Parallels 6 crashes my Mac?

Since upgrading from 5 to 6, (Windows 7, Mac 10.6.4) If Parallels doesn't cause a kernel panic, it will use any minor reason (such as going into stand-by mode) to cut the connection between keyboard and Windows. There's absolutely no way to regain control over Windows except shutting down Parallels Desktop by clicking on Force Quit. You have no access to Win programs, no chance to save your changes.

 

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I am having exactly the same problem since upgrading to PD6 for Mac. Today, this culminated in me losing my VM completely. I had to reinstall Windows 7 and restore from backup. This is far too painful to deal with. I submit a crash log to Apple about once a day. I'm pretty sure that Parallels knows there is a problem by now and should be trying to resolve it. If you need more info, I'd be happy to assist. But for now, my crash log looks just like the one to which I am replying.

Parallels, if you know there is some issue, will you please advise me as to the best resolution? I cannot have my system go from stable to completely unreliable.

Best Regards, Bill.

 

Definitely need an official comment here

Same; I use my machine for business. I thought it'd be great to be able to transfer my PC onto it to reduce my office footprint.

Now I have to keep my old PC around and avoid running Parallels, since I can't afford to have my Mac locking up and losing all changes in any open documents.

And on top of that I paid for the privilege.

This has to be addressed and as customers we need to know what is going on.

I don't mean to be harsh, it's just a question of suitability for advertised purpose. It currently doesn't "work" as delivered.

Thanks,
Evan

 

I too am noticing a coorelation between Parallels 6, the Cisco Client and the lock up. I have used a few clients, only one of which seems to avoid the issue:
- Cisco Desktop Client
- Shimo (using either Cisco or the Shimo built-in support for cisco)
- Apple's built-in VPN support

However, when I use AnyConnect, I don't see these locks ups.

Another thing I've noticed is that if you reset the bios (Cmd-Option+R+P) during boot the problem goes away for a while until I start using the VPN clients mentioned above and then it will return.

Other people I know who do not have paralles 6 but use 2 of the above VPN clients never see this lock up. My guess is that parallels and the cisco both install network drivers and the bug is likely between the two of them.

 

Doesn't seem to correlate with Cisco for me

I don't have Cisco anything on my Mac (that I'm aware of). I don't use any VPN software. So at least in my case it's not related.

For me, it doesn't even matter if a VM is running. One time I quit Parallels without even loading a virtual machine - I just got that video and the 3 buttons asking what I wanted to do (transfer/create new/start VM), and I quit. 5 minutes later the machine froze.

I don't remember any instance of my machine ever freezing this way, except sometimes after waking up from sleeping it freezes with a black screen, maybe once a month or so.

But since installing/running Parallels it is 100% for freezing within 10 minutes of me running the Parallels Desktop.

Thanks,
Evan

 

Fixed!

I submitted a ticket and got this resolved.

Seems arcane, but here are the instructions I received:
1. Uninstall Parallels 6 completely (they gave me some commands to run in Terminal to do this). Note this did not remove my virtual machines, just the Parallels software.
2. Run "repair disk permissions" (it's a button I'd never even noticed before in Disk Utility!)
3. Reinstall Parallels 6

And voila! No more crashing.

I was pretty shocked it worked, as I usually consider "uninstall/reinstall" prescriptions to be the company's first attempt to make me give up and look elsewhere for help. But I went from a consistent 5- to 10-minute window before a system freeze yesterday (even if I wasn't actively using my VM!), to having a cpu-hogging Windows program running all day today.

Thanks,
Evan

 

Where to find the panic logs?

While others report that Parallels 5 was rock solid for them, I had started getting crashes 1st of Pages & Safari & over about a week it got so I couldn't even boot. Applecare had to help me do an archive & install but they said I had had kernal panics. even after that it has continued to be unstable. It has been suggested that running Windows on a mac & especially as a VM probably led to the problems. I'm having major problems getting answers on what to do about it. & I'm not a geek so I really don't understand the crash reports. It has improved after the archive & install but Safari was still crashing a lot. It is crashing less after I found out how to remove the duplicate VM that I had accidentally created at the beginning. I'm running build 9344 but its showing current is 9376 but get updates shows I'm current. I don't know if that update even applies since I have a MacBookPro not Mac Pro, but there are other updates in between.

I would appreciate if anyone could point me to how to make sure I have the appropriate updates & how to get them & install them. Parallels seems to work so differently than any other software I'm familiar with as far as the update process (well except for the ck for updates if it actually worked or something would tell me that the later builds don't apply to mine). Safari is still crashing some although not as much, but it escalated so fast before--1 wk from a few to unusuable mac--that I want to get it taken care of so it isn't having more of a cascading effect like it did apparently before.

 

9376 is at http://kb.parallels.com/5802

Console.app in the Utilities folder will show Panic Logs, crashes, hangs, etc.

 

thanks-still trying to figure out install & applicability

Thanks. I think I may ask the Apple store while I'm in there today for another appt to take a quick look at those to see if it is still Parallels related. I don't understand most of it.

I'm also still confused by the update process since the instructions for check for updates don't seem to be working. That is I choose check for updates, it acts like its looking & then tells me I have the latest one. But as I wrote, the build I'm using is older than the current 1. But maybe it doesn't apply to me?

Plus its confusing since I'm using to having updates just get applied almost automatically or by a few clicks on my part--not a whole new install & I'm confused whether I need to have the CD in the drive or not so it knows i have an active licensed copy. I already downloaded the newer build but am still confused about applicability--that is, are all updated builds for everybody or just for those with the identified issue?

& confused on the steps to take. Plus I found my CD but not the sleeve with the product # on it. Don't want to install & have it think I'm using a trial copy.

