My new MacBook won't install Parallels...and other issues.

sgould · #1 January 16th, 2008, 04:04 PM

Got my new Black MacBook home. It's the 2.2 GHz, 160GB, 2GB RAM version. Turned it on and all was OK. Leopard 10.5 pre-installed. Set-up was good, connected to the internet via my Airport. Looked good.

Tried a couple of things...again OK. Downloaded all the upgrades via Software Update. And again all seemed well. Now running 10.5.1

Did a few things to check it all worked and decided to install Parallels 3.0 from the box I bought. Install from CD hung. Tried a restart and the install hung again at the same place - very soon after the start with about 1/8th of an inch of the progress bar. Had tea and found that the progress bar had not moved in 20 minutes.

Tried a third time after copying the .dmg to the Hard Disc but the result was the same.

Looked at the Apple site and a similar fault was cured by repairing the disc permissions. BUT I could not get the permissions to repair or verify. The program hung in the same way as parallels.

Ran the full extended hardware test from the CD - all OK.

Planning an erase and reinstall of everything. But it seems extreme since all the applications and internet stuff works OK.

Any other suggestions?

I can't find a 10.5.1 Combo update. Is there one?

I don't think that Software Update offered or installed the MacBook Software Update 1.1 which was posted by Apple a couple of days after the 10.5.1 update. Would this help?

Satcomer · #2 January 16th, 2008, 05:30 PM

I might help but you might have gotten a bad Parallels install disk.

sgould · #3 January 16th, 2008, 06:10 PM

tried a couple more times but it failed. Went ahead and did an erase and install. Upgraded the system files, but not any application upgrades.

Tried the Parallels install and it worked straight away

The Repair Permissions "hang" was not a hang! The blue progress bar stalls at about 25% of the way, saying "Estimated time: Under a minute". But, after five minutes or more, it starts to move again and says "Estimated time: about 8 minutes". And carries on to completion.

Now to get a new set of Windows discs. I had hoped to install the XP stuff from my old Virtual PC discs, but I've lost the Activation Code, and anyway I can't seem to extract just the XP without the installer wanting to inatall Virtual PC.

Haven't seen any XP discs around lately. Is Vista really as bad as people say?

Satcomer · #4 January 16th, 2008, 06:59 PM

If you XP just make sure it is SP2. I saw this place. I am not sure how it is so cheap though.

sgould · #5 January 17th, 2008, 11:52 AM

There's similar sales site in UK. When you read the small print they say that you just get a copy of XP as a back-up. No activation code. This could be the same.

http://www.softwarecentral.co.uk/os.html