how to improve battery life macOS Sierra and Windows 10 (Parallels 13 Pro)

nrenter · Feb 9, 2018

I agree...battery drain after upgrading to Parallels 13 is brutal.

nrenter · Feb 9, 2018

nrenter · Feb 9, 2018

Technical support ID number...241048255

JasonA4 · Feb 9, 2018

Hello I created a battery log based on the requirements. I recorded the battery stats for an hour and in that time my battery went from 100 to 50%. the file is 12.4Mb how do I upload it?

Dmitry Geynisman · Feb 12, 2018

nrenter said:
Technical support ID number...241048255

Thank you very much, @nrenter! We will investigate and let you know the results.

Dmitry Geynisman · Feb 12, 2018

JasonA4 said:
Hello I created a battery log based on the requirements. I recorded the battery stats for an hour and in that time my battery went from 100 to 50%. the file is 12.4Mb how do I upload it?

Hi @JasonA4, you may use any convenient file share (sorry we don't have one temporarily), for example https://uploadfiles.io/
Please do not forget to send us a technical report as well (Help > Send Technical Data...).

Dmitry Geynisman · Feb 13, 2018

nrenter said:
Technical support ID number...241048255

@nrenter, can you please also send me an output of the Terminal.app command below:

ioreg -l | grep Capacity

nrenter · Feb 19, 2018

Dmitry@Parallels said:
@nrenter, can you please also send me an output of the Terminal.app command below:

ioreg -l | grep Capacity

Nicholas-MBP:~ Nicholas$ ioreg -l | grep Capacity

| | "MaxCapacity" = 5355

| | "CurrentCapacity" = 5302

| | "LegacyBatteryInfo" = {"Amperage"=0,"Flags"=5,"Capacity"=5355,"Current"=5302,"Voltage"=12733,"Cycle Count"=324}

| | "DesignCapacity" = 6330

FrodoN · Feb 20, 2018

I have the same problem

Dmitry Geynisman · Feb 21, 2018

FrodoN said:
I have the same problem

Hi @FrodoN, please proceed with instructions from this post: https://forum.parallels.com/threads...ndows-10-parallels-13-pro.341822/#post-835995

JasonA4 · Feb 21, 2018

Dmitry@Parallels said:
Hi @JasonA4, you may use any convenient file share (sorry we don't have one temporarily), for example https://uploadfiles.io/
Please do not forget to send us a technical report as well (Help > Send Technical Data...).

Dmistry,

This is the link https://ufile.io/o76wv

Anything you can do to increase battery life would be great this basically means you can't run parallels without being connected to power...

Dmitry Geynisman · Feb 21, 2018

JasonA4 said:
Dmistry,

This is the link https://ufile.io/o76wv

Anything you can do to increase battery life would be great this basically means you can't run parallels without being connected to power...

Thank you very much, Jason, but we also need a problem report collected right after collecting the logs, please..

JasonA4 · Feb 21, 2018

Okay find attached a new battery log -- I worked primarily on Mac apps but had PPT open https://ufile.io/8hnz5

I will also send technical data now - report number is 243048374

Dmitry Geynisman · Feb 22, 2018

nrenter said:
Nicholas-MBP:~ Nicholas$ ioreg -l | grep Capacity

| | "MaxCapacity" = 5355

| | "CurrentCapacity" = 5302

| | "LegacyBatteryInfo" = {"Amperage"=0,"Flags"=5,"Capacity"=5355,"Current"=5302,"Voltage"=12733,"Cycle Count"=324}

| | "DesignCapacity" = 6330

Thank you! Here's the summary from our Engineering Team.
Based on the logs that have been provided, a workload in guest OS running inside Parallels Desktop involves on average 30% utilization of one CPU thread plus multimedia timer is enabled in guest Windows. Multimedia timer is a high resolution timer, that is enabled by some applications, primary those, that deal with the real-time multimedia workloads. It causes an excessive number of idle/running transitions, which impact host OS X power efficiency. Please note, that it is not possible to fully mitigate it without an adverse impact on those real-time multimedia workloads, like sound playback or recording.

Please note, that the battery current maximum capacity is now 15% below its design capacity, while new batteries use to be around 5% above. The logs indicate, that within an hour your battery had went down from 3241 mAh to 1947 mAh, which implies utilization of 1300 mAh. Given the design capacity of 6330 mAh, it should be around 5 hours from a full charge at the design capacity, which is 1.5-2 times short of what Apple claims. Given that the particular workload is more power intensive, than an average office one, it does not look that unexpected. Please note, that there are indeed no other notable power consumers except the VM process.

