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Bootcamp doesn't work on new Mac Pro 2009

Got major problems with my Mac Pro.

I am not able to continue with installing the AHCI drivers cause I think my graphicscard is faulty. The system is running instable and I got strange appearances on the screen like black lines and the screen is freezing except for the mouse. Had this problem two days ago, I just took the graphicscard out and installed it again.

Can't be a driver problem, cause I was in Windows 7 and the system crashed. Got the same issues in Windows like in OS X.

Don't have any solution for this problem. Didn't found the same problem in this forum neither at google ! I think just my GT 120 is faulty.

Got two 24" Samsung Monitors working, tried only to run one and tested both outputs.

Graphicscard isn't too hot. It is always around 30-50 degrees.

This is maybe the wrong thread for that, but I just wanted to let you know.
I'm gonna call Apple on monday...
 
Ok, I'm looking at the Boot Camp installer folders and I can't
find anything that looks like 5400 series chipset drivers. I've
got this:

chipset.png

None of the executables there look appropriate. And the
Chipset folder doesn't seem to contain any drivers either.
It's mainly infs. So where are the chipset drivers supposed
to come from? :)
 
Infrared said:
Ok, I'm looking at the Boot Camp installer folders and I can't
find anything that looks like 5400 series chipset drivers. I've
got this:

View attachment 187308

None of the executables there look appropriate. And the
Chipset folder doesn't seem to contain any drivers either.
It's mainly infs. So where are the chipset drivers supposed
to come from? :)
Click to expand...

Your earlier post looked like you have a MacPro pre Nehalem. That would be chipset for a 5000S board which uses the ESB2 for SATA.

Only Nehalem Octad uses 5520 boards with the ICH10 for SATA.

If you look in Bootcamp you obviously have to go to the Intel folder, as you did. But dig a little deeper. Drivers/Intel/Chipset/setup.exe
 
gugucom said:
Your earlier post looked like you have a MacPro pre Nehalem.
Click to expand...

Oh! It's a 2008 Mac Pro :)

That would be chipset for a 5000S board which uses the ESB2 for SATA.

Only Nehalem Octad uses 5520 boards with the ICH10 for SATA.

If you look in Bootcamp you obviously have to go to the Intel folder,
as you did. But dig a little deeper. Drivers/Intel/Chipset/setup.exe
Click to expand...

That doesn't contain the drivers, though, surely? I mean, it's only 852KB!
Isn't it just the inf installer? I'm pretty sure it is, because the contents of
that folder look just like the contents of the inf utility folder from Intel.
And look what it says in the readme:

"The Intel(R) Chipset Device Software installs Windows* INF files to
the target system."

Inf files are not drivers. So the question remains. Where do the 5400
chipset drivers come from? Apple doesn't appear to supply any as far
as I can tell.
 
I'm far from a specialist in driver software, more like a dumb user, but the .inf files are the installation files for drivers. They come with libraries, catalogs, sys files and ofther stuff which they apparently call during installation. The basic Intel AHCI driver for instance seems to comprise just two files of 12 kB each. If you are concerned about an old chipset driver simply download everything you can find at Intel about the 5000 mainboards and chipsets. Windows will simply reject all the stuff you don't need. Don't look for 5500 software. That is for Nehalem only.
 
gugucom said:
I'm far from a specialist in driver software, more like a dumb user, but the .inf files are the installation files for drivers. They come with libraries, catalogs, sys files and ofther stuff which they apparently call during installation. The basic Intel AHCI driver for instance seems to comprise just two files of 12 kB each. If you are concerned about an old chipset driver simply download everything you can find at Intel about the 5000 mainboards and chipsets. Windows will simply reject all the stuff you don't need.
Click to expand...

I might do that. Not sure at the moment. Would like to know what
I'm getting into first.

Ok, looking at the Intel/Chipset folder we have:

(1) All: Just contains infs and cats. The inf files contain driver
descriptions. The cat files contain driver signatures. That is my
understanding of it.

(2) Lang: Appears to contain licensing text files for each language.
Some dlls too. They are probably related to licensing.

(3) Vista: More infs and cats. No drivers here :)

(4) x64: difxapi.dll, whatever that might be and Difx64.exe.
Note: difxapi.dll is also in Intel/Chipset, so difxapi.dll in x64
is probably (guessing) a 64-bit version of that.

