Parallels sabotaged?

[DustinT]

So, I grabbed a copy of Parallels 6 a few months ago and it worked pretty much perfectly. Even when Lion came out, Parallels continued to work fine without any update. The latest patch they released seems to have completely destroyed it functionality and I can't use it for anything without the application and attached vms collapsing into a pile of spinning rainbows. Do they do this on purpose to get people to upgrade or is this just a bad patch?

I really get annoyed with companies that force upgrade through foul play and I'll happily switch to VM Ware if that's the case.

 

[thewitt]

Foul play! Lion never supported Parallels 6. Version 7 has always been required since the beta release.

-t

 

[Darth.Titan]

Foul play! Lion never supported Parallels 6. Version 7 has always been required since the beta release.

-t

Lion may have never been officially "supported" for Parallels 6, but many users were still able to use it with no problems regardless.

 

[Consultant]

You might have older installer somewhere in the downloads folder. You do keep a backup of your files (and virtual machine)?

 

[416049]

Lion may have never been officially "supported" for Parallels 6, but many users were still able to use it with no problems regardless.

Exactly.. it works for me though

 

[DustinT]

Foul play! Lion never supported Parallels 6. Version 7 has always been required since the beta release.

-t

Not to be difficult, but Parallels themselves claim that 6 IS compatible with Lion. Here's their support article on it. A bit of digging revealed that they released a version claiming compatibility with Lion in July too.

They are claiming compatibility, but it isn't working. Thats a far cry from trying to run an unsupported version on Lion.

 

[bartzilla]

Not to be difficult, but Parallels themselves claim that 6 IS compatible with Lion. Here's their support article on it. A bit of digging revealed that they released a version claiming compatibility with Lion in July too.

They are claiming compatibility, but it isn't working. Thats a far cry from trying to run an unsupported version on Lion.

Do they have a forum or other support area? Is this patch affecting everyone, a few people or just you?

I'm sure its not some kind of vast conspiracy theory to force people to upgrade, sometimes mistakes happen.

 

[thewitt]

Parallels 6 never worked on any of our Lion betas. I think we had 12 guys running it. All needed to upgrade.

-t

 

[iSee]

6 is working fine in Lion for me.

I'd contact Parallels support if it didn't.

 

[DustinT]

Parallels 6 never worked on any of our Lion betas. I think we had 12 guys running it. All needed to upgrade.

-t

Ya, for a product claiming compatibility with Lion, they sure aren't trying very hard, are they?

Do they have a forum or other support area? Is this patch affecting everyone, a few people or just you?

I'm sure its not some kind of vast conspiracy theory to force people to upgrade, sometimes mistakes happen.

I'm not sure what to say. thewitt's post above and my experiences indicate to me there's more that just lazy development going on. But, as much as I'd love to say that's proof, it takes more than a couple of complaining users to prove anything.

For reasons unrelated to Parallels or Lion, I'm getting a replacement logic board in my MBP which I should be picking up later today. Once I get everything setup again I'll do some testing to see if Parallels is behaving any better than it was before.

 

[iSee]

So what happened when you contacted support?

 

[DustinT]

So what happened when you contacted support?

Well, during the 2.5 hours since you suggested it I haven't had possession of my MBP due to the logic board replacement I mentioned. Once I get it back, I'll reinstall the OS and Parallels and then my vm's and see how it works. If I have problems then I may call for support. Or, I may just run the Fusion demo I've got and see how that performs.

 

[xraydoc]

Dustin, I've got Parallels 6 running on my 2011 Mac mini w/ OSX 10.7.1 (see sig for specs) without any trouble whatsoever. Runs without any beachballs or hang ups. Even full screen on dual monitors is running perfectly. Parallels has Win XP sp3 installed (all latest MS updates and Parallels drivers).

Try deleting Parallels and redownload the most recent Parallels 6 installer app.

As a caveat I will mention that I am not using a virtual machine from an older version of Parallels. The XP virtual machine is a fresh install from an XP sp2 .iso image. Reason being is that I simply didn't have with me an a copy of a VM to use - the Mac mini is at the office - so I just created a new VM.

 

[DustinT]

Dustin, I've got Parallels 6 running on my 2011 Mac mini w/ OSX 10.7.1 (see sig for specs) without any trouble whatsoever. Runs without any beachballs or hang ups. Even full screen on dual monitors is running perfectly. Parallels has Win XP sp3 installed (all latest MS updates and Parallels drivers).

Try deleting Parallels and redownload the most recent Parallels 6 installer app.

As a caveat I will mention that I am not using a virtual machine from an older version of Parallels. The XP virtual machine is a fresh install from an XP sp2 .iso image. Reason being is that I simply didn't have with me an a copy of a VM to use - the Mac mini is at the office - so I just created a new VM.

Thanks Doc, I appreciate your taking a loot for me. After some more digging, it turns out I had a failing logic board in this system. Apple was kind enough to replace it for me. I reinstalled Lion and restored from my Time Machine backups and Parallels is working perfectly now.

Thats an annoying problem, eh? Fortunately my local Apple store isn't too far of a drive and they fixed it overnight which I appreciate. Lord knows I've spent enough money with them to occasionally ask nicely for a favor.

I take it you are a radiologist from your username? My wife is a lowly x-ray tech and has many times come home with a story to tell about one of your peers. The stories have been good enough she's told me more than once that if my entrepreneurial spirit fails me I should go back to school for something in the medical field.