V3 ... Dead After Win XP Critical Updates

HI

I installed a clean Parallels V3 onto a new MacPro ... OS10.4.10.

Install was fine ... the original XP sp2 worked with 1 Gig memory and all devices on.

I ran windows update, and installed the recommended critical updates only. This semmed to work, only now the VM hangs at the "Windows Is Starting Up" screen ... even with all devices deactivated (except the HD) .... and with lowered memory (512K).

Any ideas ... or back to V2?

Thanks

Lee

 

A piece of advice. It has been my experience that the best possible way to insure a good outcome after a Windows upgrade or a Parallels upgrade or both, is to completely reboot the Mac. I have managed to survive all three versions of Parallels on 4 different Intel Macs without ever running into a significant problem. I run in on a Quad Core Mac Pro, 2 Mac Books, and a MacBook Pro. Although the Mac Books are only 2 GB, the Mac Book Pro is 4 GB (Santa Rosa version), and my Mac Pro has 8 GB. Nevertheless, I run all my Windows program in a VM having less than 1 GB, typically about 768 MB. I think I may use 1 GB on my Mac Pro, but no more. So, I don't see any reason for your problems unless your Mac Pro only has - perhaps 2 GB - and you've got a dozen different programs loading into Windows at boot time, or a dozen different programs loading when the Mac boots. I too have all the critical updates of Windows XP, SP2 on all my machines. But aside from Windows itself, the only application I load into windows at boot time is AVG antivirus free version. I realize that you can't load Windows to see what is loading at boot time, but a reboot of your whole system may free up enough other memory to let your Windows VM have the full 1 GB.

 

Hi

Thanks for the advice.

This is a totally clean, from scratch install of Parallels 3 and Win XP sp2. No extra win apps installed... reboots attempted. Windows just won't run after updating.

I'll uninstall and try from the start... pay more attention to the updates this time!

Lee

 

Hi

Well, I started over again... installed Windows... checked functionality through all stages (install NAV, then 80 security updates, then IE updates) .... and this time it worked.

No idea why, but glad

Lee

 

Well, you were lucky. I have been rebooting, uninstalling, installing, repairing permissions, etc., etc., and I can't get XP to boot on Parallels desktop, and reading through these discussions, I have found some real horror stories. I am going to the Apple store tomorrow and tell them to take Parallels off the shelves.