Parallels Nightmares

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Parallels Nightmares

I have recently gotten and installed Parallels with WindowsXP Pro... both legal copies, the two combined cost me $380 USD plus tax & shipping.

The computer I am using is merely a week old Mac Pro, dual 2.0ghz intel, 2gb ram, two superdrives, two sata 500 hds, etc etc etc.

I got the program, with the intention of using it for occasional gaming, not of new system intensive games (as most of those give me motion sickness, esp 1st person shooters) but rather older titles from the mid 90s that were never ported to mac os (such as Tiberian Sun, the original Red Alert, the original C&C- stuff like that). These old games ran well in windows98 in virtual PC 4.0 on my PowerBook G3 (400mhz "bronze" keyboard) so there was no doubt in my mind that it shouldn't run ok in my vastly superior (system resource wise) Mac Pro using Parallels.

I was hopeful since windows XP installed quickly in Parallels, updated quickly and reliably, and Z Cpu stated the hardware (virtual) was very close to the real Mac Pro hardware (unlike say, VPC which gives you a processor a few generations- as a rule- older than whatever you're using).

So I went and installed Tiberian Sun so I could start playing it online with one of my friends... it installed quickly and without incident (in fact it might have been my fastest Tsun install to date...). I go to play the game, and I get no picture :mad: I get the sound, the game plays- but it won't display no matter the compatibility settings, the monitor settings, etc.

Thinking it might be a fluke due to incompatibilities, I tried updating it to the newest version- to no success. To rule out Parallels as the problem, I dived into my pile of ancient gaming cds.

To my horror, not a *single* one worked in windowsXP in parallels!
-the entire doom series (windows port) were so laggy- in gameplay, sound, picture that it can not be played
-the rest of the C&C series- the old stuff, not the last two titles (I am not trying to play Generals on this VM!) would not work- similar probs as I described for tsun
-the descent series would not play, again lag galore...
-even the old simcity programs were nightmares (simcity2000, simtower, even simant...).

So to me, this begs the question- does Parallels *actually* give you the system resources that are reported by PC utilities running inside your VM?? It boggles the mind that a system that supposedly is so fast, can have such trouble with even the oldest of games. I have a Gateway WindowsXP box next to my computer and I can safely rule widows out as *not* the problem. Just what are we supposed to use parallels for, if it can't actually do anything but the simplist of tasks (i.e. word processing & browsing the net)? Having all the speed in the world for your VM is entirely moot if the program can't actually apply that to something that would require it.

My response was; "ok, this isn't too bad- I can go use bootcamp"- only to find an other unadvertised draw back to parallels- when I go to activate XP in my bootcamp partician, I get MS's anti-piracy technology throwing fits... long story short it won't activate and MS wants me to spend $150 for an other XP Pro license. :mad: Had I known either this or the gaming situation upon purchase, I would NEVER have even remotely considered buying parallels. I can not afford, after that $380 USD, an other Windows license. Why weren't we warned about this from the retailers or on the main page for parallels? Was the company intentionally misleading the consumers?

I sent an email to customer service... did they respond? No, they didn't- not once.

There is a Parallels support forum, however it is not something they advertise or link from their product website... I found it by googling for a work around for all my problems with Parallels. Apparently they tried to "hide" that this board exists because people kept reading its posts, and were coming to the conclusion (gee wiz, I can't help but wonder why!) that the product isn't very good or far along yet development wise.

Even VPC threw connectix had better customer service than this, even up threw the end when they were about to be bought out by M$. There are *countless* threads on their support board due to a lack of customer service, the company will not return phone calls, emails, letters- even if you're using a pay per incident support system threw the company. My box for Parallels says it has a 30 day money back garrentee- but do they honor that?!?!? Nope.

I can't be the only one having these frustrations. In fact their support forum has dozens upon dozens of disgruntled mac users with the same (or similar) issues... and moving to bootcamp and/or away from parallels, is a common overtone in the threads.

Personally, I would like it if Parallels either had a workable crack to get around the XP activation issue, or some short of discount worked out with M$ for getting multiple licenses. What do I think would excuse this kind of intentional misleadings? Refunding my entire $380 USD would be a nice start... but somehow I doubt that will happen if I can't even get customer service to respond to my email.

