Can't install Windows on Boot Camp – no signed drivers (Retina MacBook Pro, mid-2015)

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Can't install Windows on Boot Camp – no signed drivers (Retina MacBook Pro, mid-2015)

Mid-2015 Retina MacBook Pro running High Sierra 11.13.3 (APFS, unencrypted) with up-to-date Boot Camp Assistant (6.1.0) — clean OS install a couple days ago.

Trying to install a Windows partition via Boot Camp Assistant, and running into trouble at every step of the process, with both Windows 10 64-bit and Windows 8.1 64-bit (clean ISOs downloaded directly from Microsoft):

Use Boot Camp Assistant to create partition (122GB on 1TB SSD). It downloads Windows Support files, and 9 times out of 10 the laptop crashes at the step of “Saving Windows Support files” – but force restarting allows me to alt/option-boot into the Windows installer anyway: great.
Boot into Windows 10 installer, format Boot Camp partition, select Windows version (have tried both Pro and Home) — it gets through copying, expanding, installing Windows files… but then I get an error every time at "Installing Updates” – error code 0x80070002, can't find drivers compatible with this hardware — Windows will restart (doesn't restart, just goes to a black backlit screen and stays there until I force restart).
Delete the partition, download the Windows Support Drivers to a FAT-formatted USB drive, then repeat all the above. Same exact thing.
Delete, repeat, but once booted into the Windows installer, first click "Load drivers" and select the OSXRESERVED partition: shows up all the driver folders, but shows no actual driver files when you navigate to any of the folders. Un-check "Hide drivers that aren't compatible with this hardware”, and a few drivers show up for each piece of hardware — install them all. Proceed to Windows install – no dice, same error at “Installing updates” stage.
Delete, repeat, “Load drivers” but check the USB instead of OSXRESERVED — same thing, folders are there but drivers don't show up unless I un-check the ‘Hide non-compatible drivers’ option.
Try the whole thing again with Windows 8.1 instead of Windows 10, and older version of the support software (Boot Camp Support 5.1.5722) on the USB: this time Boot Camp Assistant actually completes the “Saving support files” portion of the automatic driver download, and asks for admin password for restart, instead of crashing. Great. Boot into Windows 8.1 installer – it requires a license key instead of having the “I don't have a license key” option, but find one online to get me to the next step. This time it hangs indefinitely at 24% of copying Windows files.

Anyone have any advice? Am I missing something obvious here?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.3), null

Posted on Feb 23, 2018 2:17 PM

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Answer 1

wesfrombham Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 24, 2018 2:31 PM in response to Loner T

Thanks — doing the SMC & NVRAM reset again after deleting the partition seemed to help, as this time it successfully completed the "Installing drivers" step for the first time.

However, this time I got another, different driver error during the "Finishing up" (final) step:

(I have tried several different versions of both the 1709 and 1607 versions of Windows 10 ISO — this one was the 64-bit Single Language 1607 version from the site you provided.)

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Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Feb 26, 2018 1:12 PM in response to wesfrombham

It should be in OSXRESERVED, but you can also get it if you download the BC drivers to a USB2 flash drive using

The keys can be compared to the error message hive keys to see which driver(s) are causing issues.

Another option is to not install the AMD drivers at all, and use generic VGA till Windows is fully installed, and then running the updated driver setup.exe by hand after creating a Windows System Restore point.

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Answer 3

wesfrombham Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 26, 2018 2:17 PM in response to Loner T

Turns out all 8 of the hive key warnings are the same hive key, but that key does not appear when I search it in the in the bootcamp.xml file

How would I go about using generic VGA driver instead of the AMD ones? Just start over and this time delete the AMDGraphics folder from OSXRESERVED before booting into the Windows installer?

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Feb 25, 2018 5:31 AM in response to wesfrombham

There is known problem with some of newer AMD drivers not instilling cleanly on 2015-2017 Macs.

Please see boot camp- windows freezes when rebooting after installation . I have not heard back from OP, but you may have to replace the BC AMD drivers with the bootcampdrivers.com version to make this work.

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Feb 27, 2018 1:24 AM in response to wesfrombham

The link I posted will build a USB Installer.

Copy the updated AMD drivers to a separate folder.
Use Disk Utility to create a FAT partition of the size you want.
Disconnect from all networks (physically, if necessary)
Reboot and use Option key to choose EFI Boot from Windows.
Choose the FAT partition as the destination. If you get a GPT vs MBR error, it can be corrected using GPT Fdisk.
Install Windows, but do not reboot after BC drivers are installed.
Install updated GPU drivers from the separate folder.
Create a Windows System Restore point
Reboot and test.

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Answer 6

wesfrombham Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 28, 2018 9:03 AM in response to Loner T

Not connected to any networks — I use WiFi only, and even switched off the wireless router (just in case) while attempting to install.

The code does seem to relate to updates, but usually occurs during an earlier step of the install process, before it gets as far as trying to update…

I can't remember exactly what the step is called — it goes:

Copy Windows files
* can't remember * <-- this is where the error code usually happens
Installing Features
Installing Updates
Finishing up

It has gotten as far as "Finishing up" before (the very first time you told me to do the SMC/NVRAM update) before showing the code, but since then it consistently happens around 25% complete on step 2.

