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Unreliable networking in Windows 8 RTM on 2010 Mac mini

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ZeroPageX

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 2, 2009
11
0
Please note, my Windows 8 RTM copy is legit and straight from Microsoft.

First off, I have been boot camping Windows 7 x64 on this computer since I purchased it, and I have not run into a single problem. I also have had no issues from within the 3 OS X versions I've had on it. I also have installed Windows 8 on 2 of my other PC's, and networking is flawless. My router has Windows 8 PC's, Windows XP PC's, and a Linux PC connected to it, and I am seeing no issues on any of them.

My plan was to clean install both Mountain Lion and Windows 8 RTM on my 2010 Mac mini. I'll list the steps involved in case I did anything wrong.
1) I removed the Boot Camp partition which had Windows 7 on it, and reclaimed the space for OS X.
1) I purchased Mountain Lion from the App Store
2) I restored the Mountain Lion dmg to a 64 GB flash drive.
3) I booted from the flash drive, erased the OS X partition, created a new partition taking up the entire HDD, and clean installed Mountain Lion to it. Networking works fine in OS X.
4) I ran Software Update which updated my firmware to 1.5.
5) I setup a 100 GB Boot Camp partition.
6) I burned the latest Boot Camp support software to a CD.
7) I burned the Windows 8 RTM ISO from TechNet to a DVD.
8) I installed Windows 8 on to the Boot Camp partition.
9) I installed the Boot Camp support software in Windows 8 and rebooted.

I now have an almost-working copy of Windows 8. The problem is, while my wired NIC is able to get an IP address using DHCP, it is unable to do anything else. It is not simply a DNS issue as I have tried to reach web sites using IP addresses. I was able to connect to my wireless network, but it was very flaky and would often drop.

I have tried putting Windows 7 back on it, and it works fine.

Are there other drivers I can try? Does Boot Camp even come with Windows 8 drivers? Can I try the old Windows 7 drivers? Any other thoughts?
 
M

monkeybagel

macrumors 65816
Jul 24, 2011
1,141
61
United States
I had the Release Preview running on my 2010 Mac mini with 8GB and it seemed to run okay. I don't like the OS that much so I didn't leave it on long. I didn't notice any networking issues, however.

I installed Windows 8 Enterprise RTM x64 onto a 15" MacBook Pro Mid 2012. It installed great (from USB even - and would boot EFI but would not install EFI but that is another story).

Power Management clearly was not woking correctly as the laptop got really warm. I rebooted it in 10.8 to allow it to cool off. I didn't have any Boot Camp (Windows 7 versions) drivers available to see if that would deal with the heat issues.

Perhaps I can try the RTM of Windows 8 Enterprise x64 in a few days and report back. What are the reproduction steps?
 
Z

ZeroPageX

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 2, 2009
11
0
I listed the repro steps above. I didn't do anything fancy, and it happens every time. I was already noticing issues before I installed the Boot Camp drivers, because Windows 8 has wired NIC drivers built-in already. I had to connect to my Wifi network to get my Microsoft Account detected. Then I was able to turn off Wifi and install the Boot Camp drivers. The rest of the OS seems to function fine. Do these machines have different Intel NIC's than what mobile PC's get or something?

Thanks for giving a shot. Let me know how it goes. I don't know if it matters, but I believe my Mac mini is the June 2010 model. I purchased it new from the Apple store in April 2011.
 
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linkcube1

macrumors newbie
Aug 10, 2009
2
0
Yes I have a 2010 MacBook pro, installed Windows 8 pro x64 via msdn and I am having both wireless and trackpad issues. The wireless seems to go from full bars and drop to two every 30 seconds and the trackpad does not work. I hope apple releases new drivers soon...
 
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MJL

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2011
845
1
Mac mini 2010 server, OS X Lion. Windows 7 running fine, Windows 8 flaky network connection, both hardwired and wireless.

Thanks for the info on Mountain Lion Bootcamp and Windows 8 - had hoped it would resolve it. I'll stick to Windows 7.

Wonder what happened to Job's "play nice with your competitors" mantra. Microsoft dug them out of a hole (out of self interest) but Apple does not seem to be interested in providing good Windows drivers. Some of us like the Apple hardware but have to stick to Windows but if windows won't run properly then Apple will loose that customer.
 
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monkeybagel

macrumors 65816
Jul 24, 2011
1,141
61
United States
ZeroPageX said:
I listed the repro steps above. I didn't do anything fancy, and it happens every time. I was already noticing issues before I installed the Boot Camp drivers, because Windows 8 has wired NIC drivers built-in already. I had to connect to my Wifi network to get my Microsoft Account detected. Then I was able to turn off Wifi and install the Boot Camp drivers. The rest of the OS seems to function fine. Do these machines have different Intel NIC's than what mobile PC's get or something?

Thanks for giving a shot. Let me know how it goes. I don't know if it matters, but I believe my Mac mini is the June 2010 model. I purchased it new from the Apple store in April 2011.
Click to expand...

I finally tried to install Windows 8 Enterprise x64 RTM onto the 2010 Mac mini using EFI. It finishes the first part of the install fine, however after the first reboot it gets to the point where it is Setting Up Devices. At 7%, the screen blanks out. About 10 seconds or so after that, it restarts. Windows then complains on the next restart that Setup restarted unexpectedly and it must I must rerun Setup to try again. Tried three times - two with DVD and one with UFD.

