Grey screen on 9.0.23350

My issue is similar to those here except, I think, compounded by the fact that I have a MacBook Pro 15 with the second monitor positioned ABOVE the laptop screen. MY issue is I cannot get Parallels to display Full Screen on the upper monitor...it always goes to the MBP display. And then, as with all of you here, it goes to dark grey and poof, it's gone.

I read the other day that in order for the Apple Mavericks-advertised feature of the Dock to be on the second display (after you have selected "Displays have separate Spaces" enabled in Mission Control), you cannot place the displays in a vertical orientation..they need to be side-by-side. So maybe some of the issues here are Mavericks-related video/multiple monitor issues, compounded by Parallels bugs/implementations. Coherence is my current fix (though that's another bug: when you are showing the Windows Toolbar, I think it interferes with the Apple menu bar because all of the Windows VM window targets are off by the height of the Apple menu bar. You have to click on a higher screen location to hit the point you want to click. But that's another thread, I'm sure. I just hide the Windows toolbar.)
 
My secondary display is above my laptop screen as well. Be sure, in Mission Control prefs, you have "Displays have separate Spaces" checked.

Also, in the VM configuration, under the Options tab, in Full Screen settings, disable "Use Mac OS X Full Screen" and deselect any Active Screen Corners. Be sure "Use all displays..." is not checked. Thus far, this seems to have eliminated the grey screen. It's a bit glitchy (VM screen jumps a bit, and is "low" on the screen as you mentioned), but it seems to work.
 
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Some great advice there; I had 'Full screen' option enabled. once I unchecked it, it worked very well; like Clairol, the grey is gone. :-).

My MBP has the selectable integrated (9400) or discrete (9600) video card....it seems to perform a bit better using the 9600. The screen slippage is not happening, even with the Windows toolbar at the top (my preferred position.)

Thanks.
 
The 2nd-tier support folks are helping me now. We made the following changes to my video settings:
Under Options...Optimization, we checked "Enable Adaptive Hypervisor"
Under Hardware...Video, we checked "Enable vertical synchronization"

I'm now running in "normal" fullscreen mode (with "Use Mac OS X Full Screen" checked, under Options...Full Screen) again. We'll see how it holds up. If you're suffering the greyscreen, you might try these tweaks and reply to this thread with your results.

Another interesting discovery was that, when the greyscreen occurs, if you open the Displays preferences on the Mac and rearrange the screens, the greyscreen goes away (temporarily, at least). We also determined that Coherence is really wonky. Video artifacts, windows freeze up for no reason, things jump around a lot.
 
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Hi All,

Please perform the steps given below :

1. Check for Parallels Desktop updates (http://kb.parallels.com/111603) and make sure you are running the latest build of Parallels Desktop 9 ( 9.0.24172 )

2. Unplug the External Monitor and plug it again and then enter Full Screen mode.

3. Right-click on Windows Desktop -> Select Screen Resolution.

4. Choose additional Displays one by one and change 'Multiple displays' to Extend these displays.

5. Click on Apply -> OK.

If the still persists, you may also follow the steps as prescribed in the knowledge-base article : http://kb.parallels.com/118728 and check if the issue is getting resolved.

Thanks,
Maheeshwar
 
Thanks for trying to help, but that's not the problem we're tackling in this thread.

We're talking about a solid grey screen that appears at random times when a VM is run in fullscreen mode on a secondary display. It has nothing to do with extending displays.
 
Anyone with the fullscreen-greyscreen-on-secondary-monitor problem, try updating to 9.0.24217 and see if that resolves the issue. I'm on the road all week, and I won't be able to test it until I get back to the office.

UPDATE: I just got back to the office, plugged in my secondary monitor, and the VM immediately went to the greyscreen.

My conclusion at this point is that Parallels simply does not function properly with Mavericks' virtualized monitor subsystem, so anything you do with a VM that uses that ("Use Mac OS X Full Screen," Coherence mode, etc.) is probably going to have issues.

I've been passed off to the programmers, who haven't contacted me yet. I'm hoping that they're fully aware of the problems and are busy trying to fix it. Call me an optimist.
 
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I've been having the same problem for the last few months, with Ubuntu and Windows 7 VMs.
Noticed a couple of things:
1. I also get this on my rMBP 15" (NVIDIA) main screen. Perhaps the problem isn't present on main screen if powered by Intel?
2. Problem only seems to occur when I mouse to the side/corner/top/bottom of the screen.
3. As others have said, Exit then re-enter Fullscreen fixes it.
4. Coherence is pretty much useless.
 
Good grief. I just updated to 9.0.24229, updated Parallels Tools in the Win7 VM, and the grey screen is STILL happening. I went ahead and created another problem report, 42325774. This is at least the third update that hasn't fixed the problem.
 
Hi JonG89,

As per the problem report id, I see that your version of Parallels Tools has not been updated to the latest build 9.0.24229.

Please try to re-install Parallels Tools by following all steps mentioned on the article below:

http://kb.parallels.com/8969

Thanks,
Looran
 
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Thanks, Looran, but this issue has already progressed pretty far past that point. We've already established that reinstalling Parallels Tools doesn't fix it; in fact, the greyscreen issue occurs even if Parallels Tools aren't installed at all. It happens regardless of the guest OS, the video hardware or 3D settings. The only way to avoid the greyscreen is to either run the VM in a window (not fullscreen), or uncheck the "Use Mac OS X Fullscreen" option. There is (still) a bug in the way Parallels interacts with the virtualized video subsystem in Mavericks.

EDIT: Also, I checked the Parallels Tools version in the Windows "Programs and Features" control panel, and it shows to be 9.0.24229.
 
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I know there were at least a few others having the same issue...can you guys check to see if you still get the greyscreen after updating to 9.0.24229?
 
I've got the same problem – parallels screen goes grey on external monitor. What I've found though, is it only happens when I move the mouse cursor to the Mac menu bar at the top of the second screen. I'm going to try disabling the Translucent Menu tomorrow and see if that fixes it, but I'm not holding my breath.

Edit: Forgot to mention, I'm using Mac OS X 10.9.2 with Parallels v. 9.0.24229 running Windows 8.1.

Edit: Changing Translucent Menu didn't help, the grey screen keeps happening when I move the mouse to the top of the screen. Any idea why this happens?
 
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Same thing happening here, interestingly I've been using the system daily for months without this issue and it started happening today and continues to do so after a reboot of the mac and vm.

I have latest 9.0.24229 Parallels and up to date windows 8.1 and Mac OS 10.9.2
 
Clicking on check for updates says there is no update and that the build I'm running with this issue (9.0.24229 Revision 991745; Tuesday, April 1, 2014) is still the latest.
 
FWIW, this issue is still occurring with Parallels Desktop 9.0.24229, with Parallels Tools 9.0.24229 installed in the VM (or even with PT not installed...it happens either way, on any VM). If I want to use the VM full screen on the secondary monitor, the only viable workaround is to uncheck the "Use Mac OS X Full Screen" option in the VM configuration's "Options-->Full Screen" tab. It would seem that Parallels Desktop still has incompatibilities with the new virtualized desktop arrangement in Mavericks.

I submitted yet another report id, 45120993. The last one was supposedly escalated to the dev team, but they never contacted me. Maybe they already know about the problem and are still trying to fix it, or maybe it fell through the cracks. Either way, I'd at least like to know what the status is.
 
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I have this exact same problem, with A Macbook pro running windows 8 on an external monitor with Solidworks. Would love to see a fix for it, it drives me crazy.
 
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