Parallels Desktop 5 Questions?

Discussion in 'Windows, Linux & Others on the Mac' started by MattMJB0188, Aug 2, 2010.

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  1. MattMJB0188, Aug 2, 2010

    MattMJB0188 macrumors 68000

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    #1
    SO I bought Parallels Desktop 5 today and like it but I have noticed a few things. I am using my Windows 7 boot camp partition as the main virtual machine. When booting windows 7 DOES NOT use its fancy animated boot. Then once I restart my computer and run Windows 7 natively it also doesn't use the animated boot. It uses the Vista boot sequence? Is this normal? Any suggestions?

    I noticed the sound skips and stutters very badly in Parallels. Playing an MP3 file in winamp or the media player causes the song to skip. Running Windows 7 natively songs play fine. Anyone experiencing this? Thanks
     
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  2. owlbabu, Aug 2, 2010

    owlbabu macrumors member

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    #2
    How did you use your bootcamp partition as your main virtual machine for Parallels?
     
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  3. MattMJB0188, Aug 2, 2010

    MattMJB0188 thread starter macrumors 68000

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    I installed Parallels and it detected it so that's what I meant. The bootcamp partition is the only partition I'm using with parallels.
     
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  4. KirkL, Aug 2, 2010

    KirkL macrumors 6502

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    #4
    You always take a performance hit when you run something in a virtual environment (VMWare/Parallels). Why are you playing MP3 files in Windows anyway? Surely you can do that on the Mac too :cool:
     
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  5. MattMJB0188, Aug 2, 2010

    MattMJB0188 thread starter macrumors 68000

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    #5
    true... but I can't have Winamp on Mac ):
     
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  6. circularforward, Aug 2, 2010

    circularforward macrumors 6502

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    I believe the fancy animated boot is gone when you 'tune windows for speed' in the preferences. What system resources are you devoting to the VM? You should be able to run mp3s fine with an i5. I have an i7 and use vmware, which is slower than parallels, and I can run DVDs/videos fine without any stutter. Not that I do it regularly in the VM, but I have tried to see how they perform.
     
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  7. MattMJB0188, Aug 2, 2010

    MattMJB0188 thread starter macrumors 68000

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    #7
    I unchecked 'Tune Windows for Speed'. I have it set to 2GB ram and 2 processors and still experience stuttering audio.
     
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  8. Frosties, Aug 4, 2010

    Frosties macrumors 6502a

    Frosties

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    #8
    Try one processor but most likely it is a driver issue. What sound card is the parallell windows 7 running? Parallells have been known to have a bug or two also so you could try their forum for more help.
     
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  9. MattMJB0188, Aug 4, 2010

    MattMJB0188 thread starter macrumors 68000

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    #9
    Thanks for you input. I also installed XP home just as a vm. Perhaps it has something to do with Windows 7 being a bootcamp partition. I don't know but in XP the sound is flawless plus I have downloaded the Realtek AC97 driver which includes the sound effect manager which is awesome. As long as I have great sound in one Virtual OS I'm fine.


    I set XP 32-bit to 4gb of ram and it only recognizes 2.75gb of ram. Anyone know why? I thought a 32 bit operating system can use no more than 4gb of memory? Thanks
     
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  10. circularforward, Aug 4, 2010

    circularforward macrumors 6502

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    #10
    2.74 is a common number because windows 32-bit can recognize only 3.3 or so. Then that number is lowered by the integrated video and some other hardware resources.
     
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