XP 64 Bit on Mac Pro How-To

[Kunimodi]

Hello. Yesterday I received my Mac Pro (with xt1900 video card) from Apple and set to work using a slipstreamed XP Pro SP2 installed carefully following instructions posted by Terrabit at http://macprojournal.com/xp.html and toonerh at http://st118.startlogic.com/~macproxp/. After many frustrating attempts, I was unable to get the hard drives to work at more than 3 MBps and, while everything else worked fine, that meant a practically unusable system. I decided to try using the 64-bit edition of Windows tonight and now have everything running smoothly (and very fast!) There are two things you should know before attempting this:

Firstly, it appears that the GPT partitioning used on the stock hard drive is incompatible with XP64. To get XP64 to install, I had to use Disk Utility to erase the hard drive and format as MS-DOS with MBR partitioning. I had purchased two SATA drives from Newegg for running OS X in a RAID configuration and had planned to dedicate the stock drive to Windows so this was fine from my perspective, but this might rule out XP64 for some as I believe using MBR partitioning prevents dual booting into OS X from that drive (true?).

Secondly (and here's the good news), you can get a 120 day free trial of XP64 from Microsoft right now via download. Really. Here's the link:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/facts/trial.mspx

Steps to Installation

1. Follow the instructions on slipstreaming the XP64 installation disc given on the links in the beginning of this post, substituting the 64-bit folder for the 32-bit one. I'd recommend using Parallels to do this as then you can easily modify the build if necessary (you'll need the update at http://www.parallels.com/en/download/desktop/update/)

2. The Boot Camp 1.1 driver disc does not support XP64, so you'll likely want to assemble drivers ahead of time and put them on a CD or thumbdrive prior to installation. The drivers are:

Network Card - http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProductID=581&DwnldID=8719&strOSs=109&OSFullName=Windows*%20XP%20Professional%20x64%20Edition&lang=eng

Graphics (I've only tried the XT1900 drivers)
All four downloads for the ATI Radeon - https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=367
or, if you're using the 7300 GT, you could try this link: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp64_91.47.html
and for the Quadro: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp64_84.26.html

Sound - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?amp;amp;displaylang=en&familyid=DAB139F1-065C-41E8-A148-9D79BD9D24F9&displaylang=en
then
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dlhd-2.aspx?lineid=2004052&famid=2004052&series=2004061&Software=True&title=HD%20Audio%20CODECs

3. Boot from and install the slipstreamed XP64 disc. When you formatted for MBR it created a FAT32 partition, but this boinked the installation when I tried it. I would highly recommend NTFS instead (or perhaps split partition so there will be a FAT32 data exchange area).

4. When Windows installation is complete, install the drivers. Run hdtune and you should see 60+ MBps performance.

PERFORMANCE (ESPECIALLY WITH GAMES) IS EXTREMELY GOOD WITH THIS SETUP. Have fun! :)

-K-

[Krevnik]

Firstly, it appears that the GPT partitioning used on the stock hard drive is incompatible with XP64. To get XP64 to install, I had to use Disk Utility to erase the hard drive and format as MS-DOS with MBR partitioning. I had purchased two SATA drives from Newegg for running OS X in a RAID configuration and had planned to dedicate the stock drive to Windows so this was fine from my perspective, but this might rule out XP64 for some as I believe using MBR partitioning prevents dual booting into OS X from that drive (true?).

Well, to be specific, it doesn't rule out /booting/ OS X from an MBR drive, but you can't /install/ OS X to an MBR drive. Since you can't really do any sort of repair/reinstall if you want OS X + Windows on the same drive, I really don't recommend it, and why people recommend you get a second drive for Windows in a Mac Pro.

[aiongiant]

sweet thanx for the info!
i wanted to try XP64 but was worried that there isn't much drivers for my Mac Pro at 64bit

[Habusho]

Kunimodi, that is fantastic news. I've been using xp64 on my pc for the last 9 months and it's been the best windows system for me yet.

Do you have an isight camera? Do the regular xp drivers work in xp64? Actually I don't even know if people have been able to use their camera under xp.

[janstett]

sweet thanx for the info!
i wanted to try XP64 but was worried that there isn't much drivers for my Mac Pro at 64bit

Yeah this is what has stopped me from doing much with 64-bit XP on normal PCs, for those who don't know you need specially-written 64-bit drivers, the everyday drivers for all your hardware are 32-bit and won't work. Did you find 64-bit drivers for all the major parts, such as the video card? I'm curious to know what additional isn't supported over the existing 32-bit XP list.

[janstett]

Do you have an isight camera? Do the regular xp drivers work in xp64? Actually I don't even know if people have been able to use their camera under xp.

The iSight in my MacBook Pro started working with BootCamp 1.1's new drivers. I'm just using 32-bit Media Center 2005.

[jrk07]

Great informative thread that makes me want a Mac Pro even more! argh, I don't know how much longer I can last without ordering one.

Also, what games are you running and do you have any avg. FPS numbers or anything of the sort for me to drool over? :D

[Kunimodi]

Well, to be specific, it doesn't rule out /booting/ OS X from an MBR drive, but you can't /install/ OS X to an MBR drive. Since you can't really do any sort of repair/reinstall if you want OS X + Windows on the same drive, I really don't recommend it, and why people recommend you get a second drive for Windows in a Mac Pro.

Thanks for clarifying this, Krevnik.

Do you have an isight camera? Do the regular xp drivers work in xp64?

Yes, I just tried this and, though the Boot Camp drivers 1.1 offer beta support for the iSight, I couldn't find any drivers for XP64 and it could not recognize the camera. Sorry.

Did you find 64-bit drivers for all the major parts, such as the video card? I'm curious to know what additional isn't supported over the existing 32-bit XP list.

Drivers for all of the major parts, including the XT1900 graphics card (the 7300 drivers would be http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp64_91.47.html , but I don't know if they'll work -- I'd bet they would). What's missing is the iSight support, the eject button (you have to manually eject the drive from Explorer, etc) and the ability to set the startup disk from Windows. In my opinion, these are all pretty minor.

I've been running XP64 quite a bit in the last day and it has been completely stable and blazingly flast. It's still windows so it's ugly and reminds me the many things I love about OS X, but... :)

Also, what games are you running and do you have any avg. FPS numbers or anything of the sort for me to drool over? :D

So far I've played BF2 and Guild Wars on it and am installing several others. It played BF2 at totally maxed quality settings at 1600x1200 beautifully, maintaining a smooth FPS during smoke filled artillery strikes, etc. I'm looking forward to seeing Cyrsis on it. :) I'm downloading 3Dmark and Fraps and will post the results.

