MacBook Pro & Windows 7 Driver Compatibility Issue

You want to get the latest mobility driver from Nvidia, which others have done.

Aero and playing games will benefit.

Take a look at WEI - Win Experience Index score

Apple tech note does say that some device drivers in Device Manger can be ignored, but not this.

Hello vea1083 -- this sounds like the persistent USB universal host controller problem. See my report on http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2411685&tstart=15&messageID=12 387554#12387554 if you need a workaround. Unless you have trouble with USB ports (some do, some don't) it might not be worth the fixing at this time.

Sorry -- pointed to wrong message. Go a few posts up from that message on that page. Look for the long one.

It's a hardware issue and it is not just Windows 7 -- same problem reported for Windows XP, for example. The details are in my old post, as in this excerpt:

+... I think there is a problem with the Apple firmware. I had a good conversation with AppleCare and they confirmed that the messages we all saw about the inability to start the two USB Universal Host Controllers (with PCI device IDs 3B36 and 3B3B) is a problem that always results from a Boot Camp install. I was told it would definitely NOT help to wipe out the Windows partition and recreate it. The situation is acknowledged, but no promise that this will change soon. OK, so I work with what I have until Apple fixes it properly.+

The Macbook Pro uses EFI to emulate the BIOS that is on a PC. It seems to be imperfectly recognizing the Intel hardware so that Windows tries to start devices that are not there. My workaround disables the ghost hardware, but we need a firmware fix from Apple.

Without a fix or workaround, some USB devices and software have problems because they try to enumerate/verify all USB ports (instead of just using the port they plug into), and the enumeration fails. Examples: some HP printers, VMware Workstation.

The problem doesn't happen under OSX -- it's just when Apple tries to start Windows as a standalone OS, so it affects Windows in Boot Camp. As a matter of fact, I run VMware Fusion so I can also run my Windows 7 on the Mac side as a virtual machine. When run that way, the same Windows 7 that had USB problems when "booted" via Boot Camp does NOT have USB problems when running as a guest with OSX as the host machine.

I had several long conversations with Apple Care, so they are aware of what I have to say and several others have reported the bug also. A fix (if it is fixable) is probably in the queue for the next update (I hope), whenever that occurs.

I was told that Apple engineering is aware of the problem. This problem will be fixed in an updated version of Bootcamp. As for ETA, I was told hopefully soon but he did not actually know.

I would post problem reports to:

www.apple.com/feedback

If you have a contact at Apple, then I would gather together some of these forum reports and email them to Apple. The more reports received the easier it will be to identify the issues behind the problem.

I just did an update to Windows 7 64 bit, and saw optional driver installs. So installed the updated drivers. Now I can't use my USB hub any longer with windows 7. I was on Boot Camp 3.1, so got 3.2 hoping that would fix it. And well it didn't. So now I'm forced to plug my keyboard and mouse directly into the USB ports instead of through my hub, which isn't very handy.

So much for apple care. They told me to call Microsoft. Considering how much I paid for this service, and it's the one and only time I've used it. I very disappointed. If the drivers were provided outside of boot camp I could probably install the older drivers again. I said this to them several times, including talking to a supervisor.

The graphics drivers made me mad, too. Finally I've tried original nVidia drivers, which work very well: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/notebook-win7-winvista-266.58-whql-driver-uk.html

Maybe it helps others having the same issues