As to the gaming issue, the company's party line is that they don't support 3d games- this is highly misleading and borderline fraud as the problem applies to ALL gaming, not just stuff that is 3d or system resource extensive... I have several old games going back to the early 90s that I would like to play, but since there is no classic support for intel macs- and the PPC emulators are all either too slow or too reliable (think sheepshaver)- running their PC versions in something like parallels would have been a viable work around.

Before anyone suggests otherwise, the activation issue is one without a legal work around. Cracking windoze in bootcamp to get past activation is violating the M$ EOA (and is not legal). Cloning your VM to the bootcamp partician violates the M$ EOA because per the EOA, the two are separate computers and it would be comparative to running a repair shop and "cloning" a single XP installed on a machine to every other machine you work with...., M$'s EOA allows (go and read it sometime) reusing an existing license in the event of a computer dying, if the new computer is a box that came without windows... however you can not take advantage of this because your VM has no real hardware, let alone hardware failure. If you explain the entire situation to M$, they WILL tell you to buy an other license.

In a nut shell-
1 - no customer service
2 - gaming is totally kaput
3 - you can't activate WinXP in say, bootcamp after activating it in your VM

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Re: Parallels Nightmares


In a nut shell-
1 - no customer service
2 - gaming is totally kaput
3 - you can't activate WinXP in say, bootcamp after activating it in your VM

1 - They've been very responsive to every email I've sent them... perhaps you've got a bad contact?

2 - Low level games DO work, if they are that old you may have to enable compatibility for them (in windows) just like you would on any other XP install. --for the record, I will say that I DO NOT have the games you're talking about, but I see no reason for them not to work. EDIT: I re-read your post and noticed some of the other games you tried. The Doom series and Descent DO work for me, just fine. .

3 - I thought that this fact was public knowledge, that when you buy a copy of XP it is licensed for install on one machine. If it is in boot camp, that is 1 physical machine, and in a virtual environment it is seen as another machine. This is also documented in SEVERAL places.

and additionally... Did you just purchase the Parallels box, install the software and call it a day? Because if so you should do a little looking around... yes, it is in VERY fast development, and there was no secret made about that either. If you go to their site you can download the latest build and use that. Also note, the latest build CAN USE YOUR BOOT CAMP PARTITION.

My recommended solution?

1. Delete your current XP install and go back to the way things were before you touched it.
2. Download latest "Boot Camp" from Apple and install XP using boot camp.
3. When you go to activate XP, if it gives you a problem (it shouldnt, but if it does) use the "telephone" option. Tell them this copy of XP is installed on one machine only, and that you need to reinstall due to hard drive failure. They will without hesitation give you an authentication key... and the call is toll free.
4. Download the LATEST build of Parallels and install it.

RESULT: your machine will be able to physically boot up as a windows machine using boot camp if you need or want to do something in windows taking full advantage of the hardware, and when you DONT need to do that, you will be able to use your boot camp partition with parrallels under OS X.

/Bill

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Call microsoft

tell them that it's installing on the same machine. You don't need to tell them it is Parallels before that. They should reset it and let you use it in BootCamp. There is something in the EULA that says you can transfer the liscence from one machine to another too.

Anyway, tell M$ that it's going on the same machine. They don't need to know it was in parallels

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you must learn

its always the same thing, experience will teach you (you can't always get what you want)

Parallels is pretty neat software - once you understand that it isn't for gaming. Seems to me like you made a few critical early mistakes, really, the big one is the mistaken premise that started you out on your adventure.

I got the program, with the intention of using it for occasional gaming,

You couldn't have had a more fundamentally incorrect inspiration. The issue isn't whether the virtual machine's processor can handle it, its that the virtual graphics hardware doesn't match up with the rest of the virtual machine, like putting a 16MB Rage in a 8-core MacPro (!). Personally, I like text adventures, but most games require some kind of graphics, and I think the issue is not even whether the virtual card is up to spec, but how the software interacts with it, which is to say, not well.

Apparently they tried to "hide" that this board exists because people kept reading its posts, and were coming to the conclusion (gee wiz, I can't help but wonder why!) that the product isn't very good or far along yet development wise.

just... wrong. You do realize in order to operate some software correctly, you actually have to learn how to use it. Its a pain, I know, but it really is necessary. Apple has made users lazy, but this isn't the developer's fault. Running virtual machines ain't like dustin' crops, boy!