Dmitry Geynisman · Feb 22, 2018

JasonA4 said:
Okay find attached a new battery log -- I worked primarily on Mac apps but had PPT open https://ufile.io/8hnz5

I will also send technical data now - report number is 243048374

Thanks, Jason! The battery went from 3899 mAh(around the full charge) to 1702 mAh within an hour according to the logs provided. It implies utilization of 2100 mAh. The battery itself is around 10% below its design capacity, which should be around 4315. The workload implies, that VM persistently utilizes 100-120% of 1 CPU thread. It looks like a rather heavy load. However, other than the VM process, there are Firefox and Safari (that consume a lot of power accidentally, perhaps, when they are utilized) and Duet (which either steadily consumes notable amount of CPU or drains a lot accidentally).

Can you please advise what programs are you using in Windows VM?

JasonA4 · Feb 22, 2018

Dmitry@Parallels said:
Thanks, Jason! The battery went from 3899 mAh(around the full charge) to 1702 mAh within an hour according to the logs provided. It implies utilization of 2100 mAh. The battery itself is around 10% below its design capacity, which should be around 4315. The workload implies, that VM persistently utilizes 100-120% of 1 CPU thread. It looks like a rather heavy load. However, other than the VM process, there are Firefox and Safari (that consume a lot of power accidentally, perhaps, when they are utilized) and Duet (which either steadily consumes notable amount of CPU or drains a lot accidentally).

Can you please advise what programs are you using in Windows VM?

Hi Dmitry,

I'm primarily using my Windows OS for MS Office (where Mac versions don't exist or are not fully functional). I mostly use PowerPoint, Visio and Project (although primarily PowerPoint). I will occasionally also use IE11 or Edge for some of my software. I am happy to remove shut off any apps that are draining my battery in Windows that won't effect either of those products. I will of course still need access to explorer and network connections.

Let me know. Is there anything I should be contacting apple about?

Dmitry Geynisman · Feb 26, 2018

JasonA4 said:
Hi Dmitry,

I'm primarily using my Windows OS for MS Office (where Mac versions don't exist or are not fully functional). I mostly use PowerPoint, Visio and Project (although primarily PowerPoint). I will occasionally also use IE11 or Edge for some of my software. I am happy to remove shut off any apps that are draining my battery in Windows that won't effect either of those products. I will of course still need access to explorer and network connections.

Let me know. Is there anything I should be contacting apple about?

I think you're good on Apple + virtualization side, it's Windows who drains the battery by high CPU utilization. We've noticed one more thing - there are too many svchost.exe processes which represent Windows Update service, just take a look:

System: kernel 2156.250 ms, user space 2703.125 ms, cpu usage 60.27
Name User Name PID Sess. Kernel (ms)/% User space (ms)/% Total (ms) CPU usage Memory(Kb) File name
============================================ ============================ ========== ===== ================ ================= ========== ========= =========== ================
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 1680 0 656.25/ 11.11% 1640.63/ 27.78% 2296.88 38.89% 26540 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 4624 0 718.75/ 12.17% 968.75/ 16.40% 1687.50 28.57% 9992 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
System 4 0 687.50/ 11.64% 0.00/ 0.00% 687.50 11.64% 8508
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 896 0 46.88/ 0.79% 46.88/ 0.79% 93.75 1.59% 27224 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
GoogleDriveFS.exe jxandrews-XPS\Jason 11640 1 15.63/ 0.26% 15.63/ 0.26% 31.25 0.53% 84116 C:\Program Files\Google\Drive File Stream\25.157.185.3\GoogleDriveFS.exe
GoogleDriveFS.exe jxandrews-XPS\Jason 3924 1 0.00/ 0.00% 31.25/ 0.53% 31.25 0.53% 58824 C:\Program Files\Google\Drive File Stream\25.157.185.3\GoogleDriveFS.exe
services.exe 752 0 0.00/ 0.00% 15.63/ 0.26% 15.63 0.26% 8856 C:\Windows\System32\services.exe
lsass.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 764 0 0.00/ 0.00% 15.63/ 0.26% 15.63 0.26% 17020 C:\Windows\System32\lsass.exe
csrss.exe 624 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 4788 C:\Windows\System32\csrss.exe
winlogon.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 684 1 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 14320 C:\Windows\System32\winlogon.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 868 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 3548 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
WUDFHost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 904 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 7124 C:\Windows\System32\WUDFHost.exe
fontdrvhost.exe Font Driver Host\UMFD-0 932 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 2848 C:\Windows\System32\fontdrvhost.exe
fontdrvhost.exe Font Driver Host\UMFD-1 936 1 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 6696 C:\Windows\System32\fontdrvhost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE 464 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 12516 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 612 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 7872 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
dwm.exe Window Manager\DWM-1 1072 1 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 45820 C:\Windows\System32\dwm.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE 1132 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 10920 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 1180 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 6472 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 1208 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 8776 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 1304 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 10756 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 1312 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 9188 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 1328 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 14316 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 1368 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 14212 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 1400 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 9952 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 1564 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 7148 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 1600 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 8352 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 1664 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 7036 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 1692 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 6956 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 1780 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 6356 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 1788 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 9204 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE 1952 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 10924 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 2016 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 8424 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 2024 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 11820 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 2032 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 8052 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 2044 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 5228 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 1484 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 5844 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
Memory Compression 2200 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 61076 MemCompression
dasHost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 2216 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 7232 C:\Windows\System32\dasHost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 2272 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 9048 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 2300 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 7348 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE 2320 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 7504 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 2364 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 6440 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 2372 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 7172 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 2452 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 8300 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 2496 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 11532 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE 2568 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 7644 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 2584 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 5628 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 2596 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 11028 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE 2676 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 16472 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 2724 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 11808 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 2816 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 15040 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 2848 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 7252 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 1632 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 7104 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 2960 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 16040 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 3188 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 10404 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 3364 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 10780 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
spoolsv.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 3500 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 20540 C:\Windows\System32\spoolsv.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 4076 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 13284 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 4228 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 10232 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
armsvc.exe *32 NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 4240 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 6100 C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\ARM\1.0\armsvc.exe
AGSService.exe *32 NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 4280 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 10172 C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\AdobeGCClient\AGSService.exe
mDNSResponder.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 4304 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 6260 C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE 4312 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 15540 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 4328 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 22544 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE 4344 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 25068 C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
OfficeClickToRun.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 4352 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 35912 C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ClickToRun\OfficeClickToRun.exe
EMP_NSWLSV.exe *32 NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 4372 0 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00/ 0.00% 0.00 0.00% 6064 C:\Program Files (x86)\EPSON Projector\EMP NS Connection V2\EMP_NSWLSV.exe

And that's not even all of them. Probably Windows is trying to install a massive update, I suggest you open Windows Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update >make sure to download and install all pending updates. After doing so, Windows should utilize much less CPU. You can also enable Windows Maintenance feature in virtual machine configuration to schedule installing Windows updates, check this page for instructions - http://download.parallels.com/desktop/v13/docs/en_US/Parallels Desktop User's Guide/41997.htm

MarkM29 · Mar 15, 2018

Dmitry@Parallels said:
Thank you! Here's the summary from our Engineering Team.
Based on the logs that have been provided, a workload in guest OS running inside Parallels Desktop involves on average 30% utilization of one CPU thread plus multimedia timer is enabled in guest Windows. Multimedia timer is a high resolution timer, that is enabled by some applications, primary those, that deal with the real-time multimedia workloads. It causes an excessive number of idle/running transitions, which impact host OS X power efficiency. Please note, that it is not possible to fully mitigate it without an adverse impact on those real-time multimedia workloads, like sound playback or recording.

Why wasn't this a problem with earlier releases?

VernG · Mar 22, 2018

I have the same issue that most people have raised in this thread. I can run the diagnostics, but based on the number of comments here it is pretty clear that this is a Parallels issue and not specific to my machine. Am I understanding properly that there is not a fix to this problem?

Dmitry Geynisman · Mar 26, 2018

VernG said:
I have the same issue that most people have raised in this thread. I can run the diagnostics, but based on the number of comments here it is pretty clear that this is a Parallels issue and not specific to my machine. Am I understanding properly that there is not a fix to this problem?

Hi @VernG, please run the diagnostics, we need more tech data to determine patterns and conclude on the cause.

how to improve battery life macOS Sierra and Windows 10 (Parallels 13 Pro)

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