Windows 7 beta and Alum Macbook (bootcamp)

[eyephone]

As I have bot seen any real topics about this, I figured that I would post my experience with the new windows 7 beta on my aluminum macbook 2.0ghz, in bootcamp.

Process is simple if you sign up for the beta, just download the 32 or 64 bit versions of Windows 7 beta, build 7000, and burn the iso to a single layer dvd using Disk Utility. Forget what apple says about 64bit windows OS's and the macbook, as you can follow one simple step to enable the boot camp assistant to install the 64bit macbook drivers.

After burning the w7 dvd, open boot camp, and follow the instructions as you would with Xp or Vista. The installer works the same as vista, so no surprises there. Immediately after Windows 7 installs, insert your OEM leopard OS disk and run the setup file that you are prompted if you are using the 32 bit Beta. If you are running the 64 bit beta, then follow this simple step:

In the Windows 7 Start Menu Type “cmd”, then right-click on the program that appears and choose “Run As Administrator”.

Then enter;

D:
cd "Boot Camp\Drivers\Apple"
msiexec /i BootCamp64.msi

This will bypass the apple lame-brain that says that the new fully capable Macbook cannot run a windows 64 bit OS. (not true)

Once the boot camp assistant installs all the drivers for your system, then you are up and ready to go. All components seem to work fine, with no driver issues, and no yellow flags in the device manager.

Running Windows 7 on my Macbook with the 2.0 processor and 2gb of ram on a 32gb partition, is extremely smooth and responsive. I can attest to the fact that this OS is faster than vista, even after all my programs have been loaded. I really believe after playing with the beta that MS is on the right track with this, as i have had no compatibility issues. Of course my right click option on my glass track pad does not function, just as it was broken in vista. I really believe that this is an apple driver issue.


Just thought I would share my experience. ;)

[Buskape]

Thanks for sharing, looks like Microsoft did a very good job with their new Windows,
i was about to try it out on my macbook but i heard their were alot of driver issues, which is kind of annoying,
but after reading your post i might give it a try tommorow, im really curious to see what windows 7 looks like.

[manuel.mx]

I installed it today, but for some reason i cant get the bluetooth devices to work right. What about you? I have the x64 version aswell and everything is working great but that.

Have u tried adding and using bluetooth devices? It seems to detect them, but not to be able to connect to them, at least for me.

[dinaluvsApple]

how is the battery management so far?

xp and vista both kill my battery life compared to osx.

ive read on the hp forums that windows 7 is going to be released along with hp laptops giving it 24hours battery life.

[powerbook911]

I installed it, and I have no sound in boot camp with Windows 7. Anyone else?

[manuel.mx]

i havent tried on battery yet. I did get sound after installing the boot camp stuff from the leopard disc, i didnt try it intensively like on itunes or something as i dont have such content there, but it does emit sounds when rising the volume and system notifications.

I read of some people saying that, not sure what their specs are.

Did you override the apple thing to install the 64 bit drivers?

[jonbravo77]

Not to be a jerk but are we going to have another 100 threads about issues ppl are having with Windows 7? Can no one search for this and just use the main big thread located here (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=6918604#post6918604)?

[eyephone]

Not to be a jerk but are we going to have another 100 threads about issues ppl are having with Windows 7? Can no one search for this and just use the main big thread located here (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=6918604#post6918604)?

Sorry, I just figured that I would share a positive experience, and keep it Macbook specific.

[eyephone]

I installed it today, but for some reason i cant get the bluetooth devices to work right. What about you? I have the x64 version aswell and everything is working great but that.

Have u tried adding and using bluetooth devices? It seems to detect them, but not to be able to connect to them, at least for me.

It seems that Windows 7 sees the bluetooth macbook hardware, but I have not test it functionality.

As for battery, I can say that there is a slight improvement over Vista in bootcamp. One thing I noticed was that I would get about 2 hours of battery life in Vista in performance mode, just the same if I was doing hard core mulit-tasking or just browsing the web.

With Windows 7 I can get the same 2 solid hours in performance mode running some intensive programs, and a good bit longer if I am just browsing the web or typing in word. Seems that they worked on power management a little more in this version.

And for the other question, I am pretty sure that I had sound before and after I installed the bootcamp drivers.

[jonbravo77]

Sorry, I just figured that I would share a positive experience, and keep it Macbook specific.

I understand your intentions but it doesn't work out that way, unfortunately..