[jrk07]

So far I've played BF2 and Guild Wars on it and am installing several others. It played BF2 at totally maxed quality settings at 1600x1200 beautifully, maintaining a smooth FPS during smoke filled artillery strikes, etc. I'm looking forward to seeing Crysis on it. :)

That is great news, I have heard a few reports about bf2 running well, but its always good to hear it from more people. If you get around to downloading a quake 4 or something newerish I'd love to hear your reports on their performance.

Pardon my ignorance, but does Windows XP 64-bit run all the games without the need for special patches or anything like that?

[Kunimodi]

Wow... In single player and multiplayer (~60 people) this system shines. At max settings (1600x1200) and 6x AA it maintained a 70-100 FPS nearly the whole time on four different maps (including several flights). A few times with particle effects I saw it go down into the 50's and the worst was high thirties during an artillery shower while lifting off in helicopter. Now, switched to 2x AA it was consistently 80+ the whole time. Fantastic! :)

Also, the sound quality is wonderful with headphones (using software sound at max quality setting).

[Kunimodi]

That is great news, I have heard a few reports about bf2 running well, but its always good to hear it from more people. If you get around to downloading a quake 4 or something newerish I'd love to hear your reports on their performance.

Pardon my ignorance, but does Windows XP 64-bit run all the games without the need for special patches or anything like that?

Most games run very well in XP64. There are a few exceptions. Several games such as Far Cry and the Source-based ones have 64-bit builds that give them a considerable boost compared with their 32-bit counterparts. 64-bit is about more than high memory addressing; AMD added a large number of registers which allow for a lot of optimization with smart compilers.

[jrk07]

Wow... In single player and multiplayer (~60 people) this system shines. At max settings (1600x1200) and 6x AA the worst it maintained a 70-100 FPS nearly the whole time. A few times with particle effects I saw it go down into the 50's and the worst was high thirties during an artillery shower while lifting off in helicopter. Now, switched to 2x AA it was consistently 80+ the whole time. Fantastic! :)

Sounds great since the only way I have played bf2 is on my brother's computer with no AA and a much lower resolution. Now if they could only patch it to support widescreen resolutions! :mad:

[Kunimodi]

Sounds great since the only way I have played bf2 is on my brother's computer with no AA and a much lower resolution. Now if they could only patch it to support widescreen resolutions! :mad:

Yeah, seriously. I'm playing it on a wide screen monitor and the models look like they could use some less McDonalds in their diet.

[nickgwyn]

I have never been a PC gamer, but love PC games. I plan on getting Parallels for the off chance that I want to run some Windows app, and plan on using boot camp for games. I am wondering if I should install 64 bit xp or 32. I have received mixed messages on this. Should I put 32 bit on parallels and 64 on BC?

I was thinking 32 on Paral for compatibility and 64 on BC for speed. Does that sound right?

What is the ultimate setup?

[Kunimodi]

I have never been a PC gamer, but love PC games. I plan on getting Parallels for the off chance that I want to run some Windows app, and plan on using boot camp for games. I am wondering if I should install 64 bit xp or 32. I have received mixed messages on this. Should I put 32 bit on parallels and 64 on BC?

I was thinking 32 on Paral for compatibility and 64 on BC for speed. Does that sound right?

What is the ultimate setup?

The Mac Pro is a 64-bit machine. It will perform best with an operating system, applications and drivers optimized for its 64-bit extensions. The degree with which you can get those optimized elements currently is somewhat limited, but it is simply a matter of time before 64-bit has became the standard for PCs. With the Mac Pro you can have the 64-bit operating system, the drivers and selected applications now. However, it would be prudent to wait until Apple truly supports Boot Camp and has implemented 64-bit support in their drivers. But, less fun. ;)

Parallels is limited to virtualizing a 32-bit view (at least for now). Parallels is a great product that has made quick strides in improving stability and supporting the Mac Pro and I would recommend it over Boot Camp for any use that does not require 3D graphics (or very CPU) intensive work. The integration with OS X is excellent, performance is good and the ease of use if high.

In summary, I think your 32 parallels, 64 boot camp is the ultimate setup.

[nickgwyn]

The Mac Pro is a 64-bit machine. It will perform best with an operating system, applications and drivers optimized for its 64-bit extensions. The degree with which you can get those optimized elements currently is somewhat limited, but it is simply a matter of time before 64-bit has became the standard for PCs. With the Mac Pro you can have the 64-bit operating system, the drivers and selected applications now. However, it would be prudent to wait until Apple truly supports Boot Camp and has implemented 64-bit support in their drivers. But, less fun. ;)

Parallels is limited to virtualizing a 32-bit view (at least for now). Parallels is a great product that has made quick strides in improving stability and supporting the Mac Pro and I would recommend it over Boot Camp for any use that does not require 3D graphics (or very CPU) intensive work. The integration with OS X is excellent, performance is good and the ease of use if high.

In summary, I think your 32 parallels, 64 boot camp is the ultimate setup.

Sweet!

[aiongiant]

gonna give this a try later
:cool: thnx for the info!

[janstett]

The Mac Pro is a 64-bit machine. It will perform best with an operating system, applications and drivers optimized for its 64-bit extensions. The degree with which you can get those optimized elements currently is somewhat limited, but it is simply a matter of time before 64-bit has became the standard for PCs. With the Mac Pro you can have the 64-bit operating system, the drivers and selected applications now

Of course, until applications and drivers are 64-bit, I have to ask if it's faster to run the 32-bit OS to run the 32-bit applications and games and utilize the 32-bit drivers.

Ignoring the driver support problem, does anybody have benchmarks of how much of a hit a 32-bit app running on 64-bit XP takes versus running on 32-bit XP on the same machine?

Followup:

While I'm waiting for my Mac Pro, I just realized my Dell XPS (Pentium Extreme, dual core w/ Hyperthreading, aka Smithfield) supports the x64 extensions, so I'm downloading the eval to play with it.

I found some useful info on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP_Professional_x64_Edition

Windows XP x64 Edition uses a technology named WOW64, which permits the execution of 32-bit x86 applications. It was first employed in Windows XP 64-bit Edition, but then reused for the “x64 Editions” of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

Since the AMD64 architecture includes hardware-level support for 32-bit instructions, WOW64 simply switches the process between 32- and 64-bit modes. However, on the IA-64 architecture, WOW64 was required to translate 32-bit x86 instructions into their 64-bit IA-64 equivalents—which in some cases were implemented in quite different ways—so that the processor could execute them. As a result, AMD64 microprocessors suffer no performance loss when executing 32-bit Windows applications, whereas IA-64 implementations experience noticeable performance loss.

