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Parallels Desktop 9 SUCKS on MBP: Please Help

sarakn

sarakn

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 8, 2013
765
46
I switched from PC to MAC last October and have been happy with almost everything except the performance and experience with Parallels Desktop 9. I hardly have to use it, but each time I do, the experience is frustrating and horrible.

I've been able to do 95% of my work on MAC, but there are sometimes I need windows such as remote desktop to access apps that sit on another machine (trust me, there's no other way around this. Even on windows, I had to RDP to those systems). When the performance was not that great, I just assumed it was the RDP experience.

However, if I use Microsoft Office in Parallels AND coherence mode, at some point it shuts down the entire VM - always happens. If Office is used without coherence, maybe I get 30-60 minutes before the screens starts pixellating or going nuts and I have to restart.

The MAJOR problem I have with Parallels is the FAN NOISE. In OSX alone, I could have many apps running simultaneously and everything is super quiet. I turn on Parallels and even with ONLY Firefox running, the fan comes on and it's very frustrating. It always happens. The fan is not as loud as my windows, but when you go from whisper quiet to a persistent noise, that's just hard to ignore.

I have a late 2013 15" MBP with 16GB ram so it should not be a problem with resource.

Maybe it's my own ignorance/poor settings, but I've heard not to use more than 4GB ram for windows as it could negatively impact the OSX session.

I'm using Parallels Desktop 9, running windows 8.1. I have 2 CPUs and 4GB RAM allocated.
10ztlit.png


My optimization settings are:
29yp9ts.png


Please help.
Thanks!
 
sarakn said:
I switched from PC to MAC last October and have been happy with almost everything except the performance and experience with Parallels Desktop 9. I hardly have to use it, but each time I do, the experience is frustrating and horrible.

I've been able to do 95% of my work on MAC, but there are sometimes I need windows such as remote desktop to access apps that sit on another machine (trust me, there's no other way around this. Even on windows, I had to RDP to those systems). When the performance was not that great, I just assumed it was the RDP experience.

However, if I use Microsoft Office in Parallels AND coherence mode, at some point it shuts down the entire VM - always happens. If Office is used without coherence, maybe I get 30-60 minutes before the screens starts pixellating or going nuts and I have to restart.

The MAJOR problem I have with Parallels is the FAN NOISE. In OSX alone, I could have many apps running simultaneously and everything is super quiet. I turn on Parallels and even with ONLY Firefox running, the fan comes on and it's very frustrating. It always happens. The fan is not as loud as my windows, but when you go from whisper quiet to a persistent noise, that's just hard to ignore.

I have a late 2013 15" MBP with 16GB ram so it should not be a problem with resource.

Maybe it's my own ignorance/poor settings, but I've heard not to use more than 4GB ram for windows as it could negatively impact the OSX session.

I'm using Parallels Desktop 9, running windows 8.1. I have 2 CPUs and 4GB RAM allocated.
Image

My optimization settings are:
Image

Please help.
Thanks!
Click to expand...


Have you tried Windows 7?
 
sarakn said:
I've been able to do 95% of my work on MAC, but there are sometimes I need windows such as remote desktop to access apps that sit on another machine (trust me, there's no other way around this. Even on windows, I had to RDP to those systems). When the performance was not that great, I just assumed it was the RDP experience.
Click to expand...

There is an RDP for Mac. I remote to my Windows machine at work, almost daily.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=18140
 
I have the same set-up -- 15" late '13 MBP with 16GB, using Parallels 9, Windows 8.1 and Word.

I have not had *any* of the issues you describe -- no crashes, no fan noise.

The only difference I see is that I've allocated 6GB to Parallels, with no OSX issues (not surprising because of the way Mavericks does on-the-fly RAM compression now).

I am sorry that I do not have any solutions for you -- I'm posting to let you know you know that the issue doesn't appear to be a fundamental flaw in Parallels 9, because it does work.

My only crumb of assistance would be to remove/reinstall the software (a major pita, I know), so that you can be sure you are starting with a "clean slate" as you troubleshoot.
 
mneblett said:
I have the same set-up -- 15" late '13 MBP with 16GB, using Parallels 9, Windows 8.1 and Word.

I have not had *any* of the issues you describe -- no crashes, no fan noise.

The only difference I see is that I've allocated 6GB to Parallels, with no OSX issues (not surprising because of the way Mavericks does on-the-fly RAM compression now).

I am sorry that I do not have any solutions for you -- I'm posting to let you know you know that the issue doesn't appear to be a fundamental flaw in Parallels 9, because it does work.

My only crumb of assistance would be to remove/reinstall the software (a major pita, I know), so that you can be sure you are starting with a "clean slate" as you troubleshoot.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I'll try increasing the RAM. I knew it had to be something with my configuration, I just wasn't sure why.

