I'm running Win7 64-bit on my MBP 17" and I have one minor and one major problem with it.
The minor problem is the constant dropouts in audio. I'm using the latest Realtek HD driver, and it's damn near impossible to get a constant stream of audio going, especially when playing music in iTunes. I can live with it, though any tips on fixing it would be welcome.
The major problem is that once every two days or so, Win7 freezes up completely. It seems to occur when there's a combination of audio playing and something that requires the 9600M to do a few seconds of heavy work. For example, if I'm playing music or video in the background and I have an IE window open and set the scroll wheel in motion (I have one of those Logitech mice with a weighted metal wheel that will scroll insanely fast) so that the IE graphics have to be redrawn at a high framerate. Suddenly everything will freeze up and the audio gets stuck in a short loop that will go on stuttering until I hold the power button down for a few seconds to force a shutdown. No BSoD, no error messages of any sort, just "frrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" and a frozen screen.
Once this has happened, I can't boot into Windows again until I've done a PRAM/NVRAM reset and an SMC reset. If I try to boot anyway it will take longer than normal to reach the login prompt (and I don't get the Windows startup sound). After I enter my password the screen just says "Welcome" and doesn't move on from there. After the two reset operations, Windows will boot normally.
Not sure whether to pin this on NVidia, Realtek, Logitech, Microsoft, Apple or some hidden assailant doing the mad laugh behind the scenes...
The minor problem is the constant dropouts in audio. I'm using the latest Realtek HD driver, and it's damn near impossible to get a constant stream of audio going, especially when playing music in iTunes. I can live with it, though any tips on fixing it would be welcome.
The major problem is that once every two days or so, Win7 freezes up completely. It seems to occur when there's a combination of audio playing and something that requires the 9600M to do a few seconds of heavy work. For example, if I'm playing music or video in the background and I have an IE window open and set the scroll wheel in motion (I have one of those Logitech mice with a weighted metal wheel that will scroll insanely fast) so that the IE graphics have to be redrawn at a high framerate. Suddenly everything will freeze up and the audio gets stuck in a short loop that will go on stuttering until I hold the power button down for a few seconds to force a shutdown. No BSoD, no error messages of any sort, just "frrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" and a frozen screen.
Once this has happened, I can't boot into Windows again until I've done a PRAM/NVRAM reset and an SMC reset. If I try to boot anyway it will take longer than normal to reach the login prompt (and I don't get the Windows startup sound). After I enter my password the screen just says "Welcome" and doesn't move on from there. After the two reset operations, Windows will boot normally.
Not sure whether to pin this on NVidia, Realtek, Logitech, Microsoft, Apple or some hidden assailant doing the mad laugh behind the scenes...