[fuzzycuffs]

I installed it the other day too, and it was awesome on a 2.0ghz stock macbook (with 2gb of ram). Vista runs like a champ with 4gb, but sometimes sluggish with 2. Windows 7 however ran great.

HOWEVER, the multitouch trackpad still sucks in Windows. Right click doesn't work (maybe I could fix that at least with the hardware right click, but tap-to-click and double-finger tap to right click/scroll definitely doesn't work). And scrolling, even with a mouse, sucks. I guess Apple needs to get on the ball and fix that.

Regardless, I liked Win7 a lot.

[tubbymac]

This will bypass the apple lame-brain that says that the new fully capable Macbook cannot run a windows 64 bit OS. (not true)


Thanks for that tip. It's annoying that Apple put in the arbitrary block on bootcamp for 64 bit systems. That's the shortest way around the block I've seen, nice!


ive read on the hp forums that windows 7 is going to be released along with hp laptops giving it 24hours battery life.

There's already an HP notebook with 24 hour battery life but it looks like a tank and is ugly. Windows 7 gets a bit better battery life on Apple machines but OSX still is better for battery life on the same Apple machine. Notice I said Apple as other machines like Sony Vaios have had 8-11 hour battery life years before Macs.

I installed it, and I have no sound in boot camp with Windows 7. Anyone else?

The default Windows 7 driver seems to be confused and tries to send an optical sound signal out of the headphone jack instead of through the speakers. The bootcamp drivers will fix this if you have your Leopard Install DVD handy. Otherwise google for the 2.13 or 2.14 version of the Realtek Vista Audio drivers which will fix the problem too.


HOWEVER, the multitouch trackpad still sucks in Windows.

Yeah this one is annoying. No known fix until/if Apple releases yet another multitouch driver update.

Not sure if this thread should belong in this forum or the Windows Bootcamp forum, honestly. Probably the Windows forum.

If any of you can figure out how to get better than a 2.0 experience score on Windows 7, let us know. The primary drive score seems to be very low on my Macbook 2.0 Aluminum for some reason.

[Jpoon]

It probably isn't detecting your HDD because it's partitioned, so it defaults to the lowest subscore allowed for an unrecognized drive.
Also, Windows Experience scores mean absolutely nothing. You might want to run some benchmarks to see
any sort of performance differences between that and Vista / XP / OS X.

either way, I've had pretty good experiences so far with Windows seven on my Macbook and PC tower.

What Vista should have been.

[morphalex]

i installed the 32bit version, but I noticed nothing different about Win7, same exact thing with very small extra eye candy added. Didn't detect my bluetooth mouse either, so I uninstalled it, Mac OS still rocks Win7 IMO

[acfusion29]

I partitioned 50GB for Windows 7 and got a rating of 4.3

Runs better than Vista and XP.

[Jpoon]

i installed the 32bit version, but I noticed nothing different about Win7, same exact thing with very small extra eye candy added. Didn't detect my bluetooth mouse either, so I uninstalled it, Mac OS still rocks Win7 IMO

Hehe, well, on a Macbook, I'd HOPE OS X still outperforms its Windows Counterpart.

Especially on a BETA copy of a new Windows OS with basically limited to no driver support.

[tubbymac]

It probably isn't detecting your HDD because it's partitioned, so it defaults to the lowest subscore allowed for an unrecognized drive.

I wonder if there's a way around this. I have no choice really but to keep it partitioned using bootcamp because I like both OSX and Windows on this thing.

I partitioned 50GB for Windows 7 and got a rating of 4.3

I noticed you have a 500 gig drive on your Macbook. Is it a 7200 rpm or a 5400 rpm one? I still have the factory stock 160 gig 5400 rpm one on mine and only partitioned 32 gigs of space for it.

[acfusion29]

I noticed you have a 500 gig drive on your Macbook. Is it a 7200 rpm or a 5400 rpm one? I still have the factory stock 160 gig 5400 rpm one on mine and only partitioned 32 gigs of space for it.

It's 5400RPM. I originally got a 320GB 7200RPM, however there was excessive vibrating coming from the entire bottom case. I could not deal with it and so I got a 5400RPM Seagate drive. Works great!

[tubbymac]

It's 5400RPM. I originally got a 320GB 7200RPM, however there was excessive vibrating coming from the entire bottom case.

Wait a sec. There were excessive vibrations when it was on your lap. And you replaced it? Some would have seen that as a desired "feature" :)

[acfusion29]

Wait a sec. There were excessive vibrations when it was on your lap. And you replaced it? Some would have seen that as a desired "feature" :)

LOL to some I guess :p however, my laptop spends most of it's life on a desk either at school or at home.

