MP 7,1 Boot Camp woes with Mac Pro (2019)

[hamiltonn]

Hello all! I’ve been struggling to get a 100% working copy of Windows 10 up on my Mac Pro 2019, which I received on Monday.

I’ve tried installations via:

• Boot Camp Assistant
• WinToUSB
• WinClone

Each installation works on the initial boot — sometimes for even a few restart cycles — but ultimately end up in a state where none of my devices work at the Sign-In screen (USB, Thunderbolt, or Bluetooth).

The frustrating part is that the Magic Trackpad is responsive (it “clicks”), LED lights on my gaming mouse are on, and other indicators that USB devices are “connected” show, but nothing appears to work on the screen itself. There's no cursor to be seen and keyboard commands are unresponsive. The clock on the bottom left continues to accumulate minutes, showing that the system isn't "frozen". Tapping the power button on top of the tower immediately toggles the "Shutting down..." screen.

I’ve used Parallels to go in and disable the Sign-In screen altogether, but at best that simply amounts to the same behavior on the desktop: nothing works.

Has anyone experienced this before and overcome it? This isn’t catastrophic by any means, as my only goal is to play games in Windows 10, but it sucks that I’ve wasted so many hours on trying to get this working and continue running into the same wall.

 

[RChav]

You'll need to provide more details on Windows 10 version and setup for an accurate diagnosis. What GPU are you using? Are you using the Apple Bootcamp Drivers, or something like the variants posted on bootcampdrivers.com?

 

[hamiltonn]

You'll need to provide more details on Windows 10 version and setup for an accurate diagnosis. What GPU are you using? Are you using the Apple Bootcamp Drivers, or something like the variants posted on bootcampdrivers.com?

The latest installation was performed via Boot Camp Assistant, using the Apple-provided drivers. GPUs in the system include the 580X and a Radeon VII.

Windows 10 Pro, updated to 1909 during the first few restarts. It was stable for a solid few hours, able to play Modern Warfare: Warzone, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft.

Multiple reboots do bring it to the Windows Repair/Recovery screen, from which it doesn't diagnose any issues. It won't boot in Safe Mode, however (gets stuck at the Windows boot screen with just the logo, no spinning dots).

 

[RChav]

I've seen similar issues with Safemode and thunderbolt 3 displays, on a Pro Vega II Duo. Can you try plugging a display into the HDMI port, and seeing how that works? Also, try plugging in your peripherals (mouse/keyboard etc.) vs. bluetooth.

 

[hamiltonn]

I've seen similar issues with Safemode and thunderbolt 3 displays, on a Pro Vega II Duo. Can you try plugging a display into the HDMI port, and seeing how that works? Also, try plugging in your peripherals (mouse/keyboard etc.) vs. bluetooth.

The two monitors I'm using are Asus PG27UQs, connected to the Radeon VII via DisplayPort.

I have a mechanical keyboard + mouse plugged into the USB ports on the tower. They appear to be working now, but weren't just an hour ago. My Caldigit TS3 Plus isn't being recognized at the moment (and was previously).

It doesn't appear as though I can repair the Boot Camp drivers either, as that setup stays fixed at ~5% (has been running for 10-minutes now).

Running Syspreps leading to varying results.

Part of me thinks the main issue I keep running into is all of the Apple hardware not sticking on subsequent restarts — primarily the Thunderbolt devices.

 

[chrfr]

The latest installation was performed via Boot Camp Assistant, using the Apple-provided drivers. GPUs in the system include the 580X and a Radeon VII.

Windows 10 Pro, updated to 1909 during the first few restarts. It was stable for a solid few hours, able to play Modern Warfare: Warzone, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft.

Multiple reboots do bring it to the Windows Repair/Recovery screen, from which it doesn't diagnose any issues. It won't boot in Safe Mode, however (gets stuck at the Windows boot screen with just the logo, no spinning dots).

It seems likely that it's a GPU drivers issue. I'd take out the Radeon VII and see if it starts normally with just the 580x. If so, then get the latest drivers for the VII and install those, then reinstall that card, then see how it works.

 

[hamiltonn]

It seems likely that it's a GPU drivers issue. I'd take out the Radeon VII and see if it starts normally with just the 580x. If so, then get the latest drivers for the VII and install those, then reinstall that card, then see how it works.

I've tried this two ways since reading your post:

1. I took out the Radeon VII and ran this solely with the 580X, which resulted in a clean installation and then lack of dual USB support. Only keyboard (plugged in to the USB port) worked, whereas my wired mouse (plugged into the other) did not. A failure and no amount of rebooting and driver re-installs solved it.
2. I put my new W5700 in — instead of the Radeon VII — and pretty much got the same result as above.

It's tough to pin what is happening here and why this breaks down. The initial boot after installation is always perfect, and then the first restart after installing Boot Camp drivers is great, too. It's the subsequent reboot — from installing other drivers and/or programs — that throws everything off.