Did you install in EFI or BIOS emulation?
 
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monkeybagel

macrumors 65816
Jul 24, 2011
1,141
61
United States
Wanted to give an update.

This probably doesn't matter, but I'll throw it in for the sake of completeness. I had 8GB of Crucial memory in the machine, and replaced it with the 2GB that it came with, trying to troubleshoot the EFI problem. It did not help (I didn't expect it to).

Windows 8 x64 Enterprise did install from DVD using BIOS emulation and installed without issue. An attempt to install Boot Camp drivers that I downloaded in 10.8.1 resulted in the NVidia video drivers to cause the system to restart, much like the installation in UEFI mode.

The Ethernet connection hardly works. I wonder if I was using WiFi when I was running the release preview build, as WiFi seems to work fine now.

I cannot ping and Internet DNS servers or even the local Cisco ASA Firewall. I could ping both as soon as WiFi connected on the same network.

I forced the installation of the Broadcom Ethernet driver from the same Boot Camp CD and the driver installed with a date of 12/2/2010, and I am getting the exact same results.

I also (on the inbox driver) disabled pretty much all of the offloading and manually tried several different port speeds all the way down to 10/half and still could not ping anything. While I type this I am also noticing that some of the key presses occasionally do not register. This seems to happen once every 15-25 words. Strange.

Out of curiosity, did you install the EFI update to enable Lion Internet Recovery? I have not- I am not sure if that would impact the video driver installation or not. It clearly doesn't seem to impact the network issue.
 
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monkeybagel

macrumors 65816
Jul 24, 2011
1,141
61
United States
I will try that. Thanks.

Do you actually like Windows 8? I have tried so much to make myself like it but so far only using it because I feel like I have to.
 
Z

ZeroPageX

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 2, 2009
11
0
Yes I do. For traditional apps it doesn't feel too much different. It's just Windows 7 with a full screen Start Menu and some other tweaks. Although I do use search to launch all my apps, so the layout isn't really important to me. I actually prefer the new look over Windows 7, and I like the Explorer ribbon. The profile syncing is cool too. The only thing that annoys me is the separation of desktop and WinRT versions of Chrome and IE.

I use some WinRT apps, and I like the contract features like Search and Share.

If you like using keyboard shortcuts, look up the new ones for Windows 8. It makes using the OS so much easier for those of us without touchscreens. For instance, use Win+C to bring up charms, Win+W to search Settings in the Start Screen, and Windows+I to bring up settings for your current app.

Also, try logging in with a Microsoft account if you haven't yet. It can integrate with other online accounts and populates a bunch of data in the built-in apps. If you use Facebook, but you don't like the web site, you can just open up the People app and click "What's New." The interface is very clean and simple. Mail, Calendar, and Messaging integrate well too. Try connecting photo services and run an app that uses the Photo picker.

I'm not sure why it gets so much flack to be honest except that it's different. It's a very modern platform, and it doesn't feel any more difficult to use.
 
R

robdav

macrumors newbie
Oct 27, 2012
2
0
Update Windows 8 mac mini network driver?

ZeroPageX said:
Well, I installed this Windows 7 driver from Broadcom (v15.2.0.5b) which was has a date on it of 06/04/12. So far I am having no issues with my wired NIC. I am actually posting this from my mini.
http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/netxtreme_desktop.php

Give it a shot and let me know how it goes. Good luck!

Edit: Yes, I also have the latest EFI update.
Click to expand...

Hi ZeroPage,

I've hit the exact same problem as you with unreliable networking running Windows 8 on my mac mini. I tried updating the driver before finding your post and have since tried again but it won't let me update it. If I choose the update driver option and browse to the Broadcom downloaded drivers it simply says the most suitable driver is already installed. I tried using pnputil to add it but that fails also.

What method did you use and has the networking been completely reliable since you changed the driver?

Cheers

Rob
 
K

krburrell

macrumors regular
Dec 5, 2007
110
1
robdav said:
What method did you use and has the networking been completely reliable since you changed the driver?
Click to expand...

I have the same setup and had the same initial problems. To get windows to install the updated driver, do this:

1. After clicking update driver on the next screen click "Browse my computer for driver software"
2. On the next screen click the second option "Let me pick from a list of device drivers for my computer"
3. Click "Have disk""
4. Browse for the downloaded Broadcom (v15.2.0.5b) drivers
5. Pick the file that ends in .inf in the driver folder
6. Click open and the new driver will install.

After doing this I have not had any networking issues.
 
R

robdav

macrumors newbie
Oct 27, 2012
2
0
krburrell said:
I have the same setup and had the same initial problems. To get windows to install the updated driver, do this:

1. After clicking update driver on the next screen click "Browse my computer for driver software"
2. On the next screen click the second option "Let me pick from a list of device drivers for my computer"
3. Click "Have disk""
4. Browse for the downloaded Broadcom (v15.2.0.5b) drivers
5. Pick the file that ends in .inf in the driver folder
6. Click open and the new driver will install.

After doing this I have not had any networking issues.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I managed to get around it another more brutal way by replacing the driver files in the folder Windows 8 was using to install them from and it worked.
 
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lordboogie

macrumors member
Oct 15, 2012
33
0
I had the same issues with my 2010 Mac mini, which I'm running Windows 8.1 exclusively. The native Windows 8.1 Broadcom NetXtreme drivers from the Broadcom website have fixed my issue. They are version 16.2.0.4b dated 11/05/13.
 
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