Parallels 6 BootCamp - No Aero

S

shawnf

Junior Member
I have a gen 2 MacAir 1.86GHz on 10.6.4 with 128MB SSD running Win7 32 Professional in BootCamp.
I was using PD 5 and it was running OK with Aero.
I have just updated to Parallels 6 and it has lost Aero support. I have tried re-running the Windows Experience; upped VRAM to 256MB; Aero troubleshooter (said graphics card doesn't support Aero).
No luck.
The problem appears to be the Graphics Parallels Display Adapter (WDDM) 2.0 rating (full list below).

Any ideas why I have suddenly lost performance going from PD5 to PD6 when performance was listed as one of the reasons of moving to 6?

Thanks


Window Experience rating:

More details about my computer


Component Details Subscore Base score
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU L9400 @ 1.86GHz 3.4 2.0
Determined by lowest subscore

Memory (RAM) 768 MB 3.9
Graphics Parallels Display Adapter (WDDM) 2.0
Gaming graphics 383 MB Total available graphics memory 3.7
Primary hard disk 19GB Free (43GB Total) 5.9
Windows 7 Professional

System
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manufacturer Parallels Software International Inc.
Model Parallels Virtual Platform
Total amount of system memory 768 MB RAM
System type 32-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 1
64-bit capable Yes

Storage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total size of hard disk(s) 43 GB
Disk partition (C:) 19 GB Free (43 GB Total)
Media drive (E:) CD

Graphics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Display adapter type Parallels Display Adapter (WDDM)
Total available graphics memory 383 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 256 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 127 MB
Display adapter driver version 6.0.11820.0
Primary monitor resolution 1271x723
DirectX version DirectX 9.0 or better

Network
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Network Adapter Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Network Connection

Notes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The gaming graphics score is based on the primary graphics adapter. If this system has linked or multiple graphics adapters, some software applications may see additional performance benefits.
Caution: Based on the results of the WinSAT Disk assessment, your system drive may have slower response times under some workloads. Performance results will depend on the specific applications used and the amount of memory available. If your experience is satisfactory, no action is needed.
 
shawnf,

First of all make sure you have 3D acceleration enabled on VM configuration Video page.
Then run 'dxdiag' from Windows Start menu, open Display tab and check that DirectX 9Ex is available.
Switch VM to Windowed mode if you're in Coherence and run 'cmd' from Windows Start menu and execute 'winsat dwm' command. The command should report some 10s of gigabytes of graphics memory bandwidth. If the number is low try executing this command again.
Finally check that Aero theme is indeed selected in Windows Personalization settings and window transparency is enabled. You may also need to run 'systempropertiesperformance' and check desktop composition and transparency settings there too.

If none of the above help, generate a Problem Report via Parallels Help menu and post report ID here.
 
