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Successful Windows 10 Upgrade, 2011 iMac 27", Anyone Else?

Just a data point for everyone out there who is considering an upgrade to Windows 10. How many others who have had a smooth transition are out there?

I have a mid-2011 iMac, 27", running OS X 10.10.4 (Yosemite) and I recently reinstalled Windows 7 after the previous Windows 7 installation, which was about four years old, became unstable and crashed. I'm also running BCA 5.1.4, and when I reinstalled Windows 7 I had a USB drive with the most recent Apple drivers for Windows (just downloaded for the Windows 7 reinstall) plugged into the machine, so presumably I am running the most recent drivers for this machine.

Regarding the Windows 10 upgrade, normally I am not an early adopter of anything; in this case, my intent was to download the installer and wait until Apple released El Capitan. I figured the possibility of avoiding a future purchase of Windows 10 made it worth attempting. However, when I clicked "Yes" on the "Try Windows 10" popup that I kept getting, I had no idea they would be delivering this upgrade via Windows Update, and there would be no easy way of stopping it. Even hiding the update would not prevent it from downloading, and their promise that I could download and install later really amounted to anytime in the next two days. There was no other option presented.

Since the reinstall of Windows 7 wasn't totally done, I figured I would take a chance, instead of possibly paying $119 or whatever W10 down the road. So I allowed W10 to be installed.

I'm happy to report the upgrade appears to have went off without a hitch. It wasn't a clean install, but rather an upgrade from W7. I was quite surprised at how painless it was, actually. When I had completed the installation, I was momentarily speechless to find that all my software appeared to be intact, and it seems that I can basically pick up where I left off with my W7 reinstallation. It's the first time that's ever happened in my experience; in the past when I have upgraded Windows, I've reinstalled everything.

In any case, they promised I'd get a free copy of W10 Home Edition, but I was upgrading from W7 Ultimate, and it says I now have W10 Pro. So far, so good; I'm posting this from my new W10 installation.

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Aug 8, 2015 3:45 PM

Top-ranking reply

sorl

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Aug 15, 2015 5:45 PM

I also have the same model and upgraded from Windows 7 to 10 without too many issues initially. I only had to reinstall the drivers for my keyboard to get the volume keys to work again. I was also pleased to find that my gpu drivers had been updated from 14.3 to 15.something – one week older than the 15.7.1 currently available. I was able to further update to 15.7.1 by manually updating the drivers by downloading the file then going to device manager -> display adapter -> update driver using files on computer.

However yesterday while using Edge – and later Chrome – to download some large files Windows kept crashing; I'm using Wifi to connect to the Internet. Files of 256MB were fine but 500MB resulted in IRQL_Unexpected_Value crash (not sure of where the exact cut off point is between the two file sizes). Up until then I didn't notice any internet issues as my Steam and Origin games updated themselves and I played online. Either everything was being broken down into smaller packets – which is likely – or something broke in the last few days. After spending several hours trying to figure out how to open and read the memory dump files from the crash it appeared to be an issue with the Qualcomm Atheros drivers which were still dated from 2010. I then spent several more hours trying to find official site for updates, but apparently Qualcomm can't be bothered with that. I had to finally settle on https://www.atheros.cz/ as my source of drivers for the AR938x and updated to version 10.0.0.308. As of now downloading large files appears to work.

I'd be interested to know if anyone else has run into the same issue.

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86 replies

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Jan 27, 2016 3:48 PM in response to Jameslr2012

Jameslr2012 wrote:

Has anyone solved the internal Optical Drive issue. I've performed a clean install and an upgrade from WIN7 but bootcamp lacks the driver for some reason…

What is the specific issue with the internal Optical drive?

Jan 27, 2016 5:09 PM in response to Loner T

Well with the two methods: Upgrade & clean install, the internal optical drive disappears on Win10. I opened Device Manager and even looked for unknown devices and hidden devices but it doesn't detect it at all. Inserting a CD/DVD works fine, but it still never shows and I can't eject it unless I boot into my OS X partition. I own a Mid-2011 iMac. I know Win 10 isn't fully supported by Boot Camp for my model but it works fine except for the optical drive. I exported the driver for Windows 7 and might try transferring it to 10 but the original boot camp does install it simply doesn't work though. :/

Jan 27, 2016 5:41 PM in response to Jameslr2012

Actually I just tried it again with the upgrade, have no idea what's different this time however the optical drive seems to be working out just fine sorry for the benign post. However, if I can figure out what happened this time and how I got it working I'll go ahead and post it on here that way others can see if they have the same issue in the future.

