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MacRulez

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 31, 2010
6
0
Hey everyone! I have a 2006, (IDK if it's early or late, can someone tell me how to check?) MacBook Pro w/ 120 GB HD and 2 GB of RAM. I plan on upgrading to a samsung 500 GB 7200 RPM HD and 4 GB of RAM. The reason being is to install Windows 7 so I can have a gaming PC and my Mac for everyday tasks. I just read though that Windows 7 will not work on an Early 2006 MacBook Pro on the Apple site. My questions are: What if I have a LATE 2006 MacBook Pro? How can I find out if I do? And finally, if I can't install Windows 7 on my Mac to make a gaming PC what should I do? Should I settle for XP or Vista? Any help at all would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks a lot! :)
 

MacRulez

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 31, 2010
6
0
I just looked it up. I have a late 2006 model that will not support Windows 7. Is there any way to make it work? What should I do?
 

DannySmurf

macrumors 6502a
Jul 7, 2005
628
0
Do you have a link to the place on Apple's site that you read that it would not work? I can't imagine why it wouldn't, since Windows 7 works perfectly well on every other Core Duo machine.

Possibly Apple's drivers won't support that configuration, but you could always find drivers for all of the components yourself.
 

DannySmurf

macrumors 6502a
Jul 7, 2005
628
0
Well the most likely reason is that they just don't want to have to maintain driver for a machine that old any more.

So, you have a few options:

1. Do the install, pop in the driver disk and hope for the best (ie, that the Vista drivers will work... which they PROBABLY will)
2. Hunt down drivers for your devices yourself
3. Install Vista (which is supported), and then upgrade that to 7.
 

Darth.Titan

macrumors 68030
Oct 31, 2007
2,905
753
Austin, TX

flopticalcube

macrumors G4
Since you have a late 2006, its a Core 2 Duo therefore x64 will run on it although since you can't get past the 3GB memory barrier, I would stick with x86 (32bit). The only real problem for those machines is the X1600 graphics which ATI does not officially support but the default drivers that MS provides (older Vista driver I believe) work fine.
 

Anonymous Freak

macrumors 603
Dec 12, 2002
5,559
1,246
Cascadia
As an owner of an early 2006 (32-bit-only Core Duo) MacBook Pro with Radeon X1600 graphics, I can say that Windows 7 works just fine.

I ran an in-place upgrade from a Boot-Camp-installed Windows Vista.
 

DannySmurf

macrumors 6502a
Jul 7, 2005
628
0
Are you sure that would work?

It should, because 7 will pick up the drivers that you installed under Vista when you do the upgrade. I would consider this the last resort though, as you should be able to just install the Vista drivers directly under 7. Do this one only if that doesn't work.
 

DannySmurf

macrumors 6502a
Jul 7, 2005
628
0
lol Sorry, I'm a bit of a "nubbinz" to the whole computer scene.... What do you mean? :eek:

I mean... the drivers that came with your MacBook Pro are designed to work with Windows XP, or Windows Vista.

Windows 7 will (usually) accept Windows Vista drivers. So, the easiest path for you is to install Windows 7 on your laptop, and then boot into Windows and pop in the OSX Install DVD (which contains the Windows drivers for your hardware) and attempt to install the drivers, even though they are not for the specific version of the operating system you are trying to get on there.
 

tone21705

macrumors newbie
Nov 7, 2011
1
0
old problem - new solution?

Hi All,

Sorry to bring this back up but I am having this issue now and didnt see a solution.

I have a 15-inch Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro which I believe is: MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2006).

I installed Snow Leopard and used bootcamp 3.0 (?) to install windows 7. The install went fine but once I got into windows 7 most of the drivers were missing. If I put in the Snow Leopard disc and install the windows side of bootcamp, it also installs fine but after restarting (forces you after install) I am never able to log in to windows again it always just restarts the computer after I type in my pw and hit Enter.

I went back to OSX and deleted that windows partition and tried again (full format) and exact same thing. I found if I dont install the windows bootcamp program then Windows 7 works fine except for the missing drivers (2-3) and the keyboard (volume up/down, brightness etc) do not work. I was able to get most of the drivers working from internet forums etc. But never the keyboard.

I got an SSD this weekend and put more time into this and tried it ALL again. Installed a fresh 10.6 and bootcamp w/ windows 7 but exactly the same results =[

Does anyone have any tips? I really would like to use windows 7. I do have vista and was going to try the upgrade method next but was hoping to hear someones results before I do a clean install again...

Thanks,
 
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