The ISO I am using is labeled Win10_1607_SingleLang_English_x64.iso — it came from the Windows ISO website, and like I said, I successfully used it to create a bootable Win 10 install on an external hard drive yesterday.

[EDIT: Actually I got this particular one from http://windowsiso.net/windows-10-iso/windows-10-anniversary-update-1607-download -build-14393-0/windows-10-anniversary-up… — I don't know about the MD5sum, but like I say below, I've tried several other ISOs as well, including directly from Microsoft's website.)

I have also tried at least three other versions of the ISO, both 1607 and 1709 versions, and also tried a Windows 8.1 version at one point too, all with similar results.

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Answer 7

wesfrombham Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 23, 2018 5:11 PM in response to Loner T

That command returns no output (I turned off automatic Time Machine backups after reinstalling High Sierra.)

I tried providing the older support versions via USB because I thought they might be needed for the older versions of Windows, but I also tried the automatically downloaded drivers on OSXRESERVE in each instance.

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Answer 8

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Feb 23, 2018 6:02 PM in response to wesfrombham

Mid 2015 Macs do not use a USB installer. Remove the current BC/Windows partition using BCA only. Disconnect all external storage and run SMC and NVRAM Reset. Re-run BCA and follow prompts. Point to the W10 ISO when prompted. If you have W10 1709 ISO, try a W10 1607 ISO from http://windowsiso.net/ .

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Answer 9

wesfrombham Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 24, 2018 5:05 PM in response to Loner T

No, it just does the same thing as with the original error: acts like it is restarting but just goes to a black screen with the computer still on (trackpad still operates) and stays there until force restart.

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Answer 10

wesfrombham Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 26, 2018 12:08 AM in response to Loner T

Thanks — I downloaded those drivers but now have no idea where to use them in the Boot Camp install process. How do I “replace the Boot Camp drivers with” them? All the instructions on bootcampdriver.com start from a working/booted Windows install, and I can't get that far…

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Answer 11

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Feb 26, 2018 4:34 AM in response to wesfrombham

Under the Bootcamp folder, there should be a Drivers -> AMD folder. Check the structure. You will need to replace files in this structure which match between the two drivers. You can also leave a message for the webmaster of bootcampdrivers.com who also posts on ASC.

Also, if you are booted in macOS, there is a log - setupapi.dev.log - which you can view in TextEdit, which can show you driver installation errors.

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Answer 12

wesfrombham Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 26, 2018 11:04 AM in response to Loner T

I once again used BCA to remove the partition, ran SMC/NVRAM resets, re-set up the partition with BCA, canceled the restart to stay on macOS, replaced the contents of OSXRESERVED/BootCamp/Drivers/AMD/AMDGraphics with the corresponding contents from the bootcampdrivers.com download (had to use Terminal as the OSXRESERVED partition never shows up in macOS Finder), and then rebooted into the Windows installer, formatted the BOOTCAMP partition and began Windows setup…

Same old story, cancels during setup:

“Windows cannot install required files. The file does not exist. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x80070002”

I could not find the setupapi.dev.log in var/log or System/Library/Logs… where should I be looking for it?

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Answer 13

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Feb 26, 2018 12:13 PM in response to wesfrombham

wesfrombham wrote:

I once again used BCA to remove the partition, ran SMC/NVRAM resets, re-set up the partition with BCA, canceled the restart to stay on macOS, replaced the contents of OSXRESERVED/BootCamp/Drivers/AMD/AMDGraphics with the corresponding contents from the bootcampdrivers.com download (had to use Terminal as the OSXRESERVED partition never shows up in macOS Finder), and then rebooted into the Windows installer, formatted the BOOTCAMP partition and began Windows setup…

As long as OSXRESERVED was not rebuilt, this should work.

wesfrombham wrote:

Same old story, cancels during setup:

“Windows cannot install required files. The file does not exist. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x80070002”

I could not find the setupapi.dev.log in var/log or System/Library/Logs… where should I be looking for it?

Look for this file under /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/Windows or sub-folders from the macOS Finder. For example,

cd /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/

find . -name "setupapi.dev.log" -exec ls {} \; | more

./Windows/INF/setupapi.dev.log

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Answer 14

wesfrombham Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 26, 2018 12:17 PM in response to Loner T

I found it (it was labeled setupapi.offline.20160716_044743.log — I turned off the WiFi from macOS before booting into Window Installer as sometimes the error was opening during "Installing Updates" on earlier tries).

The file is very long, and I have no idea what to look for: should I paste it here, or provide a pastebin link, or…?

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Answer 15

wesfrombham Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 26, 2018 12:23 PM in response to wesfrombham

Oh, I did also try putting the bootcampdrivers.com drivers onto a USB, and use ‘Load Drivers’ in the Windows installer (same dialog as where you format the BOOTCAMP partition to NTFS) to load them in manually.

I was able to select one driver file each out of the display and audio driver folders with the ‘Hide drivers not compatible with this machine's hardware' option selected: the audio one installed, and the display one failed with “We couldn't install the AMD Radeon R9 M370X ([file path]) driver. Contact your vendor for an updated driver.”

I then proceeded with the install and got the usual error message…

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Can't install Windows on Boot Camp – no signed drivers (Retina MacBook Pro, mid-2015)

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