That leaves one other file in which the drivers might be hiding:

Setup.exe

Finally, 'readme.txt' seems to refer to installing infs, not drivers
(typical extension would '.sys'). Wouldn't it refer to the installation
of drivers if that was what their installer does?

I haven't read every word in the readme, mind you, so I guess
there could be a reference buried in there.

I think I may have to ask Intel directly about this.

Thanks!
 
I would think that the meat of the drivers is in .cat and .dll files. AFAIK .cat are catalogs and .dll are dynamic link libraries. The .inf install files are calling those for specific content. The .msi files are installation files that can install multiple .inf files I guess. The .exe files will do all that the .msi files do and on top other actions like unpacking and setting up folders.
 
gugucom said:
I would think that the meat of the drivers is in .cat and .dll files. AFAIK .cat are catalogs and .dll are dynamic link libraries. The .inf install files are calling those for specific content. The .msi files are installation files that can install multiple .inf files I guess. The .exe files will do all that the .msi files do and on top other actions like unpacking and setting up folders.
Click to expand...

I think the cat files are driver signature files. As described here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms794526.aspx

"Catalog files are supplied by the Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Lab (WHQL), after WHQL has tested and assigned digital signatures to driver files."

I think it relates to this:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winlogo/drvsign/drvsign.mspx
 
gugucom said:
You left out this bit from the same source:
Click to expand...

Yes. That doesn't mean there is a driver inside the cat file. It means
the cat file will be distributed (most often) along with the driver. I'm
sorry, but you appear not to know enough about this. I will ask Intel.
 
Just a quick follow-up.

I've been reading around and it looks like Intel's inf update utility
doesn't actually install any drivers. Rather, it installs inf files that
the OS uses to configure the system.

It seems that XP/Vista/Windows 7 already comes with most of the
relevant drivers and this configuration is a final step. Occasionally,
though, one does need to install additional drivers (e.g., for AHCI
functionality) as Windows does not come with these.
 
running a version of windows

I am interested in loading a version of windows possibly vista32 as the apple sales people said vista 64 will not work on the macpro.
I understand what you guys are writing her its just some of the short forms ie "going to need to install the AHCI drivers (you should be able to find these on the BC disk)."
Wher would i download the AHCI drivers for a new macpro core 8 a 2.26 processors and what does BC stand for
 
vance09 said:
I am interested in loading a version of windows possibly vista32 as the apple sales people said vista 64 will not work on the macpro.
Click to expand...

That is complete bull excrement. Vista-64, Win7-64 work very well on all MacPros. XP-64 principally works as well. It just isn't supported by Apple with drivers. The 2006 and 2007 MP models are fitted with a buggy firmware (EFI32) which will not load anytime upgrade Windows DVDs. Thats all the facts on Windows-64 compatibility and Mc Pro.

vance09 said:
I understand what you guys are writing her its just some of the short forms ie "going to need to install the AHCI drivers (you should be able to find these on the BC disk)."
Wher would i download the AHCI drivers for a new macpro core 8 a 2.26 processors and what does BC stand for
Click to expand...

BC is short for BootCamp which is Apple's way of making an Intel Mac boot into Windows natively. If you want Windows native on your MP don't worry about AHCI drivers. For basic performance you don't need them. Only if you want to run Blu-Ray play back drives under Windows or need blazing fast SATA drives under Windows you will have to sort this out. Most of the time people don't even need native 64-Bit Windows and can do with virtual installations. Only gamers and video specialists tend to need native Windows sometimes.
 
gugucom said:
BC is short for BootCamp which is Apple's way of making an Intel Mac boot into Windows natively. If you want Windows native on your MP don't worry about AHCI drivers. For basic performance you don't need them. Only if you want to run Blu-Ray play back drives under Windows or need blazing fast SATA drives under Windows you will have to sort this out. Most of the time people don't even need native 64-Bit Windows and can do with virtual installations. Only gamers and video specialists tend to need native Windows sometimes.
Click to expand...
If the drive is attached to the ODD_SATA ports (5 & 6), AHCI will be required though (or Windows won't see the port). Just not an absolute necessity on the 4 drive bays.
 
It is actually a bit different between the 2006, 2007 and 2008 MPs vs the Nehalems.

