When Parallels is paused, OS X turns slow

J

Jose Elias

Bit poster
Here's something weird (which I can reproduce almost every single time): Let's say I have Firefox on OS X open with a few tabs, and then I switch to Parallels Desktop (with XP virtualized) and I pause that virtual machine and then go back to Firefox on OS X...

The result is that I can literally see each key in slow motion as I typed it anywhere inside the browser. However, the moment I un-pause the virtual machine, things go back to normal and I can type fast again.

In other words, it seems that a paused virtual machine uses *more* CPU time than a running one!!! Either that OR for some weird reason a paused parallels desktop grabs too many keyboard interrupts.

Thanks!!!
 
Paused Virtual Machine Is Slow

I'm having the same issue. If I pause or suspend my virtual machine (Windows 7), Mac OSX 10.6 slows to a crawl. Using any application and typing anything is almost impossible. If I wake up the virtual machine or un-suspend it, everything goes back to normal.

Any suggestions?
 
I've noticed that ever since upgrading to Parallels 5, going into or returning from Suspend mode slows OS X to a crawl. I can't even do anything in Firefox while Parallels is going into suspend mode in the background. Beachball cursors every few seconds.

You'd think software should get better as it ages. It feels like Parallels has become slower, more bloated and less reliable than their previous versions. And this is coming from someone who uses WinXP with his virtual machine only to run Office apps!
 
Problem persists in different form after updates

After all the Parallels updates ever since my original post, things *seem* a bit better, but now things are worse, because for some reason when I wake up a virtualized XP machine often times XP is totally unresponsive for several seconds, and then it just turns slow as a snail until I restart Parallels again.

So it seems there is some serious problems with pausing and restarting a VM in Parallels (note that I'm using a virtualized XP Boot Camp partition, in case that helps diagnose the problem).

Does anyone know if Parallels developers read these posts? or is this only for user-to-user communication?
 
same problem here with resuming a suspended VM (running windows 7 ultimate using parallels 5 in my case) causing my system to slow to a crawl.
 
From what my experience is worth I've found that assigning an appropriate amount of memory to the VM is required. That amount of memory needs to be balanced with the Mac's memory. I'm running a Windows 7 VM on a 2 GB MBAir (out of 256 MB are assigned to the Mac's graphics card). My VM runs with 832 MB of memory - assigning more slows things down on both Mac and Windows dramatically as the Mac will begin to swap memory.
I also found that on my MBAir assigning only 1 (virtual) processor to the VM is better than assigning 2, since the MBAir will turn off one core if it becomes too hot. That also slows things down.
So play with your memory settings until you've arrived at the optimal setting.
 
Actually, I have a MacBook Pro (latest 2010 model) with 4GB of RAM, of which I assign 2GB to Parallels, and I still have the same problem, so I can definitely say that this is not a memory starvation issue, but a real problem with Parallels's code.
 
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