Media Center Freezes with Parallels 7

I had no problems running everything under Parallels 6. I upgraded to Parallels 7. When I try to start Media Center, it gives me a low bit rate message and freezes Windows 7. I have to go into Mac's Activity Monitor and manually shut down Parallels. This occurs in Coherence mode. It usually takes two or more manual shutdowns to regain control. Sometimes, the entire Mac needs to be restarted. Activity monitor shows Parallels not responding. My system is a 27"iMac Core i7 with 16gig RAM, 4GB allocated to Windows as recommended by Parallels.

 

As a follow-up, I have changed numerous settings. I have allowed Windows 7 x64 to have 8 GB (of the 16GB) RAM and set video memory from the default 256 to 1 GB. No change, it still freezes. I have taken the Virtual Machine out of Coherence. No change. It still freezes. I can open Media Center and play video from the Internet. But not from the capture card. I have updated the capture card drivers (though I was already running the latest drivers). Still no go. Windows itself is locking up. Being out of coherence, I can shut down the virtual machine. Again, I had no trouble with Parallels 6. Only after upgrading to Parallels 7 did this problem appear. No other changes or addition to the computer or to the Mac side.

 

As a follow-up, I have changed numerous settings. I have allowed Windows 7 x64 to have 8 GB (of the 16GB) RAM and set video memory from the default 256 to 1 GB. No change, it still freezes. I have taken the Virtual Machine out of Coherence. No change. It still freezes. I can open Media Center and play video from the Internet. But not from the capture card. I have updated the capture card drivers (though I was already running the latest drivers). Still no go. I then used Haupaugge's HWClear to remove all entries for the WinTV device. Then re-installed. When Media Center tried to examine the TV signals, it again locks up. I have the device connected to the virtual machine only. Windows itself is locking up. Being out of coherence, I can shut down the virtual machine. Again, I had no trouble with Parallels 6. Only after upgrading to Parallels 7 did this problem appear. No other changes or addition to the computer or to the Mac side.

 

Hello ClarkB,

Could you please generate problem report and post ID here. (http://kb.parallels.com/en/9058)

Please also try to assign less than 2GB of memory to Virtual Machine and check how it will go in such configuration.

Thank you.

 

Alev, thanks for the prompt reply. No need to generate a report, changing the virtual memory to 1GB did the trick. Media Center works fine now. I kept thinking that allotting more memory would be the solution. Seemed logical to me. But actually decreasing the memory as you suggested was the solution.

Bruce - it did appear after installing Parallels 7, but it is not a compatibility issue. It was simply me applying more virtual memory than recommended.