If you're having problems launching Parallels, read this

Greetings, all.

For well over a year, I have been plagued by an issue with Parallels Desktop, and their support people have not been able to figure out the cause.

Today I figured out the cause.

The problem was that launching Parallels would sometimes cause my system to come to a crawl. It wasn't hung, but things just ran extremely slowly. Immediately (!) as soon as I would force quit Parallels/XP, the system would become normally responsive again.

The problem turns out to be memory-related: if my system has a 256MB block of RAM (that is, the amount memory that I am giving to Parallels/XP) that can be allocated to Parallels, then Parallels starts up very quickly. If my system doesn't have such a block available, then it just slows to a crawl.

This is repeatable: if I have a bunch of apps (Mail, Cyndicate, Safari, Terminal, iTunes, iPhoto, Adium, iCal, Address Book, Parallels running Linux) running when I try to launch Parallels to run XP, the system grinds to a halt. If I then quit all the apps and launch Parallels/XP, it launches VERY quickly. If I then quit that and launch all the other apps again, the system grinds to a halt when I try to launch Parallels/XP.

I should make a suggestion that they have the product determine if it can allocate enough memory to launch properly. Anybody know where to make product suggestions?

My system is a Mac mini core duo 1.66 GHz, with 2GB RAM and 200+GB free HD space. Not a powerhouse, but definitely more than capable of doing what I'm trying to do.

 

What is OS you have on Mac?

 

John, I have the latest OS (10.5.5) on my system, but I have seen this for well over a year on various versions of OS X.

 

Did you check it in Apple store?
I mean for hardware test

 

Bad RAM?

In the manual that came with your mac there's a part that instructs you on how to do an hardware test, run the long one, it will test your RAM.

For product suggestions there's a forum called 'Feature Suggestions' under 'General Discussions'.

 

Hi John & Specimen.

I haven't taken my mini to the Apple Store, but I did run Apple Hardware Test today; I ran the full diagnostics. It came back with no errors.

 

What about to perform permissions repair?

 

John, I had tried that before with no change. I did it again just now, and there is still no change. It launches quickly if there's nothing else running, and just brings the system to a crawl when the other apps are open.

 

What build you are running?

 

I'm running build 5608, but I have had this problem with several builds for the last year or 2.

 

I suppose solution is to run Parallels VM with XP first, also check some tips bellow

1. Set memory for Virtual Machine to less than 1 GB
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
9. Optimize computer experience for best performance
10. Make sure that at least 1.25 GB of Memory is free for Mac OS (it is Total Memory - Virtual Machine Memory)
11. Make sure that at least 2 GB +Virtual Machine assigned memory *2 is available on Mac OS partition where VM is located