Cannot Install Windows 7
I have an Early 2008 MacBook Pro with 10.9.3 installed, that I have been trying to install Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. I have worked with several technicians from Apple but have not been able to resolve the issue. I have worked on this on and off for several months and of course am somewhat frustrated. I will give a detailed account hoping someone may have an idea.
I did previously have Windows 7 installed on this laptop but decided to reinstall after upgrading to 250GB SSD and installing memory up to 4GB. I have confirmed with mfg of the SSD that the drive is compatible with both windows and mac and that there should be no problem with the configuration I am attempting.
I run the bootcamp assistant and select both "Download Windows Support Files" and "Install Windows" options. The assistant downloads the files to a USB drive. I set the partition to split equally. I get a warning that the USB is bootable and the assistant needs to disable that to continue. I click ok and then continue with the install. The laptop reboots to the Windows installation media, which is original purchased media, not a burned copy. The installation says that it cannot be installed on the BOOTCAMP partition because it needs to be installed on an NTFS partition, so I choose advanced, and format the partion. The installation then continues. The installation finishes and says that it needs to reboot.
This is when I have an issue. The laptop reboots to a blank grey screen and thats it. No further progress. I have manually rebooted it several times and always get blank grey screen. If I use option key to load boot manager I get the following options. Machintosh OS, Windows OS, 10.9.2 Recovery, Windows (DVD), or EFI Boot. Any selection other than Machintosh OS simply hangs. The cursor is no longer movable and the boot manager is still displayed. If I select Mac OS, it will boot back into OSX.
In OSX, I am able to examine the bootcamp volume (now named Untitled after having to format). The disk does contain Windows files ($WINDOWS.~BT, $WINDOWS.~LS, Perflogs, Program Files, Program Files (x86), Users, and Windows) so it would appear that the installation did proceed and copied files to the drive.
I have attempted the install with both Windows 7 Pro 32bit and 64bit and both have the same problem. I have even gone so far as to reinstall OSX back to 10.7 and run bootcamp from there, still have the same issue. I have even tried reinstalling on my old original hard drive to see if SSD was the issue, run into the same problem on original drive as well.
It seems no matter what I have tried, after the windows install I can not get past blank grey screen when trying to boot to windows.
I am open to any and all suggestions. Has anyone out there seen issues like this before? Any ideas on how to correct? I would love to have my bootcamp set back up. Thanks!