Resolved Windows 8 installer stops right after language screen because drivers are not found

I'm trying to install Windows 8 Pro 64 bit on my late 2013 MacBook Pro using Boot Camp running on OS X 10.9.1. I have encountered several problems and I cannot get Windows to install. I am using a 16 GB USB that I have made bootable and downloaded support drivers on using Boot Camp Assistant (I checked box 1 and 2). I have then created a 100 GB partition for Windows using Boot Camp Assistant (box 3).

When the computer boots, it always boots back into OS X so I have to hold the option key and pick Windows. The installation then starts and when I get to the language option screen (first screen in the Windows installation), my trackpad and keyboard do not work. I have to use a USB mouse at this point.

When I select the language options and click next, I get an error saying drivers are missing. I get the option to browse or rescan. No matter how much I browse, I cannot get it to register any drivers. I have tried every single folder in the USB Boot drive where Boot Camp has downloaded the support files. I have also tried downloading the support files directly from Apple (http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1638).

These are the latest files that can be found on Apple's site and the ones recommended by Apple Support. As you can see, those files are almost a year old and most likely were made before the late 2013 MBPs were made. The files downloaded by Boot Camp Assistant have a "Date Modified" date of October 2nd 2013 and should therefore be the latest ones.

Something to note, when I browse for drivers after getting stuck, if I select the "$WinPEDriver$" folder and the first folder in it called "AppleBluetoothBroadcom64", a file appears and I can click next in the installer. A loading bar appears and I then get an error saying the driver does not support the software and that I should contact my vendor for updated drivers.

Also, I have gone through this process at least ten times (trying both Windows 8 and 8.1) and at one time, the keyboard and trackpad did work on the language screen, even though I had not made any changes after the previous try, but I still got stuck on the screen after in the same way.

The .iso files are downloaded directly from Microsoft's Dreamspark using their download tool. I have tied both the left side and the right side USB port, as well as downloading the support drivers onto a separate USB drive and plugging that one in when the installer says drivers are missing.

I have chatted and talked to tens of different support people and six or seven different senior advisors. Some asked me to try different things; a few said they cannot do anything and that I should contact Microsoft. Can anyone please, please help me? I need to have Visual Studio running as soon as possible (Xamarin/Mono doesn't do anymore) for my programming course and I don't know what to do.

My last resort would be to install Parallels or VMware, but there really isn't much room in my budget for that right now, so I would prefer to get this working using Boot Camp. Thank you so much for all your help!

Quackers said:

Are you using a USB3 stick, by any chance? Try a USB2 stick or plug your USB3 into a USB2 hub, if you have one.

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I don't think so. It has a black plastic piece inside the metal (not blue) and it doesn't say SS anywhere. I looks exactly like these, but it's 16 GB.

Unfortunately I don't have a USB hub.

I've taken some pictures to better show what happens.

This is what the USB drive looks like after having Boot Camp Assistant make it bootable and download support files onto it:

(Note the partition was not yet made when the screenshot above was taken)

This is the screen I get when I boot and hold the option key. I pick Windows:


This is the language screen I get. I have to use a USB mouse to get past it:


This is what I get right after clicking next on the language screen:


This is what I get if I click OK or if browse and select a folder or if I rescan:


If I select this folder:


A file (driver?) appears and the Next button becomes clickable:


If I click Next, I get this error:


If I uncheck the "Hide incompatible drivers..." checkbox, more files become visible, but none of them work:


Sorry for the huge post.

Quackers said:

I don't know whether those drivers can actually install before the OS is installed.
Is your machine new or very recent? Have you tried asking Apple?

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My machine is the most recent MBPr: 15'' MacBook Pro (late 2013), 2.3 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, GT 750M.

I have talked to dozens of people from Apple support and none of them could find a solution or even figure out the problem.

One senior advisor said he had encountered this on a few other new MBPs and he was the one who suggested I should use a USB mouse, but then we got disconnected.

Another senior advisor thought there might be an issue with the partition and he helped me remove the Boot Camp created partition and instead use Disk Utility to create "Free space" on the SSD so that I could have Windows create the partition itself, but since I get stuck in the beginning of the installation, I don't even get to the partition screen.

Quackers said:

I sympahtize It must be very annoying.
If it's a MBP and you're using a USB mouse why are you trying to install Bluetooth drivers? Just out of interest.
I've seen similar problems with Windows 7 but not Windows 8.

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I'm not, but I cannot get past that screen in any way so I've tried almost every folder I could think of, and the Bluetooth one was the only one that actually showed any files.

Quackers said:

I don't know whether it will be of any use to you, but the drivers on Apple's support site only go up to version 5033.
Newer Macs can get updated drivers (version 5411) only through Bootcamp Assistant - and apparently it takes ages to download them.
Did you get your Windows Support drivers through Bootcamp Assistant?

