BSOD in Boot Camp

Problem resolved - I think

See my previous post for the problems I was having (same as everyone else) ... Here's how it was resolved.

1. I couldn't log in through the parallels support forum late last night because it didn't like my activation key, so I used the pre-sales form to request support. I am happy to report that by the time I got to work this morning, a reply was waiting in my inbox. The long and short of this problem was perhaps related to the process they put me through to obtain my free upgrade from version 2. They sent me a new download link and a new key.

2. While reinstalling my BSOD native Vista load for the 4th time, a realization hit me from out of the blue. I am a PC user and support person by trade, and just got my Macbook Pro a month or so ago. When I first burned my drivers disk from BootCamp, I was running BC 1.3. I first had problems with the hal.dll file in an earlier version of Parallels, so I upgraded my Parallels to the latest build, and upgraded BC to version 1.4 (cuz newer is always better, right?!?). Next I reinstalled Vista in my BC partition before discovering there are all kinds of fixes for that HAL.dll problem. The thing is, when I upgraded my BC to version 1.4, I never realized that the earlier 1.3 driver disk shouldn't be used with 1.4 (this where I think the installer should shout to the user -"wrong driver disk, stupid!"). I was trying to cut a corner an not burn another driver disk after installing the 1.4 BC. I'm fairly certain that using the 1.3 version on the Vista side with the 1.4 BC was likely the the cause of my subsequent bsods. I blame this oversight on the fact that when you dual boot a Windows system, you don't need "drivers" to access the other OS in the secondary partition, therefore it never occurred to me that I had to update BC "drivers" on the Windows side when I upgraded BC on the Mac side.

So long story short (things I've learned):

1. Parallels support seems to be very responsive to email support requests - use the system before flying off the handle about them not addressing issues. It doesn't look to me like they monitor these forums much at all - I think they should, but that's another issue.

2. If you are already getting native Windows BSODs, you will probably need to reload Vista. Just be darn sure you use the drivers for the version of BC you have on your Mac. If your virtual Vista will load in Parallels, you might try loading the right BC drivers from inside the working virtual machine. I have no idea if this will work or not, but it might be worth a shot.

3. When Parallels tools is installing and tells you to wait until it reboots your virtual machine, sit on your hands or go in the other room until its done. It's always my desire to speed up the process by clicking in "locate my driver" boxes during the process, but that only gave me grief (the originating hal.dll errors, I think were caused by this). The only things you should be clicking on are the "Install Parallels tools" dialog, the red driver verification warnings and the boxes regarding your network security options (home, work, public) when all is said and done. Don't tell it to search for your drivers if Windows prompts you. Parallels will take care of it.

4. I have my Vista key memorized (sigh!)

 

See my comments about this issue here. It will resolve your BSOD issues (...the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM and Stop Error 0x0000007b), but I think Parallels should come up with a solution that avoids this issue altogether.