Unable to Allocate Virtual Machine Memory...still!

Still happens. A lot. On my Mac Pro with 3G ram and scads of disk.

Extremely annoying. Since this is a final, I assume it's just not going to be fixed.

I have no choice but to stick with Parallels for now, but I'll certainly watch the competiton.

 

I've always been having the same problem. I've got a Mac Pro with 7GB of ram and tons of disk space as well. It works right after a restart, but if I use other programs before deciding to open parallels, it refuses to launch the VM with that same error

 

I'm seeing this problem as well with 3186

On a Mac Pro with 5GB RAM and 100GB+ of available disk space, I am now getting the "Unable to allocate virtual machine memory!" error whenever I try to start a Windows XP virtual machine with 1.5GB of memory specified using build 3186.

This configuration was working fine with 3120.

I can get the Virtual Machine to run by dropping the virtual machine to 1GB of memory, .

I have tried adjusting the parallels memory preferences from automatically to manually specifying sufficient memory.

Has anyone found a way to work around this bug?

 

I have come across this issue if 'user1' was using parallels and logged out of OSX leaving the virtual machine suspended. Then when 'user2' logged into OSX, the virtual memory for the parallels was locked out to anyone but 'user1', hence the virtual memory error. 'user1' had to log back in to OSX and close down the virtual machine.

 

I have fixed it before, and have heard of others, that just run Onyx (or another comperable system/cache cleaner) and then it works. Also, try bumping the memory down, then go back to the full amount.

 

my historical experience with WInXP Sp2 on a Sony Vaio lap top with 1gb RAM is that it never took more than 500 mb but used virtual memory big time

parallels as i write uses 489.71 mb Real / Ram and 2,2 gb Virtual memory on the Mac Activity Monitor with nearly always 17 threads


Task Manager for WinXp 521 MB and 2 gb virtual memory 1.22 gb paging

what does your own WIn X Task manager show when you allocate higher values to Parallels for RAM like 1 or 2 gb?

Hugh W


=== system in Danish

Navn på operativsystem Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 build 2600
Navn på producent Microsoft Corporation
Systemnavn HUGHWATKINS2B69
Systemproducent Ikke tilgængelig
Systemmodel Ikke tilgængelig
Systemtype X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 14 Stepping 8 GenuineIntel ~4363 Mhz
BIOS-version/dato UNKNOWN, 07/03/2007
Windows-mappe C:\WINDOWS
System-mappe C:\WINDOWS\system32
Startenhed \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Landestandard Storbritannien
Abstraktionslag for hardware Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"
Brugernavn HUGHWATKINS2B69\Ejer
Tidszone Greenwich, normaltid

Fysisk hukommelse i alt 511.55 MB
Tilgængelig fysisk hukommelse 45.56 MB
Virtuel hukommelse i alt 2.00 GB
Tilgængelig virtuel hukommelse 1.96 GB
Plads til sidefil 1.22 GB
Sidefil C:\pagefile.sys

 

I've got this issue as well, but only when I try to fire up a 2nd virtual machine.
I can launch and run the first instance without a problem, but the 2nd one will not start.

Mac Pro
6GB RAM (Approx 3GB free)
140GB HD FREE on VM drive
180GB+ FREE on OSX Primary drive
10.4.9 -- All patches, all up to date

Parallels 3188

 

why do you need multiple VM ?
are you running legacy servers?

Hugh W

 

I'd like to do testing with a bunch of different OS's at once and I bought this machine thinking I'd be able to easily replace 3-4 other computers with it.

So it's pretty important for me to be able to launch multiple machines at one time. Unfortunately I can't do it.

Can anyone else run more than one VM at a time?

 

I also had this problem, but it was only after I had finished pulling all of my hair out, I figured out what the problem was

Security!!! I just selected Get info on the folder where the VM resided and made sure everyone had Read Write Access.

That's it...

 

I've run multiple virtual machines before.

Have you tried cleaning up your caches at all?

 

I started receiving this message less than a week ago. I had been running build 1376 (I think that was it) and it just started out of the blue. I'm sure something changed, but I can't even imagine what it could be. I upgraded to build 3188 to see if that would fix it, but no go. I've tried:

1. Repairing permissions
2. Running Onyx
3. The obligatory reboot (several times)

I can open my other VMs (both Linux) just fine, but not my WinXP machine. This is a critical environment for me so this downtime is extremely aggravating. Any idea what's going on?

Thanks.

 

I forgot to mention that I've also tried reducing the amount of memory allocated to the VM to 256M. No luck with that, either.

 

Have you tried making a new config file?

 

Hmmm. I haven't seen that solution before. Can you provide instructions? I just finished a complete uninstall -> reinstall of Parallels (build 3188), but the problem persists.

Thanks for your help.

 

Well, I found an answer. I'm not sure it's *the* answer, I'm not sure why it worked, I'm not sure whether it *should* work and I'm not sure whether it will screw up something else, but...all that said...I finally got the VM to start.

To get rid of the error and allow the VM to launch, I just deleted the .mem file and the .sav file in the VM directory. I don't know whether only one needed to be deleted, but at least one of them did.

Hopefully this will help someone else.

 

Where is the vm directory? is this found on a mac?
Thanks for the posts this thread appears to be helping.

 

I believe that, by default, VMs are located in ~/Library/Parallels. I moved mine, so I can't tell you for certain. You should be able to see the path to a particular VM somewhere in the GUI or you could use the command line:

$ locate .pvs

Will tell you where to find any files containing .pvs.

 

Thanks. I was able to locate the .pvs, but apparently no .mem.
It seem deleting the .pvs file will require reinstalling windows xp.
before I go further will this keep my apps and their preferences.
If not and this is the only way to get back and running, would a complete reinstall be warranted?

Thanks

 

DON'T DELETE THE PVS OR HDD FILES. Only delete any MEM or SAV files.