Parallels 5 slows Mac it's almost unusable

Let me add that I am indeed using Build 5.0.9310

 

Same problem here ... Tried several configurations, also with the latest build, nothing seems to help. The weird thing is: sometimes it runs very well for a day, and then all of a sudden the problems start again, to such an extend that I have to restart the entire system. Sometimes that helps (for a while), sometimes it doesn't help at all. Never had problems with Parallels 4 and XP, but this is close to totally useless ...

 

There could be not a Parallels Desktop problem: it may be that there is somewhere a leak of resources in some other program.

Please try to restart (close and open) all other applications - Safari, Mail, Firefox...

 

In most (not all) cases that helps, but only for a while. After a certain period of time (could be minutes, could be hours, or even almost a day) the problems start again. The system becomes slower and slower (both the virtual machine and OSX) until it is almost impossible to use. I then shut the entire computer down and restart it. And then it all starts from the beginning. Please note: I do not have these problems when Parallels is not running. I have 2.4 GHz 17" MacBook Pro with 4 GB memory installed.

 

Hello,

I tried to reboot, osx, or the VM, it does not change anything.

it is true that if I have no program opened in osx, it is working better (remember, I use 768 Mb for the VM, I have 2GB for osx)

I have ordered more ram (4GB), so I soon will be able to tell here if it solve the problem or not, because having no program under osx is not a big help ) (then, I am better to run Windows directly, in boot camp )

what is strange is :
with older parrallel, it works better (I am talking about speed, because parrallel 5 give us new feature really interesting )
with XP it run really faster. note that I have tried to stop some services, and I have removed Aero under seven.

can it be possible that the 64 Bits VM give trouble ?
does anyone here have trouble in 32 bits also ?

what are your config guys ?

Thank you
Olivier

 

I've been experiencing the same issues since upgrading to vers. 5. XP runs so slowly. I have mission critical software that is windows based, so I have no choice but to have a windows option. I us Crystal or Coherence view, as I have dual monitors, and arrange my desktop accordingly.

My ID number is 3213150.

 

Try uninstalling and reinstalling Parallels Tools

I am having the same problem with slowing and unresponsiveness of OS X and the VM (running Boot Camp Windows XP in the latest version of Parallels, 5.0.9310 on Snow Leopard on a 2GB MacBook). Tried all the memory adjustments (for the VM and for Parallels), hypervisor, etc with no improvement.

I read another thread (http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=19491) where someone had success by reinstalling Parallels Tools. I tried this and it sort of worked: it didn't work the first time (gave some error about some incomplete uninstall process when I used the control panel for install/remove programs in XP). On the second go around of uninstall and reinstall Parallels Tools, the improvement was dramatic-- Windows was running at near native speed and no slowing in OS X. Unfortunately after a few days, the slowdowns returned. Again fixed by uninstalling and reinstalling Parallels Tools (reinstalling without explicitly uninstalling does not work by the way). When the machine is so slow, the whole procedure takes about 20 minutes when the computer is barely usable in OS X!

An unstable installation of Parallels Tools appears to be responsible for the slowdown on my machine. Anyone else having similar issues?

 

Hello,

On my side, I have quite solved my issue.
quite mean it is really better, but not "perfect" compared to competition.

let me remind here my config :
macbook pro ( bought last month), proc=2.26 ghz, ram =4 gb, hd= 500 gb / 7200 tr.min, screen = 13"
parallel is the latest version : 5.0.9310

my vm is :
Windows seven 64 bits, entreprise edition ( coming from my work).
installed with bootcamp, on a separate partition of my disk, this partition is totally used by windows.

what is new since I had so many trouble to work with this VM :
-the hard disk is more fast than the stock one. ok, I didn't notice a big improvement, but it was a little bit better
- in the preferences of parallel, i use : "Manually set the amount of memory", and fix it at :1500MB.
- in the preference of my VM, i use : 1200 MB
- I use all the 3d acceleration ( I need it to work, I develop application using opengl, and WPF/silverlight)
and use 250 MB for the video
- 1 processor
- disable adaptive hypervisor
- disable autocompress
- optimize performance for osx
- removed all shared application, I use only the shared folder
- removed the vertical synchronization, because I don't need it.

in osx, I use again spotlight (I tried to remove it, it changes nothing)


then, I have to admit that today, the difference is amazing. my VM is really usable, even if some competitor I have tested recently are doing also good job ( but I bough Parrallel, I stay with this software now).

the VM is quite fast to load, visual studio is working fine ( this tool is a processor/memory/disk ressource eater)
and osx is really fast.

what is not working well :
I have installed the great tool : Istat, which gives me the memory allocation, in real time.
if I open too many tools, everything can start to slow down.

what does it mean in reality ?
I have currently opened :
Microsoft entourage (because, here, our exchange server is a 2003 one (
Chrome (one tab)
Safari (4 tabs)
Parallel desktop
amsn ( one conversation in progress)
xcode (I was looking for the ipad simulator, but not found (
I have still 229 MB free.
osx is fine,
my VM is fine.

I hope it could make progressing this post, and Parrallel desktop, which is anyway a great work.

Olivier

 

Clearly this is a widespread problem, and it's absurd to suggest that it's the fault of some other software. Everything else always works fine, just as the previous version of Parallels did. The problem occurs only when Parallels is running. We have modern, well-equipped machines running the latest version, and it's simply broken. This is not a bug, this is important software that simply doesn't work.