But on second reflection, is IA-64 Itanium? I think so...

[aiongiant]

i'm gonna do some render test of it using maya 32bit in 64bit windows
and maya 64bit in 64bit windows

[aiongiant]

alright folks heres some updates

Windows XP 64 bit is running great on the Mac Pro
all my drivers seems to all work.. hdd speed is at normal..

Here are some Benchmark results...

both on Windows XP SP2 32bit..and both have 1GB of ram

Dell 3.6Ghz - 32Bit Maya 8.0
Maya 8.0 -> 23:00 min. (1380 sec.)

Mac Pro Quad 3Ghz - 32Bit Maya 8.0
Maya 8.0 -> 3:47 min. (227 sec.)

both on Windows XP SP1 64bit..and both have 1GB of ram

Mac Pro Quad 3Ghz - 32bit Maya 8.0
Maya 8.0 -> 3:49 min. (229 sec.)

Mac Pro Quad 3Ghz - 64Bit Maya 8.0
Maya 8.0 -> 3:45 min. (225 sec.)

so it does shave off a lil bit more time using a 64bit and 64bit maya
and a lil bit slower with the 64bit and 32bit maya
but it's too close to call it anything.. considering that 64bit works alot better when you have more than 1gb of ram hehe =) well see what happens when i use up all quad channels how much faster it would be.. stay tuned =)

[janstett]

What the heck, when my Mac Pro gets here I'll give x64 XP a whirl.

[nickgwyn]

FYI: http://anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2832

[Bugnacious]

I was amazed once I got through the installation process that it all went flawlessley - accept for boot Camp Assitant Not working as it should from install point.
Formated using NTFS (slow Format as opposed to quick format - I would recommend it as this may be where some people are finding issues afterwards).

I have MP 2.66 + ATI XT1900 (which I am totaly in love with - back to Max after many hard years using Microspastic windows due to industry standard!
Love the OS X even more now (although having issues with FINDER being unstable during CD opperations & external drives etc - Lightening fast USB connection to I-RIVER mp3 player though!

BUTTTTTTTT . whilst XP 64bit runns, I was unable to locate the so-callled "new Found Hardware Wizard" which we all know and love. - It's not there - I've done a FIND on the HD but nadda!!
This is odd and as result I am restricted a bit.
At the end of the MAC driver installation it said "Need to be running Windowns XP" - but it didn't say "you are not running...."

SO what's the go?

i have just download Monitor Drivers for the Graphics card as the current res (1600 x 1080) looks wrong on my 24" Dell Widescreen (Which totally compliments the system BTW).

So is it that:

2. The Boot Camp 1.1 driver disc does not support XP64, so you'll likely want to assemble drivers ahead of time and put them on a CD or thumbdrive prior to installation. The drivers are:

as stated at the start of this discussion!
Seems odd as I had no hickups with the Install - and that was a compilation of Zipped & Rar'd files back to disk.img!:eek:

GLAD to hear BF2 runns well also!;)

DIGG it!

[Bugnacious]

PS what is this Slipstreaming thing.

Do I need to do something more - a slipstream?

[Bugnacious]

I have downloaded the drivers via the links posted in the forum.
In particular I am having problems with the Sound and graphics drivers.

Main Problem with AT Xt1900 drivers was that the "Categoray Managment" componet of the driver download go to set up .NET FRAMEWORK "version 2.0" and then says that it is not compatible with 64bit XP. So what has everyone else done to get that working?

It also mentions part way through the intallation process that the ".INF" which is being looked for by "THUNK.exe" cannot be found - what's this about?

I have downloaded updates including .NET FRAMEWORK 1.1 but that has not helped to be able to use the ATI drivers - ie. the drivers are installed but no option appears under MONITOR settings!

how do I get Service pack 2 for 64bit XP - is that my problem.

Consequently BF2 doesn't run either!
:mad:

suggestions?

[Bugnacious]

-

[arythmic]

ANy updates bgnacious ?

I am getting the same set up as you are this week and would love to use 64bit but it looks like I might not be able to

[strydr]

Slipstreaming means you take a system that has XP installed, with all the current updates, and create a install disk with all those updates still there. You can find instructions to slipstream XP here:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp


The INF is the chipset drivers. Here's a page from Intel:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=11454 (warning!- I have not verified this is the correct driver, but it looks OK)

I have a new MacPro, and it's currently running OSX and 32 bit XP. I will play around tonight with a 64 bit ver.

Something I found interesting.. I could not get XP 32 bit to install properly on a spare drive in my macpro. I ended up just grabing my XP hard disk and installing it in the 4th bay. Sure enough, on boot, and when holding down the "alt" key, it found my XP disk (HDD), and offered to boot from it. After re-installing all Windows drivers, everything works great.

[Kunimodi]

FWIW, there is no SP2 update for XP64. It's a version separate from the 32-bit editions and hasn't had any service packs released AFAIK -- though there are updates to be had. Please be sure you have the 64-bit NET 2.0 CLR correctly installed before installing the ATI drivers -- you can use the link I in the first post. If you have problems with the ATI drivers, uninstall them and then install them (all four) again.

On a different note, IA-64 is Itanium; 32-bit programs should be no slower with the EMT64/AMD64 architecture -- this was one of several reasons why AMD64 took off while Itanium stalled.

Have fun! :)

[Bugnacious]

Thanks for the replies. I did work out INF thing.
Slipstreaming would have been good!

Regarding the 64bit XP thang:
Well there's plenty of documentation to proove that it works but I had a few issues. Firstly I would have had to completely re-installed XP (with the F6 interjection just prior to install as listed at the start of this forum) just to get the Intel drivers to run the SATA HD at decent speed.
BUT - if you do that then it should work fine. I was also sceptical about the Firewire drivers working because my external HD was not connecting consistantly - but it seems something during the process screwed my drive or it is just not working properly now (anyone know anything about this sort of thing happening due to install process?) so that may have been fine in 64bit XP.
All drivers worked for me (after I used the correct link for 64bit XP under ATI site) except the sound drivers. - Oh and the keyboard didn't work properly either and you can't pick pieces from the Bootcamp to get individual drivers - nor does BOOT CAMP DRIVER installer run on 64bit at all anyway).

