Hey everyone, this is my first post on the forums. Since Saturday, I've been fiddling with a Late 2008 MacBook Pro (15"). For whatever reason, it just does not want Windows installed on it. I've tried about 5 different Windows XP ISOs (booting from both CDs and flash drives) and none of them are working. The ISOs have been tested with VMWare on a working Mac, and they all make perfectly functional WinXP virtual machines. The MacBook boots Mac OS X discs just fine and it boots OS X installations just fine. I have also managed to boot a GParted Live CD and an AIO Boot bootable USB—all of these support booting in EFI mode.
Based on what I've read, the CSM in the MacBook's EFI is supposed to be activated by the detection of a hybrid MBR. I have tried installing Windows both with and without Boot Camp—no dice. I even tried forcing a firmware upgrade using the instructions here. The upgrade worked, but legacy mode was still not activating on the firmware.
To clarify, when it tries to boot from a Windows CD, it shows a black screen, and a white cursor for a split second, and then the screen goes black again (the display stays on and the CD will spin for a few minutes and then slow down, then it will eventually stop). This is as far as I have gotten. I read somewhere that there may be too much RAM for the WinXP installer, so I also tried removing a DIMM—no dice. I have also tried formatting the SSD with a single FAT32 MBR partition and then attempting to install Windows and that also does not work.
Thinking it might be a hardware problem, I ran an Apple Hardware Test and received the code 4SNS/1/40000001 TB1T-0.0000, indicating a battery temperature sensor. Makes sense because this computer does not have a battery installed (a new battery will be arriving tomorrow). But would the lack of a battery completely disable the EFI's legacy mode?
Please help. I'm going mad
This is only a fraction of what I've been through. I've been making an informal write-up of everything I've done—it's quite extensive, but if you need more details then I will link that here. Don't roast me too hard. I just want something to work at this point.
Based on what I've read, the CSM in the MacBook's EFI is supposed to be activated by the detection of a hybrid MBR. I have tried installing Windows both with and without Boot Camp—no dice. I even tried forcing a firmware upgrade using the instructions here. The upgrade worked, but legacy mode was still not activating on the firmware.
To clarify, when it tries to boot from a Windows CD, it shows a black screen, and a white cursor for a split second, and then the screen goes black again (the display stays on and the CD will spin for a few minutes and then slow down, then it will eventually stop). This is as far as I have gotten. I read somewhere that there may be too much RAM for the WinXP installer, so I also tried removing a DIMM—no dice. I have also tried formatting the SSD with a single FAT32 MBR partition and then attempting to install Windows and that also does not work.
Thinking it might be a hardware problem, I ran an Apple Hardware Test and received the code 4SNS/1/40000001 TB1T-0.0000, indicating a battery temperature sensor. Makes sense because this computer does not have a battery installed (a new battery will be arriving tomorrow). But would the lack of a battery completely disable the EFI's legacy mode?
Please help. I'm going mad
This is only a fraction of what I've been through. I've been making an informal write-up of everything I've done—it's quite extensive, but if you need more details then I will link that here. Don't roast me too hard. I just want something to work at this point.