Boot Camp 3.0 and Windows 7 64-bit - My experiences/notes

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Level 1

8 points

Boot Camp 3.0 and Windows 7 64-bit - My experiences/notes

I just installed Boot Camp 3.0 from the Snow Leopard DVD onto my MacBook Pro 17 (Mid 09) which is running Windows 7 64bit RTM and had Boot Camp 2.1 previously installed on it.

My experiences/notes:

1. The Boot Camp 3.0 installation automatically removed the Boot Camp 2.1 drivers that it was going to update and then installed the newer 3.0 ones

2. You still can only use the GeForce 9600M GT graphics chipset, i.e. only the 9600M GT shows to windows and appears in the device manager

3. Deferred Procedure Calls (DPC) Latency issues still exist although it doesn't seem like you need to run the Bootcamp.exe on CPU 0 affinity only (Bootcamp.exe = the updated/Boot Camp 3.0 version of KbdMgr.exe)

4. You still can't fully dim the keyboard backlight with the F5 key

5. I manually updated the 'important' drivers to the very newest one, i.e.

5a. Latest Nvidia driver for GeForce 9600M GT => 186.81 notebook_win7_winvista_64bit_internationalwhql.exe

5b. Latest WLAN chip driver => Broadcom (4322AG chipset) Wireless LAN Driver for Microsoft Windows Vista 5.10.91.8 (14 May 2009) = sp43743.exe

5c. Lateset Realtek High Definition Audio Codec => Vista Win7R231.zip

6. Although I still have bad DPC latency, I haven't yet noticed any audio/video lag/drop-outs/screeches etc.

Best of luck to you all and I hope this helps someone, Dingle7

Message was edited by: Dingle7

Message was edited by: Dingle7

MacBook Pro 17" Unibody (Mid 2009), Other OS

Posted on Aug 30, 2009 9:40 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 30, 2009 11:23 AM in response to Dingle7

Hi Dingle7,

thanks for your post, very helpful.

I would like to confirm whether upgrading to 10.6 will not affect my current Windows 7 64bit installation, besides the substitution of boot camp 2.1 for 3.0.

Also, would you please advice on where to find the latest drivers for broadcom and realtek?

I am currently using nvidia 190.56 from laptop2go, working fine.

I read that the battery consumption is optimized in boot camp 3.0
Let's hope someday we will have the automatic screen brightness dimming.

thanks

Regards

Oscar

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Answer 2

Aug 30, 2009 3:57 PM in response to oscarbrt01

Unfortunately, I cannot report any improvement on the battery life front.

Yes, tapping and two-finger tapping now works, although the trackpad is still very sensitive. But battery life is still more or less where it was with 2.1.

More specifically, on my MBP4,1 (Early 2008), I get about 4 1/2 hours under OSX, and between 2h 45m and 3h under Win7 RC (Vista was similar), under a light load (but with wireless on).

Anybody else wants to comment re. battery life?

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Answer 3

Dingle7 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 30, 2009 6:27 PM in response to oscarbrt01

Hi all,

Here are the links for the latest 'important' drivers:

5a. Latest Nvidia driver for GeForce 9600M GT => 186.81 notebook_win7_winvista_64bit_internationalwhql.exe
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

5b. Latest WLAN chip driver => Broadcom (4322AG chipset) Wireless LAN Driver for Microsoft Windows Vista 5.10.91.8 (14 May 2009) = sp43743.exe
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en &cc=us&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=3872994&swItem=ob-71357-1&mode=5
NOTE: You will need to manually update the drivers in the windows device manager (select 4322AG chipset) because the installer doesn't overwrite the old drivers from Boot Camp

5c. Lateset Realtek High Definition Audio Codec => Vista Win7R231.zip
http://www.realtek.com.tw/DOWNLOADS/

Message was edited by: Dingle7

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Answer 4

Aug 31, 2009 1:59 AM in response to ByronHinson

Yup - I have all drivers installed. The only bit not working for me is the keyboard controls i.e brightness, volume etc. Would be nice to have this - worked ok for me on Vista SP2 x64 and Boot Camp v2.1

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Answer 5

Aug 31, 2009 2:15 PM in response to Firebird74

Firebird, I ran into the same problem and just used the 2.1 Keyboard driver instead.
I manually installed it(2.1 KB), then I copied the 3.0 stuff from disc to my desktop and got rid of the 3.0 KB drivers before running the setup. HTH 🙂

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Answer 6

Sep 1, 2009 5:35 AM in response to H3llHound

Hi. It is an .msi file and not a .exe. When run itself it will give the error that it needs to be run from the .exe file. If you change the compatibility settings on the .msi installer then it will run however some items fail to install. What I am missing though is my keyboard shortcuts for brightness, pause , play etc - everything else works fine.