Thanks for your help. All this seems like its aimed at geeks which I'm not so I need some help from those that are. I thought I was getting away from all that when coming back to mac but do still need windows some for biz & to sync with my Windows mobile phone--also for biz.

 

Just run the installer on the 9376 disk image. You don't need the CD. It won't ask for the product key. You only need the product key if you're installing it on a new Mac or a new Mac OS X partition.

 

Thanks for clarification. still problems w mac changes & Parallels 5

Thank you for this clarification. While things are working better on the mac side, while I was in the Apple store yesterday for one to one training, decided to get a Genius bar appt to have them look at my Mac for any issues. I seem to have gotten the uber geek there who misunderstood that I just want my mac to act normally & work without crashes like I expect a mac to do. He heard me say I need to run windows for biz & assumed I need uber reliability & started telling me I should get a solid state drive & something about disk partitions get messed up & so I might have to do an erase & install. But then he was telling me worst case.

Anyway, he ran repair permissions & there were lots that needed repairing. I shut down & came home. Then later booted up in Mac & then opened Parallels & I wasn't quite paying attention & thought it had already booted Windows so clicked to open Outlook. Then I got a crash or unexpected shutdown message from Parallels. I did fill in the comments about what has been going on.

After that I reopened Parallels & it seemed to be working ok. Just a few minutes ago as I was opening it this afternoon, right when it got to where Windows 7 plays the start up tone I heard a real staticky sound. Not sure what that is from, but not good. So will go ahead & do the install as you said & hope that will help.

I also have held off installing the Win7 SP1 since someone posted a question about that where some had it work fine & some not fine. Mine is 64 bit OS. So presumably after doing the Parallels update it will be safer to do the Windows update to SP1 & I guess the others.

Thanks again. Sorry if my questions seem dumb but, while I know a lot about Macs from the early days to 10 yrs ago, a lot has happened & I don't know a lot of system level type stuff. & Parallels seems to work a lot differently than most software I'm used to as far as the update process (both mac & windows).

 

started to install downloaded but it shows its same build I have?

OK, I started the installation process but the only Parallels on the desktop shows that it is the same build as the one I already have installed. So now I'm confused. It shows build 9344 which is what I have. The read me that i had downloaded separately showed 9376.

So it says something about checking for a newer version so do I just go ahead with the installation process & it will look for the newer build? The readme with this shows 9344 so I stopped. Or did I somehow download the wrong 1. Or maybe it disappeared?

When I first downloaded it, it showed a read me, getting started, uninstall & the install program. Now I also see what looks like a drive image with Parallels 5 showing on it. I don't think it was there before.

So is this the right one to install? I think I had it on the desktop & the original I installed from the CD.

Also do I just choose install or upgrade? Is upgrade from a previous version meaning Parallels 4?

The language is a bit confusing & I want to make sure I check the right boxes & install the right thing.

I guess though the read me says it will look for newer versions & I guess I'm not doing an upgrade. Maybe I'll go ahead & see what it does & hopefully it will allow it to look for newer versions or I could stop it there. But not sure why it is showing what looks like a drive image which wasn't there before. I guess I should also eject my back up drive so it isn't trying to back up while I'm doing the install & it is scheduled to back up in a few min again. Maybe I'll just let it do that one then go with the install.

 

9376 wants me to register-says this copy already reg 2 another user acct

OK. got mixed up there earlier because I'm still learning my way around the Mac so didn't know to look in the download folder. OK So I 1st installed the old version again. Then followed the link provided by an email & again downloaded the new one & installed it. OK, but now it prompts me to register & says this copy of Parallels Desktop already registered to another user.

So it doesn't seem to recognize that I'm just updating the build. Not sure what to do. Where the Parallels icon on the dashboard was it has now changed & doesn't show Parallels Desktop It has the other 2 apps showing with a World or globe icon. It said I could open it from the Applications folder so that is what I tried to do. so I'm at the prompt about registering. What do I do. Does the old registration cover this one or what? do I decline to register?

Can't even use email if I can't get this working since right now even though Outlook is in bootcamp its not activated there since when I was new I apparently accidentally activated it too many times with dup VMs so its only activated in the VM. So I need to call Microsoft to see if I can get it straightened out so it can be activated in both bootcamp & the VM. Well I can use it on my phone but its not very reliable.

& do I have to do something to get Transporter & tools installed from this build so they are all together? I've never really used them but they show up.

Thanks for any help. I think I'm almost there, but not sure what to do about registration.

 

OK, skipped registration running but not on dashboard

OK, I finally just clicked skip registration. It shows I have the latest build now in get info. Then it went ahead & installed Parallels tools & restarted. Not sure about the dashboard. Its showing a round ball where the Parallels desktop used to show & it has Transporter & image tools inside it, that used to be with Parallels desktop. Maybe when I turn it on the next time it will display like it used to. I'm not even sure what image tools are. & I sort of remember reading about Transporter but didn't use it.

So hopefully it is finally working ok & play nice with my mac & vice versa.

This whole thing has been a pain which should not have been necessary. I don't know why the update instructions in the manual didn't work. They were nice & clear & wrong--at least for my build/setup. Other instructions were not complete.

Parallels reps provided bits & pieces & suggestions to go hunt for info--tried that no complete step by step instructions.

I'm also guessing that maybe others have trouble with the update process or else why is it necessary to have stickies announcing a new build? Well hoping for the best now after all this work.

 

Thanks joevt for your help!

Thank you for your help. You did the most to point me in the right direction. Would be nice if the documentation was more complete--like including instructions for doing a build update in the getting started or read me files that are included. Would have saved a lot of this--or if the instructions in the manual worked.