No sound after installing Windows 10 on Boot Camp

I have a MacBook Pro 13' (Mid-2012) 2.9GHz with 750Gb and 8Gb RAM and I've installed Windows 10 in my Boot Camp partition. After installing Boot Camp tools (version 6) I could work with all the drivers installed, except for audio. I managed to re-install the audio drivers from RealTek website (updated), but the problem remains the same. Windows says "No audio output device is installed" and checking the Device Manager application I found the "High Definition Audio Controller" driver shows, as device status " This device cannot start. (Code 10) {Operation Failed} The requested operation was unsuccessful.".

Does anyone knows what can I do, in order to have sound on my mac (on Windows 10 partition)?

With best regards,

Rui

MacBook Pro, Other OS, Windows 10 on Bootcamp

Posted on Sep 20, 2015 7:56 AM

Top-ranking reply

Andrii_UA

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Aug 16, 2016 1:49 AM

Ok, I understand I may be a bit late to the party, but I had just solved the same problem with Windows 10. Now I am writing this under my Windows 10 account, while listening to Aristocrats Radio =)

I have a MacBook Pro 13" (mid-2012), 500 GB SSD and 16 GB RAM.

This issue boils down to a poor EFI support on older MacBooks. Boot Camp assumes it can do just fine with this, when creating a USB installer and partitioning the hard drive. However, EFI boot mode exposes devices in a different way, which effectively leads to audio not working.

Basically, the solution is to use a legacy MBR boot mode, when installing Windows. However, due to Boot Camp's tricky partitioning of a hard drive, legacy mode will not allow Windows installation to that partition (the infamous message "Windows cannot be installed. The selected disk is of GPT partition style" etc.).

To install Windows 10 without any of these problems, I did the following:

0. Saved the latest Windows drivers to a USB stick via Boot Camp.

1. Burned a Win10 ISO image to a DVD.

2. Merged a Boot Camp-created partition back to a single MacOS partition (did that via Boot Camp).

3. Created a new partition for Windows 10 in a Disk Utility (I assigned 100 GB, formatted to FAT).

4. Re-formatted this new partition to NTFS, using a third-party software. I used Tuxera NTFS for Mac (http://www.tuxera.com/products/tuxera-ntfs-for-mac/). It has a 15-day free trial.

5. Put my fresh Win10 DVD to an optical drive and rebooted, while holding Option key (alt).

6. In a boot options screen, I selected DVD "Windows" (Do not choose EFI boot.). Windows installation started.

7. In a Windows Installer Disk selector screen, I chose to install Windows to that NTFS partition created earlier.

It all went smoothly afterwards. Windows reboots a few times during installation process, as usual. In these cases please hold Option key during reboot, and then select to boot from hard drive "Windows".

After Windows is installed, do not forget to install latest Windows drivers from your USB stick.

NB: Before all that, I also played a bit with marking my MBR partition from hybrid to protected (see here: http://fgimian.github.io/blog/2016/03/12/installing-windows-10-on-a-mac-without- bootcamp/). However, I am not sure this actually was important in my case.

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49 replies

Sep 20, 2015 3:09 PM in response to Loner T

Here, in System Information I have, as BIOS, UEFI, as you can see in the image below.

In the Device Manager application I don't have a "Sound, video and Game Controllers" or "Audio Inputs and outputs". Instead, I have "System Devices" and when I install Cirrus's Drivers indicated by Apple, on the "Drivers" folder on Boot Camp installation items, it appears as "High Definition Audio Controller", as you can see also below.

Sep 21, 2015 10:07 AM in response to Loner T

Yes. With the Boot Camp Assistant app on Mac OS X I've created a usb drive installation device and then, as I went through some problems on the internet connection here at home, later, I downloaded the windows support from apple (via Boot Camp Assistant). The only thing I made off-the-instructions was deleting the hybrid MBR partition, as a solution to an error on Windows installation, with the gdisk command on terminal.

Sep 21, 2015 12:00 PM in response to Loner T

Yes. The issue was an error message, when is supposed to choice in which partition do you want to install Windows, saying: "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks". I've searched for it on the Internet and that was the only solution I've found.

Sep 21, 2015 12:49 PM in response to Loner T

Ok, I'll do it. Even if the sound doesn't work again I'll try it. 🙂 So, in order to do it, what I should do? Get Windows *.iso on a flash USB drive, with all Windows support included, select BOOTCAMP disk as a startup disk and format BOOTCAMP partition? Or I should format BOOTCAMP on Disk Utility (on Mac OS X) before? Sorry for these dumb questions, but I just want to do try it the right way, now. 😝

Dec 2, 2015 7:45 AM in response to Loner T

Im right now on this same situation. Yes, i've installed using alt and then EFI Boot, so that's the fault. But i did it this way because when i make the usb installation of bootcamp with BCA, whe it reboots automatically just after finishing it boots then "no bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key", im stuck right now, i think i'll need a disk or install Windows 7 then update to Windows 10

Dec 3, 2015 1:42 AM in response to Loner T

MacBookPro8,1 Late 2011 i think. Was reading more about you, and got to the conclusion that the no sound problem is made because bootcamp makes an hybrid MBR so installing with EFI mode makes the sound card to don't be added to the device list or something like that, (and i installed using Alt then EFI Boot) im right now going for an alternate way, im going to install Win10 with this tutorial i found http://www.andrewsavory.com/blog/2011/2156 , my superdrive is broken, so i can only install with USB, but BCA detects my model has superdrive so sets the NVRAM to boot that way, so i get a "no bootable device" error.

