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From: Chris Ridd on 17 May 2010 01:36
On 2010-05-16 23:04:01 +0100, SM said:

> Chris Ridd <chrisridd(a)mac.com> wrote:
>
>> On 2010-05-16 19:16:06 +0100, SM said:
>>
>>> I've got the latest Parallels installed but somewhere along the line
>>> it's become chronically slow running XP Pro SP2 (SP3 won't install
>>> saying it needs an extra 4MB).
>>>
>>> This is running on the latest 10.6 on a MacBook C2D 2GHz with 2GB ram. I
>>> know it's a bit tight for memory but the earlier Parallels ran pretty
>>> smoothly.
>>>
>>> Any thoughts where to start?
>>
>> It could just be Windows has rotted and needs reinstalling.
>
> Do you reckon that would cause the whole laptop to slow down - on the
> Mac side particularly.

It shouldn't do, though Parallels (and VMware) both load drivers into
the OS X kernel so they *could* impact general Mac performance. IIRC
VMware's drivers were much better behaved than Parallels's, at least a
year or so ago.

If the Mac performance is an issue, how much disk space do you have
left, and how much VM is being used (I just do "ls -lh /var/vm" in a
terminal to find this out.)


--
Chris

From: SM on 17 May 2010 05:36
Chris Ridd <chrisridd(a)mac.com> wrote:

> > Do you reckon that would cause the whole laptop to slow down - on the
> > Mac side particularly.
>
> It shouldn't do, though Parallels (and VMware) both load drivers into
> the OS X kernel so they *could* impact general Mac performance. IIRC
> VMware's drivers were much better behaved than Parallels's, at least a
> year or so ago.
>
> If the Mac performance is an issue, how much disk space do you have
> left, and how much VM is being used (I just do "ls -lh /var/vm" in a
> terminal to find this out.)

23GB on the Mac partition, 12GB on Boot Camp

-rw------T 1 root wheel 2.0G 17 May 09:49 sleepimage
-rw------- 1 root wheel 64M 15 May 21:38 swapfile0
-rw------- 1 root wheel 64M 17 May 10:18 swapfile1
-rw------- 1 root wheel 128M 17 May 10:18 swapfile2
-rw------- 1 root wheel 256M 17 May 10:18 swapfile3
-rw------- 1 root wheel 512M 17 May 10:18 swapfile4
-rw------- 1 root wheel 1.0G 17 May 10:18 swapfile5

This without Parallels running above, with below:

-rw------T 1 root wheel 2.0G 17 May 09:49 sleepimage
-rw------- 1 root wheel 64M 15 May 21:38 swapfile0
-rw------- 1 root wheel 64M 17 May 10:34 swapfile1
-rw------- 1 root wheel 128M 17 May 10:34 swapfile2
-rw------- 1 root wheel 256M 17 May 10:34 swapfile3
-rw------- 1 root wheel 512M 17 May 10:34 swapfile4
-rw------- 1 root wheel 1.0G 17 May 10:34 swapfile5
-rw------- 1 root wheel 1.0G 17 May 10:34 swapfile6

Does that give any clues?

Stuart
--
cut that out to reply
From: SM on 17 May 2010 08:28
SM <info(a)that.sundog.co.uk> wrote:

> Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie(a)sometimes.sessile.org> wrote:
>
> > I gave up on Parallels when it became chronically slow, moving from v2
> > which worked fine, to v3. A v4 trial wasn't any better.
> >
> > I use VMware now. I've not gone back to try Parallels again.
>
> I was using Fusion with a Boot Camp partition but had a disk fail which
> I replaced and restored from Time Machine. After installing Windows
> VMware (2.0.5) never worked again.
>
> I got Parallels 4 through one of the bundles and it was OK, the V5
> started off Ok but now it slows the whole laptop to a crawl.

Turned out to be a quick fix - switching to optimize for Mac OS apps in
the settings has sorted it out. Optimizing for Virtual Machine seemed to
be causing the problems.

Stuart
--
cut that out to reply
From: Chris Ridd on 17 May 2010 08:36
On 2010-05-17 10:36:53 +0100, SM said:

> Chris Ridd <chrisridd(a)mac.com> wrote:
>
>>> Do you reckon that would cause the whole laptop to slow down - on the
>>> Mac side particularly.
>>
>> It shouldn't do, though Parallels (and VMware) both load drivers into
>> the OS X kernel so they *could* impact general Mac performance. IIRC
>> VMware's drivers were much better behaved than Parallels's, at least a
>> year or so ago.
>>
>> If the Mac performance is an issue, how much disk space do you have
>> left, and how much VM is being used (I just do "ls -lh /var/vm" in a
>> terminal to find this out.)
>
> 23GB on the Mac partition, 12GB on Boot Camp
>
> -rw------T 1 root wheel 2.0G 17 May 09:49 sleepimage
> -rw------- 1 root wheel 64M 15 May 21:38 swapfile0
> -rw------- 1 root wheel 64M 17 May 10:18 swapfile1
> -rw------- 1 root wheel 128M 17 May 10:18 swapfile2
> -rw------- 1 root wheel 256M 17 May 10:18 swapfile3
> -rw------- 1 root wheel 512M 17 May 10:18 swapfile4
> -rw------- 1 root wheel 1.0G 17 May 10:18 swapfile5
>
> This without Parallels running above, with below:
>
> -rw------T 1 root wheel 2.0G 17 May 09:49 sleepimage
> -rw------- 1 root wheel 64M 15 May 21:38 swapfile0
> -rw------- 1 root wheel 64M 17 May 10:34 swapfile1
> -rw------- 1 root wheel 128M 17 May 10:34 swapfile2
> -rw------- 1 root wheel 256M 17 May 10:34 swapfile3
> -rw------- 1 root wheel 512M 17 May 10:34 swapfile4
> -rw------- 1 root wheel 1.0G 17 May 10:34 swapfile5
> -rw------- 1 root wheel 1.0G 17 May 10:34 swapfile6
>
> Does that give any clues?

I'd say you're running out of RAM. I bet if you reboot, things (just
Parallels?) would be speedy again.

--
Chris

From: SM on 17 May 2010 17:39
Chris Ridd <chrisridd(a)mac.com> wrote:

> > Does that give any clues?
>
> I'd say you're running out of RAM. I bet if you reboot, things (just
> Parallels?) would be speedy again.

O dear, this MacBook only takes 2GB. The only solution is a brand new
MBP with i7 and HD screen...

Stuart
--
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