Windows 8 randomly freezes on MB and MBP

I have a c. 2009 MacBook Pro set up as a dual boot system.

I purchased Windows 8 not knowing that it is not officially supported by Bootcamp 4.0.

It seemingly worked fine for the first month or so (admittedly I didn't use it that often), but lately I have had increasingly frequent episodes of the unit freezing (especially when using the internet or watching video) and random BSOD (BAD_POOL_HEADER, BAD_POOL_CALLER). Minidump files also identified MacHALDriver.sys as being a problem.

I rectified the matter completely by undertaking the following measures:

-Updated all NVIDIA drivers (graphics and network) to the latest versions
-Enabled Hyper-V (all sub-options selected)

-Set power profile to "High Performance"

-Disabled PnP monitor

-Disabled every other function that I didn't require including iSight camera, 10/100/1000 network, a "coprocessor" that was showing an error, etc
-renamed MacHALDriver.sys to MacHALDriver.sys.old

-renamed AppleHFS.sys to AppleHFS.sys.old

-renamed AppleMNT.sys to AppleMNT.sys.old

Much of the non-core functionality is lost, but I don't miss it as I only use my Windows partition to fire up old time games such as Transport Tycoon (thank God for DosBox!) and the Sony Content Management Utility for my video camera. I use a (Telstra) wireless USB dongle for the internet when required, which continues to work just fine (all other network adapters/Bluetooth/WiFi are disabled). Optical Drive, Audio, Touch Pad, USB ports, and Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 work with no problems.

Until Apple develops Bootcamp compatibility for Windows 8, whilst not ideal, it's a solution that works.

I posted earlier that probably the best solution is to download and install Bootcamp 5 drivers. You indicated you used Bootcamp 4. So right there I would say is your problem. Apple has newer improved drivers, you are just not using them.

Try that.

Also, I recommended using Driver Genius and Driver reviver to update your drivers.

Let me know what happens. SO far, my bootcamp partition in my 2010 17" MacBookPro works fine. Not a peep of trouble. And I practically live in windows on my mac.

Cheers!!

Correction, I just checked and am in fact already using the latest version...

Boot Camp Assistant 5.0.0, Copyright © 2012 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.

All of the drivers in the Windows 8 partition are the latest versions, I checked each one manually.

Thanks for the advice, but the system is rock solid stable now and so I'm not going to mess with it. It does what I want it to do. Each to their own, but if I primarily wanted to operate in a Microsoft enviroment I would have saved myself a not inconsiderable sum and instead bought a PC...

Looks like even with the latest Bootcamp drivers that came with OS X 10.8.3 ... Windows 8 keeps on freezing randomly on my Macbook Air.

Still not sure what is the cause of this problem ... looks like it wasn't Bootcamp related.

Hello Sookk,

http://support.apple.com/downloads/ On page 3 of the download page are the current bootcamp drivers. I am not completely sure that accessing bootcamp from the OSx 10.8.3 takes you to the right version of bootcamp (I tried it quite a bit with limited success), but in any case this version is the current version. We are talking Boot Camp Support Software 5.0.5033. I have upgraded my 17" 2010 Macbook Pro, the wife's 15" 2011 Macbook Pro and the company's 13" 2012 MacBook Air. The first and the last have windows 8, x64. The wife refuses to upgrade from windows 7 x64 and I don't have the eggs to force the issue. All are stable. We can access the bootcamp control panel and make changes. And we can update the drives as necessary through windows update or third party software. Try Slimdrivers, its free and highly recommended. i think this will solve your freezing problems if they are software related. If they are hardware related, sorry, but you are on your own. I am not confident enough of my knowledge of mac hardware to feel able to talk sensibly about it.

Hi there,

I will try it later as my MBA is currently being repaired ... have to re-create my Bootcamp partition since I removed Windows 7/8 from my machine since Windows 8 kept freezing on me.

Good thing I created an image of Windows using Winclone.

Here's how to fix the problem.

Macbook air 2011 freeze fix

1. Install Windows using Boot camp on battery power (AC adapter unplugged).

2. After the installation, right click on the power icon.

3. Click More power options

4. Click change plan settings for the balanced plan

5. Click change Advanced power settings

6. Select "PCI Express"

7. Selct Link state power management

8. Change Plugged in from Moderate to OFF.

Done! No more crashing. Now you can plug in your AC adapter.