My PD 4 experience after 10 days

Nailed it!

I did as suggested to create a new vm and use my existing hdd... problem solved after deleting and reinstalling parallels tools (not a pretty process). I then did some testing on another vm I had and discovered a minor difference between the two vm configurations. The field in the config.pvs for <Hardware><Chipset><Type> was set to 1 instead of 0. By changing that on my other vm to 1 and then reinstalling the parallels tools I'm a happy camper.

Here is the detailed steps I used:

- shutdown the winxp vm
- right click on the vmname.pvm file and select show contents
- edit the config.pvs file with a text editor
- find the Hardware/Chipset/Type section of the XML and change the value to 1 from 0
- save the file
- start the vm and select cancel to all the new hardware setup windows
- wait until they stop (usually after the 'some hardware did not install properly' message)
- open add/remove software in the vm and uninstall parallel tools (this took foreever for me)
- reboot the vm when it completes (it will ask you)
- again, cancel all the new hardware setup windows
- delete any 'prl*' files in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers (including the prl_* files)
- in the parallels virtual machine menu select install parallels tools and wait until it completes (may take a while)
- if prompted to insert the xp service pack 3 CD, just browse to the C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers directory and it will find the file it needs (I was actually prompted this way for two different files both times I've done it)
- reboot the vm when prompted
- enjoy the return to the version 3 speed :-)

CAUTION: I'm just telling you what worked for me, your milage may vary... make backups!

ANOTHER NOTE: Uninstalling parallels tools and reinstalling took over 30 minutes for me; be patient.

Now I'm off to try this on my wife's system so she can smile again too :-)

Chuck

UPDATE: Worked like a charm on the wife's vm and is even snappier than mine!
 
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Jim,

The USB device like Printer may be attached as a hardware (through USB controller) device to only one operating system. The Computer option connects the printer to your host operating system, another option (Windows XP) connects it to the guest operating system. This resource can't be shared as a hardware device, it can be shared between two operating systems using a special application or a driver.

In other words: Computer - connect Printer to the host USB controller. Windows XP - to the virtual USB controller (through host USB controller).

Virtualization....

Best regards,
Alexander
 
Chuck,

Thank you for your detailed description. It is very important information for us. It makes big step forward for catching the bug.

Thank you for your patience once again.

Best regards,
Alexander
 
Hi! Chunk,

Thanks for the PD4 tips.

But it only partially work for me with your instruction mentioned above for one CPU configured.

I encountered three times of Mac OSX Kernel Panic when doing the steps.

For two CPUs configured, my MacBook simply hang.

It wasted my weekend.

Parallel team, please fix it and save us!
 
Birdman,

Try creating a new vm and use your existing .hdd like I did earlier in this thread. If it runs better then you can compare the config.pvs files from each for the difference(s) which should help parallels get to the bottom of all this.

Chuck
 
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Terrific fix Chuck ! I had fixed my problems reinstalling a new VM but did not know how much faster PD4 could go !

I followed your fix to the letter, the only difference being that I had two parallel tools in my applications but could only remove one. The outcome is great in speed but also in term of cpu load which is now minimal! Thanks a lot man !
To parallels, you may want to look into that as most users will not read this fix. It worked great on macbook pro 2.5 GHz intel core 2 duo running 10.5.5 and xp sp3 having the worst issues with prl_vm_app.
 
patimages said:
Terrific fix Chuck ! I had fixed my problems reinstalling a new VM but did not know how much faster PD4 could go !

I followed your fix to the letter, the only difference being that I had two parallel tools in my applications but could only remove one. The outcome is great in speed but also in term of cpu load which is now minimal! Thanks a lot man !
To parallels, you may want to look into that as most users will not read this fix. It worked great on macbook pro 2.5 GHz intel core 2 duo running 10.5.5 and xp sp3 having the worst issues with prl_vm_app.
Click to expand...

Sweet! If I didn't already have a license for all my macs I'd suggest parallels owes me one... :-) Just kidding, parallels is a great product with a really nasty black eye from the v4 release. I hope they can find a cure and get the word out since I have a few friends still holding back to see what happens (even though I've already let them know it can be fixed).

Chuck
 
wcf3 said:
I did as suggested to create a new vm and use my existing hdd... problem solved after deleting and reinstalling parallels tools (not a pretty process)...
Click to expand...

I too had created a new VM from my HDD image, but could not get Parallels tools to work correctly, mainly the mouse synchronization and transition between OS's.

Edited my old VM as Chuck described and all is working well.

Thanks Chuck...
 
Hi, I have some issues, irractic where after suspending pd4 i find that tools does are not working properly, eg the mouse and 'my docs' - i upgraded from pd3. Do i maybe need to delete the above file described? If so is that on the vm or os x?
 
Did NOT work for me :(

I just tried Chuck's recommended fix for improving performance and it did not work for me. Here is what I did.

