Windows 3.11 and Parallels 9

After upgrading to Parallels 9 my Windows 3.11 virtual machine doesn't run anymore. Sometimes I get a crash report right after starting Parallels 9, at least when I start the Windows 3.11 machine. All other virtual machines are still working. Any ideas?

Many thanks in advance,
pyr0

Here's the report (Thread 19 crashed):

Code:

Process:         prl_vm_app [912]
Path:            /Applications/Parallels Desktop.app/Contents/MacOS/Parallels VM.app/Contents/MacOS/prl_vm_app
Identifier:      prl_vm_app
Version:         9.0 (23062.920702)
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  prl_disp_service [557]
User ID:         501

Date/Time:       2013-09-30 15:01:55.305 +0200
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.8.5 (12F37)
Report Version:  10

Crashed Thread:  19

Exception Type:  EXC_ARITHMETIC (SIGFPE)
Exception Codes: EXC_I386_DIV (divide by zero)

...

Thread 19 Crashed:
0   com.parallels.vm              	0x00000001003b2259 0x100000000 + 3875417
1   com.parallels.vm              	0x00000001003891f1 0x100000000 + 3707377
2   com.parallels.vm              	0x00000001003894b3 0x100000000 + 3708083
3   com.parallels.vm              	0x000000010028cab3 0x100000000 + 2673331
4   QtCorePrl                     	0x00000001020e43ca QThread::terminate() + 762
5   libsystem_c.dylib             	0x00007fff928b9772 _pthread_start + 327
6   libsystem_c.dylib             	0x00007fff928a61a1 thread_start + 13

...

Thread 19 crashed with X86 Thread State (64-bit):
  rax: 0x0000000000000000  rbx: 0x000000010401d0e0  rcx: 0x0000000000000000  rdx: 0x0000000000000000
  rdi: 0x000000010401d0f0  rsi: 0x0000000000000000  rbp: 0x000000010ddcbd70  rsp: 0x000000010ddcbd60
   r8: 0x00000000ffffffff   r9: 0x000000010ddcbe38  r10: 0x00000000000007dd  r11: 0x0000000000000071
  r12: 0x0000000000000000  r13: 0x000000010ddcbe38  r14: 0x0000000000000000  r15: 0x00000000ffffffff
  rip: 0x00000001003b2259  rfl: 0x0000000000010246  cr2: 0x00000001003b2240
Logical CPU: 2

...

External Modification Summary:
  Calls made by other processes targeting this process:
    task_for_pid: 1
    thread_create: 0
    thread_set_state: 0
  Calls made by this process:
    task_for_pid: 0
    thread_create: 0
    thread_set_state: 0
  Calls made by all processes on this machine:
    task_for_pid: 594
    thread_create: 0
    thread_set_state: 0

VM Region Summary:
ReadOnly portion of Libraries: Total=181.9M resident=116.5M(64%) swapped_out_or_unallocated=65.4M(36%)
Writable regions: Total=138.4M written=4920K(3%) resident=72.0M(52%) swapped_out=0K(0%) unallocated=66.4M(48%)
 
REGION TYPE                      VIRTUAL
===========                      =======
IOKit                               580K
MALLOC                             46.1M
MALLOC guard page                    48K
MALLOC_LARGE (reserved)            8192K        reserved VM address space (unallocated)
Mach message                          4K
STACK GUARD                        56.1M
Stack                              18.3M
VM_ALLOCATE                        64.6M
__DATA                             22.5M
__IMAGE                             528K
__LINKEDIT                         54.9M
__TEXT                            127.0M
__UNICODE                           544K
mapped file                        50.1M
shared memory                       308K
===========                      =======
TOTAL                             449.4M
TOTAL, minus reserved VM space    441.4M

 

WOW! Win 3.11! I have no idea, but someone has to ask - why in the world are you running that dinosaur? How did you even install it - wasn't it distributed on floppies? Maybe you should consider upgrading to Win 95?

 

Well, I guess there's no useful reason. I'm collecting (old) operation systems, that's all. And until Parallels 8 Win 3.11 runs fine.

It's quite a time ago that I installed Win 3.11. First I installed DOS 6.22 (fdd file) and after that Win 3.11 (iso file). Both files found on the internet. I installed an old version of Internet Explorer and Outlook as well. But I remember that the installation took a while and was not quite simple. So it would be easier to solve the crash problem I described above than to install everything new.

 

I'm also fighting to install Windows 3.11 too. It's a nostalgia thing. Currently I've retrieved a copy of the Windows 3.11 OS as an ISO and it won't install, presumably because I need DOS first. Oh well!



Rich::

 

Same here. See my post in the "other guest" section because I have separate DOS and Win 3.11 VMs. A bit annoying since they've both been fine since Parallels v6 and it's only now at v9 that they break.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you - that made me laugh so much....!

 

The latest Parallels update fixes DOS and Win3.11. Sort of. I have had to drop back to VGA because the patched SVGA Win3.11 driver (patched to make it VESA compliant) results in odd colours and a lot of blackness. So I'm guessing the v9 emulated graphics card is no longer VESA-compliant (in the way it was with v8 and before).

 

Thanks for the hint, same issue on my machine. Really annoying. Another annoying thing is that Parallels speeds up the mouse on all my old OS virtual machines which makes the handling sometimes really hard. I regret upgrading from Parallels 8 to 9.