But it was annoying when I was typing because my palms would vibrate, and ugh.. :eek::mad:

[jav6454]

Finally an easy way to bypass Apple's pesky x64 block for MacBooks.

[mmoran27]

I just ran the setup.exe off the bootcamp CD and it was fine. I had to run the nvidia chipset driver to get rid of the unknown hardware after bootcamp installed (smbus driver I think)

Other than that everything worked without block. Bluetooth can seem to pair with logitech mouse though.

[mackerman93]

would the x64 drivers work in a late 2006 white iMac?

[jav6454]

would the x64 drivers work in a late 2006 white iMac?

Probably. Depends. Post screen shot of your Mac's info. The processor will determine if you can actually run x64.

Core Duo - 32-bit only
Core 2 Duo - 32-bit and 64-bit

[Jeremy08]

anyone have problems getting their backlit keyboard to turn all the way off on your 2.4Ghz alum macbook?

[Jookbox]

thanks for the insight, i'm doing exactly this today.

I understand your intentions but it doesn't work out that way, unfortunately..

you're contributing absolutely nothing to this thread. :rolleyes:

[cogsinister]

I just ran the setup.exe off the bootcamp CD and it was fine. I had to run the nvidia chipset driver to get rid of the unknown hardware after bootcamp installed (smbus driver I think)

Other than that everything worked without block. Bluetooth can seem to pair with logitech mouse though.

Ah Ha !!

I have that SM Bus thing not recognised.........and coprocessor as well....

I will try running the Nvidia drivers by hand from the install DVD.........

Thanks for that info......

[jfreak623]

I cant get any cd/dvd to eject in windows 7...anybody else having the same prob?

[cogsinister]

I cant get any cd/dvd to eject in windows 7...anybody else having the same prob?

Mine wouldent at first as well.......but now it seems to work fine......

The only thing i have done is manualy install the Nvidia drivers from the apple bootcamp dvd, maybe that cured it.....as i think the SATA bus is controlled by the Nvidia drivers....

[eyephone]

Mine wouldent at first as well.......but now it seems to work fine......

The only thing i have done is manualy install the Nvidia drivers from the apple bootcamp dvd, maybe that cured it.....as i think the SATA bus is controlled by the Nvidia drivers....

This is funny. I had the same problem. The first three or four times that I booted into Windows 7, I could not get the drive to eject. I went into leopard and ejected the dvd, booted back into W7, and now it ejects every time.

Silly Windows...

[taskmaxter]

If any of you can figure out how to get better than a 2.0 experience score on Windows 7, let us know. The primary drive score seems to be very low on my Macbook 2.0 Aluminum for some reason.

Yeah, I had this problem on my Macbook with Win7. I was getting a score of 3.0 on the Primary Hard Drive. I fixed the problem by going into Troubleshootrt and found some services that didn't install correctly. Got that fixed and my score shot up to 5.2+.

[cogsinister]

Yeah, I had this problem on my Macbook with Win7. I was getting a score of 3.0 on the Primary Hard Drive. I fixed the problem by going into Troubleshootrt and found some services that didn't install correctly. Got that fixed and my score shot up to 5.2+.

Yeah, running those troubleshooter things sure fixes some obscure things in Windows 7......

[nulambhbk]

Of course my right click option on my glass track pad does not function, just as it was broken in vista.

My apologies if someone has already addressed this issue. Try clicking with 3 fingers instead of 2, and the glass track pad should recognize as a right click in Windows 7.

[guthy-lux]

Is it possible to install and boot win 7 in a 32GB USB memory?

[luckEseven]

Which specific Nvidia driver is everyone using for the 64 bit Win7 install on their Alum MB?

I've tried everything I can find but always get the "cannot find compatible hardware" error message.

I am using my 2.4 Alum MB with 2 GB of RAM on a 32 GB partition with Boot Camp.

PS- I've searched.

[cogsinister]

Which specific Nvidia driver is everyone using for the 64 bit Win7 install on their Alum MB?

I've tried everything I can find but always get the "cannot find compatible hardware" error message.

I am using my 2.4 Alum MB with 2 GB of RAM on a 32 GB partition with Boot Camp.

PS- I've searched.

There were 4 in the folder, i used the first one i think............

[luckEseven]

There were 4 in the folder, i used the first one i think............

Did you install the 32 or 64 bit Win7?

[cogsinister]

Did you install the 32 or 64 bit Win7?

32 bit........