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Answer 7

Sep 1, 2009 4:37 PM in response to Firebird74

Got it! I had upgraded from Vista SP2 x64. Don't know if this is teh issue however this is what I did to resolve it:

Firstly I deleted the AppleControlPanel.exe under Windows\System32 folder. Then I copied the bootcamp folder from the DVD to my Desktop. I located the BootCamp64.msi under BootCamp\Drivers\Apple and right mouse clicked on it selecting 'Troubleshoot Compatibility'. It decided to skip the version test and Bootcamp installer launched this time uninstalling the previous version and installing 3.0. Now all devices are working, Boot Camp control panel auto starts and my Apple Function Keys for Brightness, sound etc are all working normally - happy days!

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Answer 8

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Sep 27, 2009 7:33 AM in response to Community User

Some Macs don't have 64-bit EFI which is why Windows 7 x64 will present the "Select" option on startup.

Apple only supports Windows 64-bit on a few Macs, not all - but i think MacBook Pro is still listed (there is an Apple tech note on which ones).

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Answer 9

Sep 27, 2009 6:36 PM in response to Community User

Dingle,

How much memory do you have on your system?

I'm currently using Bootcamp, and I also use Parallels to run my bootcamp partition virtually. I just purchased and am waiting to receive my 4gb RAM units. (2x2gb).

I obviously don't think I'll have a problem running Windows 7 64-bit through pure bootcamp. HOWEVER, I am a bit concerned about trying to run Windows 7 64-bit through parallels. I figure that once I have 4gb, I'll split it 2gb/2gb for my mac and parallels.

Will 2GB RAM be enough to run Windows 7 64?

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Answer 10

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Oct 12, 2009 6:41 AM in response to BlueDevilKurz

The iMac, even the mid-2008 which got Penryn family Intel (64-bit processor) didn't get 64-bit EFI (EFI64, also known as UEFI 2.x) which is Apple's way of "officially supports" or not a system running x64 Windows.

VirtualBox, VMware, and Parallels will all work fine.

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Answer 11

Oct 13, 2009 1:38 PM in response to Dingle7

Could someone please help me.

I am running windows 7 on my macbook 5.1 with 10.5.8 OSX.

Everything works perfectly, the only problem is i am not capable of getting my sound to work.

Is anyone able to tell me how to get this right, please.

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Answer 12

Darian G

Level 1

8 points

Nov 10, 2009 1:21 PM in response to The hatter

My MBP from late 2007 has EFI64, but I still can't install Windows7 64bit on it. I'm getting the prompt saying

1.
2.
Select CD-ROM Boot Type:

but can't enter or select anything. I'm just unable to install Windows7 on my MBP.

Is this a problem that will be solved with the announced BootCamp software update? If not, I'd rather try to give Windows7 back. Would be wasted money otherwise.

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Answer 13

Nov 22, 2009 4:22 PM in response to Dingle7

I can't get the 186.81 drivers to install on my latest rev MBP. I have windows 7 proffessionl 64bit installed but I keep getting the error:

The NVIDIA Setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit.

How do I get them to install?

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Answer 14

Nov 27, 2009 6:58 PM in response to Christoff

The version of the driver I installed on my June 2009 MBP is called this, "186.81notebook_win7_winvista_64bit_internationalwhql.exe". Is that the name of the driver file you downloaded from the NVIDIA web site?

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Answer 15

Dec 4, 2009 6:46 AM in response to Dingle7

I have a Late 2008 MBP 15 inch model with Windows 7 64 bit installed. For some reason about once a work day, Windows 7 hard freezes. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to what may be causing this. I am using bootcamp 3.0. I have the latest updates from Apple installed. It is frustrating because when it locks up I lose some research data. Please let me know if there is anything I can do!

Thanks!

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