Full Screen Mode - Unexpected Quit / Panics?

Anyone else experiencing this in the production release 3188?

Over 75% of the time if I select the full screen mode option Parallels will just quit.

- Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
- Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x00000010

Today when I attempted it, my entire system panic'd and I had to hold down the power button to recover.

- panic(cpu 0 caller 0x001A429B): Unresolved kernel trap (CPU 0, Type 14=page fault),

My System = 17" MBP 2.16ghz 2gig mem / Guest OS = winXP pro

Main application that is always running = MS office exchange/outlook client
Also latest Zone Alarms is installed.

Have a support ticket open w/ parallels and have provided all the information I can but very little movement has been seen.

Curious if I am alone here...? Have seen posts in the past around this.

Tim

 

Did you upgrade from a beta? If so, have you tried completely zapping Parallels and then installing it again with the latest version? Make sure you un-install Parallels tools prior to zapping it AND you back-up...

Here are the un-install instructions: http://forum.parallels.com/thread1226.html

 

Definitely upgraded from many beta(s)... have been using and participating in the beta's since almost the beginning. Problem did not show up until after upgrading from build 1970.

Everything else works great, I have not run across any real probelms or annoyances other than this and I use it daily.

Appreciate the response and will give your suggestion a try.

tim
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Definetly zap it all. This sort of problem usually disapears after you do a complete un-install and re-install.

 

Well, I gave it try. Completely uninstalled Parallels per the instructions. Double checked for any remnants and then rebooted. Reinstalled, licensed, restored my backup XP image and had to reactivate Windows. Removed Parallels tools, restarted VM and reinstalled tools. Everything came up fine, clicked on "full screen mode" side button and it immediately crashed.... :-(

>OS Version: 10.4.9 (Build 8P2137)
>Report Version: 4
>
>Command: Parallels
>Path: /Applications/Parallels/Parallels Desktop.app/Contents/MacOS/Parallels
>Parent: WindowServer [94]
>
>Version: 2.5 (2.5 Build 3188.0)
>
>PID: 382
>Thread: 0
>
>Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
>Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x00000011

Guess I will create a new WinXp image next just see if a clean XP guest OS install behaves the same.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Tim
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Or even back-up your entire system and do an archive and install of OS X to get things 'fresh and clean'.

 

Created a new WinXP VM using Parallels express install, no apps except default OS apps and automated install of parallel's tools.

Came up fine and screen transition worked the first time and on 2nd try of full screen mode it crashed. sigh....

Hate to reinstall OS X but have about resolved myself to the fact that it may be the only way to resolve this. Thing that worries me is if there is an app conflict that is causing this which I will most likely reintroduce again. I have one power pc process which is MS update daemon, just wondering if that might have anything to do with it.

Tim
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can i just ask, when you say "full screen mode" do you mean full screen as selected by View > Full screen (or your chosen key combination) or do you mean coherence ?

Coherence is known to crash with the latest version of Zone Alarm which I notice you have in your original install...

 

Not coherence. Parallels is crashing when toggling either to or from "full screen" to "os window". This happens whether I select full screen from the view menu or select full screen from the icon bar on the right when in os window. I always return from full screen view back to os window view by selecting option(alt)-enter.

I too suspected Zone Alarms as I have had issues with ZA and Mac Drive in boot camp but this is why I created a clean WinXP VM with no additonal apps, just default XP install. Problem still occurs.

Thanks for your response.

Tim
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have you tried repairing disk permissions in osx disk utility ?

 

Good question and yes I have. Actually I use a great lil gem called Macaroni from atomicbird.com to automate the whole process; daily, weekly, monthly. Helps keep me regular... kinda like fibercon for OS X .

Tim
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Thank goodness I've never seen that. I have three installed Parallel (3188) VMs on my MacBook Pro. Two WinXP Pros and one Vista Ultimate. They all work perfectly in Full Screen, OS and Coherence Modes. I often toggle from OS window to Fullscreen window to move files back and forth. Parallels has never given my MBP a Kernel Panic. I've never seen a KP on my MacBook Pro as of yet after a couple of months of daily usage. The Finder did freeze once or twice and required a reboot to set things straight. But that wasn't from Parallels usage.

Is it possible that you have some odd version of Windows? Try running a utility such as OnyX or DiskWarrior to see if some system cleanup is necessary.

Otherwise, I'd say you should start with a clean OSX install. That usually works for me if I see KPs on my other machines.

 

Nothing odd about my copy of WinXp it is a full blown non-oem version of "Windows XP Professional" version 2002 w/SP2.

Picked up a Lacie 120gig ext fw800 mobile HD. Getting readying to backup my system with "superduper" and prepare for the OS X reinstall.... tracked down all my app licenses etc... oh boy.

Thank you for your response.

I will post how it goes!

Tim
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UPDATE!

So Far So Good... Clean re-install of OS X, went through apple software updates, reloaded apps via the transfer user accts. and apps target mode option from my bootable backup that I used superduper to create. All in all pretty painless. I did have to reinstall parallels again as it would not launch after the app restore.

Have not been able to duplicate the problem thus far... very happy camper at this point.

Thanks to all who participated in this thread!

Tim
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just goes to show, that a lot of the problems people see using parallels, are caused by an issue with the host OS that isnt apparent to the end user.

Glad youre all sorted now

 

Any update on Zone Alarm and Coherence?

Ever since upgrading to Zone Alarm v7.0.337.000, Parallels 3188 crashes when put into coherence mode. I know this is happening to others. Has anyone heard of a fix for this (from Zone or Parallels?)

 

i refer you to your other posting about this... this thread is unrelated to zone alarm. please try and not to multiple post.

 

Good for you. I know well that it's a pain in the butt to have to go through all that crap to rebuild a system with apps, but results for me have usually been positive. If you measure the time it takes to keep going over small measures without success compared to a Clean re-install that clears up the problem (and maybe others), the Clean re-install is probably the way to go. You can hardly ever tell when OSX gets corrupted in some small way that causes KPs. I always keep a cloned system, but it's kept up-to-date with my current system. If it's not an obvious corruption, then my clone will most likely be corrupted too. What the heck. Sometimes you just can't win. Knock on wood.

 

I've had this problem sporadically, and taking the advice of people here, I started saving an image of the VM prior to doing any changes whatsoever in the VM, such as any additions of software.

I've been finding that when I use a hardware key that I use for some analysis software, Parallels tends to have more problems where it hangs up more frequently, or stalls when I try to maximize the window size (I've avoided coherence altogether). It also has problems waking up from sleep mode, and I've had to do a hard reboot.

I'm beginning to think that windows, being a buggy OS, just makes it more difficult to create a stable VM. Once it crashes, the more frequently the VM starts to bugger up. So. among the precaution mentioned here that I've adopted are 1) to avoid suspending the VM as much as possible 2) to turn off Windows XP before shutting down Parallels 3) backing-up the VM prior to any modification (software or drivers). Basically, treat it like a crappy windows machine.

That being said, what I don't like is my impression that eventually it starts to affect OSX, requiring a fresh install. That, IMHO, should not happen.

FWIW

Austin

 

Follow-up for those interested.

It has been a full week since I reinstalled OS X in an attempt to remedy the problem I was having with full screen transitions running XP.

I am happy to report that everything is still going strong (daily use) and not one unexpected quit has occured. (as an added note I do not use coherence so have not seen any issues with it...;-))

Cheers.

Tim
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