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Windows 8 randomly freezes on MB and MBP

Dear community,


I have an important issue with all my MacBook and MacBook Pro.

I have installed Windows 8 Developer Preview a long time ago and was experiencing random freezes.

At that time, I have tried any possible solution to fix it... nothing worked and no solution on forums.


I have then got my hands on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, but the problem was still there.

Now, Windows 8 Release Preview is out and the problem is still there.


I can't find any solution to this issue. It is not a crash but a real freeze.

I have to push the power button for 5 seconds to shut it down and then power it on.


I have tried several possibilites:

- on my MacBook Pro with a SSD

- on my MacBook (1st generation of unibody but not yet renamed in Pro) with a HDD

- in a VHD, in bootcamp partition, even as unique partition (removing any Mac OS system).


Nothing works. The freezes are very random (already happened before the login phase !).

I can stay with the system stable for 2-3 days, but sometimes it crashes after a few seconds.


I identified that Chrome and Dropbox made the system to freeze quicker, but I am not sure why.

I was thinking of 3 possibilites of issue:

- the driver of the graphic card (but it is not exactly the same in both MacBook)

- some special/reserved disk space that Windows would be trying to write

- a memory issue (trying to write in an unsafe or protected memory place)


Do someone experience this kind of freeze ?

Do someone get a fully working and never get any freeze with Windows 8 on a MB or MBP ?

It seems to work fine for people with newest MB and MBP, and MB air. I am not sure it is true.


Best regards,


Jérémie

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2009), Other OS, Windows 8, DP, CP and RP

Posted on Jun 6, 2012 8:25 AM

Reply
97 replies

Sep 10, 2012 8:20 PM in response to GodKingKnight

Install on the battery only as awakeel mentioned. And then, after install, set your power plan to High Performance or Power Saver -- anything but Balanced (which will cause your machine to freeze). Then you can plug your power cable back in at any time and not worry about your system locking up.


Lastly, set your default wifi device to the Broadcom version of your wifi driver after you install the Boot Camp drivers. The Microsoft one that installs by default doesn't perform well.

Oct 30, 2012 6:53 PM in response to ju hyung

I have various apple machines. A 17 inch 2010 macbook pro and a 15 inch 2011 macbook pro. I usually use the 2010 machine to experiment. I like windows and have installed win 8 enterprise (see volume licensing) as my main desktop o/s at home. The first couple of times I installed win 8 on the 17 inch mbp, after updating the drivers with the bootcamp 4 drivers, the machine kept crashing and rebooting.


I googled bootcamp version and discovered that there is a bootcamp 5. I deleted my windows partition, recreated it, downloaded bootcamp 5, and reinstalled windows 8 pro. This time when I ran the bootcamp 5 drivers, the machine did not crash.


It seems there is a lack of awareness of the existence of bootcamp 5.


If you are going to install windows 8, DO NOT use your old bootcamp drivers. Download a new bootcamp 5 file from apple (available during the creation of the bootcamp partition) and you are set. No more problems. Also be aware that even the new bootcamp 5 drivers can be updated.


okayson

Jan 18, 2013 12:05 PM in response to JayMelBE

I've got Windows 8 Pro installed on a MacBook Air and I can't solve this freezing problem. It's driving me up the wall! I've tried the enabling hyper-v and the bcd edit fix, neither of which made a difference. I've also tried upgrading / reinstalling drivers, disabling the wireless adapter, uninstalling certain programs, etc. Anyone here in the same boat? :-(


A side note: I had no problems using a 32-bit version of the Release Preview, but since using the 64-bit final release, it's been freezing.

Feb 22, 2013 10:06 PM in response to JayMelBE

I also have regular freezing using Windows 8 64-bit through Boot Camp.


I have tried, without success

  1. Reseting power profile to "energy saver", and "high performance", instead of the default "balanced".
  2. Running the "bcdedit /set disabledynamictick yes"


I'm really disappointed with Apple being such a laggard in supporting an operating system they advertise as being compatible.


17" MacBook Pro early 2009.

Feb 23, 2013 2:03 PM in response to LucasTMW

Hey LucasTMW,

I have a couple of questions.

  1. Did your windows installation go smoothly?
  2. Which version of Bootcamp did you use?
  3. How long does your machine stay up before crashing?
  4. Have you heard of Driver Genius 12 and/or Driver Reviver 4.0.1.44?

I use both programs to upgrade all my drivers in Windows. Driver Genius upgrades the component drivers, like sound card, display adapter (both intel and nvidia), nic drivers, etc. Driver Reviver updates system drivers like the southbridge, northbridge etc.


Try installing both programs and see what they tell you vis-a-vis what needs updating. Let me know what they tell you.


Cheers and good luck!!

Feb 23, 2013 2:10 PM in response to okayson

Hey okayson,


Thanks for the message. Some answers:

  1. Perfectly smoothly. Fresh install. Twice over the course of a few weeks. The first time I installed the Bootcamp windows drivers, the 2nd time I didn't (everything seemed to work but sound).
  2. 5.0.0 (444)
  3. Varied, maybe 3-15 minutes.
  4. I haven't, I'll give them a shot!


Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try out the driver apps you recommended and report back.

Windows 8 randomly freezes on MB and MBP

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