I raised support ID 6616693
I managed to force Aero to appear by setting the DWM registry CompositionPolicy to 2 (it was 0) and then it works, so all the Parallels / Windows settings must be correct for Aero, it is just the Desktop Aero rating of 2.0 that was stopping it.
As I said PD 5 was working fine, so this is a PD 6 issue.
I tried winsat dwm and it gives:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16" ?>
- <WinSAT>
- <ProgramInfo>
<Name>WinSAT</Name>
<Version>V6.1 Build-7600.16385</Version>
<WinEIVersion>Windows7-RC-0.91</WinEIVersion>
<Title>Windows System Assessment Tool</Title>
<ModulePath>C:\Windows\system32\WinSAT.exe</ModulePath>
- <CmdLine>
- <![CDATA[ "C:\Windows\system32\WinSAT.exe" dwm -xml .\parallels.xml
]]>
</CmdLine>
- <Note>
- <![CDATA[
]]>
</Note>
</ProgramInfo>
- <SystemEnvironment>
<ExecDateTOD Friendly="Saturday September 11, 2010 2:34:03pm">734026:52443388</ExecDateTOD>
<IsOfficial>1</IsOfficial>
<RanOverTs>0</RanOverTs>
<RanOnBatteries>0</RanOnBatteries>
</SystemEnvironment>
- <WinSPR>
<GraphicsScore>4.4</GraphicsScore>
</WinSPR>
- <Metrics>
- <GraphicsMetrics>
<DWMFps units="F/s">71.97670</DWMFps>
<VideoMemBandwidth units="MB/s">3808.78000</VideoMemBandwidth>
</GraphicsMetrics>
</Metrics>
- <SystemConfig>
<OperationVersion Major="1" Minor="0" Build="0" Revision="0" />
<CmdLine />
- <OSVersion>
<Major>6</Major>
<Minor>1</Minor>
<Build>7600</Build>
<ProductType>48</ProductType>
<ProductName>Windows 7 Professional</ProductName>
- <OSName>
- <![CDATA[ Windows 7 Professional
]]>
</OSName>
<BuildLab>7600.win7_gdr.100618-1621</BuildLab>
</OSVersion>
<HistoryVersion>3</HistoryVersion>
- <Platform>
<IsMobile>1</IsMobile>
<PlatformRole desc="Mobile">2</PlatformRole>
</Platform>
- <System>
- <MotherBoard>
- <Manufacturer>
- <![CDATA[ Parallels Software International Inc.
]]>
</Manufacturer>
- <Product>
- <![CDATA[ Parallels Virtual Platform
]]>
</Product>
<Type>108</Type>
</MotherBoard>
- <BIOS>
- <Vendor>
- <![CDATA[ Parallels Software International Inc.
]]>
</Vendor>
- <Version>
- <![CDATA[ 6.0.11820.602974
]]>
</Version>
- <ReleaseDate>
- <![CDATA[ 10/26/2007
]]>
</ReleaseDate>
</BIOS>
</System>
- <Processor>
- <Instance id="0">
<ProcessorName>Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU L9400 @ 1.86GHz</ProcessorName>
<TSCFrequency>0</TSCFrequency>
<NumProcs>1</NumProcs>
<NumCores>1</NumCores>
<NumCPUs>1</NumCPUs>
<NumCPUsPerCore>1</NumCPUsPerCore>
<NumCoresPerProcessor>1</NumCoresPerProcessor>
<CoresAreThreaded>0</CoresAreThreaded>
<X64Capable>1</X64Capable>
<X64Running>0</X64Running>
- <Signature>
<Manufacturer friendly="Intel">2</Manufacturer>
