Slow parallel 6

Hey folks, so here's the issue im having, i installed parallels 6 and windows 7 64 bit, it installed without any problems, but when i run windows 7 like a pc, my mac bogs down really bad, if i open any application it takes a long time to start, and even after i quit windows 7 my mac is really slow, i have to restart it, did i do something wrong? any help or advice would be greatly appreciate it.

How much RAM do you have and how much of it did you allocate to the virtual machine? You should try to have at least 2GB of RAM for the VM.

my mac has 4gig, i allocated 2 gigs for the VM, im running 2.7ghz I7 processor

Also - make sure you're really quitting Parallels not just shutting down the Windows 7 VM. Lots of new users make that mistake. The VM will not quit on its own, you have to shut it down after quitting Windows 7. I think that may be part of your problem.

I don't see parallels open anywhere, i use the quit command to really quit it, unless i'm missing something else, even try the force quit and i don't see parallels there, another thing that is happening and i don't know if is normal or not, my mac gets really hot when i run windows 7.

It gets hot because you have to use a lot of system resources. Remember, you're running two operating systems at the same time. Just remember to run your MBP on a hard, clean surface to allow for good circulation.

I don't use Parallels but I know for a fact that the VM, when running, is a separate process from VirtualBox. You can quit VirtualBox while the VM is running and the VM will still keep going. Are both the VM and Parallels closed? If so, open up Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilities) and take a look to see what's using up your resources (both CPU and RAM). If you'd like clarification on what you see, you're more than welcome to post a screenshot of AM open so we can help you out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62199663@N00/5590106117/
sorry I'm not sure if this works.

Simply put, you need more RAM. With the Core i7, your Mac will use about 1.5GB just to boot. So, assuming you're doing nothing on the Mac and you've allocated 2GB to the VM, you've got just a paltry 512MB in reserve. You Mac will start digging into virtual memory, and that's when things start to bog down - both on the VM and on the Mac.

I ran into almost the exact same issue. Added 8GB to my MacBook Pro and now the two run comfortably together.

In case you weren't aware, you've got Parallels open there (not sure if you've opened it since). CPU usage looks normal. If you click on System Memory on the bottom, what values do you have for Free, Wired, Active and Inactive?

cwa107 said:

With the Core i7, your Mac will use about 1.5GB just to boot.

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Really? That's quite a bit of RAM allocation out of the gates.

vansmith said:

Really? That's quite a bit of RAM allocation out of the gates.

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Sure is. A disgusting amount, actually. I'm guessing it has something to do with the 4 physical and 4 virtual cores afforded by the i7.

i had parallels open there, i closed it and ran AM again, with all processes and i see something called _windowserver is that part of parallels or of OSX? i quit the process to see what it did, it reloaded my desktop.

I just ordered RAM for my MBP. I will be bringing it up to 8gig.
I am hoping to run SolidWorks. Right now I have 4gig, Autocad and Office run good. SW is a pig though. I am trying to avoid Bootcamp. I just to not want to reboot.
Monty

The i7 in the 13" (the only one with a 2.7) is a dual core i7. I have a C2D and don't experience anywhere near that kind of allocation. Now, I realize that my C2D is about three years old but do the i7s really need that much more RAM? This is truly astounding.

Screen shot 2011-04-04 at 5.09.51 PM | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
here's another screenshot without parallels running anywhere, so what is that windowserver all about?

vansmith said:

The i7 in the 13" (the only one with a 2.7) is a dual core i7. I have a C2D and don't experience anywhere near that kind of allocation. Now, I realize that my C2D is about three years old but do the i7s really need that much more RAM? This is truly astounding.

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I don't think the i7s need "that much ram" is one stays in the host OS. 4gig is more than enough for me without Parallels. Once I start Parallels, start Win7 and start SolidWorks, that all changes. I plan on giving Win7 6gig and at least 2 of the i7 cores.

SolidWorks (SW) is a 3D modeling program. THe bigger the assemblies the more ram SW needs. As I said, it is a resource hog.

SolidWorks

WindowServer is part of OS X - leave that process alone. It's responsible for drawing things on the screen and when I say drawing, I don't mean pictures but refer to the more ordinary things you see on the screen like windows and buttons.

Sort by real memory and take a look to see what's eating up your memory (if anything). Your processor isn't working hard (it's not really doing much in fact) so the slowdown is likely caused by high memory usage despite Parallels not being open.

umm excuse my ignorance, but what do you mean by real memory?

smol3404 said:

umm excuse my ignorance, but what do you mean by real memory?

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Real Memory is a column in the Activity Monitor. I suspect it indicates how much memory a Process is using

i see it, thank you, i see a process called kernel_task eating up 735.9 mb of memory thats the biggest one after that not much else, safari is eating up 297mb, itunes 125mb

vansmith said:

The i7 in the 13" (the only one with a 2.7) is a dual core i7. I have a C2D and don't experience anywhere near that kind of allocation. Now, I realize that my C2D is about three years old but do the i7s really need that much more RAM? This is truly astounding.

Click to expand...

My C2D MBP only used about 700MB at boot-up. I'm only guessing at the increased memory use - but the CPU does seem to be the biggest difference. I even ported over my account and software load, so it's not like I've got more junk installed than I had before.

Does the i7 in the 13" have HT support (i.e. virtual cores)?