I'm using a late 2009 MacBook white unibody and just need to use windows 7 for basic stuff like e-mail, spread sheets, connecting to the work server, pdf's (basic office stuff for construction project management) no 3D stuff or auto cad. I upgraded my RAM from 2 to 4gb and my OS X is faster but windows 7 still lags. When I say lags I mean I click to open a program and five minutes later i see it start opening. Do I need to reinstall windows7 and parallels to get them to recognize the increased RAM? What do I need to do?
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Doubled RAM and Wind. 7 is still very slow
- Thread starter code-man850
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A virtual Windows (Parallels) will always be much slower on a small two core machine. You can dual boot the Windows if you need it often for extended times and use a big (240 GB) SSD with two partitions to speed things up. Another solution would be an external SSD for OS X and an internal disk for Windows. With both OS running of SSD you can switch in less than a minute.
First look in Parallels and see how much RAM is dedicated to the virtual machine. With the Windows7 machine stopped you can change the allocated RAM. I'd recommend with 4 GB total RAM you give 2 GB to the Windows install and keep 2 GB for OS X.
Better off going with Boot Camp over Parallels. Always lags for me as well. Could be a corrupt install.. When is the last time you formatted or installed a clean v. of OSX..?
You don't say if you are using Parallels or Boot Camp. Boot Camp will be much faster. If you are still having issues, then you might need to optimize some performance settings. I have Windows 7 on a very old machine with only 1GB of memory and it runs very fast.
I'm not 100% sure because that machine isn't in front of me but:
Right click on "computer" on the desktop and select properties. THere is something there called a Windows Experience Index. Click it and run the test. You will likely get a very low score.
On that same screen on the left you can adjust various parameters that will improve performance. Turn off all the visual effects then re-run the tests.
Also, right click on the desktop, go into display properties and adjust your video card settings. Turning the acceleration alll the way on or off might make a big difference.
I'm not 100% sure because that machine isn't in front of me but:
Right click on "computer" on the desktop and select properties. THere is something there called a Windows Experience Index. Click it and run the test. You will likely get a very low score.
On that same screen on the left you can adjust various parameters that will improve performance. Turn off all the visual effects then re-run the tests.
Also, right click on the desktop, go into display properties and adjust your video card settings. Turning the acceleration alll the way on or off might make a big difference.