When downloading Windows Support Software from BCA, download freezes at about a sixth of the way

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Level 1

11 points

When downloading Windows Support Software from BCA, download freezes at about a sixth of the way

When I download the Windows Support Software from BCA, the progress bar freezes at about a sixth of the way through. I took my MBP to the genius bar, and they told me I should use a USB drive instead of a DVD, but even when I use a USB the problem persists. I've even tried saving it straight to my Windows Partition, and the same thing happens. I've seen many people with a similar problem, but instead of getting something like "The Windows Support Software is not available", my download just freezes. I tried to uncheck "Auto Proxy Discovery" in system preferences, but it already was. I also heard you could use the drivers on the SL installation disc, but I have a late 2011 MBP, which came with Lion, so I don't have an install disc. Does anybody else have the same problem or a solution? Any help would be appreciated.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Aug 26, 2012 7:43 AM

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Answer 1

TheOrange Author

Level 1

11 points

Aug 26, 2012 7:45 AM in response to TheOrange

Oh, and I forgot to mention, my boot camp partition is running windows 8 Consumer Preview. That might be important or not.

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Answer 2

Aug 27, 2012 9:22 AM in response to TheOrange

i've tried with W7 & W8 but it stucks in the download.

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Answer 3

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Aug 27, 2012 9:51 AM in response to TheOrange

Windows 8 is now Release Preview, not Consumer Preview, and there is 90-day trial of the actual Enterprise - not even a candidate which is very much improved and works a lot better than the last RP version.

But it doesn't matter as far as BCA other than you need to download to disk and write it to MBR + FAT USB flash stick.

create a Windows support software (drivers) CD or USB storage media

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4407

The Boot Camp Assistant can burn Boot Camp software (drivers) to a DVD or copy it to a USB storage device, such as a flash drive or hard drive. These are the only media you can use to install Boot Camp software.

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT4569

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Answer 4

TheOrange Author

Level 1

11 points

Aug 29, 2012 4:26 PM in response to The hatter

Oops, sorry. I meant to say Release Preview, not Consumer Preview 😀

Like I said before, the progress bar just freezes when I do what http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4407 says. Also, that article was for an MBA late 2010, but I have an MBP 8,2 (late 2011). I don't think that makes a difference, though. The only thing I actually need the drivers for is for the wifi card, which W8 RP doesn't seem to detect. I tried looking for BCM4331 drivers on the internet, but apparently, broadcom doesn't let you download their drivers, but anyways, thanks for the reply.

This is exactly where the download always freezes, about a sixth of the way through:

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Answer 5

Vzed

Level 1

4 points

Sep 13, 2012 1:12 AM in response to TheOrange

I get the same thing but I noticed something interesting. The data continues to flow and on at anything between 550 and 750MB the boot camp finally pops up an error message. I have been trying to download this now for three days, one starting at 13:00 and ending with an error message some time after 03:00 the nest morning. I have used approximately 6GB with no successful download. (for those people where data is capped BEWARE!!!!)

Any suggestions recommendations (anything) would be great, especially from some of the Apple guys.

Thanks for everyone's input.

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Answer 6

TheOrange Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 21, 2012 6:13 PM in response to Vzed

The data continues to flow? How exactly would you measure that? The progress bar just freezes.

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Answer 7

Blewyn

Level 1

30 points

Oct 30, 2012 7:53 AM in response to TheOrange

Use the Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder in Applications to monitor network traffic.

I have exactly the same issue - 4.63GB downloaded so far, and the progress bar is only a third of the way across....

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Answer 8

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Oct 30, 2012 7:59 AM in response to Blewyn

Blewyn wrote:

Use the Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder in Applications to monitor network traffic.

I have exactly the same issue - 4.63GB downloaded so far, and the progress bar is only a third of the way across....

4.63G is larger than the entire Windows Support Software file (less than 1GB), so I have no explanation as to why yours fails when it reaches 5 times the normal size. Are you sure you mean the Windows Support Software?

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Answer 9

Blewyn

Level 1

30 points

Oct 30, 2012 8:21 AM in response to Csound1

Positive. I'm downloading 'windows support software' with the bootcamp assistant at 163kb/sec on the Activity Monitor, running total now near 4.7GB.

I went to an Apple Store today to use their wifi but it was v slow and they didn't have the windows bootcamp drivers on their local cache or on a USB drive..not impressed

Any ideas ?

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Answer 10

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Oct 30, 2012 8:39 AM in response to Blewyn

No, never seen a support file of that size, not even close in fact. I am downloading it now (to see the correct size) I'll get back to you on that.

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Answer 11

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Oct 30, 2012 8:47 AM in response to Blewyn

Here is a screenshot of the info on the downloaded Windows Support Software, it is 672.6MB, so I don't know what you are downloading but it is not the support software.

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Answer 12

TheOrange Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 30, 2012 2:24 PM in response to Csound1

Yeah, I heard it was around 600 megabytes, never check how large my download was. I don't think I'm downloading the wrong file, though. This is exactly how I did it:

Boot Camp Assistant > Continue > Download the latest Windows support software from Apple > Continue > (I've tried both "Burn a copy to CD or DVD" and "Save a copy to an external drive." > Continue.

I think that's the way your supposed to do it, right?

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