<Stepping>6</Stepping>
<Model>7</Model>
<Family>6</Family>
<ExtendedModel>1</ExtendedModel>
<ExtendedFamily>0</ExtendedFamily>
<CompactSignature>67190</CompactSignature>
</Signature>
- <L1Cache>
<Size>32768</Size>
<Ways>8</Ways>
<LineSize>64</LineSize>
<SectorSize>32768</SectorSize>
</L1Cache>
- <L2Cache>
<Size>6291456</Size>
<Ways>24</Ways>
<LineSize>64</LineSize>
<SectorSize>6291456</SectorSize>
</L2Cache>
<MMX>Yes</MMX>
<SSE>Yes</SSE>
<SSE2>Yes</SSE2>
- <LogicalProcessorInfo>
- <RelationProcessorPackage>
<Mask>0000000000000001</Mask>
</RelationProcessorPackage>
- <RelationProcessorCore>
<Mask>0000000000000001</Mask>
<Flags>00</Flags>
</RelationProcessorCore>
- <RelationCache>
<Mask>0000000000000001</Mask>
<Level>1</Level>
<Size>32768</Size>
<LineSize>64</LineSize>
<Associativity>8</Associativity>
<Type>D-Cache</Type>
</RelationCache>
- <RelationCache>
<Mask>0000000000000001</Mask>
<Level>1</Level>
<Size>32768</Size>
<LineSize>64</LineSize>
<Associativity>8</Associativity>
<Type>I-Cache</Type>
</RelationCache>
- <RelationCache>
<Mask>0000000000000001</Mask>
<Level>2</Level>
<Size>6291456</Size>
<LineSize>64</LineSize>
<Associativity>24</Associativity>
<Type>Unified</Type>
</RelationCache>
- <RelationNumaNode>
<Mask>0000000000000001</Mask>
<NodeNum>0</NodeNum>
</RelationNumaNode>
</LogicalProcessorInfo>
</Instance>
</Processor>
- <Memory>
- <TotalPhysical>
<Size>768MB</Size>
<Bytes>804839424</Bytes>
</TotalPhysical>
- <AvailablePhysical>
<Size>296MB</Size>
<Bytes>310329344</Bytes>
</AvailablePhysical>
- <DIMM>
<SizeInKB>524288</SizeInKB>
- <Manufacturer>
- <![CDATA[
]]>
</Manufacturer>
- <PartNumber>
- <![CDATA[
]]>
</PartNumber>
<FormFactor>9</FormFactor>
<MemoryType>3</MemoryType>
<TypeDetail>512</TypeDetail>
</DIMM>
- <DIMM>
<SizeInKB>262144</SizeInKB>
- <Manufacturer>
- <![CDATA[
]]>
</Manufacturer>
- <PartNumber>
- <![CDATA[
]]>
</PartNumber>
<FormFactor>9</FormFactor>
<MemoryType>3</MemoryType>
<TypeDetail>512</TypeDetail>
</DIMM>
</Memory>
- <Monitors>
<Count>1</Count>
<TotalMonitorPixels>1024000</TotalMonitorPixels>
- <Monitor id="0" primary="1">
- <DeviceName>
- <![CDATA[ \\.\DISPLAY1
]]>
</DeviceName>
<Width>1280</Width>
<Height>800</Height>
<TotalMonitorPixels>1024000</TotalMonitorPixels>
</Monitor>
</Monitors>
- <Graphics>
<AdapterDescription>Parallels Display Adapter (WDDM)</AdapterDescription>
<AdapterManufacturer>Parallels</AdapterManufacturer>
<DriverVersion Friendly="6.0.11820.0">1688850634899456</DriverVersion>
<DriverDate Friendly="2010\9\8">734023:0</DriverDate>
<DedicatedVideoMemory>134213632</DedicatedVideoMemory>
<DedicatedSystemMemory>0</DedicatedSystemMemory>