But my verdict is thus:

Reinstalled using 32Bit version and it was a much smoother process. The RealTek Audio drivers that are a part of the set work excellently and everything went well - of except the ATI grahpics one again - get those proir from ATI and have them ready & be prepared for low-res low colour until you've installed the ATI drivers.
I'd stick with 32Bit version as Speed advantage from 64bit for apps will be "0"!
Now all is good!

I'd like to hear from those who used FAT formatting - I still used NTFS as it's apparently more stable!

But all round very happy. Except need to find instruction on key-commands for shortcuts such as "Num-lock" to get keypad to work!

Have fun.
Apple Rules. Window's is just a follower!
I say buy as many Intel Mac's as you can get your hands on, then get an iTV, iphone, and increase the Market-share. Apple interface is non-linear and that is the way of the future! who would your prefer to be running the interfaces of the future??? Apple all the way!

[Bugnacious]

Ok. Not happy.
Patching BF2 and it is taking FOREVER - this points to HD performance?
OR could there be another reason.
The patching exercise going on in the background is a full Patch for BF2 upto date (over 500MB) so that's not helping but geeeees.... it should be done by now but stuck on 8% after an hour.
When I ran BF2 before patch is ran fine.

I've established Maxtor External Firewire HD is running ok at startup of the Mac - but XP is having issues. can'tsee it anymore!!!! it is NTFS formatted!

Drivers Drivers Drivers! I don't know what to do because I'm a geek among friends, but amongst other geeks I know my place as a lessor geek! I've spent enough time already.

Just went to open HDtune but that didn't open properly. Multitasking is not working properly as little things are causing the system to hang whilst Patching. When I did open HD tune earlier I was getting a Max of about 7.4 mbps but whilst patchin at the same time performance was down at 0.35 or something! what should I expect tp get on 32bit XP?

IT seems to be a system cache thing? I think. the patching is so inconsistant & I am unable to register if it's getting better or worse but it seems to be getting slower. CPU is not maxed out, nor is memory usage patch is only using 16MB

could it be that I also need to install that driver at the F6 prompt before XP installs?
Aghhhhhh!

[Bugnacious]

I've written too much already but....
XP seems to run fine (i hesitate to say fast because it boot's up slower than my work PC) but I've installed further software and that is all running fine so I have no idea why that patch was so slow. I'll try to seperate patches for BF2 instead of 1 big 1.

Everything else seems groovy! I have no idea how many mbps I should be getting? Graphics are cool though Google earth is a dream to look at and use & only limited by my connection! 3D in Archi software seems relatively good but could be improved. I'll look at software options!

Oh and the external drive only want to recognise if it starts up in the correct sequence. IE. if on when in OSX It wants to be switched off before starting XP & then on again once started up XP ! Go figure!

It's alllllll OK!

B

[arythmic]

Is there anyway we can start a post that is a definitive MUST DO list for installing 64bit on the mac pro.

Or is the first post it ?

[Kunimodi]

Just went to open HDtune but that didn't open properly. Multitasking is not working properly as little things are causing the system to hang whilst Patching. When I did open HD tune earlier I was getting a Max of about 7.4 mbps but whilst patchin at the same time performance was down at 0.35 or something! what should I expect tp get on 32bit XP?


Sounds like the slipstreamed SATA drivers didn't work right. You should be getting around 60 MBps in hdtune (in either 32 or 64 bit). BTW, with Far Cry you get a 5+% increase in FPS by going with the 64-bit edition. It's the future ;)

[janstett]

I'm up and running with XP x64 Edition for the first time ever on my Mac Pro. Here are my results; I have the 3.0 GHz Quad with the ATI card.

I got the system with the smallest drive (160GB) and ordered a 750GB drive. Rather than reinstalling OSX, I was glad I was able to move OSX to the big drive with Disk Utility, and pleased even more that I didn't have to move the boot drive to the 1st SATA bay. So I left the small disk in bay 1 with nothing on it and the big disk in bay 2 with OSX moved to it. Thankfully, it still booted.

With my ATI card I'm using two displays (identical Samsung 20" LCDs). When it boots XP, both are mirrored (or trying to be mirrored). The text-mode display for the install is corrupted, but barely readable. There is a lot of flickering of half the screen. I don't know if this is because I'm driving two displays, or if it's just the ATI card and nobody's tried this with the ATI card yet.

Even though the display is corrupted I can see well enough to proceed with the install. I find the small disk and format it NTFS, which seems to be going OK so I guess the SATA drivers are working. With the system up and running I get 72 MB/s with HD Tune. I used a pristine install disk (no slipstreaming).

Once it installs, here are the problems I've encountered.

- The XP logo screen is corrupted on both displays.
- The default video driver is corrupted just the same as the text mode during install once the desktop comes up -- but luckily it's enough to continue. Sounds like the ATI doesn't do VGA/VESA low res modes correctly.
- Once I install the ATI drivers, the corruption is gone for the desktop and I can continue. (The corruption is still there for the boot screens).
- The Network card isn't picked up automatically so prepare a disk with at least those drivers.
- The display order is reversed (the desktop comes up in my 2nd display). I can't do anything to force my 1st display to be the primary, so it's the opposite of how it was in OSX. I moved the task bar and desktop icons to display #1 but all my windows open on display #2. Anybody have any ideas as to how to force which display is primary? The Catalyst control center has this option but it's greyed out.
- Obviously the boot camp drivers don't work, but I wish I at least had the startup disk to go back to OSX by default.

Other than that, it's working pretty well. This is my first seat time with 64-bit XP, so I'm still getting used to the odd 32-bit incompatibilities herer and there; but I'll give it a try. The display corruption during boot and desktop order reversal are what's really annoying me.

EDIT: MacDrive doesn't work, so I don't have any way of sharing files between operating systems. Grrr, I might have to do 32-bit XP after all.

[Krevnik]

With my ATI card I'm using two displays (identical Samsung 20" LCDs). When it boots XP, both are mirrored (or trying to be mirrored). The text-mode display for the install is corrupted, but barely readable. There is a lot of flickering of half the screen. I don't know if this is because I'm driving two displays, or if it's just the ATI card and nobody's tried this with the ATI card yet.

I have been running XP 64 using the x1900 for over a week now, but I only have one display (Samsung SyncMaster 215TW), so I have not seen the display corruption you have seen. I would have spoke up if I did, but I can say that with one display it works just fine. I wouldn't be surprised if it was related to the CSM not quite knowing how to deal with two displays.

