When Vista starts up in Parallels Desktop the fan switches on. Annoying!

[iSamurai]

every time I boot up vista with parallels desktop simply just to run some programmes, it bloody eats up the CPU to 100% and the fan (MacBook) starts spinning. when windows is loaded after about a minute the fan dies down...

what stuff must I disable or tweak to stop this... how annoying. I remember XP doesn't do this, but I don't have an XP disc (only SP1, but boot camp says SP2).

 

[Eidorian]

Windows 98 SE causes a lot of CPU usage in Parallels. If you're really concerned about noise then run Vista natively instead of in a virtual machine.

 

[iSamurai]

Windows 98 SE causes a lot of CPU usage in Parallels. If you're really concerned about noise then run Vista natively instead of in a virtual machine.

that defeats the whole purpose of parallels desktop then. I need to run MS access and 5 other apps on Mac, (since MS is not keen on making access for mac) I had to run it from windows.

I'm not only concerned about the noise, but also about the battery.

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

that defeats the whole purpose of parallels desktop then.

Give VMware Fusion a try, it's more-or-less the same as Parallels Desktop, but according to Walt Mossberg's Wall Street Journal column on VMware Fusion:

[...]
But I found Fusion puts less strain on the computer overall. While I like Parallels and have used it since it came out, it sometimes slows down my Mac, especially when it is starting up Windows or performing some other major task. Fusion has a much smaller impact on the Mac's overall performance.
[...]​

If you're able to use Microsoft Access 2000, then you can alternatively run it using CrossOver Mac for way less resource use than any VM solution. However, Access 2003 and 2007 don't quite work right on CrossOver... yet.

Boot Camp, CrossOver, Parallels, VMware Fusion in three bullet points each!

 

[iSamurai]

I get a bluescreen when I tried to boot windows using VMWare. but thanks for the help.

 

[lovemac125]

Make sure you are up to date with all firmware updates. I seem to remember one that was power related. Sometimes the fan runs when I startup windows using parallels.

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

I get a bluescreen when I tried to boot windows using VMWare.

Not good! Sounds like something might be a little funny in your Windows installation. Can you start it in safe mode under VMware?

 

[ayeying]

You're pushing your CPU to a very high level trying to boot up another OS within an OS. Any system would create a lot of heat by doing this, in turn, turn on the fans.

 

[iSamurai]

You're pushing your CPU to a very high level trying to boot up another OS within an OS. Any system would create a lot of heat by doing this, in turn, turn on the fans.

it didn't with XP. oh well.

I upped the allocated RAM from 512 to 932. the fan spinned, but a lot quieter... --> this explains vista's RAM consumption. so maybe I should up it all the way to 1.5gb. I got 4gb.

 

[Flowero4ka]

Windows 98 SE causes a lot of CPU usage in Parallels. If you're really concerned about noise then run Vista natively instead of in a virtual machine.

What does CPU mean? Decode, please.

 

[ayeying]

it didn't with XP. oh well.

I upped the allocated RAM from 512 to 932. the fan spinned, but a lot quieter... --> this explains vista's RAM consumption. so maybe I should up it all the way to 1.5gb. I got 4gb.

I only use 512MB with vista and I'm only using 96MB for xubuntu. Any higher and performance is more sluggish for me. Booting up vista hardly kicks in the fans for my macbook air anymore since vista's done with all its indexing and such.