"ok, this isn't too bad- I can go use bootcamp"- only to find an other unadvertised draw back to parallels- when I go to activate XP in my bootcamp partician, I get MS's anti-piracy technology throwing fits...

Again, really, what's happened here is that it doesn't work the way you want it to *because* you are using it wrong. A little research would have saved you plenty.

If the prime reason for XP is games, then Parallel's shouldn't have been among your choices. Boot Camp is the preferred gamer method for Windows on Mac, and if you want to run Windows & OS X (and, say, Ubuntu, Mandriva and NetBSD) simultaneously for purposes other than gaming (like client app testing, or running native Office apps, or maybe just for reference), then you can migrate your boot camp install into Parallels, afa I can tell, without the issue with M$ licensing, which, by the way, is soley between you and Microsoft... Parallels has nothing to do with that. DarWINE, btw, is free, and it may be a working solution for you... but its complicated... takes a lot of prep to know what you are doing...

In a nut shell-
1 - no customer service
2 - gaming is totally kaput
3 - you can't activate WinXP in say, bootcamp after activating it in your VM

Wow...
The Parallels developers have been bending over backward to cater to what their users are trying to do which is for the most part, I think, nothing like what you are trying to do. Over the last year, I've been really impressed with how far, how fast their beta evolved into their current release. You actually didn't need Parallel's customer support because their software was working the way it was designed... you just had expectations that were not rationally collected, and you don't know what you are doing. You just need to slow down a little and take the time to check and see if anyone else has your ambitions (chances are, most things have been tried before and experiences are well documented online) and what their results are. After researching how others faired in their attempts, you will have a better place from which to start, and hopefully you won't end up in a fit of blaming anybody but yourself.

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well said.

wow, catmistake and I have butted heads on this forum before, but this time at least it appears as if we are in complete agreement. I'd like to hear how the original poster is making out now, if they've tried some of our suggestions or just given up. In the interest of showing people how users can misunderstand things sometimes I've passed the URL of this thread along to the dev team... I would be surprised if they posted here, but maybe it might give them some ideas for what to put on the "quick start" sheet in the next release. (provided Leopard doesn't negate the need for Parallels, or apple doesn't decide one day to just buy them.)

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Re: you must learn


You couldn't have had a more fundamentally incorrect inspiration. The issue isn't whether the virtual machine's processor can handle it, its that the virtual graphics hardware doesn't match up with the rest of the virtual machine, like putting a 16MB Rage in a 8-core MacPro (!). Personally, I like text adventures, but most games require some kind of graphics, and I think the issue is not even whether the virtual card is up to spec, but how the software interacts with it, which is to say, not well.

So why don't they make it easier to realize that their program is too early in the development to handle directX? It would seem to me that this is something that should be on the front page of the products website, and in catalogs from retailers (say macmall, OWC etc). How much research is the EU *supposed* to do before purchasing a product? I think it is unrealistic to expect every end user to spend weeks researching your product before purchasing it.... especially if you're going to be selling it in mail order catalogs like MacMall's side by side other products like VirtualPC which historically *can* support directX in some form.

I simply can not imagine releasing such a product, especially when it is sold in such sources in such ways, without some kind of simple warning to the situation... furthermore if a company is going to go and put a 30 day warrenty on their product- they should honor that warrenty and at the *least* have some method for the EU's to get in touch with customer service.


just... wrong. You do realize in order to operate some software correctly, you actually have to learn how to use it. Its a pain, I know, but it really is necessary. Apple has made users lazy, but this isn't the developer's fault. Running virtual machines ain't like dustin' crops, boy!

Just wrong? This paragraph is in response to my statement, which is not disputed by anyone I have talked to thus far, that they hid their tech support board in an effort to keep potential buyers from realizing the software's sortfallings. I don't care if you're Apple, Spiderweb or Ambrosia- you don't suddenly take away all visable links to your message boards out of such selfish concerns. Maybe if I had been able to FIND the message board before purchasing the product, I could have quickly found that it does NOT meet my needs.

This isn't about using the product incorrectly, it is about being mislead. As a consumer, I feel cheated by the company, especially when they will not return any of my communication to them.

If you are going to state that your product has customer service, tech support, and a warrenty- then you should live up to that. A quick look on their message board shows countless threads about people having the same problems with no tech support, no customer support and nothing to do but file BBB complaints when the 30 day warrenty is ignored until it expires/times out.