<SharedSystemMemory>133984256</SharedSystemMemory>
<Suports32BitsPerPixel>1</Suports32BitsPerPixel>
<D3D9OrBetter>1</D3D9OrBetter>
<VertexShaderProfile>vs_3_0</VertexShaderProfile>
<PixelShaderProfile>ps_3_0</PixelShaderProfile>
<PixelShader2OrBetter>1</PixelShader2OrBetter>
<PixelShader3OrBetter>1</PixelShader3OrBetter>
<LDDM>1</LDDM>
<WHQL>0</WHQL>
- <PNPID>
- <![CDATA[ PCI\VEN_1AB8&DEV_4005&SUBSYS_04001AB8&REV_00
]]>
</PNPID>
<DWMRunningOnStart>1</DWMRunningOnStart>
<DWMRunning>0</DWMRunning>
</Graphics>
- <Disk>
- <SystemDisk id="\\.\PhysicalDrive0">
<DiskNum>0</DiskNum>
<Vendor />
<Model>Virtual HDD [0]</Model>
<Size units="bytes">121332826112</Size>
<WriteCacheEnabled>TRUE</WriteCacheEnabled>
</SystemDisk>
</Disk>
<CompletionStatus description="Success">0</CompletionStatus>
- <AssessmentRunTime>
<Seconds>0</Seconds>
<Description>00:00:00.00</Description>
</AssessmentRunTime>
</SystemConfig>
- <DWMAssessment AssessmentName="DWM">
<OperationVersion Major="1" Minor="0" Build="0" Revision="0" />
<CmdLine />
<DXVersion>9</DXVersion>
- <Results>
- <CmdLine>
- <![CDATA[ -aname DWM -time 10 -fbc 10 -disp off -normalw 12 -width 1280 -height 1024 -winwidth C(1144) -winheight C(915) -rendertotex 6 -rtdelta 3 -nolock
]]>
</CmdLine>
<Valid>1</Valid>
<HRESULT>0</HRESULT>
<TierNum>0</TierNum>
<FPS>71.9767</FPS>
<TierFPS>71.9767</TierFPS>
<FramesRendered>697</FramesRendered>
<TierFramesRendered>697</TierFramesRendered>
<AverageFrameTimeMS>13.8931</AverageFrameTimeMS>
<TierAverageFrameTimeMS>13.8931</TierAverageFrameTimeMS>
<StDevFrameTimeMS>26.9044</StDevFrameTimeMS>
<TierStDevFrameTimeMS>26.9044</TierStDevFrameTimeMS>
<Duration>9.68369</Duration>
<TierDuration>9.68369</TierDuration>
<StartTime>3389089420</StartTime>
<DevCreateStartTime>3373690103</DevCreateStartTime>
<DevCreateEndTime>3373703941</DevCreateEndTime>
<DevFirstPresentEndTime>0</DevFirstPresentEndTime>
<TierStartTime>3389089420</TierStartTime>
<WorkingSetAtStart>0</WorkingSetAtStart>
<WorkingSetBeforeDevCreate>0</WorkingSetBeforeDevCreate>
<WorkingSetAfterDevCreate>0</WorkingSetAfterDevCreate>
<WorkingSetAtEnd>0</WorkingSetAtEnd>
<EndTime>3423752616</EndTime>
<Frequency>3579545</Frequency>
<MbVideoMemPerSecond>3808.78</MbVideoMemPerSecond>
</Results>
<CompletionStatus description="Success">0</CompletionStatus>
- <AssessmentRunTime>
<Seconds>16.344</Seconds>
<Description>00:00:16.34</Description>
</AssessmentRunTime>
</DWMAssessment>
<CompletionStatus description="Success">0</CompletionStatus>
- <TotalRunTime>
<Seconds>19.02</Seconds>
<Description>00:00:19.02</Description>
</TotalRunTime>
</WinSAT>


Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Shawn
 
Hmm... CompositionPolicy should have been set to 2 when Aero Theme is selected in Personalization settings, and Parallels never changes it directly. Anyway, I'm glad you've sorted it out.
 
I think the problem is that I have to force it as Windows won't turn on Aero with a rating of 2.0... hence the errors I was seeing from the Windows Aero trouble shooter saying the graphics card doesn't support Aero and I should get a new one.
So I hope you manage to improve the Aero performance on PD6 to get back to the same level as PD5.
 
Shawn,

Your WinSAT report above actually indicates Graphics score of 4.4, which is ok for Air. I'd appreciate if you find an XML with 2.0 Graphics score in C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore\ folder, it should explain itself. It is possible that DWM assessment that is triggered during Parallels Tools upgrade ran concurently with some other intensive process and measured low graphics memory bandwidth.
 
Last edited:
Hi Serv,
I'll take a look when I get home, but I should say that I have re-run the Windows Experience rating (a number of times after running the cmd line test) and it still says 2.0 even if the command line XML from winsat dwm says 4.4. So perhaps something is going wrong when doing the overall rating?
Thanks,
Shawn
 
Hi Serv,
Here is the latest run of the Windows Experience Index which still shows 2.0 rating (file is C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore\2010-09-14 10.54.31.494 Formal.Assessment (Recent).WinSAT.xml)
It was run with PD6 full screen MacAir idle and I waited until Windows was idle too.
I hit the 10K posting limit so here is the top summary from the file (hopefully full file in the attached .zip):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16" ?>
- <WinSAT>
- <ProgramInfo>
<Name>WinSAT</Name>
<Version>V6.1 Build-7600.16385</Version>
<WinEIVersion>Windows7-RC-0.91</WinEIVersion>
<Title>Windows System Assessment Tool</Title>
<ModulePath>C:\Windows\system32\winsat.exe</ModulePath>
- <CmdLine>
- <![CDATA[ "C:\Windows\system32\winsat.exe" formal -cancelevent 888e0435-4c23-4ba0-80b9-85c4b3a6cb39
]]>
</CmdLine>
- <Note>
- <![CDATA[
]]>
</Note>
</ProgramInfo>
- <SystemEnvironment>
<ExecDateTOD Friendly="Tuesday September 14, 2010 10:54:31am">734029:39271496</ExecDateTOD>
<IsOfficial>1</IsOfficial>
<IsFormal />
<RanOverTs>0</RanOverTs>
<RanOnBatteries>0</RanOnBatteries>
</SystemEnvironment>
- <WinSPR>
<SystemScore>2</SystemScore>
<MemoryScore>3.9</MemoryScore>
<CpuScore>3.6</CpuScore>
<CPUSubAggScore>3.6</CPUSubAggScore>
<VideoEncodeScore>4.2</VideoEncodeScore>
<GraphicsScore>2</GraphicsScore>
<Dx9SubScore>3.7</Dx9SubScore>
<Dx10SubScore>0</Dx10SubScore>
<GamingScore>3.7</GamingScore>
<StdDefPlaybackScore>TRUE</StdDefPlaybackScore>
<HighDefPlaybackScore>TRUE</HighDefPlaybackScore>
<DiskScore>5.9</DiskScore>
- <LimitsApplied>
- <MemoryScore>
<LimitApplied Friendly="Physical memory available to the OS is less than 944MB : limit mem score to 3.9" Relation="LE">989855744</LimitApplied>
</MemoryScore>
</LimitsApplied>
</WinSPR>
- <Metrics>
- <CPUMetrics>
<CompressionMetric units="MB/s">39.75617</CompressionMetric>
<EncryptionMetric units="MB/s">20.23278</EncryptionMetric>
<CPUCompression2Metric units="MB/s">122.05590</CPUCompression2Metric>
<Encryption2Metric units="MB/s">178.13040</Encryption2Metric>
<CompressionMetricUP units="MB/s">40.32612</CompressionMetricUP>
<EncryptionMetricUP units="MB/s">20.40633</EncryptionMetricUP>
<CPUCompression2MetricUP units="MB/s">121.85531</CPUCompression2MetricUP>
<Encryption2MetricUP units="MB/s">178.21451</Encryption2MetricUP>
<DshowEncodeTime units="s">16.69027</DshowEncodeTime>
</CPUMetrics>
- <MemoryMetrics>
<Bandwidth units="MB/s">4566.88770</Bandwidth>
</MemoryMetrics>
- <GamingMetrics>
<BatchFps DXVersion="9" units="F/s" score="3.5">65.37000</BatchFps>
<AlphaFps DXVersion="9" units="F/s" score="3.5">64.62000</AlphaFps>
<TexFps DXVersion="9" units="F/s" score="3.8">27.62000</TexFps>
<ALUFps DXVersion="9" units="F/s" score="3.8">17.96000</ALUFps>
<BatchFps DXVersion="10" units="F/s" score="2.3">0.00000</BatchFps>
<AlphaFps DXVersion="10" units="F/s" score="1.9">0.00000</AlphaFps>
<TexFps DXVersion="10" units="F/s" score="2.8">0.00000</TexFps>
<ALUFps DXVersion="10" units="F/s" score="2.9">0.00000</ALUFps>
<GeomF4 DXVersion="10" units="F/s" score="2.8">0.00000</GeomF4>
<GeomV8 DXVersion="10" units="F/s" score="2.8">0.00000</GeomV8>
<CBuffer DXVersion="10" units="F/s" score="2.9">0.00000</CBuffer>
</GamingMetrics>
- <GraphicsMetrics>
<DWMFps units="F/s">1.25346</DWMFps>
<VideoMemBandwidth units="MB/s">66.32930</VideoMemBandwidth>
<MFVideoDecodeDur units="s">2.42668</MFVideoDecodeDur>
</GraphicsMetrics>
- <VideoDecodeMetrics>
<DecodeFrameCount Width="1920" Height="1080" ExpectedFrameCount="300">142</DecodeFrameCount>
<DecodeFrameCount Width="1920" Height="1080" ExpectedFrameCount="150">78</DecodeFrameCount>
<DecodeFrameCount Width="720" Height="480" ExpectedFrameCount="300">301</DecodeFrameCount>
<DecodeFrameCount Width="720" Height="480" ExpectedFrameCount="150">151</DecodeFrameCount>
<DecodeFrameCount Width="1920" Height="1080" ExpectedFrameCount="150">151</DecodeFrameCount>
<DecodeFrameCount Width="720" Height="480" ExpectedFrameCount="300">151</DecodeFrameCount>
</VideoDecodeMetrics>