I would encourage my fellow sufferers to make their experiences known elsewhere (amazon etc.), both out of altruism (so that others won't waste their money) and self-interest (so that Parallels will finally take this seriously). If I hadn't spent good money for this software I would certainly abandon it for a competitor--as I may very soon need to do.

 

Exact same problems here. New Macbook pro 4gb. Running windows 7 64bit from bootcamp.
The moment you start WIndows 7, everything is nice and snappy.

after 2 - 6 hours somewhere slowness kicks in.

Sometimes it gets so slow everything is halted in the VM (for 20 seconds or more) and OSX is unresponsive (but at least responding a little bit). Quitting your active programs and stopping the VM the correct way (so start-> shut down) takes in the order of 10-15 minutes IF YOU ARE LUCKY!

This is totally unworkable! If I boot into bootcamp directly, I get annoying "your windows is not activated blabla" messages (since I activated it in the VM and not according to a 7 step carefully crafted methodology which i later found in a forum somewhere), but at least it is really fast.

Can parallels finally own up to this problem and get it fixed? I read about these issues everywhere on the web.

R

 

Possible solution?

I just upgraded to MS Office 2008 for Mac (I had been using Office 2004) and now I find that Parallels (running Win XP) works fine. The VM is reasonably fast and so is OS X. Any other slowdown sufferers using Office 2004? Or better yet, anyone having slowdowns who is NOT using Office 2004?

I don't know if this will last but I will report back if slowdowns set in. Meanwhile, hooray!

 

olivier - thank you for sharing your experience setting up parallels 5 with windows 7. i turned off autocompress a couple of minutes before i read your post and most of the other settings were already the same as yours or i did not think they mattered (memory for example) and i noticed that the speed of startup improved considerably.

for anyone else out there that's having similar problems, my issue was as follows: as soon as i start up the parallels up and boot a VM (usually in suspended state from last time) the throbber counter would load up to 60% exactly an then stall for quite a while (still spinning though). this would last up to ten minutes by my estimate after which the drive would mount (growl shows me the update on my mac that its mounted) and i thought back to what changes i could have made to cause this. the only think i could think of was that i had recently enabled autocompress and that's what made me switch it off. so far so good.

 

olivier - thank you for sharing your experience setting up parallels 5 with windows 7. i turned off autocompress a couple of minutes before i read your post and most of the other settings were already the same as yours or i did not think they mattered (memory for example) and i noticed that the speed of startup improved considerably.

for anyone else out there that's having similar problems, my issue was as follows: as soon as i start up the parallels up and boot a VM (usually in suspended state from last time) the throbber counter would load up to 60% exactly an then stall for quite a while (still spinning though). this would last up to ten minutes by my estimate after which the drive would mount (growl shows me the update on my mac that its mounted) and i thought back to what changes i could have made to cause this. the only think i could think of was that i had recently enabled autocompress and that's what made me switch it off. so far so good.

 

mammomist: I'm not using Office. And my mac / win7 is really slow after 2-6 hours of usage. So it can not be that.

 

My position, exactly. Reported to Parallels; ID 3641375

 

Wow! This sure makes my decision easier

That is really a shame. I have all but decided to upgrade from Parallels 3.0 to 5 and run Windows 7 in Snow Leopard. Reading how poorly Windows performs under 5.0 has certainly changed my mind. This is pretty disappointing considering you would need to pay to get their help trying to straighten this out. Thanks to you all for sharing. I guess I will just have to install Windows 7 on my laptop and call it good. Do any of you know if Windows 7 runs ok in a bootcamp configuration? My Mac is the iMac 24" 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo with 4 GB of DDR2 RAM .

 

Recently I have been having the same slowness and unresponsive problem. After using Win 7 in Parallels 5 on my MacBook Pro with 4gb ram for a day or two my laptop becomes unusable IF Parallels is open. Once I spend the 20 minutes to actually shut down Win 7 on Parallels my laptop is usable again.

However, if I try to start Parallels and Win 7 again my laptop becomes unusable again. The start up time for Win 7 in Parallels is horribly long and most of the time I have to shut it down because it just will not come up. During this entire process I am practically unable to use my Mac programs because Parallels has brought my entire machine to its knees. I have to reboot my laptop in order to use Parallels again. And, then, after a day or two the problem is back.

I am running build 5908 and when I ask Parallels to check for updates it tells me I have the latest version. However, build 9310 is available and someone in this forum suggested downloading it. I am worried though because I checked out the thread announcing the 5910 availability and someone posted that when they tried to upgrade from 5908 Parallels went to a 14-day trial period. Someone else stated that the program told them it was missing critical files when they tried to upgrade from 5908 to 5910.

So, what's up? Why does my 5908 build tell me I am up to date when 5910 is available? Can I download the 5910 from the Parallels website and be okay?

Why am I just now having these performance issues? I did not have these issues before with Parallels 5. Is build 5908 bad?

Thanks for your help.

 

Ya... Same here. Mac side has become very slow. Have done the usual stuff: Memory, checked for memory problems elsewhere, etc... This happened immediately after upgrading from 4 to 5. Am going to Post a YouTube video demonstrating how terrible it is... Will post the results here.

 

It's back!

Ok, I spoke too soon. Parallels is once again making my system unbearably slow. Parallels, please do something!

 

Anyone has results yet from the upgrade (build 9344)?

My copy has only been active for 2 hours, so no results yet.