Performance drop in native XP (Bootcamp) after PD6 install

Hi All,

I can't seem to put my finger on this. I'm running Snow Leopard with a Windows XP partition via bootcamp on my mid 2010 iMac. Since this machine finally has enough horsepower to run pcsx2 (PS2 emulator), I've been playing some of my old PS2 games on the iMac instead of my console. This runs smoothly when I boot natively into XP, but naturally does not when using any iteration of Parallels Desktop (as standalone VM or mated to bootcamp). I'm okay with this, as I get the best of both worlds: I can run PD for convenience when using programs/games with low graphics requirements, but can boot natively into XP when I need the horsepower for 3D gaming/emulation.

Here's what's been driving me up a wall lately: The emulator runs perfectly fine when and smoothly after a fresh XP install when booted natively. However, after I import bootcamp into a PD6 VM (hence Parallels tools is installed in my XP partition, among other things), the performance takes a hit WHEN BOOTED NATIVELY. That is, I run into the following scenario:

1) Graphics are fine in native XP when untouched by Parallels
2) I mate my XP bootcamp partition to a Parallels Virtual machine, leaving me the option to still boot natively for better performance
3) When I boot natively back into XP, the graphics become choppy with PCSX2! Even if I uninstall the VM mated to XP, the graphics still take a hit when in native mode.

How can this be? What does Parallels do to the bootcamp/XP install that would hinder performance? This is very frustrating, as I can't use my XP partition for the "best of both worlds" as I thought I could.

Has anyone encountered this before? Is there some sort of setting that Parallels mucks in XP that I can change back?

Thanks in advance.

 

The only thing Parallels changes in a Bootcamp Windows install is that it installs Parallels Tools (virtual hardware drivers), which can be uninstalled.

If you uninstall Parallels Tools while booting natively via Add/Remove Programs, does the performance improve? If it does it's related to Parallels Tools, if it doesn't it's something else.

 

I thought of the same thing and did uninstall PT, but unfortunately it made no difference. What else could be degrading performance?

I forgot how much I hate windows XP. It's so fragile.