To go back to OS X by default, you can boot up OS X using option, and setting the preference there as well... just isn't as quick as having that option under Windows too.

[3dsMAXguy]

I just purchased the 2.66 Quad MAC Pro in hopes of making my life as a 3D artist using 3dsMAX easier. I did'nt do much research and just "Jumped In" so to speak and got the MAC Pro in hopes that:

1. The Quad Xeons would spead up my work in 3DSMax and PShop.

I did the minimum and used Bootcamp 1.1.1 to install XPhome and now have some problems:

1. SATA drivers don't work and I only get 3mbs (tested using HDTune)

I am NOT technically savvy and quite frankly do not know how to apply the advice on the board, on how to fix the SATA problem. I am frustrated and just want to either take the Mac to someone who will fix it for me or just wait until the next version of Bootcamp addresses this issue. Any advice from anybody? What would be great is a post that had the "SATA SLIPSTREAMING FOR DUMMIES" version of the fix.

Further to my confusions, I am wondering if I need to go to XP 64 as I expect it will further speed up my work in 3DS max and PS - does anybody have any info on that?

Please help if possible. I would be eternally helpful. Love this MAC PRO but can't really use it with the slow harddrive performance.

THX,:(

[rgomez]

Hello 3dsMaxGuy,

The SATA performance problem is fixed with the latest EFI update. After installing it you should not have any problems with performance under Windows XP.

Check the other thread "Slow SATA performance". In the last pages there are, IIRC, references to the updates that I'm talking about. In any case, they should just appear in your Software Update. They came out IIRC last week.

Regards,

[Bugnacious]

I just purchased the 2.66 Quad MAC Pro in hopes of making my life as a 3D artist using 3dsMAX easier. I did'nt do much research and just "Jumped In" so to speak and got the MAC Pro in hopes that:

1. The Quad Xeons would spead up my work in 3DSMax and PShop.

1. SATA drivers don't work and I only get 3mbs (tested using HDTune)

Further to my confusions, I am wondering if I need to go to XP 64 as I expect it will further speed up my work in 3DS max and PS - does anybody have any info on that?


THX,:(

Dear Mr MAX. 1stly. Jumping in is often the best way. you just become a nerd step by step by dealing with the frustrations.
2ndly. I think it's great that you've gone to a Mac for 3D. eventually you may be able to port your software & license's accross to Mac OS (who knows).

You should get excellent performance on the XP system. I have also posted stuff here about registering a slow mbps rate of 3 or 7 or something but what I have found is that the opperating system works fine & running apps within it is perfectly fine. I have run a couple of 3D apps & what I found was that they run fine. I am not convinced that HD tune is picking up true performance with the cross-over hardware & drivers - this is because the system runs fine as far as I can see. I have the situation where XP boots up slower than it does on my 1year old HP Laptop - which makes me question things such as HD performance - but the apps run fine once XP has booted up & I can't feel any performance difference. I did not use the F6 HD driver install option prior installing XP (which is advised to get good HD speed - or as advised you can now get driver update as in previous post)......... but if it's true that my HD is not running fast enough now then gees it must be lightening when it's running at 60mbps!

As for speed when running apps like PS & Max I don't expect you'll find a massive boost because you require 64bit software to take advantage of 64bit chipset. However the ATIx1900 should be wonderfull for rendering. I found when running 3D architectural software that the general performace was faster than my work PC (3.0ghz Pentium with 2GB RAM) by maybe 10% (I have 2.66 Xeon with only 1GB RAM at the mo.) - that includes panning around the objects in 3D views and general oppening of files and such - however as should be expected rendering with the ATI 1900 was very quick.

Someone explained to me the other day that rendering is driven by the graphics card where as all the other stuff is done by the CPU - so that explains the minor difference in speed when just using the software. I believe you'll experience the same but I don't know how MAX works!

Good Luck.
B

[Bugnacious]

[QUOTE=janstett]
With my ATI card I'm using two displays (identical Samsung 20" LCDs). When it boots XP, both are mirrored (or trying to be mirrored). The text-mode display for the install is corrupted, but barely readable. There is a lot of flickering of half the screen. I don't know if this is because I'm driving two displays, or if it's just the ATI card and nobody's tried this with the ATI card yet.
QUOTE]

I found that my screen was not supported with the defualt drivers that came on XP install too. when I got ATI driver's running everything was fine. But my experience was that the bad looking screen was just the lowest possible screen res & colour settings. It was displaying 16 colours & 640 x 480 or something rediculous that made it all seem inverted and F'd up!

Regarding the switching of the Main screen between OS's I would do the following untested theory. If you can't get the screen order set as you want in XP - go with the default of primary & seccondary screens in XP - swap the physical positions of the screens to what you want - and then in the Mac OS change the pref.s there - because the Mac doesn't care as much which screen you want as your Primary - I've just realised that there could be -Left - right workflow issues but I would say that you have more opportunity in the Mac to get that right!

Hope that helps.
Also set default start up in Mac OS if you want under startup disk there if the control Panel didn't install for in XP.

[3dsMAXguy]

Hello 3dsMaxGuy,

The SATA performance problem is fixed with the latest EFI update. After installing it you should not have any problems with performance under Windows XP.

Check the other thread "Slow SATA performance". In the last pages there are, IIRC, references to the updates that I'm talking about. In any case, they should just appear in your Software Update. They came out IIRC last week.

Regards,

Could you help me out with the EFI update. I am not sure how to get it and how to run this. I also don't understand what the IIRC. U really am NOT a techie unfortunately. Thanks for the reply!:)

[Enduran]

Could you help me out with the EFI update. I am not sure how to get it and how to run this. I also don't understand what the IIRC. U really am NOT a techie unfortunately. Thanks for the reply!:)

Hey MAXguy, I was not sure what this "EFI update" was either, but after a google search and some research I found it was the Boot Camp program. Felt a bit stupid after I found it ;) . Downloading this will fix your problem unless it isn’t linked to Boot Camp.

I have a question now as well. I have a Mac Pro and have ordered the 64-bit version of XP. I already have XP Home set up on my Mac Pro and am wondering if I can just upgrade XP Home to XP Pro 64-bit. I am also wondering if I need to do the whole slipstream thing or if I just install XP and put on the drivers. Thanks in advance.