To be this appears to be a USB/Thunderbolt driver issue, but I don't know how I'd even confirm that.

I tried another install where I used WinToUSB and loaded Windows 10 directly onto one of my SSD drives. That, too, boots just fine, but was running remarkably slow and after finishing the first round of Boot Camp drivers, resulted in the Device Manager showing about two dozen "Base Device" objects.

All I want to do is play Valorant

 

[mikes79]

I suspect that the underlying issues; may in fact be related to the graphics drivers; well not the graphics directly; but the graphics drivers in combination with windows 10 insistence on always install drivers no matter what even when those drives may end up conflicting with each other. I encountered similar issues with my Mac Pro 7,1; however good news, I eventually was able to solve them. macOS and windows 10 are now completely stable. I'll summarize the steps that I took.

The relevant hardware is as follows:

MacPro7,1
12 core procesor
48GB of RAM
RX 580 MPX module (TB3 Connection to USBC connection of a 4K display)
Sapphire RX 5700XT 8GB (HDMI connection to the same 4K display)
Promise Pegasus R4

First I'd recommend that you create or somehow obtain install media that will take you directly to windows 10 version 1909; install the apple bootcamp drivers as normal. Do not reboot at the end. Launch the device manager and completely remove the drivers for the apple supplied MPX module card. You can do this via the device manager or a free utility such as DDU.

Before you can move forward and achieve stability you need to instruct windows to completely ignore the MPX module. Give these links a look for directions on how to do this:

Stop Windows from installing drivers for specific devices - gHacks Tech News

Find out how to prevent Windows or users from installing device drivers for selected hardware devices on PCs running Vista or newer versions of Windows.

www.ghacks.net

If you need to add the group policy editor to windows home, you can do so via this link:

Enable Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) in Windows 10 & 11 Home Edition - MajorGeeks

If you're reading this, then you already know Group Policy Editor does not work in Windows 10 Home Edition. Until now.

www.majorgeeks.com

After you do this Windows will completely ignore the MPX module and you'll be free to install whatever drivers are necessary for whatever cards you like via the device manager. Once I got windows ti ignore the MPX module I just download the stock drivers from AMD and applied them to the Sapphire RX 5700XT 8GB in the device manager and ever since then, everything has been rock solid in windows 10 and macOS; whether I am playing game, or other more productive tasks. One these fixes are applied their is a slight delay before the windows login window is displayed; but everything else works fine.

Once these fix were applied; I'd recommend you back it up with winclone to make restoring easy, should that become necessary.

This worked for me; I can post screenshots as necessary; I wish you the best of luck; Hope this helps, however if anything goes wrong for you, I'll accept no responsibility.

Good luck.

M

 

[hamiltonn]

I suspect that the underlying issues; may in fact be related to the graphics drivers; well not the graphics directly; but the graphics drivers in combination with windows 10 insistence on always install drivers no matter what even when those drives may end up conflicting with each other. I encountered similar issues with my Mac Pro 7,1; however good news, I eventually was able to solve them. macOS and windows 10 are now completely stable. I'll summarize the steps that I took.

The relevant hardware is as follows:

MacPro7,1
12 core procesor
48GB of RAM
RX 580 MPX module (TB3 Connection to USBC connection of a 4K display)
Sapphire RX 5700XT 8GB (HDMI connection to the same 4K display)
Promise Pegasus R4

First I'd recommend that you create or somehow obtain install media that will take you directly to windows 10 version 1909; install the apple bootcamp drivers as normal. Do not reboot at the end. Launch the device manager and completely remove the drivers for the apple supplied MPX module card. You can do this via the device manager or a free utility such as DDU.

Before you can move forward and achieve stability you need to instruct windows to completely ignore the MPX module. Give these links a look for directions on how to do this:

Stop Windows from installing drivers for specific devices - gHacks Tech News

Find out how to prevent Windows or users from installing device drivers for selected hardware devices on PCs running Vista or newer versions of Windows.

www.ghacks.net

If you need to add the group policy editor to windows home, you can do so via this link:

Enable Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) in Windows 10 & 11 Home Edition - MajorGeeks

If you're reading this, then you already know Group Policy Editor does not work in Windows 10 Home Edition. Until now.

www.majorgeeks.com

After you do this Windows will completely ignore the MPX module and you'll be free to install whatever drivers are necessary for whatever cards you like via the device manager. Once I got windows ti ignore the MPX module I just download the stock drivers from AMD and applied them to the Sapphire RX 5700XT 8GB in the device manager and ever since then, everything has been rock solid in windows 10 and macOS; whether I am playing game, or other more productive tasks. One these fixes are applied their is a slight delay before the windows login window is displayed; but everything else works fine.

Once these fix were applied; I'd recommend you back it up with winclone to make restoring easy, should that become necessary.

This worked for me; I can post screenshots as necessary; I wish you the best of luck; Hope this helps, however if anything goes wrong for you, I'll accept no responsibility.

Good luck.

