Slow!!!

I run Parallels for Win. 7 on my MacBook Pro (Mountain Lion) and every time I open it my entire Mac slows to a crawl. It takes approximately 8 minutes for Parallels/Windows 7 to open completely, and even after it opens my entire Mac slows down considerably. It's beyond tolerable to the point that I wish I had not purchased Parallels.

I changed some settings to help speed things up, but it really hasn't helped. Any suggestions? There is no way that what I'm experiencing is "normal." People wouldn't accept a program that runs this slow. Thanks.

Paul

 

I guess there are no answers since I've had no replies and the replies to others having the same problems are scarce. Running Windows and Mac side-by-side without significant slowdowns is a nice dream, but for those of us needing to use both to actually get work done, it's extremely frustrating.

 

People often complain that there are no answers, I can speak for myself, I saw this post and didn't answer it simply because it lacks information, there are numerous of possible reasons for such slow down that aren't, as it is implied, the software's fault, and even if it is, it lacks information.

One possible, frequent, reason is RAM. You don't say how much physical RAM you have nor how much you have assigned to your Windows VM, what is the Windows version and if it's 64 bit. These are all important facts that could explain the slowness. There is a limitation that Parallels can not by any means overcome and that is the available physical memory and if there isn't any free memory available it will have to start paging, meaning, using the Harddisk to hold the contents of the memory, causing extreme slowness.

The recommended minimum as described in the system requirements for Parallels is 4 GB RAM. OS X itself needs at least 2 GB RAM to run smoothly, Parallels the program itself has a overhead of at about 200 MB if I remember correctly, that leaves less than 2 GB maximum to be assigned to the VM, if you are running Windows Vista, 7 or 8 in their 64 bit versions they require, to run smoothly, 2 GB of assigned RAM, the 32 bit versions require 1 GB. As you can see, if you have 4 GB RAM you are running a very tight ship. Also, a browser can easily consume 1 GB of RAM, I have no idea what apps you are currently running.

And this is just one possibility...

 

Thanks for the reply, Specimen. Not all of us are familiar with technology to the degree that we can troubleshoot computer problems. We simply note our problem and seek for answers from those who have them. I guess we rely on the kindness of those people to reply and ask questions to try and narrow down what could be causing the problem. If no one replies because enough information is not supplied, how will that person ever resolve their problem?

From my perspective at the lowest level, my Mac ran without slowdowns until I installed Parallels. It runs without slowdowns now as long as I don't have Parallels open. So it's a fair conclusion to think that Parallels is the problem, or it created the problem.

I may have missed an answer, but when I searched past posts on slowdown issues, there are very few responses that would truly solve the problem for anyone in my situation. Search "slow" and see for yourself what comes up.

The memory specs on my MacBook Pro are: "Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3."

On the Windows 7 side, it says I'm running the 64 bit version with "Installed Memory (RAM): 1.5 GB."

Is that 1.5 GB what is allocated to the VM? If I need to change it, where do I do that? Thanks for any help you can give.

 

I understand the 'user' perspective, still, users should provide maximum information about their environment, that the only way you are going to get a meaningful response, personally I'm not a fan of guessing games, or do I have too much time on my hands to engage in a ping pong type of conversation.

Parallels is not like other software, you have to realize you are trying to run two OSs in a computer that was made to run only one, the specs you give are exactly what I suspected you are running above the limits.

Consider upgrading your RAM to 8 GB. All you can do right now to diminish the slowness is to quit apps on the mac side before launching windows, I suggest you quit your browser.

There are other possible reasons, I have no idea what you are running on the Windows side. You see, this is a complex problem, the issue can be everywhere. Due to the lack of more information I will assume is lack of RAM.

 

Thanks, Specimen.

 

Really? This is what constitutes support in the forums? Two very unhelpful replies, full of attitude, from one person in over a year? In other companies' forums I have seen many experts (people who really know a product) take a little bit of time and ask questions of the original poster in cases like this. They don't expect all posters, many of whom are noobies, to know enough to know what they don't know. So they ask questions and lead them along toward a solution. Specimen, you're quite the specimen alright.

Actually, when most people purchase software, they expect it to work and if it doesn't, not to have to either pay for support or come searching for answers on forums like this one, populated by people who browbeat them for not already having the solution to their problem.

I have exactly the same problem as ampm11. I have come to believe this is a VERY common problem with Parallels Desktop. So common that it is the 900 pound gorilla in the room. No one who really knows the product is talking about it because if they did, they'd have to admit to themselves that they wasted their money on this product.

I have searched through the "Knowledgebase", which seems to contain very little knowledge. And I have searched through these forums and found absolutely no truly helpful information as to why Windows runs so slowly on Parallels Desktop. The only comments I've seen that might have been the a bit helpful to someone are those about RAM memory.

Well, my MBP has an Intel i7 running at 2.8 GHz with 8 GB of RAM. I really don't think the slow performance I'm experiencing can be blamed on the machine itself. And since OS X never has run or responded slowly when Parallels Desktop was not running, I pretty much have to point the finger at Parallels. And yes, sometimes when Parallels Desktop is running but the vm is paused, I still experience slow performance on the OS X side.

I would think that both OS X and Win 7 would scream on this machine. And since they don't most of the time, I'm thinking that surely all Parallels Desktop needs is a little tweaking. But so far, no one has been able to offer me any tweaks that would make it work like I think it should. Maybe my expectations are just too high.

When I try to run Windows 7 Pro on the VM, I try to limit the number of Mac and/or Windows programs running. Sometimes, Windows runs surprisingly quickly. But on a fairly regular basis, Windows freezes up and does not respond -- at all. I look at the CPU and RAM info and it indicates neither is being loaded, but I still see the rotating wheel and nothing else for loooooooong periods of time. Sometimes it helps to shut down every open app on the Mac side, but I've learned that if the vm is really slow in starting up or returning from sleep, then I will be better off rebooting the entire MBP. But that's a ridiculous waste of time, and it happens way too frequently.