Thanks,
Shawn
 

Attachments

Thanks a lot Shawn. This time VideoMemoryBandwidth is indeed as low as 66Mb, we'll investigate.
For the record: the quick solution is just to rerun 'winsat dwm' from command line.
 
Any Update

Any update on this? I'm hitting this problem in my trial run of parallels 6. I wanted to give it a try to see how it compares to VMWare 3.1, and I'm certainly not going to purchase if this can't be addressed.

Thanks.
 
In my humble experience, it's a good-news/bad-news thing. The good news is that latest build of Parallels (6.0.11828, I think, from 11/2/2010) especially working together with OS X 10.6.5 cures many of the ills of previous versions, and in particular, Aero seems to work just fine. This was not the case with the just previous build, with which I (and others) experienced extreme difficulties in getting the Tools to install and run. I paid good money for a phone support call on that exercise only to have the tech support person have me fall back to the previous Tools build. The install completely crashed the machine under any and all circumstances of Registry edits, Tools uninstalls, Tools file sources, Anti-virus disables, and on and on and on.

The bad news is that, at least in my humble experience again, there seems to be an incredibly unstable interaction with some one of the recent Windows updates for Windows 7, or possibly Windows Live. I have not yet been able to put my finger on which it is. At first, based on my previous experience with the Tools update, I thought that this was purely a Parallels issue. After working at this for some time now, and redoing my updates to the latest build of Parallels from scratch on the same stored image that I retained from last September, I can say that it somewhere in completing the last 8 or so Windows updates, my machine will go completely off the wall, to the point that executing the Windows update will completely crash the host Mac, leaving the Parallels machine in an unbootable and unrepairable state. This situation is quite consistent and repeatable, at least for me.

I have one runnable disk image now that "only" has a corrupted file system on which a number of applications (e.g., Acrobat Distiller, Quad Tone RIP, etc.) cannot find critical support files and on which other critical Windows system DLLs report not being valid system files. At least I can pull my Documents folder off that.

I am now into a complete rebuild of my Windows 7 machine from OS and application disks, which as anyone knows who has been through this, is a royal pain in the back side.

I have been a loyal user of Parallels since it came out, since MS bought out and destroyed the original Mac VM platform years ago. But right now, I could not, in all good conscience, recommend Parallels to anyone right now, at least not for anyone who proposes to run Windows 7. I have two other instances of Parallels 5 running XP, and these seem stable. Parallels 6 and Windows 7 have together become a nightmare though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top