Win 11 Crashing - Probably Excel Related

Thank you, I hope that goes well.
I have not used the machine enough since upgrading to 26.4 to notice any trend although yesterday I came back from lunch to find that Windows had rebooted.
That is different to before, as previously it always crashed whilst I was working in it (usually Excel) and also it would just leave me back at the Mac desktop. Of course yesterday could have been coincidental.

I am also following this interesting thread, which I presume may be related:
https://forum.parallels.com/threads/vm-running-mac-memory-out-to-100gb.369767/
 
SystemsGuy said:
May not be the same issue I was experiencing. But might be worth a try to fall back to 26.2.2 version in my other post. I had to do an uninstall, then install the downlevel version.

I am on 16in MBP M5 Max with 48GB memory. I upped my VM from 4 vCPU to 6 vCPU, 16GB memory to 24GB memory. I beat the heck out of the Win 11 VM daily. Multiple Excel workbooks open right now. One of them is 185k rows and 29 columns. Filtering, pivots, and xlookups. (4) Other Excel workbooks, one is only 36k rows, but loads of pivots and tables calculating stuff from the Pivots. Also have Access open with linked tables, and the local table that created that giant workbook. (6) PowerPoints. Of course Outlook, OneNote, CoPilot...No Visio opened right now. Just wanted you to understand my workload. If you regularly use the Windows 11 VM for things beyond normal office work, such as gaming or managing minecraft-related files and looking for a download jenny mod minecraft package, it may also be useful to see whether the problem appears under a lighter workload.

If you fall back and still have issues I would open a case. For me throughout the day the VM memory usage would grow and grow. On days where I would hit 240-250GB memory usage, it would crash. Guessing some sort of a barrier at 256GB. I was rebooting every morning to help avoid it, which was an inconvenience. I knew it had to be a bug as I had a 14in MBP I took back after a week, that had the same issue. They had me build a fresh VM using the MS Download. Took me about a week to fully cut over to the new VM. They also provided detailed instructions for collecting all the data they needed. Was easy to do and upload.
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I also had the same issue, and the sudden jump in Parallels memory usage is the part that really stands out to me. A crash after scrolling in Excel could point toward some interaction between Excel, Windows ARM, Parallels Tools, and the graphics/display layer, but seeing the Parallels process grow from around 8 GB to more than 120 GB even while the VM is mostly idle sounds like something more unusual than normal workload-related memory consumption. I would be interested to know whether the memory continues increasing if Excel is completely closed, because that could help separate an Excel-related problem from a Parallels/Windows VM issue. Checking Activity Monitor for memory pressure and the Parallels VM process while reproducing the problem might also reveal whether the allocation is being reclaimed or simply continues growing until macOS runs out of resources.
 
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For me it was everything. Excel, Visio, OneNote, MS Access...Based on how much I was doing, especially when I dove into manipulating Excel files with Access, the VM memory grew. During light days, it did not grow as much and might take 2-3d before crashing out at around 256GB memory. After falling back to 26.2.2 the issue no longer took place. Upgrading to 26.4, the issue did not present either. Currently on 26.4.1 as that solved the TPM issues. Have not upgraded to 27.0.
 
Since the update in early summer, I'm having excel problems, not specifically crashing (though it happened a few times) I guess memory related. Excel "forgets" formatting, does not update fields and blank cells, blank dialogs, etc. I have to close excel and reopen to refresh. Sometimes I have to restart the VM, other times restart my mac. Using Macbook Pro, M2 Max, 64GB RAM, Tahoe 26.7, Parallels 27.0.2, 4 CPU (auto configured) 16GB memory (auto configured). Changed different memory settings (from 8GB to 24GB), no change in behavior. One other thing - I'm using ChatGPT browser v 26.93. Despite using that and a couple other apps that are memory hogs (trading platform, safari/chrome, notes, etc.) I generally still have 18-20 GB free any given time. Suggestions welcome. It's annoying enough I may bite the bullet and start using Excel for mac.
 
My problem at the end of June seems to have gone away with the upgrade to || 26.4. However, I am running on an antique M1 Max technology. I note most currently having problems are on newer hardware.
A small sense of foreboding since I am scheduled to get a new machine.

The only thing I can suggest is checking your version of Excel. There are 3 or 4 families of Excel with slightly different feature sets: I used to run an LTSC and M365 (O365 at the time) on different VMs. Not all features are present in all versions. At the time the Excel for Mac was the furthest behind. Now I run M365 exclusively and let it update as it see fit.
All that to suggest that there may be code issues with a certain Build.

Possibly related ??
I have noticed, not with Excel, but with Chrome the increasing memory usage. Despite the "sleeping tab" feature. I increased the memory size on the non-Excel from 10-12GB to keep from getting "out of Memory" messages. My Excel VM is 10GB and has a smaller Chrome footprint. I wish they could be bigger, but the host is only 32GB.
I will watch a bit closer the memory footprint for Chrome and Excel.

Another thought . .
I noticed a couple folks mentioning that they let || auto-configure the CPU and Memory settings. I have always set it myself. Advantages/pitfalls??

As of this morning patching to macOS 26.7.1 and || 27.0.3 My M365 is Version 2609 (Build 20430.20092 Click-to-Run).
Crossed fingers: I am stable at the moment.
 
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