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Yup, I got them directly from Boot Camp Assistant. I also tried the 5033 ones from the site because chat support told me to try it, but that didn't help. If fact, when trying with the older ones from the site, if I chose the same folder as before, all files are hidden, even the first one. They still show up if I uncheck the box.

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By the way, is there any way to check that the drivers I get from Boot Camp Assistant are indeed version 5411? The only thing I can see is that they were modified on October 2nd 2013. I'm running the latest Mavericks with all the updates installed, so I guess I should get the latest drivers, but who knows? My Boot Camp Assistant version is 5.1.1 (479).

Quackers said:

It's not a fix for your problem but VirtualBox is free and Windows runs fine in that. It could be worth a try in the meantime, if you're desperate.

Sorry I can't offer anything more solid but there seems to be a problem with your particular machine. Many people have had problems installing Windows on late models MBP's but this (to my knowledge) has not been one of them.

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Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it. I'll take a look at VirtualBox, because I am indeed getting desperate. I wish I could figure out what is wrong with my machine since I still have warranty and could get it fixed.

Quackers said:

It's very odd that when Bootcamp is done and restarts your system it boots straight to OSx instead of in to the Windows installer.
I wonder if a PRAM and or a SMC reset would help?

And do you have an older (definitely USB2) stick handy?

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I asked support why it boots back in OS X and they said it's normal that you have to hold option and pick Windows.

I have done an SMC reset but i haven't done a PRAM reset in a while so I'll try that.

I checked System Information with the USB stick plugged in and it says it has a speed of "Up to 480 Mb/sec" so that should be a USB 2.0 right?

jenzjen said:

Depending how desperate you are had similar issue (same machine and Windows) and completely wiped my laptop, did a recovery install of Mavericks and reset PRAM and SMC after Mavericks was up again.

Formatted the USB in disk utility myself and reran BCA (drivers on separate stick) and install worked.

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Did you get stuck on the same step? I am pretty desperate som I might try that.

chrfr said:

Oddly enough, that error usually pops up when your Windows installer is somehow corrupt, rather than the default drivers being missing.
Try going through the USB install steps again in the Boot Camp assistant and don't forget to have it include the Boot Camp drivers when it makes the USB installer.

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I've downloaded the .iso file directly from Microsoft several times. I've also ran through the Boot Camp Assistant steps at least five or six times. Every time, I've selected both the "Create a bootable USB" option and the "Download drivers" option. Actually, the "Download drivers" checkbox gets automatically checked and cannot be unchecked when you check the "Create a bootable USB" box.

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DeltaMac said:

Maybe this thread will help you:
http://linustechtips.com/main/topic...-media-driver-your-computer-needs-is-missing/

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Thanks, I'll try that.

I finally managed to install Windows 8 on my MBP. It was not easy at all so here is what I did in case someone else runs into this issue. DeltaMac's link did the trick.

I ended up making the bootable USB on a PC running Windows Vista. I downloaded the Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool (it works with Windows 8; don't know about 8.1).

I installed it and ran through the process of creating a bootable USB which took more than an hour only to get an error message saying that the files were copied successfully but the USB drive could not be made bootable and that I should look into something called "bootsect".

After some googling around, I found out bootsect is something you need if you are creating a 64 bit boot on a 32 bit machine (which I was). Microsoft help articles said bootsect was available on the download page where I got my copy of Windows, but of course it was not. I did not save the link, but there are a few copies of bootsect that you can find by googling.

When you get it, you just have to place it in the folder where you have your Windows 7 download tool. There are instructions about this here.

After doing this, I ran through the tool again and this time it worked. I now had a USB Boot made on Windows instead of Boot Camp Assistant. I also downloaded the support drivers from Boot Camp Assistant (not Apple's site) onto a different USB, since it's not possible to download them on the bootable USB made on Windows.

Before I ran the USB Boot on my Mac, I did an SMC and PRAM reset which seemed to fix the issue with the trackpad and keyboard not responding (I tested this with my old USB Boot made in Boot Camp Assistant). I also reinstalled OS X just to make sure. Using the Boot Camp made USB still did not work after this.

When I booted off the USB made on Windows, I got past the language screen! However, I got stuck on the partition screen. The installer would not accept the partition, even after erasing it or even deleting it and creating a new one. This was the error I got.

This step-by-step instruction worked for me, however, not without some issues of course. First of all, After running the installer again, just before the partition screen, I got a strange screen with two options. One was to update the version of Windows I already had (I didn't) and the other one was to install Windows over it. Only the bottom option worked.

Then I got stuck on step 15, where it says the partition should be accepted. I got an error message saying "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one". Thankfully, this support article from Apple had the solution: remove the USB with the drivers and only leave the installer USB.

The installation ran fine after this, with just a few small glitches that don't require any support. Now I am running Windows. 37th time's a charm!

Thank you all for your support; especially DeltaMac for finding that necessary thread and also thanks to Matt from 123myIT.com for helping me with this issue over on YouTube.