If the company is just overwhelmed, it should be painfully obvious to that fact to give the consumers patience. If they don't have the staff, a simple disclaimer on their main page stating that fact would have been fine... if their customer service is backlogged, their autoresponse email should give you an estimate how long it could potentially take to get back to you.

I suppose you could try to twist this into a "you're not using the product correctly" arguement, but this is simple public relations problems... and that is the bulk of what my arguement is about.

So it can't do gaming. fine, I can live with that- but don't tell me that a responsible company can blow off all their customers looking for customer service while claiming to allow the product be returned for a refund within the initial 30 days.

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....

so... you've got a grudge then?

....did you bother taking any of my suggestions, or are you just dead set on your vendetta?

I'm truly shocked that you "cant get a response" from them? Are you actually sending them any emails? Or, is it the fact that your emails have such a derogatory tone to them that no one would bother answering them?

Honestly, the product really does do mostly everything that you are expecting it to do.
and, I wouldnt call THIS hidden:

IMAGE(http://www.onefallinghope.com/blazer/parallels_search.png)

also, not to really be a grammar nazi, but the word you were trying to use is "WARRANTY"

/Bill

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Yes I have sent multiple emai

Yes I have sent multiple emails, they have been basic, to the point and have not gotten any responses.

I am, judging by their support board, NOT the only one having this customer service problem.

Before comdeming me and stating that I must be completely irrational with a grudge, you could try looking at the forum- and you can quickly find several threads dealing with them not honoring the warranty, and/or ignoring people trying to get in touch with tech support, customer assistance... even when using a $30 fee per incident tech call.

There are many posts about people calling their credit card companies to stop payment (since the warranty isn't being honored and they can't get threw to talk to anyone at the company), and at least one recent BBB complaint over that very issue.

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From the parallels support forum..

in fact I have been to the support forums, and have seen a thread of a few people who cant seem to get it running.

Here is a quote from ONE of the posts (from the thread that you yourself most recently posted in.)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote:
Originally Posted by sirris101
I too have had a terrible time with customer service; they replied to my first tech issue with "Try reinstalling Parallels Tools". When that didn't work I never heard back.

The bad news for them is I work for a nationally published tech magazine and I'm colleague is writing an article on poor customer service. I can't wait to tell my story... {end quote}

Hopefully you have a good proofreader. Other than working for a magazine do you have any technical qualifications that will make your story not sound like a floundering noob who failed to make the thing work? I'm curious because I and other technically competent contributors to these forums have had no trouble *at all* with any part of the product. That doesn't mean I don't recognize the inept support issues - they self-identify if you pay attention. I can't imaging you will provide much more than a summary of the frustrations voiced here over the past year.

I guess I'm wondering what came first - the need for a story in a national magazine, or frustration from incompetence at installing a rather simple product. Wipe your chin - you're drooling.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

and, your last post:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Not everyone knows you can get a trial version until they come to the site looking for the nonexistant customer service.

Their box says that they have a money back garrente- its not the EU's fault if they refuse to honor that.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, I'm not trying to start any type of a flame war. It is unfortunate that you do not seem satisfied with the level of customer support from the company. Personally, I have only had to email them twice, and that was to ask some very specific questions - both times I recieved a response within about 5 hours.

Now as far as your ACTUAL problems with using the software...

-you DID purchase it because you saw a need.

-from what you've described in your post, Parallels CAN meet your needs

-you have been unable to set up Parallels, or install Windows in a proper manner to meet your needs.

-you {unforunatley} have yet to hear from customer support and seem to be quite angry.

---Is this a pretty good summary, up to this point?---

What I must ask you, like I have asked you already is... Have you taken ANY of the suggestions that I have offered and tried using the product again, OR have you tried asking for installation and configuration assistance in the same forums that you have posted your complaint in?

A quick look at your history on the forums shows that you have made 7 posts, all FUD about Microsoft or complaints against Parallels. Not a single request for help.

Please, don't take this as me having an accusatory tone.

I'm just curious what your intentions are. If you intend to cause a stir and strike out against a company, that is fine. If you TRULY believe that you have been messed about and taken advantage of and you want to complain, thats fine. If you bought this product because you saw a need, but you cant get it to work as expected.. then perhaps you should ask for help from the community.

Perhaps there are others like you who haven't been able to install it properly, but there are MANY other users (myself included) who have had success with this product and are more than willing to offer you help to get things working.