[jav6454]

if its 32-bit you don't have to do anything, just insert Leopard CD and let BootCamp assistant do its thing. If you are using x64 then yes, you have to prod and search a little.

[luckEseven]

if its 32-bit you don't have to do anything, just insert Leopard CD and let BootCamp assistant do its thing. If you are using x64 then yes, you have to prod and search a little.

Have you come up with one that works? The ones listed on Nvidia's website all exclude the 9400M chip.

Help me raise my Win7 Experience Score above 1.0!!!:eek:

[jav6454]

Yeah, running those troubleshooter things sure fixes some obscure things in Windows 7......

Dang, I can't find the Troubleshooter for Win 7. I went to it from the Control panel, but I keep navigating thru the same topics and can get no where near an actual article or method.

Any help?

Have you come up with one that works? The ones listed on Nvidia's website all exclude the 9400M chip.

Help me raise my Win7 Experience Score above 1.0!!!:eek:

I know a GUI way of doing it. Insert the Leopard DVD and go to Computer. Wait for DVD to load. Then using the left hand menu (where the triangles and folders are) go into the Boot Camp setup. Search for BootCampx64 in the Drivers folder and click it. BootCamp setup will launch and install all the right dirvers.

Give me some time after I get off work and I'll post the exact route for you to follow.

[polaris20]

As I have bot seen any real topics about this, I figured that I would post my experience with the new windows 7 beta on my aluminum macbook 2.0ghz, in bootcamp.

Process is simple if you sign up for the beta, just download the 32 or 64 bit versions of Windows 7 beta, build 7000, and burn the iso to a single layer dvd using Disk Utility. Forget what apple says about 64bit windows OS's and the macbook, as you can follow one simple step to enable the boot camp assistant to install the 64bit macbook drivers.

After burning the w7 dvd, open boot camp, and follow the instructions as you would with Xp or Vista. The installer works the same as vista, so no surprises there. Immediately after Windows 7 installs, insert your OEM leopard OS disk and run the setup file that you are prompted if you are using the 32 bit Beta. If you are running the 64 bit beta, then follow this simple step:

In the Windows 7 Start Menu Type “cmd”, then right-click on the program that appears and choose “Run As Administrator”.

Then enter;

D:
cd "Boot Camp\Drivers\Apple"
msiexec /i BootCamp64.msi

This will bypass the apple lame-brain that says that the new fully capable Macbook cannot run a windows 64 bit OS. (not true)

Once the boot camp assistant installs all the drivers for your system, then you are up and ready to go. All components seem to work fine, with no driver issues, and no yellow flags in the device manager.

Running Windows 7 on my Macbook with the 2.0 processor and 2gb of ram on a 32gb partition, is extremely smooth and responsive. I can attest to the fact that this OS is faster than vista, even after all my programs have been loaded. I really believe after playing with the beta that MS is on the right track with this, as i have had no compatibility issues. Of course my right click option on my glass track pad does not function, just as it was broken in vista. I really believe that this is an apple driver issue.


Just thought I would share my experience. ;)

Did you happen to Geekbench it at all? 7 runs significantly faster than XP, Vista, and Ubuntu 64 on the same hardware. Ubuntu in particular had its butt handed to it. Very impressive job they've done. I've got it running quad booting on an 8 core Xeon test box, and it's really cool. Stable too.

[darrellishere]

My best install of windows 7 was to do an upgrade from vista sp2!

This way windows keeps all your current bootcamp drivers, the ones that fail to install during the normal process in Win 7.

I read somewhere that this beta will not allow us to upgrade when it gets released. Only clean install ?

[macbrainiac]

I installed the Windows 7 beta on my first generation white Macbook. It's only Core Duo (not even Core 2 Duo) but it still runs smooth, baby smooth. :cool:

There were no driver issues (it was 32bit) and the Leopard DVD installed everything necessary.

I made a step-by-step walkthrough guide with pictures on how to install Windows 7 beta on a Mac if anybody is interested:

http://macbrainiac.blogspot.com/2009/01/picture-guide-install-windows-7-on.html

[skirmish]

Has anyone had success with this on XP64bit on the Jun 2009 Macbook Pro? I've tried the msiexec /i, another guide with drivers & their install order... Even used orca to modify the BootCamp64.msi file to allow installation. That works a little bit: BootCamp control panel installs, but non of the drivers work. All out of ideas & any suggestions appreciated!

[nick1516]

Going to bring this thread back from the dead here, I'm trying to install home premium and it keeps telling me I don't have the elevated priveleges to run the 64 bit setup, how do I fix this?

