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

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.

I have exactly the same problem!

Just got my new 27" iMac today and tried installing Windows 7 Home Premium (Full Version) and it does exactly the same thing as you describe - black screen half way through the installation.

I installed Windows 7 on my previous 24" iMac which was an upgrade as it had Vista already on it. Had no problems what at all.

So I just spent the past 5 hours trying to install Windows 7 via BootCamp on my new 27" iMac. It would get past the initial installation and then after the final reboot just before it runs off the hard drive and asks you for a serial number, the screen would go black and I couldn't do anything. So I found this solution here:

http://geekswithblogs.net/ajames/archive/2009/08/12/take-an-imac-and-windows-7-r tm-ndash-and-have.aspx

Except the instructions on that site are for an iMac with an NVIDIA Graphics Card. The 27" iMac has an ATI card. So at step 6 I deleted the file named: ATIKMDAG.SYS from the same directory.

Then clicked restart and was able to finish through the install process.

Summary:
It seems as if for some reason Windows 7 installs some random NVIDIA graphics driver that the ATI card just cant handle. Once the install get to the point where it's turning on that driver, the iMac's display simply turns off because there is no card to run it.

The BootCamp driver that loads only give a max resolution of 1980 X 1440 so everything looks stretched. Installing the ATI drivers from ATI did no good.

There also seems to be an issue with the sound drivers, and the bluetooth usb host controler. There is no sound, and the mouse doesn't become active until everything is done loading.

Also be aware that only the keyboard will be active during the install so you will need a usb mouse unless your really good at navigating Windows with only a keyboard.

After following your solution and then run the window 7 update, the screen rsolution issue is now resolved. I think Microsoft just released an update sometimes today and the update is reading as following:

"ATI Technologies Inc driver update for ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670".

Just tried to install last night and same problems, running vista 64bit on a Macbook Pro 17" (early 2009) with no problems. I really want to run on 64 bit so will try this workaround.

Windows 7 beta has been out for ages and I would have thought APPLE would have sorted this by now with boot camp. I would not have bought any apple computer if it could not run windows!

Thanks for the post! I just ran into the same thing. Picked up the new 27" imac today and immediately wanted to do the bootcamp setup. So far all is going well after your workaround!

I was able to fix the sound issue by manually installing the cirrus driver from the mac os x disk (in my case it was the cirrus Vista x64 driver). After I installed it the 1st time, it told me that it didn't install correctly and asked to reinstall w/ recommended setting. I reinstalled and voila... I have sound that works.
I can't however say the same about the bluetooth yet but i'm working on it. Also, in my case, the wireless magic mouse did work throughout the whole installation, although I did have to give it a "shake" once in a while to activate it.

I found a fix for the Bluetooth drivers!!
In windows 7, if you go to the update driver screen and hit select driver from a list, pick bluetooth, then Apple. There will be 2 items, Apple bluetooth and Apple bluetoothDFI (if im not mistaken).
I used the "Apple Bluetooth" and installed it, it works perfectly and i have windows 7 on a 27" imac for a customer at geeksquad. I appreciate the walkthrough to get around the black screen!! Hope this helps yall.

@Kyle, oh man why did I install that bluetooth driver...

All worked well, even without that driver my wireless keyboard and magic mouse worked. After installing that driver both won't work anymore.

Which leaves me 2 options, re-install or buy a wired mouse and keyboard to undo that driver installation...

Hi, the ATI driver fix worked for me on my 27" iMac, thanks to all.

My 2 problems now are:

1. No scrolling on Magic Mouse in Windows 7 (Bootcamp)
2. When I try to play any Steam games it 'cuts' the screen in half, horizontally, with the top half at the bottom, and when i quit the game the screen remains like this until I restart.

Any ideas? Apple said they'd be releasing new drivers by the end of the year.

I think I figured out what is happening here with the video drivers on the new iMac's and Win7. I believe it's re-directing the video to the mini display-port output when you see the screen go blank. I installed my Win7 x64 with no issues but I had an external monitor hooked up at the time and while it was installing the O/S my iMac went black but everything moved over to my external screen. Once it finished installing then everything went back to normal after a reboot.

Not sure if that helps anyone but pretty sure that's what is going on. So if you have another monitor handy, get the mini display-port adaptor from Apple and connect your external screen before you install Win7. Cheers!

P.S. If you have one of the new iMac's and want to install the latest Radeon drivers (after you have installed Win7 on your iMac), try the following. Download and install the drivers from ATI/AMD directly. They'll try to install and fail (no worries) but now the driver/install files will be unzipped into an ATI folder on your main Windows hard drive.

Now go to this site: http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php and download the tool and use the Vista instructions listed on the main page of the URL above. You shouldn't need to download the MSXML 6.0 and I don't think you need to disable the UAC stuff like they suggest for Vista (I didn't) and it works fine. UAC is not nearly as intrusive on Win7 as it is in Vista so I think that's why it worked for me and pretty sure the MSXML 6.0 is already in Win7. Once the program has modified the mobile Radeon drivers then you can run "setup" from your ATI directory and the new drivers will finally install correctly including the Catalyst Control Center. Voila! I now have 9.10 drivers up and running on my new 27" iMac and working perfectly so far.

James

Message was edited by: joudbren

Try running both Windows Update and the Apple Update in Win7. I have no issue with scrolling on the Magic Mouse.

Have no clue about #2

I just got my Window 7 today, and I started my Window 7 installation this morning, I got it working the first time round. Window 7 installed and everything but I notice that I partition the Hard Drive too small, so I went back onto my Mac OS and started up Bootcamp and deleted my Window 7 so I can redo it. But I forgot to set my Main Disk to start up, so I was stuck in the boot up and unable to identify a disk, so I hold option and started it up and had to reformat my MAC OS because it didn't even show up the first time and changed the format from MAC OS Extended Journaled to MAC OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) and I got my MAC to reinstall.

So I switch the format back to default of MAC OS Extended Journaled (?) and then try to install Window 7 64 bit again, I got up as far as removing the ATIKMDAG.SYS and then rebooted and then I came to the setup window normally, but then a Window Install Error pop up, no numbers, simply says "installer cannot proceed because it restarted suddenly, or there is an error in the system" and I have tried this several times also trying to install the 32 bit.

Just now I deleted my Window 7 partition and reformatted my MAC OS HD and the current format my hard drive is on is MAC OS Extended Journaled. The problem I'm facing right now is that an error pops up before I can get into the entering the product key (Setup) and beyond. I have done it once but it won't work a second time. HELP PLEASE!

Hey I had the same problem. Looks like there are a lot of us. I feel like I was missold my imac last week. I think I will take it back on monday and get a refund. How can apple do this ? It's so out of character ....