Parallels experts required - running with 1 CPU

Hi there,

I have a Macbook Air (4GB) running parallels. I have set the CPU to 1 as recommended (in both the Virtual Machine > Configure > General and in Hyper-V).

However, when I run Visual Studio 2012 and launch the emulator I get the following error:

"Couldn't change Processor of the virtual machine: 'Emulator WVGA 512.User' failed to modify device 'Processor'. (virtual machine ID XXX)

Cannot assign the specified number of processor for virtual machine 'Emulator WVGA 512.user' is out of range. The range is 1 through 1 ( virtual machine ID XXX)"


I have tried deleting the CoreCon 11.0 and 10.0 folders but this hasnt resolved the issue. I can set the CPUs to 2, but as I only have 4GB this makes the emulator very unstable.

Do any parallels experts out there know how to get it working with 1 CPU? Been getting in the way for nearly a week now :-/

Cheers,

Charlie

 

It's not the fact that you only have 4 GB that make the emulator unstable (I don't exactly get what you been by unstable), RAM and CPUs are not related in the way you seem to presume they are.

If the problem is lack of memory, it wouldn't work any different with just one core. And if that's indeed the problem you can try shutting down all apps on the OSX side and increase the VMs RAM while you work in Windows.

By the way, I'm not replying to this because the title asks for Parallels Experts, I'm replying because I happened to see this post, please try to keep the title of discussions relevant to the problem itself.

 

Hi there,

Thank you very much for the reply.

By unstable, I was meaning about 80% of the time when I launch the emulator (now using 2 CPUs), I get the following error:

"The Windows Phone Emulator wasn't able to ensure the virtual machine was running:
Something happened while starting a virtual machine: 'Emulator WVGA 512MB.user' could not initialize. (Virtual machine ID XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX). Not enough memory in the system to start the virtual machine Emulator WVGA 512MB.user with ram size 512 megabytes. (Virtual machine ID XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX)"

I have 1.5 GB of RAM allocated - which is right at the top end of the recommended area.

Any ideas?

Cheers, Charlie

 

The emulator doesn't have enough free RAM, like I said, close all apps on the OSX side, and increase the VM RAM to, say, 2 GB.

1.5 GB RAM is absolutely the bare minimum to run a VM with Windows Phone Emulator, you should also close all other apps on the Windows side to free up some RAM.

 

Hi Specimen,

Thanks for the reply again. I actually did exactly what you suggested (except the 2GB bit) and still getting the same error.

If I set the emulator to 2 GB it does start working, but that is 500mb into the red 'unrecommended' section on the emulator. Does that risk causing issues with the Mac that parallels is running on?

Cheers, Charlie

 

I'm not sure we are on the same key here but I have no idea how I can be more clear.

First, when using the word Emulator we are referring to Windows Phone Emulator. To refer to Parallels Desktop lets call it Virtualization Application.

The 2 GB bit is actually the important one, all other suggestions were in order to be able to increase to 2 GB, and I mean increase the RAM of the Windows VM in Parallels configuration not the Windows Phone Emulator.

The only possible issues here are slowness (no permanent damage, if that's the question?), which you'll encounter, because you are very limited in RAM for what you are doing.