Still Problems with Parallels Tools

Hi guys,

When do you think the problem with Tools suddendly quitting but not possible to be relaunched will be fixed?
That problem is really annoying because I need copy/paste between MacOS and VM very often and the only way to have the Tools back to work is to restart Windows (that sometimes doesn't restart itself forcing me to reset).
This is a well know problem but nothing has changed in almost a year.
Is there any hope to see this problem **REALLY** fixed in next future?

Best regards,

Luca Severini

 

The problem is usually causing by the lack of Memory on Mac OS side, try not to start many applications on Mac side

 

Hi everyone,

First of all please exuse me if I had posted in the wrong place 'cause I mean Parallels Desktop. May anybody move this post in the right place? Thanks a lot.

Regarding the bug it has nothing to do with lack of memory in MacOS because I have allocated 1 GB of memory for Window using normally not even half of it and my MacBook Pro has 3GB of memory and usually I don't open anything while I'm using Parallels but Safari and Mail.
To be more specific this problem happens regularly when I use Visual Studio 2003 to develop C/C++ software modules for InDesign or QuarkXPress.
The problem is present since I began to use Parallels, instead of a true PC, 16 months ago.
If you can't fix it for any reason at least make the Tools restartable when it hangs...

Best regards,

Luca Severini

 

Could you try to allocate about 1500 mb memory to VM?

 

Hi John,

I tried what you asked and nothing changed.
Anyway the last time happened immedately after I closed, not paused, Kaspersky (the antivirus, version 7.0.1.325).
The Tools application disappears from the taskbar but still remains in the process list making impossible to relaunch it but restarting Windows, that usually needs to be resetted because it hangs while closing.
Any hope to have a real, albeit temporary, solution from you to avoid relaunching Windows every time?

Regards,

Luca Severini

 

hm, I suppose you need to check what application is exactly causing fail of Parallels Tools.
Please check Application and System logs in Windows what is causing fault for Parallels Tools

 

The only two application I'm using now are Adobe InDesign e Visula Studio 2003.
Sometimes I also open briefly UltraEdit.
I can't make more tests at the moment because I have a lot of work to do (using Parallels...).
As I wrote before I'd appreciate if you can give me a solution of any kind for not to restart the VM to relaunch the Tools.
Thanks.

Luca Severini

 

There is no needs for test just check for errors in System and Application logs,
You may find something that related to Parallels Tools fail in there

 

frequent parallels tools hangs, copy/paste breaking

I checked Windows XP event logs under System and Applications, but found nothing there about Parallels tools.

My frustration has been increasing as this Parallels Tool hanging problem has been intermittently happening for months. It's a real productivity killer when copy paste starts failing.

A posting above says "Don't use too many Mac applications"; sorry, I can't work that way. I need to be able to keep open apps for both Mac and Windows. On Mac, I run Thunderbird, Office 2008, Firefox, Yojimbo, and OmniOutliner. On Windows I run SQL Express Studio, Citrix, Wing IDE, and TextPad. I need to be able to have all these apps open simultaneously and it's not an unreasonable set to keep open.

I have a 2GB system; that is the max RAM for my MacBook Pro. Normally I give Windows XP 512 MB RAM. I've tried giving it 768MB sometimes. Either way I am not getting virtual memory warnings from Windows.

Is this really a memory issue? It sounds like a serious bug to me. Apps should not hang when memory is low; they should start using virtual memory.

 

2 gb, is not enough for applications you are trying to run at the same time, actually you have only 1.25 for Mac OS side, thsu Mac OS tried to take memory for OS,

 

Hello,

First of all I totally agree with bradallen regarding the seriousness of this bug. Parallels' team should concentrate to fix it asap. It is much more important to have serious bugs fixed than develop new features.

Regarding my case I'm qite sure the hanging/frozing/closing of Tools is strictly related to my activity with Visual Studio 2003. More specifically the Tools tends to close, but not immediately, when I interrupt a debugging session without to exit gracefully from the application I'm testing.
Again... that's doesn't happen at the first time but after a while.
The application is Adobe InDesign CS2 (Debug Version 4.0.6).
Hope this help.

Best regards,

Luca Severini

 

I forgot to say that, also in my case, nothing pertinent is reported in the events' logs.

Regards,

Luca Severini

 

Could you please clarify that memory assigned to VM, corresponds to System requirements for that application.
I mean we need to summarize memory for all applications separately

 

Hi John,

My VM allocate 1 GB of memory, Parallels' preference for memory is set to "Automatically", my MacBookPro has 3 GB of memory.
In my tipical use of Paralles there is always memory to spare (around 500MB with Safari, Mail and BBEdit active).

Luca

 

I probably was not clear enough:
I meant following:
-In order to avoid slowness let us summarize system requirements for running software:
For example
Microsoft Word requires 200 mb
Visual Studio 512mb
Firefox 128 mb
and Windows XP 256 mb
in summary in order all software to work fast enough it is necessary to have on PC more than 1 gb of memory
The same is for Mac , start from 1 GB for Mac itself (Leopard)+ memory allocated for VM and continue

 

Slowness? What slowness? Nobody is speaking about slowness in this thread.
Anyway on Windows I use only VisualStudio 2003 and InDesign at the same time.
Sometime, but not often, I also open a log file (usually very short) with UltraEdit.
For all that the needed memory (with spare) is for sure within the 1GB I allocate.

What about my impression that the problem is caused by forced closing of applications through Visual Studio debugging facilities?

Luca Severini

 

Luca, could you please check how Parallels Tools acts, when you are using only Visual Studio and performing the same operation?
If problem is still there, could you please provide steps you are performing, we can try to reproduce

 

Hi John

The problem is always here... (in my opinion it has nothing to do with memory).
It happens always during debugging sessions. At the moment I don't know exactly where and why.
I will try today or tomorrow to collect more specific information or perhaps some data test so you can try to reproduce the situation.
Anyway I already had a conversation about this bug with your fellow team member Xenos in March (thread's title: Annoying Bug with Parallels Tools).
I also provided him with some test data to reproduce the same error using QuarkXPress 4 instead of Visual Studio. Perhaps you can reuse that data.

Best regards,

Luca Severini

 

Hi John,

Unfortunately, last weekend, I didn't have time to investigate and about how to reproduce the problem that freezes the Tools.
Anyway today the tools closed itself immediately after the launch of VM back from suspended state.
Fortunately, this time, I've been able to restart the service and the application...
I let you know what happens next time...

Luca Severini

 

Hi,

It's me again.
The Tools freezes with no chance to be restarted just after I connected to a VPN via Nokia Secure Connector.
I'm really going to have enough of this bug that someone probably thinks is a secondary one.
At this point I prefer to waste my time to check if VMWare Fusion has the same or any worse bug and switch if it hasn't ...

Luca Severini