-Enduran

[Enduran]

The INF is the chipset drivers. Here's a page from Intel:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=11454 (warning!- I have not verified this is the correct driver, but it looks OK)

Also have a question about this, is it needed? Has is been tested, if so what are the results? And is it needed in that it’s an update to one of the previously posted drivers?
Thanks
-Enduran

[Trekkie]

I'd like to go to the 64-bit version if possible, however I have one thing I think is a hangup -

Airport networking & Bluetooth Keyboard/Mouse

Anyone getting those working?

[Enduran]

The keyboard should just work off the top, at least mine did, but the mouse is not working for me or anyone else as far as I know.

-E

[EDIT] - Airport doesn't work either, needs a specifically apple made driver I think so until apple gets on the ball and makes x64 drivers Bluetooth and Airport are a no go.

[lyonrj]

I get "iirsp.sys corrupted. Installation cannot continue" during the first boot.

[waterglow]

For my machine, I loaded x64 directly onto a new, secondary, MBR formatted (in OS X first) 300GB HD. To get the machine to boot off that disk, I am kluging the start up (seems klugy to me to do it this way but it works if I get the timing right) by holding C down during startup but letting it go as soon as the CD ROM reader spins up.

Prior to this, I loaded x64 as if the machine were a PC and let it install itself without slipstreaming anything...selecting the second HD at the appropriate time. I then loaded the drivers for the Ethernet card, 7300 vid card and audio (locations obtained from this thread)

No word on stability yet...but all the MS components seem to work fine. There is very occassional and non annoying video blanking from time to time, but it's not a problem.

[waterglow]

when I installed x64, the reformatting of the HD took **FOREVER**; about 1.5 hours

Ethernet is wired and seems ok; keyboard and mouse also ok

[waterglow]

Passmark benchmarks are 1309.7 vs 582.3 in Parallels (Parallels score is partial as it had trouble with vid drivers in the VM)

...sorry for the multiple posts

[EricTheRed71]

Our 3rd & 4th Mac Pros arrived this morning (only ordered them yesterday) and are up & rendering in 3dsmax already under win x64 in less then 1.5 hours.

Setup is really simple but there are a few points to note:

1. Boot into OSX first & update the firmware
2. Remove the OSX disk during x64 install or you won't get a C disk
4. Install x64 onto a 2nd HD
3. Don't format the HD under OSX, let Windows do it during the install

Other than that it really is easy!

[michino]

Hi, fist excuse me for my horrible english.
I,ve just install xp 64 in my new macpro, with the drivers posted in the firts post. i have 2 hd, one for osx and another for xp 64.

Just a few problems.

i have 3 hardware dispositives without needed drivers. (you know, with the system yellow question icon)
1. sm bus controller
2. system interrupt controller
3. unknown dispositive.

Everything works fine except network, i can conect to internet but i can't configure the network, does anyone know why, is any driver more need to install?:confused:

Macdrive doesn't work either is another soft tha could see mi mac HDhd? :confused:

thanks very much and sorry for mi english i hope i explain my self correctly. :)

[kd5ftn]

While not a Mac Pro, has anyone tried this on a 24" imac? Can anyone even confirm if the C2D will fully support x64?

I've got both the x86 and x64 versions laying around (off MSDN) so I want to give it a shot.

[Prom1]

While not a Mac Pro, has anyone tried this on a 24" imac? Can anyone even confirm if the C2D will fully support x64?

I've got both the x86 and x64 versions laying around (off MSDN) so I want to give it a shot.

Go for it!

Write a step by step just like others did in this thread. you'll amaze yourself

[p40whk]

I know this thread has been idle for a while but I just found it through a google search and was hoping to get a little more info.

I've got the mid level Mac Pro with the X1900 XT, 2 gigs ram etc. and would like to add another drive running Windows. The free download nad 120 day trial of XP Pro 64 bit is still available but what happens after the trial ends? Will I be forced to pay an ungodly amount to keep using it or will I be better off buying an oem copy for $140?

The links to the ATI drivers don't work anymore and I'm having trouble finding the correct drivers, anyone have updated links?

What has been everyone's general experiences with XP64 as opposed to the 32 bit version?

Thanks!

[Trekkie]

Far as I remember you'll have to re-install the non-time bombed version over the time bombed version. I've not done it though since NT 4.0 days, maybe they've changed something.

[p40whk]

Well, Having a few problems with the installation. What I did was format a second drive with Disk Utility as an MS-dos partition, downloaded the eval version of XP pro and all drivers and tried to follow the instructions for slipstreaming but got a bit confused so maybe that's where the issue is:

When I go to insert the Drivers using Nlite there are multiple options, I chose the following:

Drivers\Chipset\XP
Drivers\Chipset\XP\SP
Drivers\SATA\64bit

and;

Intel(R) ESB2 SATA AHCI Controller (Server ESB2)
Intel(R) ESB2 SATA RAID Controller (Server ESB2)

Not sure if these are correct but I couldn't find a definitive answer as to the right ones to choose.

I did not load a service pack but did remove components from the installation then created an Iso image and burned a CD.

When I launched Boot Camp, I went straight to "Start the Windows Installer" and proceded with the install since I already formatted the drive with Disk Utility. I selected the C: drive which shows up as I named it and the install seemed to go OK untill the reboot.

When the install gets to 100% and reboots I get a black screen that says:

"Press any key to boot from the CD" (doing this causes a reboot right back to this same spot)

If I wait a few seconds before pressing any key I get this:

"Disk Error"
"Press Enter to restart"

At this point the keyboard is locked and my only option is to force a shutdown and restart holding the option key to boot into OS X. When I do this I do get both the OS X and Windows Icons but selecting Windows just locks up the system.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate it. I may be stoppping on my way home to pick up a copy of the 32bit version thinking that my downloaded 64bit version is corrupt.

Not sure I want to purchase the 64bit version outright without trying it since I know the 32bit version works and the Boot Camp documents specifically tell you not to install the 64bit version.

I'm using Boot Camp version 1.2 by the way.

Thanks for any help or suggestions!

[mvfranz]

I have spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to get FireFox 2.0 to work on my mac running 64 bit XP. The installer does not work. Complains that the application is not supported.

After a few months of using Opera and missing FireFox, I decided to build the 64 bit version myself. In reading the instructions there were several statements that cygwin would not work with the 64 bit version of cmd and that you have to run the 32 bit version first. This led me to think that I could just install FireFox using the 32 bit version of CMD. Well it worked! :)

To do this yourself. run c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe This opens the command prompt. From here either navigate to where you downloaded the firefox install file or drop the EXE into the command prompt. Then execute the install.

