Here's the lowdown: I run 10.5.8 on a MacBook Pro 15", 2.53GHz, 4GB RAM, blah, blah, blah, with the latest build of Parallels 5.0 installed (9884, I believe). I have Windows 7 Enterprise, 32-bit, as my sole VM. After some RAM issues with Windows 7, I allocated 2GB of my Mac's RAM to the VM so it'd run smoothly, and it does, mostly. Aside from typical Windows problems, I have little issues with it. I also have very little problems overall with my current setup, which is as follows: Mac hooked up to an old Samsung LCD flat panel via VGA-->MiniDisplay Port. All is well. I run Parallels in full screen on that monitor, and I use it to run a couple of applications. For mundane tasks like email, web browsing, text editing, etc, I typically do it on Mac side, since Windows 7 runs slowly for me (because it's Windows, I think, not so much because I'm running it as a VM). I closed off my netowrk connections Windows side because Symmantec and other security apps were causing Windows to randomly lag up, in the typical Windows fashion. Now, my problem is that every so often, I will be using my main app in Windows (which right now is gmax 1.2), happily building away, when Windows suddenly starts to slow down. Normally, when I navigate my 3D scene, Windows does it without problems. But I know something is amiss when it takes a long time to update my scene. I don't know why this happens, or if it's even related to Parallels, but it does sometimes lead to my main problem: total, system-wide pausing. By that I mean that the VM freezes, then usually beachballs, and sometimes this makes the ENTIRE OS lapse into the same state. I can move my mouse OK, but I see that my Mac's clock has ceased timekeeping, and system monitors and sensors on both OS sides have likewise stopped. The hangup usually lasts about 5-15 seconds, then the system resumes as if nothing happened (the time jumps forward for however long it was frozen). I do know that this problem is related to Parallels, as whenever Parallels is not running, I don't get this problem. I have not been able to ascertain whether or not this problem is caused by loading/operating a VM, or just by running Parallels, though I conjecture that it is the former. I've been tinkering with some of the settings, Mac side, Windows side, and Parallels side, but none of them seem to have made any difference, aside from closing off Windows side networks (I used to use Outlook, but relegated email as a Mac task with Entourage), disabling Symmantec, and minimizing the amount of processes I have WIndows perform by keeping the amount of open programs down to a minimum. This problem is not major, but it is incredibly frustrating at times, and I would like to see it go away. Oh, I doubt this problem has any relation to the one I mentioned above, but I also have problems with graphics every now and then. This ranges from the occassional pause of the VM as it 'reverts' to previous images of itself (literally, the whole screen switches to what the VM used to look like at some previous time, as if it took a picture of itself), to skewing up graphics in games, notably Halo 2 and Empire Earth. The former occurs in conjunction with the freeze I described above, almost always after it unfreezes (the OS freezes, the LCD panel flickers as if adjusting itself as the VM resumes operation, and then I see that snapshot for a little), but it sometimes occurs randomly as I'm working. Part of the screen is replaced by the corresponding portion of the snapshot (lower left corner replaced by lower left corner as it looked XX hours ago). The games and graphics problem occurs everytime I play the games, and sometimes results in the freeze I mentioned above. Alright, I think I've talked enough here. I'm just looking for some insight. I see so many others having much more serious issues and I'm thankful I haven't been getting any of those (Snow Leopard and Parallels don't appear to play nice together), but at the same time, these minor issues are very aggravating. I have others that may or may not relate to the ones I've posted here. More information is available upon request, and believe me, I've got lots of it. Many thanks for reading this and helping (or even trying to help all the same).