1. I measured the performance of the automatically upgraded/converted VM from PD3. It had a Chipset value of 0 automatically set by the upgrade/conversion process.

2. I then created a new VM configuration using the PD3 HDD file and ran through the upgrade/convert process. By default, the Chipset value was 1 and, when measuring performance, I saw no difference.

3. I then went through Chuck's procedure and tested performance. Again, there was no improvement.

Based upon the posts in this thread, users are getting mixed results. As the Parallels team has noted, some of the settings may have different results based upon both the host and VM being used.

Parallels - can you provide any additional information on what some of the configuration options do within the .PVS file?

Thanks,

James
 
I shall continue to wait

Perhaps there are those who, like me, have been reluctant to upgrade because of the variety and severity of the problems encountered. My conclusion is that seems prudent to wait until Parallels is able to release a stable, reliable version.
 
STim said:
Guys,

I'm reading a lot of posts daily both on our forum and in the internet. The user experience with PD4 performance is quite different. I saw both the "it's a lot faster than PD3" and the "it's much slower than PD3" statements. The latter statements are mostly scattered around our forum (it's the support forum after-all, usually you don't visit it unless you have a problem).

You can help us understand the issue better and come up with the fix or workaround if you write more details about your experience. Say,

1. What exactly is slow? Is it guest OS boot, or maybe your main business application, or your daily routine tasks take longer, or the interface seems sluggish?
2. How slower it is? Like it's twice slower, or 30% slower?
3. How much CPU is used on your Mac when you feel PD4 slow? You can check it if you run Applications->Utilities->Activity Monitor. Is it possible that while it's slow, the prl_vm_app process consumes enormous amount of CPU?
4. Please make Help->Report a problem and provide it's ID. The report contains a lot of useful information about your configuration and some logs that are necessary to understand the problem.

Thank you
Click to expand...

What a great suggestion. It's too bad that hasn't been suggested in two weeks of support correspondence to date. I will do that and add that to my trouble ticket.
 
Issue Uninstalling Parallels Tools

In trying to follow this topic on improved performance:

- one machine I have worked flawlessly, huge improvement in performance after following the above tips.

- on another machine (actual, not virtual). When I remove Parallels desktop through Add/Remove programs, and then restart per the prompt, windows xp boots past the splash screen, and then I get a solid black screen, no further boot. Same results in Safe Mode.

- interesting, I get the same result if I change the config.pvs file to "0" from "1"; when I relaunch the VM, I get the black screen.

Any ideas?
 
Absolutely.

tirmidi said:
Perhaps there are those who, like me, have been reluctant to upgrade because of the variety and severity of the problems encountered. My conclusion is that seems prudent to wait until Parallels is able to release a stable, reliable version.
Click to expand...

I'm VERY reluctant, too. Version 3 is working fine for me. I remember upgrading from 2 to 3 and didn't have any problems. But from reading these posts, I think I'll wait.
 
chicago63 said:
I'm VERY reluctant, too. Version 3 is working fine for me. I remember upgrading from 2 to 3 and didn't have any problems. But from reading these posts, I think I'll wait.
Click to expand...

We are working on fixing major issues with upgrade from 2.x/3.x to 4.x. Please, note that there were no difference between hardware emulation in Parallels Desktop 2.x and 3..x.

Parallels Desktop 4.0 has absolutely different hardware and absolutely different kernel architecture.
 
How to find the file

I see post from Chuck 'Nailed it'. Can you please give me some advice about where to find the files to be modified? Do you go through Parallels explorer?

many thanks

David
 
Good. Keep us informed.

MakcyD said:
We are working on fixing major issues with upgrade from 2.x/3.x to 4.x. Please, note that there were no difference between hardware emulation in Parallels Desktop 2.x and 3..x.

Parallels Desktop 4.0 has absolutely different hardware and absolutely different kernel architecture.
Click to expand...

Good to know you're working on fixing major issues with the upgrade from 3 to 4. I will check the forum for any news on fixing the major issues.

Will you be posting a whole new .dmg of the upgrade version, or would I have to download the current upgrade .dmg version, cross my fingers, say a prayer, and go through hell to get it working, THEN run updated builds?
 
DDB said:
I see post from Chuck 'Nailed it'. Can you please give me some advice about where to find the files to be modified? Do you go through Parallels explorer?

many thanks

David
Click to expand...

To be honest, if you aren't familiar with how to get to the file I would recommend you wait for an official fix from parallels. My main goal was to provide info to parallels so they can find a fix, the feedback from others brave enough to try it should provide even more help. But to answer your question, right click on the parallels vm file and select show contents.

To the previous post above that still had problems with the tools, it is very important to completely remove and reinstall the tools since it was the only way I could get things running properly. And yes, it's a painfully slow process.

Chuck
 
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