Still over 100% CPU Usage . . . HELP

I was having the same problem. It would seem that the solution for me was to uncheck the "share Mac applications with windows" box in the applications section of the configuration. After doing that I have not heard the fans kick on, and windows cpu usage in activity monitor is around 10-30%.
 
Upon opening (Big Sur / PD 16, i7 4 Ghz), usage immediately jumps to 164% then drops. Opening PowerPoint file jumps to 190% then fluxes 100%<>190%. FYI, I run on a second monitor as well.
 
For me, the "solution" to high CPU utilization and constantly running fans was to follow the advice here and change to these vm configuration settings:
Processors used: 1
Memory 4+ GB (4096 MB) <-- Linked thread recommends 4 GB but I have 32 GB available, so I tried with 12 GB ram setting and works fine for me. Also worked fine at 4 GB.
Adaptive hypervisor: Off
Graphics card: memory automatically.​
My fans no longer constantly run (silent again even when running Visual Studio, SSMS, and other dev apps all at same time) and my windows machine is fully available within 1 minute after startup or restart, and everything works "normally." Prior to using this configuration, I used the recommended number of processors and other default/recommended settings and was frustrated that I had to wait 10+ minutes for the vm to be really usable (would take several minutes after clicking an app for it to load and become usable) and my 2019 16" MBP (2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9, 32 GB ram) fans would run full blast constantly and showed % CPU of 600%+ in Activity Monitor. I'm running Parallels Version 16.1.3 (49160).
 
'dont set on 4cpu. only 1 cpu will be faster.
this is the problem'
Doesn't that depend on your setup? I have 64GB and 16 CPUs available, I give Parallels 16GB and 8 CPUs for my Win10 and also limit the processor to moderate ... and the fans still kick in
 
Hi,
I've reduced to one cpu but the performance lags. Has there been any solution from parallels engineering team as of yet?
Thank you.
 
Jdx636 said:
Hi,
I've reduced to one cpu but the performance lags. Has there been any solution from parallels engineering team as of yet?
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Reducing it to 1 CPU only makes sense if you have Xeon processor. If you have i7/i9 won't be a problem.
 
AlbertoM6 said:
Reducing it to 1 CPU only makes sense if you have Xeon processor. If you have i7/i9 won't be a problem.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by, won't be a problem? I have and i9 and 16 CPUs and 64GB. I've reduced Parallels Windows 10 to 4 CPUs and 8GB, no perceptible difference in performance from 8CPUs and 16GB but the fan is still on as I type this. Nothing else other than background tasks and Firefox are running on the Mac.
 
BigGJS said:
What do you mean by, won't be a problem? I have and i9 and 16 CPUs and 64GB. I've reduced Parallels Windows 10 to 4 CPUs and 8GB, no perceptible difference in performance from 8CPUs and 16GB but the fan is still on as I type this. Nothing else other than background tasks and Firefox are running on the Mac.
Click to expand...
I mean that reducing to 1 CPU is not going to solve the issue described in this thread unless you have a Xeon CPU, it was bug time a go and it was fixed, I reckon. I feel your pain regarding your fans kicking off like crazy, my solution for that matter has been disabling Turbo Boost in Big Sur and now in Monterey enabling Low Power mode. Helps a lot and in my case with 4 CPUs assigned to the VM when I utilise Mac's dGPU I can live with it. It was very challenging before being in Teams meetings (I am force to use a VM for my work).
 
AlbertoM6 said:
I mean that reducing to 1 CPU is not going to solve the issue described in this thread unless you have a Xeon CPU, it was bug time a go and it was fixed, I reckon. I feel your pain regarding your fans kicking off like crazy, my solution for that matter has been disabling Turbo Boost in Big Sur and now in Monterey enabling Low Power mode. Helps a lot and in my case with 4 CPUs assigned to the VM when I utilise Mac's dGPU I can live with it. It was very challenging before being in Teams meetings (I am force to use a VM for my work).
Click to expand...

Yes, I use a VM too for work so its annoying to listen to the fan all day when you know the machine you are running is more than capable. I have it suspended to so there is loads of air flow. I'll try your tips thanks.
 
same problem with parallel 17.

and i do not get a respond from the tech - they send me to read the article.
i do not have nothing installed on the windows else office.
could something help me ?
 
For anyone with Cisco AnyConnect 4.9.x installed on their Mac, please follow the recommendations in this thread: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/420913

I suspect the AnyConnect Socket Filter (com.cisco.anyconnect.macos.acsockext) was running at 100% CPU by monitoring traffic in/out of my Parallels VM, along with any network adapter on the Mac, even though the AnyConnect application was not in use. This caused kernel_task to kick-in, throttling the machine until the process which is a resource hog (in this case both the Cisco process and the Parallels VM process) settles down. I can confidently say my 2019 16" i9 5500M 8GB 64GB machine is no longer throttling itself (using Hot to determine CPU Speed Limit aka Thermal Throttling https://github.com/macmade/Hot/releases) with low power mode disabled on monterey 12.1 when attached to 2 external 1080p monitors using Parallels.

Hopefully this helps someone out after fighting the issue for 2 years :)
 
DanielG25 said:
I started hitting this same thing after I enabled Nested Virtualization on the Windows10 vm. I use a bootcamp vm and wanted to use the linux subsystem. The difference between nested virtualization on and off is extreme. with it on, i'm running 200-800 %cpu according to Activity Monitor even when Task Manager is showing 5%. With it off, everything drops down to < 100%. right now cruising at 50% on the activity monitor.
Click to expand...

Me too, same scenario, I needed Nested Virtualization: turned it on, and system interupts goes to the top on taskmgr, and CPU usage on the mac causes the fancs to start.
 
It's weird, never had this problem. All of a sudden I noticed my MBA burning hot to the touch. prl_disp_service using 400% CPU on Mac OS despite NOTHING happening in Windows (nothing - confirmed with task manager).

Switching to 1 CPU helps a little. But now I'm having to pause the machine every time I leave it or I'll come back to a melted laptop. No amount of adaptive hypervisor or CPUs, Memory seems to make a difference. Will post back if I find anything. Otherwise, wish there was a keyboard shortcut to Pause the instance.
 
I tried everything... no matter what I did, still used constant CPU.
I have a backup of this very VM from a few weeks ago that doesn't do this despite being (as far as I know) 100% identical to today's copy.
Note to self and others - back up your VM periodically. It's worth it. Will let you know if it returns.
 
Moved the Parallels instance to my M1 Max (from my MBA) - same thing, 400% CPU, set to 6 CPUs, 600% CPU - while windows shows nothing running. <sigh>.

Hope this gets fixed soon.
 
So, I reached out to Parallels support and they had me do this - and it worked :)

Thank you Vashish!

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We would recommend you to update your current Windows 11 virtual machine to 24H2 and test if the issue still persists.

First, ensure that you back up your Windows virtual machine before proceeding with the steps outlined as per this KB article : https://kb.parallels.com/en/4859 or https://kb.parallels.com/8827
1. Download the .ISO image file from Microsoft website : https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11arm64
2. After successfully downloading the Windows .ISO image file, start your Windows 11 virtual machine and mount the Windows installation .ISO file inside it, following the instructions in this KB article : https://kb.parallels.com/8638
3. Once you have successfully mounted the Windows installation image file inside your Windows 11 virtual machine, you will need to run the setup file located within the image in the "In this PC" Window.
4. Press Command + E on your keyboard to open the "Quick Access" File Explorer window, then select "DVD Drive" from the left pane.
5. Double-click the "Setup" file to begin the upgrade to 24H2.
 
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