Display resolution on Imac 27 with Windows 7

Finally I have managed to install windows 7 via boot camp on my Imac 27 (late 2013). I downloaded all the drivers from the apple website and installed them successfully. However, looking at the display resolution I can't go higher then 1600 x 1200....why? I downloaded all the drivers and installed them, shouldn't I get a higher resolution? Do I have to download additional drivers?

Any help is much appreciated!

Cheers

Nic

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Sep 2, 2015 3:12 AM

29 replies

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Sep 4, 2015 8:19 PM in response to Nicolas Ritter

Yes. The example is form W8.1, but W7 should be similar.

You should also check the following...

The reason behind the EFI and BIOS question is how hardware is exposed to the different OSes.

If the mode is BIOS, can you run the following two procedures and check if you see any unknown devices?

Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

From iMac (27-inch, Late 2013) - Technical Specifications, which of the following two GPUs do you have (you can check in About This Mac)?

Graphics

3.2GHz
NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M graphics processor with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
3.4GHz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M graphics processor with 2GB of GDDR5 memory
Configurable to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M with 4GB of GDDR5 memory.

Sep 5, 2015 7:11 PM in response to Loner T

Graphics:

- 3.4GHz NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory

I will try the 2 procedures you have posted and let you know how I went...

Cheers Nic

Sep 5, 2015 7:38 PM in response to Nicolas Ritter

Ok, I tried both procedures, went back into Windows 7 and had a look at system information. Nothing has changed on there. I ran bootcamp and tried to install the drivers again, rebooted but the screen resolution is the same as before. Any other person having the same problem?

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Sep 5, 2015 8:43 PM in response to Nicolas Ritter

If it is still showing the Generic VGA adapter, the underlying hardware is not being exposed properly. In most cases it is related to an EFI Installation on a preUEFI mac and yours is a 2012 iMac, which is preUEFI.

1. Manually install the nVidia drivers from the Bootcamp Drivers folder. Can you post the directory structure if the nVidia folder from Bootcamp Drivers USB.

2. Remove the current BC/Windows installation using BCA only and re-install after the SMC Reset and NVRAM reset.

3. Do you Apple Keyboard and Mouse work as expected and the drivers are shown as Apple drivers?

If the resolution settings work properly on the OS X side, the hardware is fine.

Sep 6, 2015 4:22 AM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner T

Attached photos of the boot camp folder on my USB lash drive which I used to install Windows 7. You can also see that the iMac indicates late 2013 (i bought it late 2014). So just to confirm: I am going to delete Windows 7 with boot camp assistant and re-install after the SMC Reset and NVRAM reset? I didn't have problems with the wireless keyboard and neither with the mouse. I assume I can use the same drivers which I downloaded from apple (you showed me the correct link for those)?

Cheers

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Sep 6, 2015 7:05 AM in response to Nicolas Ritter

Before you wipe W7 completely, if you run setup.exe from this folder, does it make any difference?

Sep 7, 2015 2:50 AM in response to Loner T

Now this is where it gets interesting I guess. I always get an error message and cannot install them. Seems as the problem is here? Do I reckon I should wipe it and give it another try?

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Sep 7, 2015 4:59 AM in response to Nicolas Ritter

If you do not need to preserve any information from the current installation, remove Windows using BCA only. Run the SMC and NVRAM Reset after it i removed, try to install again. Do not use Alt/Option key to interrupt BCA till you are asked to select a partition for Windows.

Sep 8, 2015 1:31 AM in response to Loner T

Alright, I deleted windows 7 with BCA, did the reset and installed windows 7 with BCA. Good news: The installation went very smooth, it even opened the boot camp folder by itself to install the drivers (which did not happen the first time). Bad news: I still have the same problem with the resolution, it still indicates that I have the standard adapters. I tried to install the drivers (Nvidia) manually and got the same error message.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Sep 8, 2015 5:06 AM in response to Nicolas Ritter

Do you want to test an EFI Boot and see if it behaves any better?

Sep 8, 2015 5:30 AM in response to Loner T

I am open for all sugestions. What or how do I have to boot the EFI?

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Sep 8, 2015 5:43 AM in response to Nicolas Ritter

Remove your current Windows installation using BCA only. It will also restore your disk to a single user-visible partition. Run DU and create Free Space of the size you want Windows to be. Insert your USB and power cycle your Mac and hold the Alt/Option key. You should see two selections on the USB, Windows and EFI Boot. Select EFI Boot and point to the Free Space chunk (which is the last part after Recovery HD) and then install Windows and test.

Sep 9, 2015 3:39 AM in response to Loner T

HI Loner T

I was able to solve the problem. I downloaded the Nvidia straight from their website, installed them and guess what....it worked. Not sure why the drivers downloaded from apple didnt work. Anyway, thank you very much for your help.

Cheers

Nic

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Sep 9, 2015 6:01 AM in response to Nicolas Ritter

The Apple driver was unable to probe hardware and find the GPU. Good to see it working properly. Create a System Restore point for safety.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Display resolution on Imac 27 with Windows 7