However, the more of a storm you cause, the less receptive the user community will be to requests for help.

To summarize: if you want to use the product still - ask for help and then follow the suggestions that you are given.

If you dont, then don't use the product. simple as that. Call OWC whom you stated that you purchased it from, they are usually MORE than fair with customer service, and try to return it to them. Call your credit card company and stop payment. OR, maybe even try calling Parallels themselves at the phone number posted at the footer of every page of their website: +1 (425) 282-6400, +1 (425) 282-6444 (I assume the second number is the fax.)

P.S. - and this is just a humorous point - Parallels is available internationally and when you referred to "EU" I at first thought that you meant The European Union. I figured out that you meant "End User". lol.

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All I can say is.......

That's what you get for trying to run a POS OS on a Mac Wink

Buy a cheap used PC and it will do what you want. I had to finally admit that to myself and built a $50 peecee out of used parts from eBay.

Sorry, I just had to say it.

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Re: you must learn

So why don't they make it easier to realize that their program is too early in the development to handle directX?

I suppose its the same reason that car manufacturers don't put warning labels on their cars that say: "Warning: DO NOT PUT TREE SAP IN RADIATOR. ONLY USE COOLANT" and include in their ads stipulations that, stock, the cars can't reach orbit.

Its a virtual machine application. The sad news about virtual machines is that graphics aren't the focus... its the cpu.. .the MACHINE part of the machine, that is virtual. The software gives enough juice to do what most people are using VMs for, which is to say... uh... work.

It probably would have been better to say to yourself "ok, I want directx... is there a VM out there that supports this on OS X?" and start from there on google...
vmware --- wow...

it's still up in the air as to which company will be the first to include this feature in a retail offering.

This isn't about using the product incorrectly, it is about being mislead.

Hey, I'm totally picking up what you're laying down. I think I can help you. Would you be interested in purchasing some magic beans?

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Re: Yes I have sent multiple emai

I can't believe you are trashing a company because you can't play really old games with their software.

Parallels is a decent company; they do a more than adequate job at supporting their customer base, they were the first VM on intel macs, they GAVE it away for almost a year, the release price is just right, and their software works. It works just like they said it would, and there's no subterfuge in their advertising. I'm personally running such VM's as Linux XP Desktop, FedoraCore6, SUSE 10.2, Ubuntu Desktop, Xubuntu (ubuntu LAMPPP) Server, NetBSD, Schmoo (anonymOS), Windows XP Pro SP2 (sttb edition), Win XP Pro SP2 (full-install)... but you know what?

But I can't get Gentoo or Darwin to boot... so... maybe you're right. /sarcasm

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complex

i have to admit, parallels is doing a great job if you take into consideration that it's a really complex software that has to do nearly 100% in SOFTWARE what normally HARDWARE does.

however, i am also a customer of parallels and i am also not satisfied with a couple of things. it is in some fields still a bit buggy (nope, the buggy without the wheels). the first time i tried it out, i couldn't install the parallels tools completely. the installer just would quit at about 90 percent completion. then i tried to clean up and install again, with the same results. it took me quite long to realize the reason for it: i have been joining a windows server 2003 domain before installing. even despite the fact that i had complete admin rights on the local machine it wouldn't let me install. after exiting the domain and logging in with the local admin, then deleting all user profiles beside the admin, install went just fine...

this is only one of a couple of problems that took me quite some time to get rid off. if you take into consideration how much an hour of work from a technician costs today, it would have been cheaper to install some old pc instead...

they are however improving with every update they are releasing, so i'm looking forward. what i just wanted to state is that there are a couple of problems with the software, but i think the inability of playing old DOS games should not be something that should bother any professional user not to buy parallels...

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wow

No admin anywhere is installing software on a machine while logged into a Domain. You log into the local computer, off the domain (even if the machine is still a domain machine) as administrator to install software. God, I hate Windows. A Domain makes more work than it saves... it has no advantage. Maybe if it had roaming directories... but all it is is roaming logins... what good is that? I don't think that's a Parallels bug; its a Windows feature.

edit-
I realize there are a few reasons to be logged into the Domain as administrator of the box, but they are rare... one I can think of, installing Palm Desktop software... but I believe this is an issue with Palm not correctly addressing Domain users.