Hope someone else can use this information.

[hastyle]

missing the drivers for them too. but i did get network working.

SM Bus Controller
System Interrupt Controller

my biggest concern right now is getting the right drivers for the xt1900!! the default drivers that come with xp x64 workd fine, my 30" appears at proper resoluton, bugt once i download the ati drivers off the webstie, once it reboots after installation, its only showing 8 bit colour and 640 resolution. ?!?!?! am i downloading the wrong drivers or something??? i selected Windows XP Professional x64 Edition > radeon > Radeon x1900 series > Catalyst® 7.4 Software Component Downloads for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition . dammit always a hurdle.

anyone knwo where i can get the drivers for this?

I have downloaded the drivers via the links posted in the forum.
In particular I am having problems with the Sound and graphics drivers.

Main Problem with AT Xt1900 drivers was that the "Categoray Managment" componet of the driver download go to set up .NET FRAMEWORK "version 2.0" and then says that it is not compatible with 64bit XP. So what has everyone else done to get that working?

It also mentions part way through the intallation process that the ".INF" which is being looked for by "THUNK.exe" cannot be found - what's this about?

I have downloaded updates including .NET FRAMEWORK 1.1 but that has not helped to be able to use the ATI drivers - ie. the drivers are installed but no option appears under MONITOR settings!

how do I get Service pack 2 for 64bit XP - is that my problem.

Consequently BF2 doesn't run either!
:mad:

suggestions?

[digiegg]

Thanks. I installed the x64bit windows since I have 3gb of RAM on the macpro.

The Mac Drive 1.2 isn't working with the sp2 64bit windows for some reason... so I had to follow steps that this guy provided.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=231901
after installing those drivers, I thought everything would be good but I have (?) Unknown devices still in the Device Manager.

The following have ?! next to them.
SM Bus Controller
System Interrupt Controller
Unknown Device



and in System devices, 3 of them are marked with "!"


Help me out?

[SC68Cal]

Probably installed 32 bit drivers, you need 64 bit ones.

[digiegg]

32 bit drivers? All the drivers I installed were 64bit like the author of this thread noted.

[digiegg]

http://www.digiegg.com/unknowndevices.jpg

[VirtualDesign]

Well, digiegg. did u find a fix for all the drivers problems? I have exactly the same issues like u. Can u tell me what u did?

[TheThirdMan]

I was wondering if anyone is running a 3d program on a 64-bit version of windows? I'm gonna sell my mbp and get a mac pro soon, and one of the major uses will be 3d.

As most of you will probs know, 32bit only supports 3gb of ram and thus 8 cores seems a bit overkill when they've got so little memory to use.

Reading through this thread i get conflicting opinions on whether it's stable or not, or whether its a viable solution. Has anyone got 64-bit windows running with a 3d app?

[Trekkie]

In my experience 64-bit Windows sux in general except for server side applications.

My brother accidentally bought the 64-bit version, and we spent many a day trying to get device drivers to work.

Right now on his Mac Pro the speakers won't work on the back port, but work fine on the front port. We've looked everywhere for it.

To qualify my statement I've used Windows NT/2000/2003 since the mid 90s as a server OS, and 95/98/XP as a desktop OS this entire time, I've built my own computers, been redhat certified, MS Certified and NOvell certified. So it's not a case of two mac users not knowing what they're doing. It's a case of MS has seem to gone out of their way to make the 64-bit versions messy, and a lot of the vendors aren't releasing 64-bit drivers generically. Since Apple doesn't provide 64-bit versions of the drivers, yer on yer own and a lot of stuff doesn't work well/or at all.

[talkatron]

I want to install 64-bit Server 2003 on a 2008 Mac Pro so I can have better support for having others log in simutaneously and better support from me working for home. Also, certain apps like Matlab and Stata are not 64-bit on the Mac, but are for Linux and Windows.

Has anyone installed 64-bit Server 2003 on any machine?

Does anyone have more detailed 64-bit XP driver instructions than the first post on this thread? That was from 2006, 1.5 years ago.

[broozbeh]

Have you tried vmware Fusion ?
http://www.vmware.com/landing_pages/macworld.html

I just installed it on my Mac Pro and its very elegant solution for having both OSX and XP-64 bit apps.IMHO much better than using boot camp.:D

Cheers, Behrooz

[Sepharial]

Have you tried vmware Fusion ?
http://www.vmware.com/landing_pages/macworld.html

I just installed it on my Mac Pro and its very elegant solution for having both OSX and XP-64 bit apps.IMHO much better than using boot camp.:D

Cheers, Behrooz


But it must be way slower then using boot camp or?

Regards,

Patrick

[WildPalms]

But it must be way slower then using boot camp or?

Regards,

Patrick

No. It's not translation or emulation - it's hardware assisted virtualization. An average overhead of 5% can be expected, however you wont have full direct 9.0c support. Read more on the VMware site - http://www.vmware.com

[talkatron]

No. It's not translation or emulation - it's hardware assisted virtualization. An average overhead of 5% can be expected, however you wont have full direct 9.0c support. Read more on the VMware site - http://www.vmware.com

I own VMWare. I just installed Windows Server 2003 x64, and it is definitely faster than VMWare.

[Beaumon]

So ... Will boot camp ever support 64-bit Vista? Should it?

[bobsbarricades]

oi, what a headache.

i have a MP 2.66 w/ x1900 and am surprised there s so much difficulty in installing a 64-bit windows partition/drive. vista is aparently pretty easy

http://www.wintellect.com/cs/blogs/jrobbins/archive/2007/02/15/vista-x64-on-a-mac-pro-totally-awesome-dude.aspx

but everyone tells me vista sucks.i just want to play games :P

where do i stand?

[Nermal]

So ... Will boot camp ever support 64-bit Vista? Should it?

It does, on some computers. Check the documentation PDF that came with your system.

[mkrad]

64 bit Vista runs like a dream via boot camp and the right hardware. I have a work-related program that handles huge data sets but only runs under windows (arrgghh!!) and works very well with Vista. But I wouldn't even mess with the 32 bit version and would only use 64 bit Vista with the appropriate hardware. The Leopard install disc 1 shipping with the new MacPro's makes Vista driver install relatively painless. Haven't tried it yet with Fusion or Parallels.

