Parallels Desktop 5.0.9308 Still Hangs My 24" iMac 3.06GHz

M

ManyueC

Bit poster
I have a 24-inch iMac (Early 2009) 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo with an NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 video card (512 MB) and 4GB SDRAM. Parallels 5 itself would launch fine but when I start my Windows 7 Pro VM (Boot Camp partition), it would take about 5 minutes or longer to boot and I don't get the startup sound either when the user list shows up. After clicking on a user, it would then take quite a long time to get to my desktop screen and everything just seems to hang.

This new 5.0.9308 update doesn't seem to have fixed anything. I have my VM set to use 1 core, 2GB of SDRAM and 256MB of VRAM. What's weird is that Parallels 5 seems to launch another Win 7 Pro VM that I have on a 13-inch MacBook Pro just fine and well within a reasonable 3 minutes plus a quick transition to my desktop screen. I don't know why it doesn't seem to like the iMac though. Right now, it's just unusable except when I dual-boot to it via Boot Camp.

I don't know what to do and it's gonna take Parallels a long time from now to issue another update.
 
Unable to connect to Parallels Service after rebooting

1. Mac OS 10.6.2
2. Parallels Build #5.0.9038
3. 24 Inch ITB IMAC 4GB Ram
4 1024GB Assigned to PVM
6. BootCamp
8. .9038
9. Parallels Tools are installed
10. rebooted with no success, tried shutdown and boot up
12. Report ID 1575409
13. Unable to connect to Parallels Service. Make sure that the prl_disp_service process is and is not blocked by Firewall...
14. It is not blocked by the firewall
14. no component issues
 
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Unable to connect to Parallels Service

(EDITED) Spoke too soon after rebooting still cannot connect to parallels service and no one at parallels seems to answer these posts.


After noticing quite a few posts about disabling spotlight it occurred to me that none of them had mentioned a simple fix that may overcome the slow boot up and the "Unable to connect to Parallels Service" error messages. So here is the fix I came up with.
1. Open the Macintosh HD drive
2. Select System preferences icon
3. Select Spotlight
4. Select Privacy tab in spotlight and note the option to "Prevent spotlight from searching these locations".
In the Macintosh HD drive locate and expand the Applications folder.
5. Drag the red Parallels folder onto "Prevent spotlight from searching these locations".
6. Drag the icon Parallels Desktop onto "Prevent spotlight from searching these locations".
7. Navigate to Macintosh HD drive, select the Library folder and expand the folder.
Drag the Parallels folder onto "Prevent spotlight from searching these locations".
8. Navigate to Macintosh HD drive and select users and then your user name.
Expand the documents folder and drag the Parallels folder onto "Prevent spotlight from searching these locations".
9. Launch Parallels desktop and tell me if everything does not speed up and the error messages simply disappear.
 
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Suggestions:

(For the VM) Uninstall Parallels Tools from VM, reboot, install Parallels Tools again.

and/or

(For the Host) Uninstall Parallels Desktop with the Uninstaller, keep the settings, reboot, install again

You might also do a Permissions Repair.
 
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i came here looking for an answer because i also received the "could not connect to server" error but a reboot of my macbook pro seems to have done the trick. (though the macbook hung and did not shut down properly after i installed the "upgrade"). after reboot of the mbp, parallels opened and successfully installed the tools, etc.

just to record that maybe parallels did something to fix this?
 
Specimen said:
Uninstall Parallels Tools from VM, reboot, install Parallels Tools again.
Click to expand...

I've tried this and it seems to work after a reboot of the VM but when I quit Parallels and then relaunch it and the VM, it acts up again. The Parallels team apparently didn't consider making this product work with an early 2009 24-inch model of the iMac with a 512MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 video card. I hope they can release a fix soon but I doubt it.
 
Apparently, I've been keeping myself from disabling Spotlight b/c some people said it worked while some said it didn't. Well, I finally tried it and it seems to have fixed my problems. I've booted up the VM twice in a row already and it's started up fine. I used to get a successful VM boot every once in a long while, even after reinstalling Parallels 5 and Parallels Tools. However, the Spotlight trick worked for me and I'm getting consistent and successful boots of the VM. Although I don't use Spotlight and could live without it, I hope this issue gets fixed in a future update for those that depend on Spotlight.

For now, I'm a lil happier. Thanks!
 
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Am I mistaken or does no one respond to issues concerning prl_disp_service unable to start. Is it because the problem has never gone away since Parallels was invented or because no one at parallels cares. I just removed my boot camp and did the virtual install with PD5 and the problem returned after 2 days.
 
I want my money back, Unable to connect to Parallels Service

Unable to connect to Parallels Service. Make sure that the prl_disp_service process is and is not blocked by Firewall...
 
I have virtually the same iMac (mine has the ATI card released in April), and Parallels runs poorly on mine as well. Why is this prl_disp_service needed? I can see it chewing at my file system via fs_usage.
 
the dispatcher service is needed, as far as I understand, to trigger Parallels into opening. If you turn it off Parallels will no longer function. If you turn it off while Parallels is running, Parallels will immediately die. I also don't understand why it's using ressources (should be a service just "listening") but then it doesn't eat up all that much processor time (and memory).
 
It works better if you do the virtual install using PD5 rather than a bootcamp import. You may still experience the prl_disp_service issue after rebooting. But the solution below worked for me.

Unable to connect to Parallels Service error when starting Parallels Desktop
Article ID: 6694
Last Review: Sep,30 2009
Author: Ivan Chega
Last updated by: Ivan Chega
APPLIES TO:
Parallels Desktop for Mac 4.0
Symptoms
You receive the following error message when trying to start Parallels Desktop 4:

Unable to connect to Parallels Service. Make sure that prl_disp_service is running or check your firewall settings. If the problem persists,
contact the Parallels support team for assistance.
Cause
Parallels Dispatcher can not be started at Host operating system start.
Resolution
Please try to use OnyX utility to clean Mac OS X:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/onyx.html

After using OnyX, use Disk Utility to verify and repair disk permissions:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1452

Once repairing disk permissions is complete, restart Mac OS X and try to start Parallels Desktop.

If you continue to receive 'Unable to connect to Parallels Service' error, please use solution provided in another Knowledgebase article:

http://kb.parallels.com/en/5791
 
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