Random lock up/freezes of parallels. Arghhhhhhhh!!!

[Dirky]

Hi,
I purchased parallels a few months ago and seemed to have problems from the start.

Despite logging a support ticket with parallels, [Parallels #29533] August 30th, I have not had a reply from them at all!

I have followed the ticked up several times but nobody has taken the time to respond.

My problem seems to be random lockups of parallels. At first XP SP2 seems to freeze and I cannot do anything inside the window. So I then press the STOP button and am told the VM is still running etc. I choose to quit and nothing happens.

After this parallels stops responding, no menus work.

Next I have to do 2 x force quits before parallels goes away.

Sometimes it runs for a few hours to a day, sometimes its 20 or 30 mins.

Recently (certainly since installing build 1940) I have had some crashes of parallels at start up, where I am now prompted to send in a debug report. I have done this twice now.

I am now runinng build 1940 with 600mb of reserved memory on an Intel iMac with 1gb physical memory.

I find the level of support unacceptable for a paid for product. If Parallels are to get a good foot hold before the OSX version of Vmware comes along and wipes them away then they need to up the ante on thier customer support side.

Mike

 

[Sideways]

Dirky, I share your anger about support tickets. Mine was never responded to at all either. Having said that I've had very useful support from a lot of folks through the forums... Couple of ideas about your problem. 1. Check that you have (re)installed the Parallels tools under XP. 2. Check your networking config. I have had network problems hang my XP install and then Parallels goes away as well. 3. Make sure your anti-virus defns are up to date ... A friend had a parallels problem a week or two back that turned out to be a virus. He handnt installed anti-virus as he figured he was safe behind the OS/X firewall. Then he copied an infected file in from work ....

If you can break the problem down folks here will gladly help out ....

Paul

 

[Dirky]

Dirky, I share your anger about support tickets. Mine was never responded to at all either. Having said that I've had very useful support from a lot of folks through the forums... Couple of ideas about your problem. 1. Check that you have (re)installed the Parallels tools under XP. 2. Check your networking config. I have had network problems hang my XP install and then Parallels goes away as well. 3. Make sure your anti-virus defns are up to date ... A friend had a parallels problem a week or two back that turned out to be a virus. He handnt installed anti-virus as he figured he was safe behind the OS/X firewall. Then he copied an infected file in from work ....

If you can break the problem down folks here will gladly help out ....

Paul

Thanks for your reply Paul.
I have checked parallels tools is installed and to be sure I re-installed it.
Networking looks ok.
I am using AVG anti-virus which is up to date.

I'm not sure where else to look? It was a clean install of XP SP2 and I noticed the lockups soon after I installed it, so I'm inclined to think it is nothing to do with the guest OS.
I do use Outlook 2003 a lot and leave this running within parallels, I suppose I could test it without this running?

thanks
Mike

 

[joem]

A word to the wise

He handnt installed anti-virus as he figured he was safe behind the OS/X firewall.

Ouch!

1) Running a guest with bridged networking does not put you behind the OSX firewall.

2) A firewall will not protect against viruses in files you download deliberately.

3) A firewall will not protect against anything you download in email (see #2).

4) Even anti virus will not protect against brand new viruses much of the time.

5) A firewall WILL protect you against many common intrusion attempts, and can reduce the damage your infected computer does to the network if you do get a virus.

Solution to some of these problems:
Copy (back up) your .hdd file(s) regularly, and keep several generations of backups. Your internet connected system WILL become corrupted eventually. Backups have saved me many times.

 

[Dirky]

Joe, do you have any suggestions for the original problem?

Mike

Ouch!

1) Running a guest with bridged networking does not put you behind the OSX firewall.

2) A firewall will not protect against viruses in files you download deliberately.

3) A firewall will not protect against anything you download in email (see #2).

4) Even anti virus will not protect against brand new viruses much of the time.

5) A firewall WILL protect you against many common intrusion attempts, and can reduce the damage your infected computer does to the network if you do get a virus.

Solution to some of these problems:
Copy (back up) your .hdd file(s) regularly, and keep several generations of backups. Your internet connected system WILL become corrupted eventually. Backups have saved me many times.