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At work I assisted someone in

At work I assisted someone installing a retail box edition of Parallels and it caused the Mac to lock up with the screen showing the power icon and saying to reboot. After a quick visit to the Website to grab the latest update, all is well.

I have to say that you probably would have more luck in running games in Boot Camp. No performance penalties, full hardware control.

Transgaming has now released Cider, http://www.transgaming.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&file=index&func=display&ceid=24

Sadly this is only an option if your are the game publisher and share revenue with Cider. Sigh....

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Now, I don't claim to be a rocket surgeon, but ...

I'd think that using an OS from the same vintage as these games would likely be a good first step. If memory serves me correctly, Parallels is NOT limited to just Windows XP. Boot Camp is, but Parallels gives you flexibility, so I suggest you take advantage of it. you can install Windows 98.

As others have suggested, download the newest version of Parallels. The current build seems to have addressed many of the issues that the earlier versions have had. (Parallels doesn't always play nice in a Static IP address environment). Also, is this issue present while using Windows via Boot Camp?

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If you want to play games, us

If you want to play games, use either Windows 98 (I believe it can run since you can run Linux on the Intel Macs), or VMWare, since VMWare now supports 3D acceleration, Direct X, all that stuff that games use...

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What a bunch of jerks!

I never met shelbydodgeimp but you would think he bakes with kittens judging by the ferocious way that he is getting attacked on this topic. Some of the people on this thread sound either in disagreement or trying to be helpful but the overall tone paints shelbydodgeimp as unintelligent for playing video games (are these PC only or something) unintelligent because he has problems with parallels and unintelligent because he isn't smart enough to get an answer from tech support. What a bunch of CRAP! I think there are couple of people here who are either on payroll or 3rd party blog marketing contractors.

shelbydodgeimp's thread is not a video game issue; he's just a sucker.

Sucker event 1- He bought into the brderline fraud parallels put out stating it fully supports Windows apps. - don't feel bad they suckered a lot of us.

Sucker event 2- He thought he could get help from parallels support-yep me too- lets start a club, a big club apparently.

Sucker event 3- He thought he would find help here- I can see that I should look elsewhere.

It doesn't matter if he bought it to view porn, nurse a game addition, do schoolwork, or try to find a free cure for Malaria. The point is that Parallels is product not ready for market being pushed by a company that has no quality control and NO SUPPORT.

There are numerous sources on the web INCLUDING PARALLELS' OWN BLOG that detail a litany of poor buyers who suffered the exact same support experience shelbydodgeimp had: NO ANSWERS TO SUPPORT REQUESTS even though parallels claims to give free support. At one time, they had a money back "WARRANTY" - an outright lie.

I don't care what the posters on payroll state; I had the same support headaches shelbydodgeimp had. I had some trouble installing the program, looked up the faqs (although I should know better...they rarely help) and sent support requests. Like most people, I was ignored without response in every single case. I tried several addresses, begging for help to no avail. Finally a very helpful Mac Genius told me he wasn't a Parallels expert but still helped me to load it. Now, out of the blue, a month ago, the image was corrupted. again, no response. I say screw it, I'm selling my copy on craigslist.

I can play a few games on Vista (another set of issues together) ran over Bootcamp. I think it's the way to go. If I don't booted off this site for the flames, I'll shoot some ideas about getting XP to work on Bootcamp. In the meantime, even though playing video games, using Windows, and not being a parallels suck-up might make shelbydodgeimp 'dumb' but at least he knows better than to expect help from parallels support.

Parting Shots...I can only pick two this post.


Wow...
The Parallels developers have been bending over backward to cater to what their users are trying to do which is for the most part, I think, nothing like what you are trying to do. Over the last year, I've been really impressed with how far, how fast their beta evolved into their current release. You actually didn't need Parallel's customer support because their software was working the way it was designed... you just had expectations that were not rationally collected, and you don't know what you are doing. You just need to slow down a little and take the time to check and see if anyone else has your ambitions (chances are, most things have been tried before and experiences are well documented online) and what their results are. After researching how others faired in their attempts, you will have a better place from which to start, and hopefully you won't end up in a fit of blaming anybody but yourself.

