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Black/Blank Screen with Boot Camp Win 7 Install on new 27" iMac

I'm having a problem getting Windows 7 on a new 27" iMac and am familiar with the Boot Camp Windows installation process. Here's what I've done...

1. Run Boot Camp from OSX, partition the drive.
2. Insert Win 7 cd, proceed with installation.
3. Computer restarts and the 'preparing for initial setup' message displays with the Win 7 splash screen. When it switches to where it should be displaying the Win 7 desktop, the screen is black.

I can hear the Mac still running, but there's no display. It's like it's waiting for some type of user input for the intial Windows setup (haven't yet entered the key).

I've done a hard shutdown and restarted Windows with the exact same result. After reboot, I get the 'Windows was not shut down properly' message with the 3 safe mode options, where choosing either gets me the 'Windows cannot complete setup in safe mode'. And any key reboots it.

The Mac side still runs fine and holding the option key at start up gives the Mac/Win boot options.

I'm inclined to think that it's a video driver issue since the 27" is brand new. Maybe Apple used a new video card for the larger screen and haven't updated the Boot Camp drivers. I checked on ATI's site for an updated driver for the Radeon HD 4670 they say is in the new 27" model that's currently available. (not the quad core)

Is there any workaround for this? I was thinking of installing Vista instead, and upgrading to Win7 once installed, but if it's a driver thing, it would just be a long way to the same result and could have the same problem with Vista as well.

Any ideas?

iMac 27", Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Oct 22, 2009 12:18 PM

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Posted on Oct 22, 2009 12:34 PM

You don't even get to Apple drivers until long after Windows is installed, not before.

It sounds like you are attempting to use x64. See if it works wtih x86. So far Apple has not been supporting 64-bit Vista on iMac - was seriously hoping it no longer made sense not to!

Heck, if you just insert Windows DVD and hold "C" you should boot to Windows.

Try that after zapping PrAM/NVRAM.
36 replies

Jun 27, 2010 3:23 PM in response to Graloth

With the iMac, we had to remove the ati drivers in order to continue. The steps I did with the iMac are as follows:

35. Boot from the Win7 install DVD.
36. Click Next
37. Click Repair your Computer
38. Select "Restore your computer using a system image that you created earlier
39. Click Next
40. Click Cancel
41. Click Cancel
42. Click Command Prompt
43. > c:
44. cd c:\windows\system32\drivers\

45. del ati*

46. Close the command prompt
47. Click Restart
This time, Windows should successfully initialise a more appropriate display driver, allowing you into the desktop.

Oct 13, 2010 9:44 AM in response to McFlossy

I recently went to my schools computer lab to re-image my macbook pro 15 inch. They kept sending emails to come over and re-image and get the latest version of mac and windows 7. Bombarded with emails. So, I went with a couple of my friends. I left my computer there for 2 hours and came back to pick it up. After I logged onto windows side, the screen went black and wouldn't let me onto bootcamp. So, they said it didn't we will do it again. So another 2 hours goes by and I go to pick it up. It worked for the time being. Let me on Windows side and let me open and install autocad. I go to log on yesterday and it did the same thing. The screen went black and wouldn't let me on. My computer lab of helpdesk as they call themselves, said "Oh, I guess we will have to re-image." Obviously, re-imaging doesn't work. They obviously have no clue what is wrong with my laptop. Can anyone help?

Black/Blank Screen with Boot Camp Win 7 Install on new 27" iMac

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