ACPI Error (Boot Camp)

[AlohaTiger]

Background: I bought a $2499 MacBook Pro in October. I setup a boot camp partition with Windows XP Home which I only used for playing Team Fortress.

Last week my MacBook Pro was stolen. I got a new one (same model) and installed Windows XP Home via boot camp. Everything seems to work perfectly, except that now after playing for a few minutes the computer hangs. The screen goes black, the audio starts looping (a short loop, less than a second), and the keyboard is unresponsive (although the backlight stays on). I have to hold down the power key to shut off the computer when this happens.

The event log shows a system error saying that the ACPI BIOS tried to write to an illegal address. I tried disabling the ACPI battery driver in the Device Manager but it had no effect.

I get this lockup every time I play TF2. Since that's the only reason I use Boot Camp, I'm hoping I can figure this out. I'm confused because the previous MacBook Pro did not have this issue.

Any suggestions are appreciated!

 

[AlohaTiger]

Here are the three entries from the system event log that I get with every lock up:

Error (Source: acpi, Event: 10, time: 9:03:53)
ACPI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to write to an illegal PCI Operation Region (0x41c), Please contact your system vendor for technical assistance.

Error (Source: acpiec, Event: 1, time: 9:04:09)
\Device\ACPIEC: The embedded controller (EC) hardware didn't respond within the timeout period. This may indicate an error in the EC hardware or firmware, or possibly a poorly designed BIOS which accesses the EC in an unsafe manner. The EC driver will retry the failed transaction if possible.

Warning (Source: BTHUSB, Event: 18, time: 9:04:18)
Windows cannot store Bluetooth link keys on the local transceiver because it cannot determine whether proper security is enabled for the device.

I'm not sure how the Bluetooth comes into play. I disabled the Bluetooth network devices in the Device Manager, but that didn't seem to help.

The acpi and BTHUSB entries appear in the event viewer at times I wasn't playing TF2 and no lockup happened.

Is there a way to turn off ACPI at that hardware level to allow me to play my game? It shouldn't matter since I'm also plugged in to wall power when I play.

 

[$3ptember]

I have the EXACT same issue - it happens when I play Medieval 2. I was thinking there's a problem with the game, however it seems to be deeper than that... Any solutions?

 

[ryannazaretian]

I'm not sure this will fix it, and it's a lot of work, but try wiping off your whole hard drive and starting new.

I was having a lot of freezing issues in Windows (not sure if it was ACPI related, but it was freezing). I got fed up with it and didn't want to drive an hour to the closest Apple Store in Metarie, LA, or travel through New Orleans traffic.

I decided my best bet would be to wipe everything off. Windows, OSX, and whatever else resides on the hard drive. I installed OSX, then started Bootcamp and installed Windows Vista again. I have yet to have a freeze. Seems like an emulated bios problem...

 

[AlohaTiger]

I updated the NVIDIA drivers and that fixed the problem.

 

[AlohaTiger]

- I was wrong, the problem is still there. I was able to run TF2 for about 20 minutes without a lockup (after the new drivers) and I thought it was fixed. It locked up again yesterday, same as before.

- I tried reinstalling XP from scratch (starting with a format) and it didn't fix the problem.

 

[ryannazaretian]

- I was wrong, the problem is still there. I was able to run TF2 for about 20 minutes without a lockup (after the new drivers) and I thought it was fixed. It locked up again yesterday, same as before.

- I tried reinstalling XP from scratch (starting with a format) and it didn't fix the problem.

For me, it had to be something with how OSX interacts with Windows using the emulated BIOS. A simple reformat wouldn't fix it. Like I said, I totally wiped off my hard drive and started from scratch.... Like it was a new hard drive.

Before I would freeze 2 or 3 times a day. After, (it has been 2 weeks) I have not frozen once.

It's only my guess that it is the emulated BIOS giving me issues. I tried XP and Vista, and it would freeze on me, so it is not OS dependent. After the upate, I have tried XP, Vista, and Windows 7, all without any issues. I would say this is the most perfect Windows has ever run on my Mac yet!