100% CPU usage (again)

M

mrutter

Member
Hello everybody.
I'm experiencing the famous issue about the high CPU usage from Parallels processes.

My scenario:
- I was running PD 6 on Mac OS X 10.6.8 with Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit as guest OS.
- Never had any problem
- Yesterday, I upgraded from PD6 to PD7 (build 14920)
- Now, after a few minutes I started Windows, the Windows process prl_cc goes near to 100% of the CPU usage and on the Mac side, the process prl_vm_app has the same behavior.

So I read many thread and finally I applied the KB here http://kb.parallels.com/en/111541.
But the issue still remains :(

At the moment, the only way to avoid this problem is to uncheck the "Share Windows applications with Mac" (as some other user already noticed). But with this configuration I cannot use the Coherence mode ...

Any idea?

Regards,
Marcello
 
I am having the same issues with that thread causing random high CPU usage. So much so that my Fan on my Macbook Air goes into overdrive to cool things off. I rarely have heard it in the past running so fast. I do not see where Windows 7 which is the version I use is causing any issues. In fact I get the high CPU cycles with only Windows 7 running and no programs open? I am at the point of going back to BootCamp until this can be solved. I do not want to over stress my Macbook Air.
 
Same

Same problem with Par7 Desktop in both Coherence and normal mode. 100% CPU until an unidentified Windows process fails with a runtime error, then back to normal utilization levels. This is the Mac version running on a Mac Pro.

Perry
 
MacPRO 3,1 with W7 Ultimate 32 frequently totally blocked

I disabled "Share Windows applications with Mac" and it helped a bit.
Thanks to Marcello for that tip.

My Activity Monitor still shows over 200% CPU from time to time which blocks totally my MacPRO for seconds.

More troubles made me the situation, that I also started Parallels with W7 Ultimate 64 with Bootcamp drive. The result is that I can not start Bootcamp anymore.

Any suggestions?
 
So Far .....

I called the Parallel team and was given a 'cure' for the 100%+ cpu problem. The answer was to uninstall and reinstall Par 7. I did this and it seemed to help, but very little. My Mac still slows to a crawl and many apps just don't work right. Mostly when accessing graphic tasks. I think they (Parallels) are on it and hopefully will come up with a fix. I use Windows 7 in conjunction with my Mac, and it is virtually useless right now. I have a Mac Pro 12 core with 24gb ram and two screens. I use Autocad on my Windows side and it just slows the Mac to a crawl.

Has anybody figured out a permanent fix for this? Please post if you have.
 
I made a few changes

I tried the reinstall of Parallels 7. It helped a bit, but I also disabled 3D and set optimized setting for better battery life.
Yes, it does disable Aero so if you like the pretty UI of Windows Aero your going to have to suffer with 3D. Personally I have not experienced the high CPU cycles but my feeling is that it could be a issue with upgrading from Parallels 6 to Parallels 7. Its possible the tools are not uninstalling correctly from Parallels 6. I am now satisfied with Par. 7 but not totally sold on of of its claimed speed improvements. I do find it slower in some ways like Flash video is out of sync at times with certain content. Audio does not sync with video. Their is a lag. Also have noticed more pixeling and poorer picture quality. So I question if Parallels is using some sort of compression to get speed?
 
I am glad that this thread give me a lot of ideas. I thought I cannot maximize my CPU usage but I am happy to get some pointers here
 
I am having the same issue after upgrading from PD6 to PD7 2 last Saturday. Now my CPU load from prl_vm_app is close to 100% and my fan is running all the time at high speed.

I am using Lion on a Macbook Pro with 8GB of RAM wiht Windows 7.

Gerald
 
Same here.

Upgraded to PD7, Windows 7 VM, 8GB, Unibody MacBook 5,1, 4GB for VM, it was all working fine. It crawls now. I can't work with it anymore. I've tried everything suggested in the forums. Please help!
 
Yeah I have a 2009 Unibody MacBook Pro with 2 HDD (OS and Apps on SSD) Data and Boot Camp Partition on SATA drive.

However I am continually have issues with my Windows 7 Boot Camp Partition running within Parallels 7 the CPU sitting on 100%. It just makes it unusable.

Please review and suggest a fix ASAP.
 
I also have two disks (MacBook Unibody 5,1). The main drive is an SSD (just installed). Everything is in the SSD, so I haven't moved any applications to the other drive. The prl_vm_app starts at 100% and stays there. Apparently, after hours of running on empty, i.e. no applications launched on the VM it might come down, but a restart of the computer and we are at the same place again. This computer, same versions of OS and parallels, same VM was working fine just a few days ago. I've cleaned up the VM as much as possible, repaired permissions on the SSD (as suggested by the ticket reply I got) and done as much as I found on posts with suggestions on how to improve performance to no avail.
 
Checking the prl_vm_app process, I can see it has done more than 269 million Mach Messages Out and over 130 million Mach Messages In. Chrome, which I have been using all day long with over 15 tabs open and 2 windows doesn't reach 3 million out and 1.5 in.
 
I'm having the same issue. I bought Parallels 7 and installed it and everything was OK, until last night I installed the update for Parallels and now when I run my windows, my cpu usage goes to %160-180!!! I have Windows XP SP3 and a Macbook Pro OS 10.5.8 with 4 GB Ram. I uninstalled my Parallels, and installed the version without the updates again, and the problem is still there. I hope someone can help here! :(
 
Same issue here...

... it already started with Parallels 6 (latest build), so I thought I should update to 7. Money spent, nothing changed... If I start any of my VMs, pro_vm_app goes to 100% CPU usage and Windows is basically unusable. I opened a support ticket, and they advised me to set the VM to "number of CPUs = 1", start Windows and then do to the hardware manager and have the driver for the processor updated (never knew there was anything like a driver for the processor, weird Windows world I must say). However, I tried it, there was nothing to update and Windows was still sluggish... I am at a loss here, and I think Parallels should DEFINITLY do something about this!
 
The problem is still there. It went away for a while. I believe an update from Apple sorted things out. All the help from Parallels didn't do anything. They were keen to help, but they haven't resolved the issue. I still have the problem. When it shows up, it makes me waste hours trying to get the machine to be responsive again. I'm just updating to the latest update that appeared a few days ago. I've lost hope at this stage.
 
Latest update didn't help. I just tried the uninstall/install and the problem is still there.

The thought of having now to install and configure everything under VMWare to give them a chance is painful.
 
cpu utilization

mouse and keyboard have become unresponsive for bot lion vm as well as win7 vm since the latest version was installed last weekend (thanksgiving weekend)...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
One possible solution - LaCie network drive

I've been having problems for months with the CPU at 100%, and seen dozens of different solutions, none of which worked. It's been driving me totally spare. It never occurred to me to run Windows Task Manager and when I did it was immediately obvious that a process to do with my LaCie network drive was consuming 99% of the VM's CPU. I killed it (inside Task Mgr) and now the problem seems to have been solved, though it is still climbing occasionally to 50% or more on the Mac (but seems generally at a docile 5-10%). I still have to work out how to prevent it starting, but at least I know the cause. I'll have to live with not being able to connect to the drive from within Windows I'd guess, but it's a small price.
 
The 100% CPU issue appeared out of nowhere for me about a month ago - I tried various things and nothing worked. Then I excluded my Parallels folder from Spotlight and I haven't had the problem since.
 
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