No sound on Bootcamp windows vista ultimate

Once Bootcamp has created the new partition on the hard-drive for Windows and you have successfully installed Windows, you still need to install the drivers for all the hardware devices in the iMac (sound chips, ethernet port, the iSight camera, etc.) Depending on the verison of Windows there might be "some" driver loaded that allows it to function but it's almost certainly not the "right" driver.

With OS X versions prior to Lion, (e.g. Leopard and Snow Leopard) the drivers were located on the original OS X Install disc. The disc has a separate Windows partition and that's where the drivers are. Boot the machine into Windows, insert that disc and look for the drivers with the Windows Explorer. (I don't recall if they are Windows INF files or if there is an installer application but you shouldn't have any trouble finding it.)

With Lion, the Bootcamp application itself will create a set of drivers for you, either on a CD or a USB thumb-drive. If you skipped this step, go back into OS X, re-launch the Bootcamp Assistant and have it make the driver disk. Note: back when I did this, I had trouble downloading the most up-to-date files from Apple but it did work eventually. Then once you have the drivers disk, go back into Windows and install them.

Finally, one more note of caution: you mentioned you're using Vista and it's the x86_64 version. I know for a fact that these procedures work with Win XP (SP3) and Win 7 (both i386 versions) but I'm fairly certain there is a rather general lack of support in Bootcamp for Vista *and* for 64-bit Windows. Drivers are the real killer for Microsoft's 64-bit OSs unfortunately; I'm not willing to build an entire machine just to move from 32-bit to 64-bit for an OS I rarely use so I just resign myself to the i386 versions.

Best of luck!

Hoji.

Message was edited by: Hoji for typos and clarity

you can only use Windows 7 with Boot Camp if you have Lion installed.

Vista is fine, I used it from late 2006 (RC) until the Windows 7 Beta/RC stage.

People ALWAYS need to then manuall add audio drivers on their own after installing Apple's drivers.

Whether Cirrus or Realtek (used in some like Mac Pro workstation).

There is no issue with 64-bit. Lion is catching up and on with having 64-bit kernel and drivers.

Vista's first year of life had 4% issue with graphic drivers. That was 2007.

Vista SP2 is the oldest version supported and I wouldn't recommend anyone buy anything older than Windows 7 today.

If you want, copy the entire contents off DVD while in Windows to a folder, then dig to where

BOOTCAMP64.msi

Use "Troubleshoot Compatibility Mode" when you control click on the above file, and set to run in Vista mode, and also to run as Administrator.

Then find Cirrus driver to download and manually install - that part, using Google, is the hardest part?

@shldr2thewheel: Nice catch. As soon as I read that, I remembered being rather irate one night that I had to re-install XP and couldn't use my pretty new Win 7!

@The hatter: Lots of great info there as always. I avoided Vista like the plague but heard LOTS of complaining and general gnashing of teeth about stuff. Good to see it getting resolved.

@Sean_Bishop:

Honestly, if you've already repartitioned the drive and gotten Windows to install, then you've gotten through 90% of what trips everyone up. This last part is actually pretty straight-forward — kinda long, sure, but straight-forward.

1. Boot the machine into Windows and insert the OS X Install disc. (From the sound of it, you're using Snow Leopard? BTW, is that the version that came with your iMac or did you upgrade after you got the machine?)

2. Open Windows Explorer (file browser) and explore the contents of the install disc.

3. Locate the file called "BOOTCAMP.msi" and copy it to a folder on the hard-drive.

4. Go to the copy on the hard-drive, right-click (control-click) the file and select Properties.

4. In the Properties window, select the "Compatability" Tab. You should see something like:

(I believe this is actually a Win 7 window but it should be very close to the same thing.)

5a. Make sure that either (a) Compatibility mode is disabled or (b) your version of Windows (e.g. Windows Vista + any service packs) is selected in the drop-down. (This forces the OS to run the installer with the proper version so it loads the correct drivers, btw.)

5b. Enable the "Run this program as an administrator"

5c. Click OK to close the Properties window. (If it complains that the file is read-only or says you can't change the Properties, be sure you're playing with the copy and not the original on the DVD.)

6. Double-click the BOOTCAMP64.msi file to install (or re-install, doesn't matter) the drivers

7. When it's done you'll need to reboot the machine into Windows again and check for the BootCamp icon in the system notification area (the bottom-right corner where the clock is). The icon is a dark-grey square up on one corner; if you click it is comes up with a few options, one of which is "Reboot into OS X" -- (that's a pretty good indication it's the right icon!)

8. If the Window's side of BootCamp is installed, try the sound out. Play a known good video or sound file, or go to the Sounds control panel.

9. If the sound is working you have the option of stopping (obviously since that was your original goal!) or you can try the next step to ensure you've got the "best" driver.

10. If the sound isn't working or you want to search, you can go to the Device Manager (accessible through the Control Panels menu or by right-clicking / control-clicking My Computer in the Explorer and selecting "Manage this computer"). The Device Manager will show you a list of all the hardware in the machine with alerts to which ones aren't installed or can't work.

11. Find the sound chipset (sounds like yours is from Cirrus) and get the model/version of the chip. Then head to Google and search for that model and be sure to add something like "Windows Vista 64-bit drivers". You can then manually download and install that driver per usual. (I say usual because hunting for the best drivers is a skill that every savvy Windows machine owner learns to do at some point. lol)

Note: standard disclaimer about downloading stuff from the Internet applies. Pick a good, reputable site that you trust, etc.

It sounds like a lot but it's really not that bad.

Good luck and be sure to let us know how it goes.

Hoji.

Also, it's worth mentioning that once BootCamp is installed — say step 7.5 or 8.5? — you'll want to force the Apple Software Update program to run. You should be able to find it in the Start menu itself or in the All Programs area.

I have no idea when/whether Apple updated the Snow Leopard version of BootCamp and the drivers after your DVD was burned but it certainly can't hurt.

control-click on the file, you get a drop down menu list of options to choose from of which "Troubleshoot" is only one.

It has to be the .msi file which should show "run as admin" and other choices in properties. And it will be in the tab "Compatibility" not "General" that you find those choices. Your example isn't showing that.

Try another installer.

Try copying the entire contents off DVD to a folder, which is what I always tell people, rather than just copy a file.

Not sure why this is so hard.

"And i wasn't able to do that either"

Not sure what THAT is/was.

I can say that when you have those yellow icon on a device you need to rollback or uninstall the driver. Don't disable.

I'd say you burned a DVD or have ended up with a bad install really.

Hmm, well first off, after discussing this with a PC guy at work, you don't see the Compatibility tab for a very good reason — an MSI file is a file used by the Installer ... not a program. You obviously can't "Run As..." on something that can't be run. Sorry for the confusion on that, I'm used to driver installers which are EXEs. My mistake there. 😟

However, while poking around here in the Support site, I found this older thread which has many people discussing your specific issue (though with a different iMac revision) and several of them claim to have solved it.

Give this thread a read and see if any of their suggestions help out: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2414330

Beyond that, there isn't much I can do but to plug Win 7 again — it installed, I put in the Bootcamp drivers with a thumb-drive and BAM! it's all up and running. Like 2 hours start to finish.

Vista may be officially supported but to me that thing is just an albatross around your neck. 😉

Best of luck!

Hoji.