Boot Camp Manager ERROR message

I get the same message every time I boot windows on my Macbook Air (MBA). I first thought I might have made a mistake installing windows, so erased the windows partition and started over with the boot camp/windows xp install. I followed the printout instructions for windows install closely, but the error message was still there both times.

Here's what happens: after installing boot camp software on windows from the mac disc, everything seems to work fine. It is after I reboot the machine the first time that the error message comes up, and it happens every time I boot the computer.

My girlfriend tried calling AppleCare, and they said they could not help us, even thought we followed the directions exactly, since we installed windows without being on the phone with them. They told us to check here on the message board, so here I am reporting this problem and also reporting that I have searched and could not find a fix yet. I feel like AppleCare has stranded me on this issue. I'd really like to get this problem resolved.

Do I understand correctly that
• you installed Windows on your Mac
• you installed the Windows drivers from the Leopard DVD
• you did not install any (other) 3rd party Windows software
• you rebooted into Mac OS
• from within Mac OS, you launched /Applications/Utilities/Boot Camp Assistant
• Boot Camp Assistant crashed instead of launching

That's weird. I know this problem occurs when you have Norton GoBack installed on the Windows partition. This is presumably a feature of Norton GoBack--it has changed something on the Windows partition to keep the disk from being externally modified by something like, say, Boot Camp Assistant. I don't know why this problem would occur if you don't have something like Norton GoBack installed.

But why do you need to launch Boot Camp Assistant if Windows is already installed?

"Do I understand correctly that
• you installed Windows on your Mac
• you installed the Windows drivers from the Leopard DVD
• you did not install any (other) 3rd party Windows software
"
Yes to all that. And no to the rest. That's not what I did.

After it gets up and running with the boot camp manager working correctly in windows, after I shut down the very first time, from that point on I see this error message every time I boot in windows. This happens even though I did not install any 3rd party software on windows.

Since boot camp manager does not work every time I boot in windows, it seems that all of the drivers for the hardware in the Macbook Air are not functional. For example, the bluetooth does not work, the screen brightness can not be controlled, and the keyboard backlighting does not work. The audio is also not working right since the sounds of the startup and shutdown tones are "choppy" sounding-- like there is a skip every time.

Oh, and keep in mind that the very first time I get boot camp manager in windows up and running, it does work flawlessly. Just never again after that once it is shut down after that first time. But when it did work (on the first time), the bluetooth worked (I tested it with a mouse), the screen was brighter, the audio seemed to work correctly (with no skippy sounds), and the keyboard backlighting was on and functional.

By the way, it's not boot camp assistant that we're having a problem with. Boot camp assist worked fine. It's boot camp manager which runs in windows that's the problem. Boot camp manager is what seems to control all of the functions of the mac hardware in windows. If you're running boot camp on your mac, you should see the little black square in the system tray in the bottom right corner near the time.

Thanks for the clarification on Boot Camp Assistant vs Boot Camp Manager. That was indeed my point of confusion.

You installed the Boot Camp Manager using the Leopard DVD which came with the Macbook Air, right? So if--as it probably is--it is an issue of incompatible drivers, it isn't that you installed obsolete drivers?

Unfortunately, this means I have even less of an idea of what is going on. The only suggestion I can make is that there are reports of problems, in both Vista and XP, with Apple's Bluetooth drivers. See http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6414503#6414503 which suggests using System Restore to revert back to the time before installing the Apple drivers (possibly running System Restore by booting from the Windows install disk and performing a "repair"). Then, follow the instructions in the thread to reinstall all but the Bluetooth drivers. Hopefully that will help...though it doesn't explain your problems with nonBluetooth devices...

Issue resolved!

I went to the Apple store in Portland, OR, and one of the geniuses, Matt, resolved the problem. Thank you Matt! And thanks to Apple for having a genius on staff who knew a thing or two about windows!

Matt had not encountered this problem before, but he took a shot at the problem andresolved it on the first try.

I'll explain what he did:

Booted windows.

Plugged in my ac powered usb dvd drive (tried to use the superdrive for the air, but it was not pwrking because of the bootcamp manager problem).

Inserted disc 1 of my osX discs that came with the MBA.

When the disc menu apeared, he chose to remove the boot camp manager software.

He then connected to the Apple stores wifi, went to windowsupdate.com, clicked custom, checked all of the Microsoft .net framework packs, and downladed and installed them.

Restarted, and booted to windows.

Re-inserted the osX disc 1, and installed the boot camp mananger software.

Restarted.

Voila!

Boot camp manager works every time I boot now, and everthing is working--bluetooth, audio, keyboard backligiting, monitor brightness--everthing!

Incredible customer serice from Matt and the PDX Apple store!

saucier504,

Thanks so much. Your answered clued me into what was my problem. I was getting the same Boot Camp error, but when I checked the Event Viewer, I noticed I had .net installation problems a long time ago when I installed it, and there were kbdmgr problems as well when I install Boot Camp Assistant.

I noticed Microsoft just sent out a .net 2.0 SP1 update and it installed on my computer. So all I did was boot into Windows, insert the Mac OS X Leopard disk, uninstalled Boot Camp Assistant. Rebooted the machine into windows. Then inserted the Leopard disk again and it proceeded to install Boot Camp assistant again.

This time it went flawlessly with no keybrd errors and all is running well. Thanks again for the time you spent responding after your trouble was fixed.

AAUUGGHH! Im dying here. Everything was fine. Later on I rebooted the machine and now I have the error again and all those wonderful Mac features that were working are not. /cries
Back to the drawing board.

I am currently experiencing the same problem. I've run Leopard with Vista and Bootcamp beta on my MacBook Pro for the last 6 months with no problems. Then I upgraded to Bootcamp 2.0 followed by 2.1 (Then the fun started)

Following the upgrade, the computer restarted, and Bootcamp Manager worked flawlessly, ("bootcamp" icon displayed in the lower tray). On subsequent boot-ups following that first "restart", Bootcamp now displays the error message and closes Bootcamp Manager. (Icon goes away...no keyboard support, isight, Bluetooth ect)

As I read through the different messages, this error has surfaced numerous times with the following possible solutions (Non have worked)
** Un-install, then re-install bootcamp manager
** Un-install, then re-install Apple Software Update

Any Ideas

Thanks hyunsoo89k
As it turned out, it was either the Anit-Virus, or the spyware software. When I did the upgrade, I "disabled" both, but it managed to block anyway.

Prior to the upgrade to 2.1, I used Bootcamp Beta with both the anti-virus and spyware with no problems. This could be because when I initially loaded Leopard, Bootcamp Beta and Vista, I had not yet installed the Anti-Virus and Spyware software yet. Once Bootcamp was already established on the drive, then the Anit-virus and spyware had no negative effect. (Until you try and update.........)

This is what I did to correct the problem. (Do in-order)
1. Uninstalled anti-virus and spyware
2. Uninstalled the previous version of Bootcamp services
3. Inserted Leopard disk and installed 2.0
4. Upgraded to 2.1 using download
5. Reinstalled the Anti-virus software

Works great.

I might try and re-install the spyware and see what happens.
For those trying to upgrade and are experiencing this type of difficulities, try what I did:


Hope this helps