First off, I'm using Windows 7 Enterprise (RTM/final/etc) 64-bit with Parallels Desktop 4.0, under Snow Leopard, 10.6.0. Prior to Snow Leopard I was running Leopard, 10.5.8, and had the same problems. I'm running on a Mac Pro with hardware RAID, 4 500GB drives set up in RAID 0+1, 8 cores, 10GB of RAM, dual GeForce 8800GT's, and both NICs active connected via gigabit. The Parallels Windows 7 VM is setup as Windows Server 2008, 4 CPUs, 4GB (4096MB) of RAM, 256MB of VRAM, 200GB drive as an Image File, physical CD/DVD-ROM, bridged networking, sound, and no USB devices connected. With a clean install of Windows 7 sooner or later the video locks up. For instance, if I hit ctrl+alt+delete at the login window, the cursor may sit there and blink in the username line, but I can't actually type anything. I've had it lock up on me while Windows is booting, at "Starting Windows". It loops where the Windows logo animation fades in & out, but never gets any further. I've let it sit for 10 minutes and still haven't seen it get past that point. On another install of Windows 7 I got it installed and it was up & running. So much so that I had moved on to installing Adobe Design Premium CS4. Half-way through the install it locked up, and the progress bar animation sat there & looped, but never proceeded to go any further. I've rebooted the machine a few times & only by disabling 3D acceleration in Parallels' settings AND booting into VGA mode have I been able to use the machine. In a few cases, this has been without Parallels Tools installed. In the case where I was in the middle of installing CS4, I had already installed PT. So it seems that installing PT has no bearing on the outcome. And this isn't meant to be mud in your eye here, at all, but I did try this same build of 7 Enterprise on VMWare Fusion setup as Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition, and it's worked a-ok. For what it's worth I DO notice that VMWare is a wee bit slower , which is why I'd like to use Parallels if I can! My department @ my university just picked up 5 copies of Parallels 4.0 in hopes that we'd be able to use Win 7. Ideas anyone?
Exactly the Same Problem :-( Hi, you are not alone! i've got exactly the same issue - Snow Leopard, Parallels 4.0, Windows 7 Ultimate x64 running on a 13" Macbook Pro 2.53Ghz, 4GB RAM. I think its something to do with the Parallels video driver not being 64bit. i've tried disabling hardware acceleration but to no avail. Really hope someone can fix this - I *may* downgrade to 32bit Windows 7, but if its not related to that I'd prefer to spend the 4.5 hours required to set up an entire .Net development environment (with SQL Server etc.) *again* ... Fingers crossed, indra
I would it's a video driver issue as well, except for the fact that I've tried installing Windows Server 2008 R2, which is 64-bit only and based on Windows 7, from a known, good ISO. The installer locked up at 59% of the way through expanding files & folders, which is done while the VM/computer/server is booted from the ISO/DVD itself. At that point, the video driver, at least the one installed with Parallels Tools, has nothing to do with it considering there's no installed OS to install it to. Ah well. I like you hope this is fixed relatively soon. It's a complete deal breaker for me unfortunately.
I had the same problems - to resolve it, I disabled the 3D Acceleration in the VM configuration (not in the Windows Guest) and it seems to be working better now... YMMV...
It's not good - I got rid of my (slow but usable) Vista vms once I'd got Win7 running but I'm often counting chickens ... Have reverted back to my XP Pro install, toying with the idea of installing XP Pro x64 now (slightly masochistic tendencies). So far I've: - disabled 3D acceleration - disabled hardware acceleration (in Windows display settings -> advanced) - dropped down to 1CPU for the VM rather than two - increased the VMs memory by 1GB to no avail. Have raised a ticket with Parallels support, will keep you all posted. cheers, indra
I have the same problem. In the thread "Windows 7 Just Freezes" (http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=89646) others seem to discuss this also. Maybe Parallels Desktop 5 (out on Nov 4th 2009?) will resolve this issue, but I would rather like to see Parallels fix this problem in version 4 as Windows 7 x64 is official supported (?).
When I tried to allocate 4 GB of RAM to the virtual Windows 7 it said anything above 2048 would cause problems. Have you tried allowing Parallels to control the amount of memory it uses instead of allocating manually?
I assigned 1,5 GB to the Windows 7 vm while my Mac has 4 GB of memory. What do mean with "allowing Parallels to control the amount of memory it uses"? As far as I know I have to configure an amount of memory for the vm. Below the slider for the memory (in the vm configuration dialog, section "memory") it says the recommended range is 512 MB to 2876 MB and the optimal site id 1024 MB. So 1,5 GB should be no problem...?
I clicked on the parallels desktop tab at the top, preferences, memory and clicked automatic. This allow parallels to allocate what it thinks is best.
Similar issue I have multiple Windows 2008 server virtual machines that are 64 bit (one is actually a 2008 R2 server) and they all exhibit the same freezing behavior. At least a few times a day the operating system will freeze, but not the UI. So I can still send CTRL_ALT_DEL to the machine and I can click the reboot / log off buttons, but nothing happens. It seem that the explorer process hangs. The only way to stop the machine is a hard reboot (of virtual machine, not host). I cannot pinpoint this to any particular software on the guest since it happens when I am using various software packages (i may be coding with visual studio or just working in word). Since this is happening in multiple Virtual machines, I think it may have something to do with the virtualization software. The only similarity between the machines is that they have IIS 7 or 7.5 installed and that they are 64 bit.
