Can't install Windows on a mid-2012 MacBook Pro

[printz]

I have an old MacBook Pro mid-2012 which is capped at macOS Catalina. I wanted to install Windows 10 on it, but it just doesn't work! As I get the latest ISO from Microsoft (22H2 if I remember correctly), the Boot Camp assistant does its work just fine and saves the ISO image in the thumbdrive. However, when I boot into "EFI Boot" (after I hold the Option key during boot), Windows 10 installation seems to work, it asks me for the partition and copies all its data to it and reboots as normal. Unfortunately after that, after showing "loading services" and all that, I'm left in a BSOD loop with the bug check occurring in some Intel graphics driver… That BSOD is usually preceded by an error message box. After that it will try to reboot back to the Windows installer, with the same BSOD over and over (I know I can always hit "option" during boot to return to macOS).

I tried all other variants (older Windows 10, non-Boot Camp Assistant attempts with Windows 8.1) but they either failed the same way or (on non-Boot Camp Assistant attempts) I wasn't able to get the right Boot Camp Support drivers, so I would just destroy those too.

Has anyone got this failure with their MacBook Pro mid-2012? I really want to give more life to this computer

 

[avz]

Windows 11 Pro installed fine on my 13 inch Mid 2012 MBP using Boot Camp Assistant.

Your issue might relate to the UEFI vs Legacy BIOS installation. You might need to select Windows instead of EFI boot when booting into Windows USB installation media.

 

[printz]

When I select Windows — which is also what Boot Camp Assistant configures on next boot — it stops at "No bootable device - insert boot disk and press any key". That's why I've been picking the "EFI boot" option instead, possibly leading to instability after that. I don't know if the USB stick itself is wrong or anything. It is visible from the boot menu, it's just that the Windows installer doesn't seem to recognize it. If it matters at all, it's a USB3 stick.

I tried Windows 11 now, with the same problem about the boot disk. Upon trying "EFI boot" after that anyway, the pre-installer would flat-out tell me that this computer is incompatible with Windows 11, so how did you make it with your similarly old MBP?

 

[avz]

When I select Windows — which is also what Boot Camp Assistant configures on next boot — it stops at "No bootable device - insert boot disk and press any key". That's why I've been picking the "EFI boot" option instead, possibly leading to instability after that. I don't know if the USB stick itself is wrong or anything. It is visible from the boot menu, it's just that the Windows installer doesn't seem to recognize it. If it matters at all, it's a USB3 stick.

I tried Windows 11 now, with the same problem about the boot disk. Upon trying "EFI boot" after that anyway, the pre-installer would flat-out tell me that this computer is incompatible with Windows 11, so how did you make it with your similarly old MBP?

I suppose this is one of those things when being inexperienced actually worked to my advantage as I just let the Boot Camp Assistant partition the drive, create Windows installation USB from the official ISO download, download Boot Camp drivers, restart and so on. I had to do a TPM/SecureBoot/RAM bypass thing a few times as for some reason it was not going through. As I did not have ethernet the biggest challenge for me was to figure out how to add the WiFi driver before I could go through with the initial setup process.