IF YOUR DEVELOPERS WERE ACTUALLY DOING ANYTHING FOR THEIR CUSTOMERS, THEY ARE PUSHING THE LATEST VERSION TO FLEECE THEM FOR ANOTHER $50. MAYBE THE PARALLELS TEAM HAVE DIFFICULTY USING EMAIL, SNAIL MAIL, OR THE PHONE. YOUR INSULTS AGAINST shelbydodgeimp AND YOUR SPIN FOR THIS FRAUDULANT COMPANY DON'T FOOL ANYONE.


so... you've got a grudge then?

....did you bother taking any of my suggestions, or are you just dead set on your vendetta?

I'm truly shocked that you "cant get a response" from them? Are you actually sending them any emails? Or, is it the fact that your emails have such a derogatory tone to them that no one would bother answering them?

YOUR SUGGESTIONS SUCK. YES I CAN USE THE EMAIL THING AND NOW (I DO ANYWAY) HAVE A GRUDGE. A LOT OF PEOPLE LIKE MYSELF WERE RIPPED OFF FOR $80 BY THIS COMPANY. THE FACT THAT CUSTOMERS CAN'T COMPEL PARALLELS TO STAND BY ITS PRODUCTS IS WELL DOCUMENTED. NOT TRYING TO START A FLAME WAR, GIMME A BREAK AND GET A LIFE, FLAMER.

To everyone else who came here for meaningful dialog I apoligize for not rising above these bottom feeders. I have been ripped off and it's a bad feeling I also beleve shelbydodgeimp made a good, accurate explanation in his request for help only to get 'beat down' by some Parallels sycophants.
Sorry for the stray poo...

Jon
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Well, one thing I have to say

Well, one thing I have to say is that most of the posters in this thread are long time members, before Parallels Desktop was even released. Your payroll comments must stem from your feelings of betrayal that anyone who supports Parallels must be working for them.

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Re: What a bunch of jerks!

(the below quote has been shortened, as to only include the attack directed at me.)

YOUR SUGGESTIONS SUCK. YES I CAN USE THE EMAIL THING AND NOW (I DO ANYWAY) HAVE A GRUDGE. A LOT OF PEOPLE LIKE MYSELF WERE RIPPED OFF FOR $80 BY THIS COMPANY. THE FACT THAT CUSTOMERS CAN'T COMPEL PARALLELS TO STAND BY ITS PRODUCTS IS WELL DOCUMENTED. NOT TRYING TO START A FLAME WAR, GIMME A BREAK AND GET A LIFE, FLAMER.

Dearest sir,

There is absolutely NO need to yell at me. Or to insult me. If you will look at my history here on the Applefritter, I am a LONG term member - and am in NO way on any software companies payroll. Your suggestion that I might be is laughable. I am also not a flamer - and do not appreciate your attacks.

I am sorry that both you and the original poster are having difficulty with Parallels Desktop. As I have no particular allegiance to that - or any other - company; this is going to be the only apology that you get from me.

I purchased Parallels - twice in fact, for two separate machines.

It works. In fact, for me it works just as promised.

If your experiences vary - well, there isn't anything that I can do to help you apparently.

Its been my experience that, in most cases, people seem to split into two vastly different camps when it comes to addressing a problem. Group 1 looks at it as a challenge, dives in - figures out whats going on and makes things work for them. Group 2 seems to panic, tries to get other people to fix their problems for them, and then whine incessantly when they can't get their way.

I'm afraid that I am a member of group 1, and I cannot and will not help people who are members of group 2. So, best of luck in getting Parallels to work for you. I know it both can and DOES work as advertised.

Good day,
William E Bates (aka evilrobot on applefritter)

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I have had Parallels since it

I have had Parallels since it first came out. I bought a licenses, and have had NO PROBLEMS with Support. The 5-6 times I emailed them, and the one time I called them, I got emails back within 4-8 hours. I didn't have to hold for long on the phone either. I've used Parallels for many things, including NURBS Modeling, SolidWorks and Pro-Engineer. It runs perfectly smooth on my MacBook Pro. Judging from what shelbydodgeimp and macfries are posting about, it must be user error or just plain insubordination.

P.S. I have also purchased many licenses for the company I work for. None have ever reported any problems.

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how wonderful it is to be right

Well, of course, the real measure of any organization's support value is to see how well they deal with those folks with product problems. I submit that those who've had a wonderful experience (and therefore no need to utilize 'support') have exactly zero input value in this sort of conversation.

dan k

ps: To be clear, I have no personal stake in this particular battleground, merely making an observation.

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