Painfully slow running on Mac mini

D

daniel

Member
Greetings, all.

First, the stats. I am running Parallels Desktop on a Mac mini with 1GB RAM and several GB free on the HD. About Parallels Desktop reports that VT-X is on. I am using High acceleration in my VM. I am running Windows XP Pro in the VM. I am giving the VM 256MB RAM.

My typical usage is to boot XP in the VM. I don't suspend the VM - I always shut XP down. I rarely sleep my mini, but I do sometimes sleep it with Parallels Desktop running.

Now the problem: When running Parallels Desktop, my Mac mini is unbearably slow. I reported this in Beta4 and then reported that the issue was resolved in Beta6, but either the issue wasn't fully resolved, or there are additional issues.

By unbearably slow I mean that cmd-tab app switches take 10+ seconds. Screen redraws happen at a snail's pace. The mouse still tracks, but that's the only thing that happens in real time. Even the OS X busy cursor actually STOPS spinning, it's so slow!

I know the slowness is caused by Parallels Desktop, because upon shutting down the VM and quitting Parallels Desktop, the system is IMMEDIATELY responsive at its normal speed.

Is anyone else seeing this? Are there any solutions to it? Note that PD already reports that my system is in VT-X mode, so am initially hesitant to try a VT-X enabler.

Thanks.

Daniel
 
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Daniel

How many other apps are being run?
Are they Universal, or "Rosetta" applications?

As an aside, I have heard a lot on this board and elsewhere that 1GB is barely there in terms of running a VM in conjunction with the host OS. I've got 2GB (Macbook) and all is well. Just FYI.
 
I've noticed a slow down from previous versions. I'm running XP Home with 400+ Mb allocated to Parallels. Could give it more but it says that going higher than hat would slow it down - doesn't make sense to me thought the more the faster.... I just upgraded to 2Gb on my MacBook and it hasn't helped. Start ups are very slow and the initial application launches, once they're launched it seems to improve but definitely slower than 15% less than running Windows natively as I read somewhere it should be.....
 
something is definitely amiss. it takes about 2 minutes.....minutes.....! to launch IE 7 and over one minute for Firefox. That doesn't seem normal to me. As I've stated above, I've allocated the 312 Mb RAM that is advised as optimal on a 2Gb RAM MacBook so RAM shouldn't be an issue. I've read in the manual of the PRLETH network driver that supposedly can be found in Parallels Tools and should performance on XP. It's now set on RTL8029. Anway, neither setting seems to improve the dismal performance. Anyone have similar speed issues? Any advice is appreciated.
 
I've read about PD Tweaker. It looks to me this improves the speed of the Mac, which is not my problem. My issue is that Parallels opens browsers slower than Virtual PC ever did. Definitely something wrong it's as slow as molasses....Checking CPU usage in Task Manager shows nothing unusual no way near max levels....
 
jebworks,

Have you upgraded your Mini's RAM recently? What is the value of Parallels Desktop->Preferences->Memory Tab->Reserved memory limit?

Regards,
Tim
 
Tim,
I'm running a MacBook. I've upgraded a few days ago to 2Gb RAM and in the Prefs for Parallels I've set 412Mb

Additional comments:
I noticed the difference between the two memory settings, one that advises not to exceed 312Mb and the Pref panel, where I have now increased it to 512Mb.
However, that hasn't improved the performance. The system launch took over two minutes as did the browser launch.
One thing I noticed, on the previous shutdown it tells me that 24 updates will be installed. I let that run its course until the system shut down.
After changing those settings and launching again, without improvement, when shutting down it again tells me that there will be 25 updates installed.....this is running now....I can't imagine this is normal. Something seems to be off in the XP Home running on that particular VM, the only one I'm running btw..... Odd!
 
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jebworks,

What is the value of RAM you give to this particular VM? And what is the Preferences->Memory->Reserved memory limit? It is not very much clear from your post...
 
Tim
I've just added more comments to my previous post.
I'm giving this VM 512Mb in the Prefs>Memory>Reserved Memory tab and 312Mb in the other Memory setting listed within the VM, sorry don't have the correct description as these updates I mentioned are being installed (again) as I write....

OK, XP has now shut down after installing 25 updates .....
In the Resources tab, I had 312Mb allocated. Opening it up, I now read that the max can be 412Mb which I've set it to now, but haven't started up yet before I get your feedback.
 
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Memory seems fine.

Now please power on the VM and wait till it's fully loaded. Then go to Parallels Desktop->About Parallels Desktop->More Info and post the "Virtualization Mode" value here.
 
Start-up took 2min. 45sec. including launching four Yahoo Widgets and connecting / updating two of them.....

Here's the Info:

License Status:
This is an active copy of Parallels Desktop

User Name:
J.E.Buhler
Company Name:
---
Product ID:
00006-3221228450-0004
Validity period:
Not limited
Primary OS(es):
Mac OS X
Terminal Services:
No

Virtual Machine Features:

Virtualization Mode:
Intel VT-x
Remote Session:
Off
 
I am having a similar problem on a Mini that has the VTz turned off (I'm guessing it is a little old)...the interaction between it and the Exchange server is extremely slow. This mini has 2gb of ram in a core-duo...

thoughts?
 
I was having some dog-slow problems myself, and I hadn't known to check the reserved memory limit setting. I pumped it up to cover my allocation, and ZOOOM it all sped up nicely. It would be nice if there was a warning or indicator that you were running over this reserved level, so that you would know to buy or reserve more RAM.
 
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