VMware on a 1.83 GHz Macbook with 4 gigs of ram (3 gigs)

[VinylxScratches]

I just installed VMware on my Macbook along with Windows XP Pro. With it just sitting idle, it is causing my fans to go up. Not full blast but still enough to bother me. I'd like to have Windows run all the time because sometimes I use it to help people or I like to program in Visual Studio. It's just annoying to have to start it up all the time even in a saved state. Is this because my processor is too slow?

VMware is going between 6% to 14% in Activity Monitor.

 

[Kaido]

You're running an entire operating system in memory, one that normally takes a whole real computer to run. On a laptop, it's going to take up a lot of resouces, that's simply how it is due to the resources required.

If you want faster startup performance, install a 7200rpm drive or SSD. You might also look at Crossover Mac to just run certain apps, it's very quick to launch.

 

[VinylxScratches]

I am running a 7200 RPM drive. I know that it takes a ton of resources but the OS just sitting there not being used, I was hoping it would not demand much. I use Crossover for running Office but Visual Studio is not possible at all.

 

[Viper0329]

If you have any USB devices attached to the virtual machine, that causes the CPU usage to go up rather quickly, even if it is idle.

 

[VinylxScratches]

Nothing. Maybe I should save up some money and get a unibody Macbook and convert this current Macbook into a Windows machine

 

[DanK414]

Are you saying that you're loading VM ware w/ 3gigs of memory dedicated to XP already? If you already are please void my suggestion, if not change your set up in VM. Restart your XP and shut it down, then go to settings then cpu&ram and change the configuration so that XP can draw more memory from shared ram.

 

[FP]

Originally posted by: Kaido
You're running an entire operating system in memory, one that normally takes a whole real computer to run. On a laptop, it's going to take up a lot of resouces, that's simply how it is due to the resources required.

If you want faster startup performance, install a 7200rpm drive or SSD. You might also look at Crossover Mac to just run certain apps, it's very quick to launch.

That isn't entirely correct. I can run an "entire" OS on an 8 year old PC that is half the speed of one of the cores on my MBP. I can also dedicate an entire core and half my RAM to the VM instance. I don't know why people think visualization is so costly in terms of resources. I have run 3 VMs in OSX at once (Windows 7, Fedora and FreeBSD) without much of an issue.

Op, I started up my Windows 7 VM on my MBP and left it running for a while. My load hovered around .7 and the VM was only using about 25% of 1 core at any time.

Are you running intense apps in your VM?

 

[VinylxScratches]

Nothing, it's just Windows XP Pro SP3 freshly installed. I just have Avira installed and that's it.

 

[Kmax82]

I have Windows XP SP3 installed via VMWare Fusion, and I leave it running most all days on the laptop in my sig. I don't even notice it's on, honestly. It takes up barely 10% of my CPU. I would recommend disabling Avira and see if that helps? The regular scans that AV's perform could be causing the fan issue.

Also, it could just be the Macbook. Are your CPUs actually getting hit by the VM alot? I know with my wife's Macbook, she can just be surfing with Firefox and the fans will spin up pretty well, or if she's in iPhoto. It seems to turn them on whenever she does anything more than let it sit there. I don't know if that's the norm, I guess it isn't.

 

[VinylxScratches]

I installed Parallels and it runs much smoother and seems to not cause my fans to speed up when Windows XP is idle. I've always had issues with VMware on this Mac. It causes Leopard to run really bad and stall the system for 10+ seconds during boot up and even just sitting there.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: VinylxScratches
I installed Parallels and it runs much smoother and seems to not cause my fans to speed up when Windows XP is idle. I've always had issues with VMware on this Mac. It causes Leopard to run really bad and stall the system for 10+ seconds during boot up and even just sitting there.

Really? I've always had really good luck with VMware, but then I'm using a beefed-up desktop, so maybe that's why. Parallels was support buggy for me after 3.0 was released, so I've been with VMware ever since.

 

[Kmax82]

Yea.. I get a lot worse results from Parallels. It crashed constantly and just overall was much harder on my system than VMWare. But, hey, if it works, then don't look a gift horse in the mouth.