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pyrosurge

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 17, 2013
32
0
I successfully partion my disk during the bootcamp install. The computer then restarts and tries to boot off of my windows disk (for installation). At the top left of the screen a cursor "|" blinks around 3 times and then the screen just goes black. The problem is i cant even get to the windows installer. Can someone please help me?



~~
Mac Pro Mid 2010, 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 16GB 1066 MHz DDR3, ATI Radeon 5770 1024mb, OS X 10.8.4, Apple Cinema Display (not thunderbolt).
 

xcodeSyn

macrumors 6502a
Nov 25, 2012
548
7
The problem is i cant even get to the windows installer. Can someone please help me?
This may have happened to me a few times in the past. The solution is to reboot your MP, and when you hear the chime, press the option key and wait for all your bootable drives to appear on screen. If your Windows disc is indeed bootable, it'll show up and then select it as the boot drive and continue the install process. I don't know if this is a bug of any of the components involved, occasionally I either get a black screen or distorted screen when switching to Windows partition and requires reboot to set it right. YMMV.
 

pyrosurge

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 17, 2013
32
0
This may have happened to me a few times in the past. The solution is to reboot your MP, and when you hear the chime, press the option key and wait for all your bootable drives to appear on screen. If your Windows disc is indeed bootable, it'll show up and then select it as the boot drive and continue the install process. I don't know if this is a bug of any of the components involved, occasionally I either get a black screen or distorted screen when switching to Windows partition and requires reboot to set it right. YMMV.

thanks for your help. But when i select the windows cd. i get an underscore flashing in the top left of my screen and it then disappears and the screen goes black. Maybe it's a problem with my cinema display, it is the very old cinema display (no the new black one).
 

Cubemmal

macrumors 6502a
Jun 13, 2013
824
1
That means that the OS you're installing (Windows) can't find the CD ROM. This happens when installing Windows onto a MBP where the CD is external USB instead of internal. In the UFI firmware they hardcoded the CD to be the internal one, so you cannot boot off an install from an external which is extremely annoying.

You don't say much about the setup but presumably this is a Mac Pro which theoretically shouldn't have the problem, but obviously does. Try a different CD rom, one in the second slot or external (or maybe you already are trying an external CD?) to see if that helps.
 

pyrosurge

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 17, 2013
32
0
That means that the OS you're installing (Windows) can't find the CD ROM. This happens when installing Windows onto a MBP where the CD is external USB instead of internal. In the UFI firmware they hardcoded the CD to be the internal one, so you cannot boot off an install from an external which is extremely annoying.

You don't say much about the setup but presumably this is a Mac Pro which theoretically shouldn't have the problem, but obviously does. Try a different CD rom, one in the second slot or external (or maybe you already are trying an external CD?) to see if that helps.

thanks very much i will try another disc
 

pertusis1

macrumors 6502
Jul 25, 2010
455
161
Texas
Interesting. I had the same problem with an OLD 20" cinema display attached to a 2012 Pro. I got vm ware fusion, and it worked fine thereafter. I never did bother to finish the boot camp install. For what it's worth, my drive is internal.
 

pyrosurge

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 17, 2013
32
0
Thanks guys i really appreciate all of your help. I will be trying all of your recommended strategies as soon as i can. I thank all of you for your time, the reason i want my windows so bad is that i just got the origin humble bundle i want to play battlefield 3 really bad.
 

aLbAn

macrumors newbie
Sep 30, 2005
19
11
Netherlands
I was getting the same on my iMac 27, turned out that the windows installer switches to another screen output bus internally... connecting an external display to the iMac proved it, since the installer was visible there.
 

pyrosurge

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 17, 2013
32
0
Interesting. I had the same problem with an OLD 20" cinema display attached to a 2012 Pro. I got vm ware fusion, and it worked fine thereafter. I never did bother to finish the boot camp install. For what it's worth, my drive is internal.

thanks for that. I will try using a different monitor (non-apple) and see how it works out

----------

I was getting the same on my iMac 27, turned out that the windows installer switches to another screen output bus internally... connecting an external display to the iMac proved it, since the installer was visible there.

Thanks for your post I will try out your strategy.
 

pyrosurge

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 17, 2013
32
0
Update

THINGS TRIED AND NOT WORKING
  • changing monitors
  • imac 27" fix
  • burning iso file onto disc different times
  • different versions of windows (Windows 8 and Windows 7)
  • USB BOOT
  • just about everything else on every forum



THINGS WAITING TO BE TRIED
  • using a different windows installation disc
  • using a disc drive or a 2nd internal disc drive


THIS IS REALLY GRINDING MY GEARS AT THE MOMENT. PLEASE HELP IF YOU HAVE HAD EXPERIENCES AND ANSWERS. THANKS

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Do you have anything connected via USB or firewire? If so, unplug all connections and try again.

Yes i have done that. I mean everything except a keyboard, power and monitor (not in the usb slot, just in graphics slot)

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That means that the OS you're installing (Windows) can't find the CD ROM. This happens when installing Windows onto a MBP where the CD is external USB instead of internal. In the UFI firmware they hardcoded the CD to be the internal one, so you cannot boot off an install from an external which is extremely annoying.

