Desktop 12 takes forever (over 10 mins) to load

I don't understand why I'm running into this problem but it continues to get worse and worse. I've been running Parallels for the past year, and it use to open up to the Windows desktop in a minute or so. Now it takes 10-20 minutes for it to load. Sometimes it errors, showing me a Terminal Window that I can't type in or do anything. I've tried reading some help files here on the site, and attempted to reconfigure as advised but it's locking up the Macbook Pro, which stays frozen until I force it to shut down the system.

Running macOS 10.13.3
16 gigs ram
Retina display with 1536mb ram
Parallels Desktop 12 (v. 12.2.1) (active)

I'd really appreciate some help getting this working again. Even as I type this, the VM is currently attempting to load and has been for over 10 minutes. I can't click the cogwheel, and when I am able to access settings, it states in red that the machine needs to be shut down to make any changes. Restarting my Mac from scratch (powering up), it always seems to be loading something so I'm stuck.

 

Since posting this, it's still not loaded. It says "Suspending..."

 

No antivirus installed on the Mac, nor in Desktop 12. How do I generate a report? I've been looking for some type of logs to submit. Here are a few screenshots from what I'm seeing. I wasn't able to get to Desktop 12 at all yesterday, and I tried rebooting and reloading several times over a period of a couple of hours. I paid last month for a new license; should I have gotten Desktop 13 instead?

 

I sent a Technical Data report just now, Desktop 12 finally loaded. Hopefully it will show some errors you can use to help me get this corrected. #241526403

 

Thank you for the report. The technical data indicated that you have Avira installed in Mac OS X. Could you please double check it? Either look for Avira.app in the Applications folder in Finder or check the output of sudo kextstat | grep avira in the command prompt in the Terminal.app.

Please note, that you store VM in the non-default location, so the literal instruction from the "Resolution" section of the KB, that I have linked would not help. You'd have to either manually update exclude path (to the VM bundle) as per https://answers.avira.com/en/questi...otection-of-avira-free-antivirus-for-mac-9751 or uninstall Avira as per https://www.avira.com/en/support-for-home-knowledgebase-detail/kbid/1242. If you'd like to keep Avira and feel awkward at manually filling the exclude path, let me know, and I'll try to provide an appropriate line to be added.

 

Oops, turns out you were right about antivirus software. I thought I wasn't running any. Okay, tell me what path to exclude in Avira. I was digging around in my main drive, and found three paths related to Parallels. Screenshots attached. I'm not sure why I have multiple paths. What is the default location, and can I switch it to that point or would it just cause more issues?

 

Open OS X Terminal Applications (Open Finder, Select Applications and then Utilities, then open Terminal.app).
In the command prompt enter the following commands

• sudo su
• echo "ExcludePattern ^/Applications/Marc's Minion[.]pvm/" >> /Applications/Avira.app/Contents/config/avguard.conf

Suggest adding the default location, at which new VMs are created as well(as mentioned in KB).​

• echo "ExcludePattern ^/Users/[^.]*/Parallels/" >> /Applications/Avira.app/Contents/config/avguard.conf

Then reboot OS X. If there is there is still an issue, then it is due to the way Avira handles exclude paths with spaces and quotes. You may try open terminal once again and add a more generic exclude path to attempt handling the VM bundle. For this sake in the Terminal:​

• sudo su
• echo "ExcludePattern ^/Applications/[^/.]*[.]pvm/" >> /Applications/Avira.app/Contents/config/avguard.conf

Then reboot OS X again. If there is there is still an issue, then the only option is to remove Avira as per https://www.avira.com/en/support-for-home-knowledgebase-detail/kbid/1242.​

 

I removed Avira entirely, and all is well. What a difference that AVP makes to performance. Thank you for your assistance!