Parallels Desktop 5 hangs during Windows 7 startup

B

Blueberry

Bit poster
I'm running Version 5 of Parallels Desktop on a MacBook Pro. Parallels starts up fine and I get a dark window with a dark background and the Microsoft symbol on the left, and, to the right of this symbol, the name of my Windows 7 virtual machine and, below that, the phrase "Click to start" (all text in white letters). When I click on "Click to start", about 2 out of every 3 times, I get some activity in this window suggesting that Windows 7 is starting up, then the activities cease and Parallels hangs. At some point I can hear the Windows 7 chime, indicating that Windows 7 has successfully started up, even if I see no sign of it in the frozen dark screen on my desktop.

If I then, via a command-option-escape key sequence, force Parallels to shutdown, then restart Parallels again, Parallels starts up normally, but instead of the black screen with the Microsoft symbol on the left, I see, in the same window, the Windows 7 Desktop asking me to login. For this point on, all works fine.

This problem startup happens only about two-thirds of the time. It is, however, annoying and a time-waste, and I sure would like to see it go away.
 
FWIW, I've been experiencing the same problem every time I launch Parallels and start the Windows 7 vm.

Forcing Parallels to quit then restarting it causes the vm to appear as if it had been started from sleep mode rather than from scratch.

Everything was working fine for a while before this problem arose. I'm running the latest Parallels Desktop for Mac build 5.0.9310 and Windows 7 on an iMac i7 with 8Gb ram (2Gb allocated to the vm).
 
I found a solution. If you use the windows icon in the doc, where all the programs are listed, they will startup in crystal mode, without crashing the VM. Its rather nice actually.

M
 
re: must be an epidemic

I have exactly the same problem. I have spent two weeks with the techs with no resolution. See my post under the Installation heading for a detailed explanation. I've uninstalled, reinstalled, changed innumerable preferences and configurations without any resolution.

I would say this is a genuine bug!!!
 
Same problem after update to Build 5.0.9310

I noticed this afternoon that Parallels 5 Build 5.0.9310 was suddenly available. I installed it and restarted and jumped through all the usual hoops. The result: NO CHANGE WHATSOEVER. Parallels 5 still hangs as described in my post at the top of this thread. And I should correct my earlier post by saying that this hanging is now occurring, for me, each and every time I try to start up Windows 7 (as describe above). Arrg.

My system:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP31.0070.B07
SMC Version (system): 1.16f11
 
Same Problem

Came to the forum looking for a solution. Win 7 takes a long time to load in Parallels. I get the black screen for a couple of minutes.

For sure a bug or an issue that needs to be addressed.
 
Nothing On Macs Work. No blue screens though!

I am getting even more sick of rotten apples everyday.
I have had more crap not work properly on this 2500 dollar laptop than any other computer. This parallels problem is just icing on the cake.
People complain about vista. I've used it since 2005 on multiple pc. people hated it because they couldn't use their 10 year old scanner or 25 dollar crap lexmark printer and had to buy new stuff. waaahh. Vista worked fine for me.
now i enter the world of mac and whenever apple updates their OSsux .002% it breaks something in all the programs written prior to the update. At least with a pc users have been using them for 20 years, they outnumber mac users 10 to 1 so if their is a problem with the most obscure program their are pages of forums to help you fix it!
But my 17" mac is really light and dents easy!
When something screws up on a mac, apple ignores it, blames someone else, or makes something shinier to buy.


I'm having the same issue. Watch it shut down the VM. Windows isn't completely shut down before parallels blows its load and reverts to the "grey screen of death". so when it starts up, whatever process they have in the background thinks it restarting a suspended OS, Not a cold boot. somehow force quit de-fibrillates the boot and it proceeds to boot when the app isn't even running. restarting works. suspending works. just don't shut down your vm.
TOTAL CRAP.
P.S. PARALLELS, If you are going to include a uninstaller, why not remove every file you and the OS created because of you.

(OsX 10.6.2 - 1000 of improvements, still no OS centralized uninstaller support)
 
I wish I had read the Forums before "updating" to 5.0.9310. My Parallels has turned into ParaLYZE.
I have a MacBook, 0S 10.6.2, 2GB memory. I was running Windows XP home edition until Parallels killed my ability to run the VM. Since "updating" I not only have the itty bitty VM screen inside a large black border, but also Parallels keeps capturing my mouse and keyboard. And when I do free my mouse, a ghost white cursor remains behind.Yes I know how to unfreeze them but they freeze up again as soon as I enter the VM. Parallels keeps searching for drivers for hardware I don't have that is not connected to my computer. I can't load Parallels tools, whatever they are. And - it makes my trackpad on my computer freeze! (At least that problem goes away when I restart my computer.
 
VMs Hanging

I worked this with support and they gave me a build (5.0.9325) which completely some my issues.
I was asked not to redistribute but I suspect that note to support referencing the build would get a copy.
I repeatedly asked that the post to this forum but I guess they refused to do so.
 
one solution

I worked with tech support and we discovered a set of Parallels tools from Parallels 3 hanging around on my VM. But we could NOT get them to uninstall. So I made a new VM, then killed off the old one (after saving the files I needed - there were not too many because I use the mac side for most stuff.)

The new VM works great, so far. I spent less time re-installing software than I spent beating my head against the wall trying to fix my previous VM.
 
I've head this problem since December, with both XP and win 7 Guests OSes. I installed Win7 in a boot camp partition and created a VM usng that partition. The problem still occurred, but became "intermittent"--sometimes it would hang, others not.

It's been a while since I've done any serious system programming, but this has all the marks of a classic "race condition" and those can be tough to track down, especially if you cannot reproduce it back in the lab.

Ive had lots of back and forth with Parallels backend support on this and they've actually logged onto my machine remotely and watched Desktop 5.0 hang in real time. I was informed that they they believed they had a fix and that it wold be available in an upcoming update. The latest update still exhibits the problem, so I have reopened the support ticket associated with this that I created a couple a months ago.
 
fixed!

I had this problem with a XP vm - it bugged me for ages so I would just suspend the VM rather than restart..

However I just upgraded to build 5.0.9344 and reinstalled the parallels tools by
1. opening the VM (and waiting about 15 mins for it to start)
2. Virtual Machine -> Reinstall Parallels Tools ()
3. thats it. It now opens the VM straight away
 
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