You don't say much about the setup but presumably this is a Mac Pro which theoretically shouldn't have the problem, but obviously does. Try a different CD rom, one in the second slot or external (or maybe you already are trying an external CD?) to see if that helps.

also i am trying to boot from my internal cd rom. i really don't know what's going on
 

Mnowell69

macrumors regular
Jul 4, 2013
246
36
Bedford, UK
this happened to me because i have an OLD mac pro which only accepts 32 bit windows. You have a 2010 mac pro so obviously this shouldn't be the problem. Might i suggest you try a 32 bit solution just fir the hell of it......
 

monkeybagel

macrumors 65816
Jul 24, 2011
1,142
61
United States
None of the Mac Pros will boot Windows from a USB Flash Drive. They will only boot OS X.

Do you hear the optical drive seeking when the screen is black?

There may be a workaround for booting off of a USB Drive. I will test.

Do you get video using a Windows 8 DVD and selecting EFI Boot on the boot picker screen?
 

pyrosurge

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 17, 2013
32
0
None of the Mac Pros will boot Windows from a USB Flash Drive. They will only boot OS X.

Do you hear the optical drive seeking when the screen is black?

There may be a workaround for booting off of a USB Drive. I will test.

Do you get video using a Windows 8 DVD and selecting EFI Boot on the boot picker screen?

thanks for your help. I will report if i hear my disc drive seeking. No i dont get video i just get a black screen with both windows 8 & 7. What do you mean by selecting EFI boot, do you mean selecting the windows dvd?

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this happened to me because i have an OLD mac pro which only accepts 32 bit windows. You have a 2010 mac pro so obviously this shouldn't be the problem. Might i suggest you try a 32 bit solution just fir the hell of it......

thanks for your help i will try a windows 32 bit just to be sure
 

monkeybagel

macrumors 65816
Jul 24, 2011
1,142
61
United States
thanks for your help. I will report if i hear my disc drive seeking. No i dont get video i just get a black screen with both windows 8 & 7. What do you mean by selecting EFI boot, do you mean selecting the windows dvd?

----------



thanks for your help i will try a windows 32 bit just to be sure

If you select the boot picker with a Windows 8 64-bit version on a disc, it should show Windows and EFI Boot. The EFI Boot actually works on the Mac Pro, unlike many Apple portables and other machines. It will install Windows using the GPT partition scheme instead of the hybrid MBR and using CSM emulation to emulate BIOS calls that Windows uses. It sounds like where your computer is getting stuck is when it is switching to CSM. Booting EFI will avoid that step. Note you must be using Windows 8 x64. 32-bit, or any version of Windows 7 will boot that way (it will appear with Windows 7 x64 on the boot picker, but it does not function).
 

pyrosurge

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 17, 2013
32
0
If you select the boot picker with a Windows 8 64-bit version on a disc, it should show Windows and EFI Boot. The EFI Boot actually works on the Mac Pro, unlike many Apple portables and other machines. It will install Windows using the GPT partition scheme instead of the hybrid MBR and using CSM emulation to emulate BIOS calls that Windows uses. It sounds like where your computer is getting stuck is when it is switching to CSM. Booting EFI will avoid that step. Note you must be using Windows 8 x64. 32-bit, or any version of Windows 7 will boot that way (it will appear with Windows 7 x64 on the boot picker, but it does not function).

thanks for your help, but could you please give me a step by step tutorial. I'm sorry i'm not use to doing windows boots.
 

monkeybagel

macrumors 65816
Jul 24, 2011
1,142
61
United States
thanks for your help, but could you please give me a step by step tutorial. I'm sorry i'm not use to doing windows boots.

Just put the Windows 8 x64 DVD into the SuperDrive and reboot the machine, holding down Option when you hear the startup chime until the boot picker appears. You will see Windows and EFI Boot, among other entries. Select EFI Boot and see what it does. If you get video, you may need to install it that way, although I am curious as to what causes your root problem. I am not a big fan of Windows 8 either, and had much rather use Windows 7, but it cannot be installed this way.
 

pyrosurge

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 17, 2013
32
0
Just put the Windows 8 x64 DVD into the SuperDrive and reboot the machine, holding down Option when you hear the startup chime until the boot picker appears. You will see Windows and EFI Boot, among other entries. Select EFI Boot and see what it does. If you get video, you may need to install it that way, although I am curious as to what causes your root problem. I am not a big fan of Windows 8 either, and had much rather use Windows 7, but it cannot be installed this way.

Thanks so much for your help but when i reboot my mac and hold down option i get these options: SSD Raid 1, SSD Raid 2 (Boot Drives) and I get a disc called windows that shows up
 

pyrosurge

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 17, 2013
32
0
Where are you acquiring your Windows bits from, an how are you writing them to DVD?

I know you might want to kill me but i have only windows 7 64 bit on disc (legit copy). So i have been pirating the other windows versions like windows 7 32bit and windows 8 64bit, nether the less they all gather the same result. The pirated windows comes in an ISO file and I opened it and i then burned to a dvd. Like i said before bootcamp runs smoothly and i have been following tutorials correctly. when bootcamp reboots my computer i hold down 'option' and then my drives come up and a disc called 'windows.' I select the disc and press enter and my computer tries to load the disc but comes to a black screen with a underscore _ that flashes 3 times then it disappears and the screen is still black. Thanks for your help on this forum :), hopefully there is enough information there to help you figure out the problem.
 
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