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Jan 27, 2016 6:26 PM in response to Jameslr2012

Do you see a driver called AppleODDInstaller in W10 Programs list? By "upgrade" are you implying a W7-to-W10 upgrade?

eriddler

Level 1

5 points

Feb 6, 2016 5:05 AM in response to Loner T

Good day,

I did a clean install (nothing at all on the computer for Windows previously) with a Windows 10 ISO. I have everything working great, but cannot get the Audio to work. It shows a Red X and I have tried to update/install the RealTek drivers off of the Boot Camp I had and 5.1. Has anyone been able to fix that Red X issue and have audio working?

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Feb 6, 2016 5:23 AM in response to eriddler

Can you start a new discussion and post the details of your Mac? Please describe the "Red X" issue.

Feb 9, 2016 5:41 AM in response to Loner T

I think they are simply saying the audio device is not working. Red "X" on the speaker icon. @eriddler, please post your system informatio so we can see what type of audio card you have, then we can go from there concerning the proper driver to install.

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Feb 9, 2016 6:23 AM in response to Jameslr2012

Please see Audio not working, Windows 10 .

zotrina

Level 1

0 points

Feb 18, 2016 5:20 AM in response to Zippy The Pinhead

Hello ^_^

iMac, 27", mid 2011, 3,4GHz, i7, 16GBDDR3, AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1024MB

OSX El Capitan 10.11.3 in my first partition

Windows 7 Pro 32 bits in second partition

I would like upgrade to Windows10 Pro 64 bits and Im not sure how to do it.

Yesterday I upgraded by Windows Update (from my Windows partition) but obviously I only got a Windows10 Pro 32 bits (I had to try it)

6 or 7 months ago I tried a clean install with a windows10 64 bits ISO by bootcamp from my OSX partition but it didnt work, I mean, I installed the W10 64 bits but in a restart the machine wasn't able to find "the way" to any of my two OS (OSX El Capitan or Windows10 Pro64 bits).

So does anyone know how i could successfully install a Windows10 Pro 64 bits?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks ^_^¡

Feb 18, 2016 10:51 AM in response to zotrina

Hi zotrina,

when you have a win 7 32 bit, gwx (get win 10) or windows update only installs a 32 bit win 10. Win 10 pro will be only installed when you have a win 7 pro.

I am afraid you have to buy the 64 bit license of win 10. Without explicite 64 bit license, the update mechanism only updates 32 to 32 and 64 to 64. The great advantage of this is you will get a portable win 10 that can be installed on a new computer, when your old pc/mac has gone to the recycling bin.

Before you make the update from win 10 32 to 64, MAKE AN UPDATE OF ALL IMPORTANT DATA.

greetings from germany

Chris

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Feb 18, 2016 11:25 AM in response to zotrina

zotrina wrote:

iMac, 27", mid 2011, 3,4GHz, i7, 16GBDDR3, AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1024MB

OSX El Capitan 10.11.3 in my first partition

Windows 7 Pro 32 bits in second partition

So does anyone know how i could successfully install a Windows10 Pro 64 bits?

From Use Windows 10 on your Mac with Boot Camp - Apple Support, W10 is not officially supported on your 2011 iMac. Having said that, if you have W7/W8 64-bit, you can upgrade to W10 64-bit. Upgrading from 32-bit Windows to 64-bit Windows is not supported.

Feb 18, 2016 12:13 PM in response to Loner T

Partly correct. the free upgrade from 7/8 only upgrades from 32 to 32 or 64 to 64, but a payed new license can upgrade from 32 to 64.

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Feb 18, 2016 1:07 PM in response to Christian Stueben

I need to try the W7/W8 32-bit to W10 64-bit. I have always used the Free Upgrade, never the paid upgrade. The following is from the link I posted earlier.

Upgrading from 32-bit versions of Windows

If you have an existing 32-bit installation of Windows on your Mac, you'll need to back up your important files so that you can remove the existing Windows partition and install a 64 bit version of Windows.

Back up any important files from your Windows partition.
Use Boot Camp Assistant to remove the existing Windows partition.
Then, use Boot Camp Assistant to install a 64-bit version of Windows 10 on your Mac.
After you're finished installing Windows, copy your important files back to your Windows drive.