[romanaz]

I keep getting the boot option error where it won't respond to any keyboard input (via onboard keyboard, an apple wired keyboard, nor a microsoft usb keyboard).

I've googled the crap out of it, and I see its a common problem with win7 64bit, but I can't find how to get past it. Any thoughts?

[scienide09]

I'm wondering if anyone else has had the problem described by romanaz in the post immediately above. I'm having the same issue, and haven't yet found a workaround.

[pmakker]

Going to bring this thread back from the dead here, I'm trying to install home premium and it keeps telling me I don't have the elevated priveleges to run the 64 bit setup, how do I fix this?

Did you right-click the cmd and click run as administrator?

[ImpostorOak]

I installed the 64 bit 7 on a June 2007 MBP, but I can't seem to get the drivers to install. I downloaded them from Apple's site (the full version Vista 64, 236MB), but the .exe won't run. It asks me if I want to run it, and I hit yes, but then nothing happens. I got the video card drivers from Windows update, but the boot camp drivers just won't open.

I'll try using the Snow Leopard CD when my room mate gets back. We got a family pack and the CD is in his locked room, but he won't get back until next week.

[jmason86]

It's over a year after this original thread was started and the suggestion still works. As of today (1/8/10) Apple has still not released a specific update to Snow Leapord (or Leapord for that matter) for running Windows 7 (let alone 64 bit).
I got a legit copy of 64-bitWindows 7 Home Premium and installed it through bootcamp with no problems.

System specs: Unibody aluminium Macbook (late 2008) with 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB DDR3 Ram, 320 GB 7200RPM HD, running OSX 10.6.

When I tried to install the bootcamp drivers, I got exactly the same error as the original thread. Pretty amazing that Apple has had a full year to update bootcamp for Win7 and still hasn't. Anyway, I followed the suggestion and it worked swimmingly.

In addition, there already exists drivers for the trackpad, 2 finger scrolling, 2 finger right click, keyboard backlight, display brightness, default functional controls rather than F-keys (although you can change this), and sound. There's probably more that I'm missing but the point is that Win7 runs smoothly and great on Macbooks from late 2008 and later.

Aero, shake, show and peek desktop, snap to sides and top - all of these work.

Seems there's no real reason for Apple to be holding back on us.. their stuff already works.

[proxtoyz]

thanks a bunch for this it worked fine

i just bought a macbook with the 9400m and was trying to install a windows 7 64bit version on it and boot camp gave me this error

it is beyond me why apple try and dictate where it can be installed in such a manner but thankfully there (and always will be!) a work around

[memo90061]

Did you right-click the cmd and click run as administrator?

That worked for me. Thanks!

[davidahn]

In the Windows 7 Start Menu Type “cmd”, then right-click on the program that appears and choose “Run As Administrator”.

Then enter;

D:
cd "Boot Camp\Drivers\Apple"
msiexec /i BootCamp64.msi


Worked like a charm, even on the Snow Leopard Install DVD! (I'm assuming your post referred to the Leopard DVD as you posted 1/09?) You're a genius. Thanks so much!!!

David

[ChaseMc]

Hi,
This is my first post on MacRumors. I was hoping to send this to jmason86 directly but it seems that you can't email people directly.

I have a macbook aluminum (late 2008). I'd like to install windows 7 ultimate 64 bit. I was just wondering if anyone has since had any problems with software or drivers by installing this version of windows on this type of system.

Also, does anyone have a good link about how to go about doing a smooth install using bootcamp in my situation.

Thanks!

[Octavarius]

I did just like davidahn said. Seemed to work until i got error. The code for it was 2229.
Anyone know what the problem is?

[Ramused]

i have the 24'' iMac core2duo 3.06, 8800 gs 512 mb, 4gb ddr2.

and have just instaled this way boot camp 3.0... its necessary update the bootcamp to 3.2 ?

thanks a lot !

[Ramused]

like in the graphics, for games… it will improve?

thanks

[FelixB]

PLEASE HELP

I have had the same problem with windows not being able to run 64 bit version. I opened up the cmd as told, but when i typed in:
D:
cd "Boot Camp\Drivers\Apple"

I simply got the message in cmd saying "The system cannot find the path specified". I don't know how to proceed from here so please help. I ran it as administrator and i have tried like 6 times now. This might has to do with me being a windows/cmd noob, so if anyone could tell me what the problem could be please do so. I know this post is old by now but i could really use some help.