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mixiplixit

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 7, 2008
1
0
I've been able to install Vista Ultimate 64 bit on my May 2007 version 3.1 macbook pro (2.2 GHZ, 4GB Mem, OS X 10.5.5). Sortof. The trackpad/keyboard doesnt work correctly (no right click context menu) nor am I able to get a network properly installed (doesnt recognize network hardware). So installed but useless.

Has anyone been successful installing Vista 64 on this release of MBP? Can anyone point me to a document/website/thread which details what steps I must take to get networking and trackpad working properly.

Thanks

Mixi
 

MKnight

macrumors regular
Oct 15, 2007
217
0
Did you install Service Pack 1 for Vista? Also, did you install the latest Bootcamp 2.1 update?
 

Frank Palermo

macrumors newbie
Aug 13, 2005
8
0
I've successfully installed both Vista 64 and XP 64 on my MacBookPro3,1. The trick is that since Apple doesn't support running Vista 64 on any pre-2008 Mac (or running XP 64 on any Mac period), you need to install some of the drivers manually. (I just installed all of them manually both to avoid problems like this and to get the newest drivers from the manufacturers of the hardware). I'll try to help on the network problem now; trackpad/keyboard is a bit trickier... if nobody else chimes in with a link or directions, I'll see if I can find my notes on it later.

I'm guessing (since your post didn't say) that you installed Boot Camp yet the network still doesn't work. If that's the case, you should probably go to the Add/Remove Programs control panel in Vista and uninstall the Apple driver packages that aren't working before you proceed (network drivers should be in packages labeled "Broadcom", "Marvell" and "Atheros").

The wired network controller in that MBP is by Marvell. Head to http://www.marvell.com/drivers/ and under "Most Popular Drivers" at right, there should be a link to "Win 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008 x86 and x64 Multi-Language Installer (32- and 64-bit) for Yukon Devices". Once you get that onto your MBP's Vista install and uninstall the non-working driver as above, you should be able to just run Marvell's installer and it should "just work" and give you wired net access so you can download the other drivers without rebooting into OS X.

The wireless network controller in that MBP is by Atheros. I don't think they officially provide drivers to end users, but there's an unofficial archive of their drivers at http://www.atheros.cz (I haven't heard of any problems with the drivers posted there, but needless to say use at your own risk). You need the Vista 64 drivers for "AR5008," the newest one now is labeled vista-7.6.0.126-whql.zip . There's no installer; it has to be done manually from Vista's Device Manager (it should go roughly like this: click on the device, Action->Update Driver Software..., "Browse my computer for driver software", "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer", "Have Disk...", browse to where you unzipped that driver, click "OK" and "Next" a few times to complete).

Hopefully that helps get your network running. As I said I'll look up my notes on the trackpad/keyboard issue later if somebody else hasn't gotten to it (IIRC, it involves manually extracting the drivers from Apple's installer packages for Vista 64, then installing them from Device Manager as above... but until the drivers are installed they just show up as two "USB Human Interface Device" items in a sea of many, and you have to figure out which ones are which to install the driver for).

-Frank
 
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