Parallels 6 Kernel Panic with External Monitor

[JohnC]

I'd like some guidance on how to solve a problem I've experienced since Parallels 3 (possibly 2): When I connect an external monitor my MacBook Air kernel panics. Not immediately, but within minutes of starting the VM, even if all I've done is opened & closed windows.

I have a *suspicion* that this may be caused by some leftovers from earlier versions of Parallels, as I have always migrated from one mac to the next, and this is the third on which I have had this problem (MacBook CoreDuo, 1st Gen MB Air 13", MB Air 13" late 2010). At no stage in this migration from Parallels 2/Win XP on the MB CoreDuo to Parallels 6/Win7 on the MBA late 2010 have I been able to run Parallels with an external monitor. In the early days (P2/XP) the system would slow to a crawl, but at some stage it turned into kernel panics.

I've upgraded each time hoping the kernel panics would go away (the Windows install was always fresh though). Now I'm looking at the P7 upgrade and thinking I'd like to sort out this problem first. I assume it's a problem at my end as I'm not seeing multiple reports of this issue and I doubt I'm the only user with my configuration.

Current config:
MacBook Air 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo/ 4GB RAM/ 256GB SSD
MacOS X 10.6.8
Parallels 6.0.12106.692267
Windows 7 Ultimate installed on BootCamp partition (2CPUs and 2GB RAM allocated)
Dell SP2309W 23" monitor running at 2048x1152 res via DVI (MBA closed)

I *think* my first step should be to remove *all* vestiges of Parallels from my Mac, so that I can be sure to install a clean copy. I'm happy to do this manually if necessary but can't find a list of files. BTW I have used uninstallers in the past when upgrading, so I'm doubtful of these as a strategy. To get the ball rolling, attached is the output from my most recent kernel panic, with the first part reproduced below for convenience.

Interval Since Last Panic Report: 3887479 sec
Panics Since Last Report: 1
Anonymous UUID: 6DA5ECC8-EE2F-4230-A04A-AE0BEA980668

Thu Feb 16 09:32:30 2012
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x2aaeab): Kernel trap with 64-bit state thread:0xb305000, trapno:0xe, err:0x0, registers:
CR0: 0x8001003b, CR2: 0x00000018, CR3: 0x309a8000, CR4: 0x00000668
RAX: 0x00000000586471b1, RBX: 0x00000000090a6024, RCX: 0x00000000586471b1, RDX: 0x0000000000000000
RSP: 0x000000005895aa48, RBP: 0x000000005895aaf8, RSI: 0x0000000000000000, RDI: 0x0000000000000018
R8: 0x000000000000d503, R9: 0x0000000000000000, R10: 0x00000000000010bc, R11: 0x0000000000000206
R12: 0x000000000000d503, R13: 0x00000000000010bc, R14: 0x00000001ae690b60, R15: 0x0000000000000003
RFL: 0x0000000000010082, RIP: 0x00000000586472d7, CR2: 0x0000000000000018

Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x5895a728 : 0x21b837 (0x5dd7fc 0x5895a75c 0x223ce1 0x0)
0x5895a778 : 0x2aaeab (0x59de64 0x59e2ed 0xb305000 0xe)
0x5895a868 : 0x2ab99d (0x0 0x2 0x46 0x5895a8a0)
0x5895a948 : 0x2a1a78 (0x5895a964 0x0 0x0 0x5895aaf8)
0x5895a95c : 0x0 (0xf 0x18 0x0 0x0)
0x5895aaf8 : 0x58f92b65 (0x90a6004 0x5895ae40 0x10d6c084 0x1)
0x5895abc8 : 0x58f8d957 (0x90a6004 0xc20c7802 0x5895ae40 0xc)
0x5895ac08 : 0x58f8d347 (0xf0f8000 0xb1e5984 0x5895ae3c 0x10)
0x5895ac38 : 0x56dfcd (0xf0f8000 0x0 0x5895acd0 0x0)
0x5895ac88 : 0x56eb59 (0xf0f8000 0x0 0x5895acd0 0x58fa97a0)
0x5895ada8 : 0x286638 (0xf0f8000 0x0 0xb1e5980 0x0)
0x5895be58 : 0x21dbe5 (0xb1e5958 0xcd965a0 0x90b78 0x3e0f)
0x5895be98 : 0x210a86 (0xb1e5900 0x0 0xd20de00 0xab0e700)
0x5895bef8 : 0x216f84 (0xb1e5900 0x0 0x0 0x0)
0x5895bf78 : 0x295c57 (0xaf65f08 0x0 0x0 0x0)
0x5895bfc8 : 0x2a256d (0xaf65f04 0x0 0x10 0xaf65f04)
Kernel Extensions in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.parallels.kext.prl_hypervisor(6.0 12106.692267)@0x58f8a000->0x58fcffff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6.5)@0x949000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily(1.3.0)@0x935000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: prl_vm_app

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
John

 

[YanaYana]

John,
Please connect tech support - go to www.parallels.com/support
it is free. Kernel Panic needs to be investigated in place

 

[YanaYana]

btw you can try this kb as well http://kb.parallels.com/en/112189

 

[JohnC]

Support ticket created

Thanks YanaYana. I've created a support request and attached several KP reports

FYI, since my post above I found this Troubleshooter article and have applied the boot flag "vm.mem_anonymous=0". That has improved the situation, in that I can now work using an external monitor, albeit not reliably. I still get KPs but not for a long while. In fact I *think* it's related to shutting down the VM and then re-starting a while later *without* restarting the Mac in between. I also get the occasional system hang, which is new.

I'll report back here if we make any progress.

Cheers,
John

 

[YanaYana]

Thanks John.
Hope Tech support would figure out soon what is the problem

 

[JohnC]

Problem solved

I'm happy to report that the kernel panics seem to have gone. It's been a couple of weeks now and no kp. Tech support contacted me and I removed all vestiges of Parallels 6 as instructed in this kb article. I also followed the links in the article to instructions on how to remove all earlier versions, and did that as well. There were some hidden files which the P6 removal missed, which I guess were leftovers from an earlier upgrade.

I had no problem then re-connecting to my Bootcamp install of Windows 7, although Windows and Office did need to be re-validated.

I have not re-applied the boot flag noted in my earlier post, so it looks like that's not needed.

Hope this helps somebody else. If nothing else, be reassured that complete removal of your Parallels install wont break your VM

Cheers,
John