Parallels takes ages to start up

I'm not sure what changed here... Parallels used to run fine. I'm running Leopard with Parallels 3.0.

When I start Parallels, it will bounce in the dock for a bit and CPU goes up to 50%. Then it will just hang there at 50% for like 10-15 minutes, and FINALLY Parallels will startup and function normally.

This only just started.... does anyone have any thoughts as to where I might start to try troubleshooting this?

 

Hard to say without investigating, logs
May be you can create ticket in support

 

Are you running any sort of AV on OS X? If you are, try disabling it (real-time scan).

 

I have EXACTLY the same issue. Parallels (build 5608 and 5584 before it) takes forever - 5+ minutes - to launch. While it is hung, one of my cores is at 100%. Once it is fully launched, it runs fine, without any slowdown or anything.

I uninstalled and reinstalled as per these instructions but it made no difference.

For me, the Parallels icon bounces in the Dock for a little while, then quits bouncing and is running, but without the "I'm running" dot under the icon. (The dock icon menu only has a 'Force quit' option when this happens.) Eventually - after many minutes - Parallels launches.

To John: what sort of logs should I look at to figure out what's going on? There is nothing in my system log (/var/log/system.log) and nothing in the "Console Log" in Console.app.

 

is it Boot Camp VM? in this case it is ok, it is installing Parallels tools

 

Mine is not a Boot Camp VM. It is a disk image-based Windows XP guest OS that has been running fine for at least a year; only in the past month or so has this slowdown started. As additional info, I have 2GB in my Mac mini (running 10.5.4), and I give 256MB to XP.

I also have another Parallels session running: a Linux guest OS. This one usually doesn't take as long to launch as the XP guest does, but ever since the reinstall (as per my comment above), now both take several minutes to launch. Again, once it is launched, it runs fine - Linux runs at full speed, no problem.

Oh, one other interesting thing: the process that is eating my CPU while Parallels is hung during launch is WindowServer. And, I timed it - it is 2m30s, not literally 5 minutes. It just seems like it is that long.

PS - edited to remove my choppy wording.

 

256 mb is not enough for Windows Xp, also please see some tips bellow
1. Set memory for Virtual Machine to 512mb
2. Perform Mac and Windows side disk defragmentation http://www.xvsxp.com/system/system_tools_defrag.php
3. Set Adjust memory limit from Auto to Manual at Parallels Desktop -Preferences-Memory, and set limit a bit more higher than VM memory
4. Disable Themes in Windows XP serives.msc stop Themes service
5. If you are running in Coherence, try to switch to Single Window, or lower Mac resolution
6. Some antivirus software can load CPU when Heuristic Prediction is set, or Tamper protection (Symantec, MacAffey), adjust settings to risk you are supposed, high security settings is not always good idea, as it can also affect software running
7. Run msconfig , and disable unneeded startup items
See http://www.netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_xp.html
8. Make sure that no VNC,or remote desktop connection is established to Mac, this can slowdown Parallels Desktop

 

John, thanks for the suggestions, but perhaps I should have been clearer: Parallels Desktop.app itself takes 2m30s to launch. Once it is running, the Guest OS starts up quickly (normal speed).

I'll try the suggestions you mentioned and see what that does.

 

daniel,

Does your Windows VM automatically start when you start Parallels Desktop? If so try starting Parallels Desktop from Finder > Applications > Parallels > Press and hold cmd key and double click on Parallels Desktop

or you can set start auto to 0 in your VM .pvs file.
Does Parallels still takes long after doing that?

You also mentioned trying http://kb.parallels.com/en/4790 - did "repair disk permissions" show that you had some incorrect permissions on your hard drive?

I would also recommend opening ticket for Parallels technical support and providing them with your system profile description: Finder > Terminal > Utilities > System profiler > Save as.

 

If Parallels Desktop starts slow, the problem on Mac OS side,
Disk permissions repair may help, try to start Parallels Desktop as first Application, when you restart Mac OS

 

No, that makes no difference in launch time.

There was a single superficial error, I forget what it was.