----------
k-hawinkler said:
Have you tried Windows 7?
Click to expand...

No. Personally, I feel PD9 should work with the latest software version if that's what they claim their apps do. Why advertise software claiming it runs the latest apps only to have to downgrade?

Thanks for your suggestion, but I feel there should be a better solution.
 
I'd give the VM 6GB of RAM and 3-4 "CPUs". That's what I do and it works great.
 
chrfr said:
Allocating 3-4 cores allocated to the virtual machine on a 4 core machine will be counterproductive.
Click to expand...

Why is that? If that's the case, why give the option to increase to up to 8 cpus.

If you don't agree with that, what do u suggest?
 
chrfr said:
Allocating 3-4 cores allocated to the virtual machine on a 4 core machine will be counterproductive.
Click to expand...

It's mislabeled in Parallels, it's threads not cores, so on the quad core CPU you have 8 threads.
 
I'm also running Parallels Desktop 9 with Windows 8.1 Pro. The thing I don't recall reading is what sort of drive you have HD or SSD? I have a mid 2012 in MBP 15" next out at 16 GB RAM. Coincidentally, I am also giving it 4 cores, which means 4 threads, and 6 GB RAM. I initially had the stock HD before I switched to SSD, which made a huge difference. I also get very good performance with the PD9 VM.

Also I'm running some CPU intensive software such as Visual Studio, and PD9 handles it just fine!

I've personally find Parallels Desktop to be faster than VMware fusion on lower end hardware. So when I got a faster Mac, I went with Parallels Desktop.

Again, like the others said, I think you might just want to wipe it clean and reinstall, because your setup should be working just fine.
 
Last edited:
skallal said:
I'm also running Parallels Desktop 9 with Windows 8.1 Pro. The thing I don't recall reading is what sort of drive you have HD or SSD? I have a mid 2012 in MBP 15" next out at 16 GB RAM. Coincidentally, I am also giving it 4 cores, which means 4 threads, and 6 GB RAM. I initially had the stock HD before I switched to SSD, which made a huge difference. I also get very good performance with the PD9 VM.

Also I'm running some CPU intensive software such as Visual Studio, and PD9 handles it just fine!

I've personally find Parallels Desktop to be faster than VMware fusion on lower end hardware. So when I got a faster Mac, I went with Parallels Desktop.

Again, like the others said, I think you might just want to wipe it clean and reinstall, because your setup should be working just fine.
Click to expand...

I'm have the latest system - late 2013 machine with SSD.

When you guys say reinstall parallels, get the chills (from my Windows days) because I don't know what that's supposed to resolve.

Reinstall parallels and do what? It's more of a configuration, right?

So what should the configuration be.

If I reinstall parallels, I would have to reinstall the OS and all apps. Is it possible to reinstall and then move the old OS into the new installation?
 
sarakn said:
I'm have the latest system - late 2013 machine with SSD.

When you guys say reinstall parallels, get the chills (from my Windows days) because I don't know what that's supposed to resolve.

Reinstall parallels and do what? It's more of a configuration, right?

So what should the configuration be.

If I reinstall parallels, I would have to reinstall the OS and all apps. Is it possible to reinstall and then move the old OS into the new installation?
Click to expand...

The VMs are separate from the actual Parallels install, they're located in your documents folder/Parallels.
 
Thanks, I reinstalled and will monitor for improvements.
 
sarakn said:
mneblett:
Can you take a look at your video configuration:
Configure >> Hardware >> Video

What options do you have on that page?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Video memory at 1024MB, both checkboxes checked, 3D: DirectX 10.

Also running with 2 cores (threads) allocated. The machine's performance is high enough that that hasn't been a constraint for me.
 
mneblett said:
Video memory at 1024MB, both checkboxes checked, 3D: DirectX 10.

Also running with 2 cores (threads) allocated. The machine's performance is high enough that that hasn't been a constraint for me.
Click to expand...


Thanks again.

Also, when you say 2 cores, do you mean the CPUs on the general configuration tab?
 
sarakn said:
Thanks again.

Also, when you say 2 cores, do you mean the CPUs on the general configuration tab?
Click to expand...
Yes - that is why I parentheticalled "threads" -- 2 "cores" in Parallels = 1 physical core (2 threads/core).
 
mneblett said:
Video memory at 1024MB, both checkboxes checked, 3D: DirectX 10.

Also running with 2 cores (threads) allocated. The machine's performance is high enough that that hasn't been a constraint for me.
Click to expand...

If you aren't gaming or doing any 3d, try turning off DirectX 10 and you won't need 1024MB of video ram for 2d only.
 
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