M

I appreciate these notes, thanks you! Since my W5700 MPX module arrived, I've taken out the Radeon VII and am running an all "stock" system at the moment.

Hoping this would've cured my issues, I ran a new Bootcamp installation and am now running into a new issue: each time I boot into Windows, I don't make it past the logo. It'll show the Windows logo for a brief moment and then the screen goes dark. USB devices stay connected/on during this, but ultimately after ~30-seconds the computer restarts on its own.

The annoyance of having to remove and reinsert the PCIE card holding my m.2 drives is such an annoyance that I'm considering — at this point — simply picking up a Mac Mini and running an EGPU via Boot Camp, calling it a day.

 

[chrfr]

I appreciate these notes, thanks you! Since my W5700 MPX module arrived, I've taken out the Radeon VII and am running an all "stock" system at the moment.

Hoping this would've cured my issues, I ran a new Bootcamp installation and am now running into a new issue: each time I boot into Windows, I don't make it past the logo. It'll show the Windows logo for a brief moment and then the screen goes dark. USB devices stay connected/on during this, but ultimately after ~30-seconds the computer restarts on its own.

The annoyance of having to remove and reinsert the PCIE card holding my m.2 drives is such an annoyance that I'm considering — at this point — simply picking up a Mac Mini and running an EGPU via Boot Camp, calling it a day.

John Siracusa on the Accidental Tech Podcast had similar issues with his new W5700 and booting Windows. You might find it worthwhile to listen to his explanation in the latest episode of the show.

 

[hamiltonn]

John Siracusa on the Accidental Tech Podcast had similar issues with his new W5700 and booting Windows. You might find it worthwhile to listen to his explanation in the latest episode of the show.

Oh? Interesting! I absolutely will — thank you!

 

[hamiltonn]

John Siracusa on the Accidental Tech Podcast had similar issues with his new W5700 and booting Windows. You might find it worthwhile to listen to his explanation in the latest episode of the show.

Great find and listening to the podcast gave me some tips. Namely using HDMI during the installation phase, as there's an apparent issue with Windows 10 loading off of USB-C/TB3-connected displays (which I've read before, but didn't apply at the time given my Radeon VII).

Here are a few things which stand out to me and consistent problems across multiple installs/failures:

1. After the first restart, Windows is unable to install new drivers. For example if I try to install my mic's driver, the Setup screen will flash a message saying "Please ensure no other hardware is being setup" (or something along those lines). Nothing else is being installed, but most software doesn't seem to acknowledge that.
2. Windows settings are slow or unresponsive. For instance:
   • Clicking the Sound icon on the bottom right takes a solid 15-seconds to react
   • Going into Updates and Security takes about 10-seconds, after which "Check Now" will never yield results
   • Device Manager freezes on any action (Scan for changes, Update/Uninstall/Disable/Enable Device, etc.)
   • Cannot add Bluetooth devices, nor can you connect to anything
3. Keyboards don't work, but my mouse does? Two keyboard devices show up in the Device Manager — and show a status of working properly — but they don't actually respond
4. I can't ever "Restart" — the spinning dots will spin-and-spin until I force shutdown the system

What's odd is that none of the above is true if I load the Bootcamp install via Parallels. It's the only option I can get working to update Windows, install drivers, and so on. Ultimately it doesn't matter, as booting into Windows 10 via Startup leads to the same thing: maybe my mouse will work, but nothing else responds regardless of lights being on.

I've never had any issues with Boot Camp prior to this and since the setup is remarkably easy on its own, I can't pinpoint where there'd be an issue at this point (given that I've introduced nothing "third party" into the system). While I don't doubt there aren't a few things I could try (disconnecting by large TB3 storage, TB3 dock, etc.), I don't want to go down the road of unplugging devices when jumping into Windows because that's not a practical solve nor something I should be resigned to fulfilling each time I want to use this feature.

Ultimately just really, really confused.

 

[mikes79]

H,

That's very odd; a few pointers:

Using another device create new install media for windows using the install media available on the Microsoft site. I used build 1909 for my Mac Pro, back in December of 2019 and things went well. This will minimize the number of updates necessary after install; and possibly correct issues.

During the install and driver installation hook up the bare minimum hardware necessary to just complete the task of installing the OS and getting the driver install to complete. If you have wired input devices that you can use during this process; I'd even do that. Once the drivers and OS are installed; slowly add additional devices and Bluetooth accessories all the while looking for issues.

Before beginning this process; while in macOS; download and install the latest combo update for Catalina; this will ensure the latest T2 firmware is installed; which can be important because the T2 takes over the duties of the SMC on modern Macs; and thus will effect windows.

Lastly does the Mac behave correctly under macOS?

The things you are describing almost make me think that the RAM in use may be bad or out of spec. Did you add any 3rd party ram? If so remove it and see if the problems vanish. Does the Mac pass the builtin diag tests listed here?

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

Apple Diagnostics, formerly known as Apple Hardware Test, can check your Mac for hardware issues.

support.apple.com

Hope that helps.

M