So right now im going to install the first part of the setup, till the first reboot as an emulated BIOS Legacy through VMWare Fusion 8, im right now downloading VMWare fusion 3 because i need to mount the bootcamp partition .vmdk raw i saved with the tutorial (and vmware 4 and above doesn't have VMDKMounter.app, so i can't select the raw of the bootcamp partition under the "Select an existing virtual disk" tab, it shows greyed)

you better read the 2nd response to this thread https://communities.vmware.com/thread/461898 to understand why.

After that im going to continue with the tutorial on vmware and finishing installation booting Bootcamp through rEFInd and getting Windows10 installed without even a USB.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Dec 4, 2015 5:00 AM in response to ExodusTime

ExodusTime wrote:

Just broke, a bad CD (had a little breach, noticed after looking inside and seeing the CD and tiny pieces) exploded when reading, so the superdrive got unusable.

I suggest removing the internal Superdrive, removing the top cover of the Optical drive and removing the shards. You do not want to leave this in the current state. I can lead to other issues, primarily heat buildup.

Jan 10, 2016 9:35 PM in response to Loner T

Hi LonerT,

I appear to be having this issue, and can't get around it.

I'm on an 2014 iMac 5k, with a 1TB/500GB Fusion drive. I partitioned the disk into a 150GB partition for Windows using BootCamp, and let BootCamp do its thing as far as booting and starting the installation. I didn't boot from the boot picker or anything.

Windows 10 installed ok, but I'm getting hung on the Realtek audio installer. According to system info, the BIOS mode is UEFI.

Any workarounds that you know of?

Apr 2, 2016 2:36 PM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner T., everyone, thanks for the feed,

Is a mid-2011 13' Macbook Pro suitable for Win10 BCA's through this?

I'm having the sound problem on Win10 (Code 10). I'm UEFI.

Facing the GPT v MBR problem I installed through a bootable 8.1 DVD (USB external SuperDrive as SSD extended), a bunch of DISKPART commands, an upgrade to 10 and a manual setup of some of the Bootcamp 5.1.5640 drivers as I was unable to follow the BCA process.

Aside from the GPT problem I got everything from the 'won't-let-you-create-a-bootable-pendrive', the 'won't-boot-on-install-if-not-pressing-alt', the 'black-screen-blinking-prompt', the 'no-bootable-device' to the classic 'frozen-please-press-any-key' before.

I changed OS (tried from El Capitan, Lion & Yosemite), did the info.plist twist (exluding the further steps detailed in the link you provided), nothing worked. I now understand I need to re-install Win10 with proper BCA steps but as far as you know is it possible on a mid-2011 13' MacBook Pro?

Thanks again.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Apr 2, 2016 2:50 PM in response to NullEntropy

Does your built-in Optical drive work? The 2011 MBPs are not officially supported, but in most cases, W10 will work. You will need to install on a disk which has a Hybrid MBR which bridges the GPT to a MBR.

Apr 2, 2016 3:13 PM in response to Loner T

I removed the build-in, replaced by a SSD drive and made a it a USB external optical drive. It worked installing Win8.1.

I'll check on how formating my drive in a Hybrid MBR and revert.

Thanks for the quick reply Loner.

Dec 2, 2016 4:11 PM in response to Andrii_UA

Just wanted to say thanks, I was finally able to install Windows 10 to my MBP late 2011 after days of forum reading and countless pulled hair.

I just want to note though that I added an extra step:

I used the "erase" option to sort of reformat my drive to NTFS again, even though I did the Tuxera step. When I didn't do this step, when the windows installer boots, I get a black screen with a few text like "PRONTFS" or something on the upper left of the screen (weird btw). So I guessed it must have something to do with the NTFS partition.

Anyway, to anyone else who finds their way to this thread, I hope this helps as much as Andrii_UA's post helped me.

Dec 5, 2016 5:26 PM in response to Loner T

Loner T

Could you please give me a hand? I bought a macbook pro 13" 2012 and when i bought it the hard drive was broke and i thought it would be an easy fix but just replacing the hard drive and downloading snow leopard on to it but i wasn't that easy every time i try to download snow leopard it tells me that my computer is not compatible and i gave up and just installed windows 10 on it and let it set for a year because i didn't know about the drivers and stuff like that and i didn't really care because i have other laptops and computer but now i'm trying to get it fixed to use and i downloaded all of the drivers using boot camp and everything works besides the sound and i've tried just about everything that i've seen and it still dont work and i thought i would ask you to see if you can walk me through it or give me a few ideas on trying to fix it

Dec 5, 2016 5:49 PM in response to Loner T

Now that i know it says UEFI i went back and read the first few comments on this and i still don't understand i'm not sure if i need to reinstall windows plus could it be because i used the p-key that was for my old computer that once had this hard drive in it or is it because i used windows media link to make my bootable USB and not an apple boot camp windows link. sorry for the dumb questions this is just driving me insane haha

Dec 5, 2016 6:15 PM in response to Loner T

It's only Windows 10 like i said when i put the new hard drive in and went to install Snow Leopard it said that my the computer was not compatible and to restart it by holding down the power button. I gave up on trying that and just installed windows. I know understand the problem with the UEFI but i don't know how to get it to legacy

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No sound after installing Windows 10 on Boot Camp