Hi all, Just to let you know, I've been on hold with Parallels first-tier support now for at least 20 minutes...waiting to dead silence except for a message that tells me where I am in this personal hell, waiting for someone to probably tell me that they can't help me, and I need to pay for support. * * * I upgraded to the latest and greatest on Friday so I could hopefully run a game or two. Heh...not only can I not run Halo, but my Windows XP Pro as a whole has gotten DOG slow...everytime I even send an email using Outlook, I get the MAC OS spinning wheel, and everything seems to freeze for a bit during the operation. (Yes, I did turn on 3D). I have 3gb RAM and plenty of disk space, and have tried maxxing out the RAM and VIDEO ram, and also moved to the recommended amounts (much less), with no better luck. At this point, I feel ripped off completely, and of course, I will have to pay $24.95 to tell someone who *may* know how to solve this problem. I think this is a TERRIBLE policy, and I'm very offended. I paid for the 2.x version, and paid for the upgrade, so why should I pay to help them debug their product? It's just WRONG. As the president of a software company, I would NEVER EVER EVER resort to these unfriendly tactics. If I sell someone my software, and they have a problem immediately after installation, I WANT them to call so I can fix it...not have pissed off people posting this kind of message in a public forum...but hey, now I'm on the "end user" side, and yes, I'm frustrated and disgusted. So...how does one revert back to the better working version? Or...does anyone know how to fix it? I just want it to run "lean and mean" like before. Thanks, Mark Turkel, President Palm Beach Software Design, Inc. http://www.PalmBeachSoftware.com 561-572-0233 (I'm not afraid to post my contact info.)
Hello, For one, this forum has a turn-around time of days, not hours. Expecting quick turn around time from people who do not work at Parallels is kind of unreasonable. The rest of us have day-jobs also. As for your problem, it would help if you posted the kind of Mac you are running, the version of MacOS, and the version (and patch-level) of Windows. It might also help if you say what other programs are running in Windows. For example, there is a known issue that running "ituneshelper.exe" (installed with Itunes) makes the VM max the CPU on the host side.
Also, If you had bothered to read the description for Parallel 3, you would have noticed it supports DirectX 8.1, not v9.0 which is required by Halo.
In otherwords, from what people are saying, give the general run-down you would want your clients to give when they are having trouble running your software. Here is a thread that aims at gathering some information so we can try and help you out: http://forums.parallels.com/thread16741.html
OK, for you angry guys that read every other word.... 1. I am on HOLD with a TELEPHONE for support. Not waiting around for forum replies. DUH. Great response from an angry guy with no user name. 2. No, I did not realize I needed DirectX 9 and Parallels doesn't support it. I don't sit around just to "read up" on Parallels. Buyer-beware is the call of the nerds, man. Finally, after waiting for 35 minutes, Stacy picked up the phone, and helped me out. She did a great job. Unfortunately, hearing a recording saying that I will be pointed to resources (and not be able to speak to anyone) was misleading, and really upset me. Parallels should definitely take a look at their support policies as well as their communication methods to their end-users and make it better. Anyway, Stacy asked me to run the disk utility and repair my permissions, and that seemed to fix it. She was great, and I commend her for being friendly and knowledgeable.
Everyone, We all admit Parallels support is lacking right now. This guy hasn't done anything wrong, as I remember there were some pictures of Parallels running 3D games (maybe not Halo but it was mis-leading... sort of implying that ALL 3D games will work. Perhaps he should have checked the specifics of what version if DD he needed. But in defense of him even if he had only 8.1 and needed 9.0 Halo should have simply refused to work. Parallels should not have slowed his system to a crawl. Give the guy a break! We all know that Parallels needs a lot of improvement when it comes to support. His example of a 40+ minute hold time is just one example. MarkTur, can you please post the exact fix that Stacy gave you? There are probably others that could benefit from this and this is what the forum is about... sharing and support.
It isn't supported yet, but Parallels is working on getting Windows Vista's Aero working in one of the (free) Parallels Desktop 3 updates, and that will likely require them getting DirectX 9 support working. There has been significant progress already in improving both DirectX 8.1 support and OpenGL support in the latest updates, so I'm assuming DirectX 9 support is next. This is what I hear from most people who have dealt with Parallels support so it would seem that Parallels could still use a lot of improvement in that area.
