After installing BUild 3188, when I start the Virtual Machine, I get a black screen. I tried starting in safe mode and in last known good configuration, but it just goes back to the black screen. Any help?
Use the search... If you need help with it, here is something to get you started: http://forum.parallels.com/thread10384.html
starting in safe mode does anyone know how to start parallels in safe mode on a macbook pro? i have a black screen too!!
Click on the link, and read what is written. Or use the search and find another thread. ColinTM, for some reason I did not see that the safe mode still hits a black screen when I responded... Let me know if trying the last section of the link I gave you helps at all... If it does not, just outline what you tried and I'll try to help you further.
No progress I could not boot into safe mode. Also I tried to boot and re-install Windows XP. Still a black screen. I can get to the safe mode screen by holding fn/F8 but when I choose safe mode, it goes back to the black screen. As far as I could see, there was no "boot from disk" option. I want to follow your instructions but I can't seem to get anywhere.
Hmm... Strange. Usually you can get into Safe Mode by this... How much time would you lose if you had access to your files but had to re-install your programs? The easiest way to do this is the following: Back-up your .hdd file(s), last thing you want to do is erase these. Put them on an external HD and disconnect that. Un-install Parallels completely as described in the link. Install Parallels Make a new VM and install XP again. Install Parallels tools. Now shut everything down, even your Mac. Connect your external. Now, go back into Parallels and without starting the VM, add a second HD (click on the HD 2 on the Properties screen), point the second hard drive to the .hdd file on your external. Boot up your virtual machine. You should now be able to browse through your old HD. Sorry if I sounded snappy in the least bit. Crazy days at work lately. The method entailed above will require you to re-install your programs on Windows, but it may very well be faster than further troubleshooting. Plus side is, you can get your files fairly easily.
I also am experiencing the problem with the black screen appearing right after the windows logo. I just have a white mouse cursor and nothing behind it. Safe Mode does the same thing except with the long "Safe Mode" warning strings around the perimeter of the screen. I tried following the steps in part "D" on http://forum.parallels.com/thread10384.html two times and still had the same results both times - another black screen boot. I am running Build 3188. Windows Install Repair process also did not fix it. I am running a multi-monitor parallels setup with windows on the secondary screen and Mac on the primary. I had been running on the 3188 build fine (through many many reboots) since the March 8 release of 3188 with no problems. Nothing had been installed or changed in at least a week (and again, through multiple reboots). I was running the latest Parallels tools. The ONLY thing that changed recently is that I temporarily switched the secondary monitor to be the primary monitor through the Mac OS X Display Pref pane (by dragging the little white bar from one screen to the other). I know that Parallels did do something weird (like jump to the other screen or something, when no other program had done that), but regardless I had put it back before shutting parallels down or anything. I can safely say it is the only thing that did change on my Parallels through the course of its failure. It has been solid other than just this one incident, and now I can no longer get in. The files of course are all safe and sound, but have to do a complete fresh reinstall on a new image to get up and running again.
That is pretty goofy... If it gets like this with ANY Windows computer, virtualized or physical, I just wipe and re-install... Slave up the drive and dump the data onto the new machine.
low tech answer I had a similar problem that was fixed quite easily. Right after installing I was able to restart with no problem but windows popped-up some sort of wizard (can't really remember what it was) having something to do with having to look for a video driver. I absentmindily activated it and it froze my PC. I then forced a restart but all I got was a black screen. I asumed that I had messed up and my driver was now screwed up. To be precise (I'm running XP). I got the normal windows XP start up screen (black background) and just after a flash of light blue I got a totally black screen with a white cursor. I did hear the proper start up noise making me believe that the machine was running properly even though I could not see a thing. After restarting several times and trying to look thru the documentation, I gave up and decided to create a new machine. Once I installed the OS, I installed parallel tools which loads the video driver and that gave me an idea. I re-ran the parallel tools and wrote down how many times I had to hit enter to run it and at what time intervals. I then re-started my black machine, gave it enough time to fully start up and then ran install parallel tools blindly by hitting enter at the right intervals. I gave it enough time to make sure it ran fully and then forced a re-start. Voila, black screen gone! No display problems since. I hope this helps.
nerico922, that was genius! I have the same problem, and I'm sure it's the video driver on the tools install. Can you remember the number of times you hit enter on the tools install?
There are 3 ENTERs in fairly quick succession, one more after a pop-up and then the re-start. I assumed that my old machine might be a tad bit slower since I've been using it for a while so I exagerated all the time intervals just to be on the safe side. This is exactly what I did (I was fixing dinner at the time) 1. Started up the machine and went off to the kitchen 2. Came back after a while and selected to install Parallels Tools 3. Hit OK at the mac dialog 4. Waited about a minute for the install program to load up (actually takes about 10 sec.) 5. Hit ENTER, counted to 10 6. Hit ENTER, counted to 10 7. Hit ENTER, waited about 1/2 a minute (this is for the warning dialog to pop-up) 8. Hit ENTER again. This starts the actual installation so I went back to the kitchen and came by later. 9. I then re-started by clicking the reset machine button for Parallels. On the last step, you should theoretically be able to also hit ENTER, since only the restart button is highlighted. But mine wouldn't take. Maybe the window might not be selected. You may try blindly clicking the middle of the screen to try to select the window and then hit ENTER and that should also re-start. But I had no problems the way I did it. I only have one user on my PC so I have no idea if clicking (rather than hitting ENTER) is required to log in when you have to select the user as well as enter the password. But maybe this could be done blindly as well... good luck!