Could the problem be that I am running Windows 7 Professional in a domain environment? I suppose that's possible -- I just don't know and I don't consider it my job to find out. There's nothing particularly unique about our computing environment.

I had high expectations for version 9 of Desktop. Parallels certainly hyped it to the max. Unfortunately, though, it has the same performance issues that version 8 did.

So, since the Knowledgebase and the forums have been no help to me I will request support via email. Hopefully the official company support will be far better than anything I've found here online.

 

* Note that the last post on this thread, before yours, dates back to Dec 13, 2012, 11:19 PM, that's more than 1 year old, why the need to dig such an old thread? Is the intent to specifically taunt me?
* You might want to look for a different thread to post your issue or start a new one, I doubt anyone else will look int this thread and answer your question, partly because the original thread title and first post are quite vague, and for exactly that reason I showed some 'attitude'.
* I can't look into your problem and answer it because you already showed a personal negative attitude towards me even thou we never spoke before.


Also, from my signature:

[NOTE] I'm a Product Expert, that doesn't mean I'm affiliated with or work for Parallels.

I don't consider 'my job' to help people out, in fact, as seen above it isn't 'my job' at all. I do it because I feel like doing it, I hope that clarifies what the above means.

 

It's been a while since something has been posted here, hopefully there has been some headway.

In the interest of avoiding any conflict, I'm going to attempt to address/resolve an issue with my computer running too SLOWLY with Parallels. This is the first step, and if I'm unable to find resolution here, I'll give it a go with tech support. I will be as verbose as possible meaning I'm going to supply everything I know about what i know -Here we go!

I have a 2.5 Ghz Intel Core i5 Mac Book with 16Gb of Ram (DDR3) and am using OS X 10.9.1 (Mavericks). I have Parallels desktop for Mac version 9.0.24172. My goal is to effectively use Windows XP running Office 2007 for programs like Access, Word, Outlook and Excel. I have NOT partitioned the hard drive with Bootcamp as I understand that it isn't necessary with my processor speed. I have installed Windows XP and Office 2007 with no apparent problems. I'm using a Cisco Anyconnect VPN client to connect to my company network drive where the MS Office 2007 files are. The files are on a network at the company office and I'm using my MacBook Pro to manage, update, and manipulate these files from any location where I can get a wifi signal. I travel a lot, so this is primarily from hotel rooms. It seems that the majority of the connections are wifi based, and very few hotels are even using ethernet anymore as a way to connect to the internet.

Given a successful wifi connection, after booting my computer, after launching Parallels, after launching XP, after connecting to the VPN client, after accessing the company network, after locating the network drive with varying folders with the MS Office 2007 files in question, I find my computer running/manipulating these files so slowly, that it's basically unmanageable. Access, and Excel don't seem to be as bad as Word. What I mean by this is:
When I type something, there is a huge delay in the characters actually appearing in the field that they're being entered in. I have found that Access and Excel kind of work; i can enter and save information. Word, essentially does NOT work with anything involving a lot of character input. Sometimes I lose connectivity and have to reestablish the connection. When I'm NOT in the network via the VPN client, Windows XP seems to work just fine. So, it's really when I'm just connected to the network via the VPN. My associate had a MacBook Pro as well, however he was using VM on a partitioned hard drive (as opposed to Parallels on an unpartitioned hard drive), and had NO issues. This is why I'm wondering if there is some sort setting in Parallels that I haven't enabled or tried. Again, everything seems to work fine when I'm NOT connected to the network, that's why I'm thinking that partitioning my hard rive won't make a difference. But I don't know anything else other than what I've explained here. I hope I've been thorough in my explanation. In fact, I walked through a session to see if I left out any steps, and I didn't. It bogs down with the VPN network connection. Now, there is a lag when I'm in the network and I'm cycling through the different network drive folders with the MS 2007 files, but that's to be expected i suppose. It's when I actually OPEN a particular MS 2007 file where the big bog down happens. I'm not sure if Paralles is the culprit here, but I have to start somewhere.

Thanks for reading!

 

Adrian, how much RAM does the VM have assigned to it? XP 32bit only works smoothly with more than 1 GB, since you have 16 GB of physical RAM, I suggest you assign 2 GB or more, up to 4 GB.

Bootcamp or not doesn't make any noticeable difference running under Parallels.

Also, slowness do to VPN is most likely do to something that is waiting for some response and it's not receiving, like network shares, network printer shares and similar services (firewall?, the network shares you have configured to access in XP are still available?).

Finally you might try to assign 2 CPUs to the VM, that way it might be more responsive while it's timing out the non-responsive network services.

 

Hey Specimen!

You nailed it!

Thanks for you advice. I only had 1 GB enabled as well as one CPU. I brought it up to 4 and added another CPU and it works beautifully !! When I'm signing on to the network to use these files, it's all about the task at hand and I'm not using the laptop for anything else. Besides, I really wasn't looking forward to partitioning the HD and starting over -not that it would have made a difference (it would have been all for not).

The VPN issue (which seems to have been solved as well) makes sense, and it looks like that has nothing to do with my end. But hey, "..If it ain't broke!.." At least I'll have an idea that if something bogs down, it more than likely will be there -i think??.

I'm very pleased! Thanks again for your kind help!!

a

 

Glad I could help, you provided enough information for me to think about it and that makes all the difference. Happy computing!

 

looks like a plant

 

I'm not sure if I should be mad or if I should laugh.