[digiegg]

Hey guys,
No I haven't found any new solutions to those unknown drivers yet.
I had frustrating 64bit driver problems so I went back to 32bit.
The advantage of 32bit are the drivers. Hardware companies quickly update the 32bit but it seems that 64 bit drivers always come out later...
The sad thing is 2GB or 3GB is the max.

It seems like people got things worked out well.
Oh and you have to go around looking for 64bit programs which is harder to get. You can still run 34bit softwares though.

When I had the 64bit installed, it ran fine. I could tell I was using more of the RAM and less crashes when I'm doing some heavy 3D Renders. (Maya)

I just got like 5 GB of RAM in my computer so I'll be switching since my Windows xp 32bit can only read 2GB of it.
There's been so much crap about Vista around the web, I'm scared to try it.
I'll probably be going back to the XP 64bit setup again.

[Monstad]

Hi there,

First off, a massive thanks for this thread - it got me up and running x64 on my mac pro in the first place.

My current problem: Im trying to use a hyperdrive4 with XP x64 on the mac pro (the newer 2008 model). The hyperdrive uses eSATA and I hoped to use one of the two additional sata ports on the mainboard. I have already tried slipstreaming drivers onto an XP install disk with nLite, however the steps I followed were the ones here

http://st118.startlogic.com/~macproxp/

...just substituting the 64 bit drivers for the 32, and I still cannot see the hyperdrive at setup to install onto. (Leopard is seeing the hyperdrive fine, lets me partition for boot camp etc)

Does anyone know the definitive 64 bit drivers I should be slipstreaming to achieve this? (presuming that this is my problem - Im a relative newcomer to this)

I would be extremely grateful for any advice!

-Monstad

[Monstad]

Also if anyone is certain about which choice to make when presented with the list of textmode options. This might be the source of my problems.

Thanks again,
Monstad

[krye]

PS what is this Slipstreaming thing.

Do I need to do something more - a slipstream?

If you have a SP1 disk, you can download SP2 and "slipstream" it into your SP1 disk. You run a simple command from the command line and then burn the resulting image to a new CD. You'll have your XP SP1 disk updated to SP2.

See the howto...
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp

[Redwill]

Just two Questions, im running Windows XP x64 fine just like the others, but, no one mention the Keyboard.

Im not able to make work the eject button of the Keyboard to control the Superdrive, how can you insert and eject the discs?

And maybe there is some one ho has a Cinema Display like me, and the tactile buttons doesnt work.

Some one remembers the WINACD drivers for the cinema displays? is there some kind of solution for Windows XP x64 ?

Thanks!

[junior77]

Im not able to make work the eject button of the Keyboard to control the Superdrive, how can you insert and eject the discs?

And maybe there is some one ho has a Cinema Display like me, and the tactile buttons doesnt work.



You should be able to eject from MyComputer/Superdrive/ 'right click' [eject]

I'm struggling with the ACD as well, even when using Windows Pro XPsp2, the tactile buttons do not work! I'd be interested in a solution to this!!

[Redwill]

Well you can use the cinema Display under 32bits installing this drivers, this Drivers will make it work fine, all the buttons and Hud on display as well.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/winacd/

And now i know how to make the .inf driver of the cinema display work un Windows x64, this only can make work the cinema display for windows to recognize it and use the resolutions, and name it.

But the use of the on/off and brightness buttons are still a problem, the buttons doesn't work.

http://rapidshare.com/files/102469494/winacd.rar

This driver allows to use the native resolutions under Windows XP 64 bits, but the buttons still doesn't work.

This driver is a modified .INF driver of the driver included in the WinACD drivers, uncompressing the .msi file and using the .inf driver changing a little part of the code.

In some one knows how to modify or compile drivers to work in Windows XP 64 bits, just unzipp the .msi file i and others will appreciate the effort.

[Trainwreck707]

I have had XP Pro x64 running for a while and everything seems to work great except the superdrive (Pioneer DVR-112d). It reads fine but I am having trouble burning to a DVD. When I put a blank DVD in it gives me some error like "not a blank CD" and the burn folder only shows the space that would be available on a blank CD. I'm not sure whether I am just not familiar enough with Windows XP or if it's a driver issue. Has anyone else had this problem?

[Ploki]

edit:
nevermind got it to work, fishing for drivers now. :)

[MacWinYS]

I have Windows XP Pro x64 installed on my Mac Pro (2X2.66GHz, 5GB RAM) and it runs smoothly. However, every time when it wakes up from "Stand by", the machine slows down quite significantly with CPU running ~ 20% constantly (even without any program running.) And even worse, when I tried to reboot, I got the following error message:" Window could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <Window root> system32\ntoskrnl.exe Please re-install a copy of the above file."

Has anyone had the same problem with xp 64? I would appreciate very much if someone could point me to the right track to get this problem solved.

- MacWinYS

[janstett]

On a related note, I installed 64-bit Vista in boot camp. There was a small glitch in that the current Boot Camp drivers for 64-bit Vista on Apple's website are only upgrades, so you actually have to have an older intermediate version of Boot Camp drivers to get the hardware working and THEN upgrade with the version on Apple's website. The version of boot camp on the Leopard DVD predate Vista, and the latest on the website are upgrade only. :mad:

Luckily I found a torrent, but I was quite annoyed with that loophole.

I do use rEFIt as a boot manager, and sometimes it is really slow to come up and sometimes it doesn't come up at all and just boots into either OSX or Vista. (I have a 2006 Mac Pro)

[gugucom]

The error message may be due to an installation fault. I have once cloned XP64 (on BIOS machine) to another drive and seem to remember a simillar message.

I have Vista 64 running on a MacPro1,1 and no problems at all once I got around the multiple image issue. I slipstreamed Vista with vLite to solve this and did not need to use rEFIt.

[Tarek]

It's hard to find Boot Camp drivers that are x64 compatible, but I found you one - http://www.mininova.org/tor/1124428 (torrenting)

And another - http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4697186/BootCamp_drivers_x86_x64_for_MacBook___MBP_from_Leopard_10.5.6

And - http://www.kickasstorrents.com/bootcamp-windows-drivers-x86-x64-for-macbook-from-leopard-retail-t2004993.html

Some times when you're done installing, the Graphics Card and Intel Chipset are still not installed - so you can get them from here - http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_res...p;submit=Los%21

http://www.vistax64.com/drivers/115358-new...-32-64-new.html

Good luck.

[Tarek]

Sorry for reviving such an old thread - I meant to reply to another one, I got confused. Which is this one http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=8044379&posted=1#post8044379