The MacPro1,1-MacPro3,1 simply had six SATA ports of which four are equipped with direct power for HDD sleds. The ODD ports are hidden under the fan unit and have six pin PCIe power connectors next to them. So there are no Molex 4 pin or SATA power connectors directly located with these ports. The ports should work fine in legacy mode in Windows unless I'm very much mistaken.

The Nehalem MacPro4,1 with the ICH10R chipset has no IDE ports. On the 5520 Intel main board design the chipset uses different devices for the 4 HDD SATAports and for the ODD SATA ports. You are probably referring to that fact. Perhaps the ODD ports are different in SATA speed. ODDs certainly doesn't need the bandwidth of HDDs and SSDs.
 
gugucom said:
It is actually a bit different between the 2006, 2007 and 2008 MPs vs the Nehalems.

The MacPro1,1-MacPro3,1 simply had six SATA ports of which four are equipped with direct power for HDD sleds. The ODD ports are hidden under the fan unit and have six pin PCIe power connectors next to them. So there are no Molex 4 pin or SATA power connectors directly located with these ports. The ports should work fine in legacy mode in Windows unless I'm very much mistaken.

The Nehalem MacPro4,1 with the ICH10R chipset has no IDE ports. On the 5520 Intel main board design the chipset uses different devices for the 4 HDD SATAports and for the ODD SATA ports. You are probably referring to that fact. Perhaps the ODD ports are different in SATA speed. ODDs certainly doesn't need the bandwidth of HDDs and SSDs.
Click to expand...
I was going by the '06 - '08 models (you've an '06MP in your sig). ;)

Going by the forum, the ODD_SATA ports (ports 5 & 6 under the fan assy) seemed to only work with the AHCI drivers. Never quite understood why, but figure there's something different in the firmware between those pair and those attached via the MiniSAS cable (ports 1 - 4) that Windows wouldn't see them until the drivers were loaded. (Those posts are rather old now, but I think the last ones are from ~ Apr - Jun '08).
 
nanofrog said:
I was going by the '06 - '08 models (you've an '06MP in your sig). ;)

Going by the forum, the ODD_SATA ports (ports 5 & 6 under the fan assy) seemed to only work with the AHCI drivers. Never quite understood why, but figure there's something different in the firmware between those pair and those attached via the MiniSAS cable (ports 1 - 4) that Windows wouldn't see them until the drivers were loaded. (Those posts are rather old now, but I think the last ones are from ~ Apr - Jun '08).
Click to expand...

All I can go by is the Windows device manager which shows only one position for SATA devices in legacy and in AHCI mode on my 2006 model. I have never attempted to connect a hard drive there either in legacy or in AHCI mode. I did however connect a BD and got no recognition in legacy. This is how I found out that AHCI existed and went to the trouble of activating it. It may be as you say. That for reasons beyond explanation the two ports are run by the same device as the HDD ports but are inactive in legacy mode. It certainly is a bit strange.
 
gugucom said:
All I can go by is the Windows device manager which shows only one position for SATA devices in legacy and in AHCI mode on my 2006 model. I have never attempted to connect a hard drive there either in legacy or in AHCI mode. I did however connect a BD and got no recognition in legacy. This is how I found out that AHCI existed and went to the trouble of activating it. It may be as you say. That for reasons beyond explanation the two ports are run by the same device as the HDD ports but are inactive in legacy mode. It certainly is a bit strange.
Click to expand...
It may have just been limited to SATA Optical drives. I certainly recall that being an issue, but thought it also extended to mechanical drives (no SSD's tested on them at that point IIRC).

But AHCI isn't a bad thing to have anyway. ;) Legacy is a tad slow these days, and since the hardware can use it, why not. :)
 
AHCI and Boot Camp Control Panel

In my experience, installing AHCI on a Mac Pro 1.1 isn't that difficult. The problem is that, once AHCI is up and running in Windows Vista or Windows 7, the Boot Camp Control Panel (Boot Camp 3.0) doesn't work! Has anyone found a solution for this?
 
seisend said:
Ahhh, you're right thanks !

I already installed Windows via Bootcamp on my MBP.


So what are the steps?

1. Format harddrive DOS Fat32
2. Insert Windows Disc and restart
3. Boot from windows DISK?
... what are AHCI drivers ?

I am gonna install Windows XP 32bit Professional with the full HD capacity for now.

thanks nanofrog
Click to expand...

Also you should format it as a ntfs partition as it is more secure.
 
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