE IS NO WAY TO MAKE THE CURSOR REAPPEAR, except to switch out of Parallels or ctrl-alt to recapture the Mac cursor, and then click back in the guest OS again.
This only happens when I run Parallels on my external display in full screen mode, with my laptop screen open as the main Mac OS screen. And, previous to 3.0 build 5600, this arrangement worked just fine with Vista.
Thanks again, Joe.
 
I suppose that Cinema display is very high resolution, and therefore redraw is not able to focus.
Hm it seems I suggested it already.
Please try to lower resolution, and check the problem
 
Reducing the resolution of Vista by running it a window gives me some improvement- I get a white Vista arrow cursor overlaid on top of any other cursor (such as the text insert "I" beam cursor, pan cursor, etc). It turns out the cursor problem can be cured entirely if I turn up hardware acceleration to "Full" in Vista. HOWEVER, unfortunately, there is another bug with Windows Media Viewer in Parallels, which cannot play media unless this very SAME hardware acceleration setting is turned DOWN to 2 notches. But this makes the cursor misbehave everywhere! Ugh.
 
I know you installed and reinstalled Parallels Tools, but just out of curiosity...

In the Device Manager under Windows, is the mouse driver the Parallels driver and the version of the driver corresponds to build of Parallels you're using (does it have the number 5600 at the end, if that's what you're using)?

Another suggestion, have you played with the ' experimental ' Direct shaders settings to correct the Media Viewer problem?

Another thing, none of these problem happen if you run in Full Screen mode in your internal display?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Mouse driver is "Parallels Mouse Synchronization Tool" version 3.0.5600.0

I have indeed played with the experimental directx shaders, but it has no effect on either of the problems (cursors in full screen or media not playing back correctly).

Yes, full screen mode on the internal display works just fine. I think that was what John was angling for- the internal screen is much lower in resolution, so perhaps it's just that the full screen mode can't handle these larger displays...
 
For media player please try this
1. Minimize hardware acceleration level in display properties.

Right click on Desktop -> Personalize -> Display Settings -> Advanced
Settings -> Trobleshoot tab. Put hardware acceleration level to zero.

2. Set Color in Display Settings to 24 bit making hardware acceleration
set to maximum.
 
Thanks John. Yes, I know that works to resolve the media player issue, but it comes at the cost of my cursor not working properly. (I probably did a poor job of making that point, but that was what I was trying to say in my post from 8:22 am today.)
 
Noted. I guess I would prefer that the problems would be gone without having to lower my monitor resolution. Consider that on LCD monitors, running at anything other than the native resolution results in an unacceptably blurry image, (not to mention, less work area), this is not really a solution.

For now, I'll get by with the patchwork of compromises. With full hardware acceleration set in Vista, the only downside is the windows media player bug. Maybe that's someplace where you guys can focus your effort in resolving this? Is it a known bug? (Seems like it must be).
 
This is clearly a bug with Parallels, the increased Video Memory should've taken care of the issue, in normal situations (not in a VM) 64MB should be able to drive that type of resolution.
 
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