Hello, I have a severe problem with booting any 3rd party OS on my MP7,1 maybe due to T2 problems.
So I have a usual Bootcamp installation with win10. Yesterday, a windows update and my subsequent repair attempts seem to have shredded my WIN10 installation, resulting in an endless boot loop with also windows auto repair trying to start up, but failing.
So I started an attempt to reinstall windows from an USB thumb drive. While I succeeded in creating a boot stick, the mac does see the stick (I disabled secure boot and also enabled booting from external media), but it does not boot from it!!!! Instead, it boots straight into macOS.
I have created a stick using the windows media creation tool, and another one using bootcamp assistant. I also created an Ubuntu stick. None of them work ... the only thing that apparently works is booting into a Ventura USB stick.
But here comes the catch! I also have a MBP16" lying around, and it accepted ALL of those USB sticks, and loaded the windows installer as well as the ubuntu installer. So the sticks seem to be just fine, but not the MP7,1. I also cleared NVRAM and resetted the SMC before with no improvement.
What could this be? Any help greatly appreciated!
The aforementioned 16-inch MacBook Pro is the 2019 Intel model, yeah? I figured it is, but I want to be sure.
One thing I will tell you is that a stock Windows 10 boot drive will have issues on any Mac with a T1 or T2 (I've also seen issues with it with a 2017 12" MacBook which doesn't have either) and that's mainly due to the keyboard, trackpad, and SSD all being extremely non-standard (and therefore requiring drivers to be loaded in both the boot and install (.wim) images. Apple does this for you when you run the Boot Camp assistant, however, it's a bit harder when what you're trying to do is install from outside of the Boot Camp assistant (or without the pre-existing presence of macOS).
I will also tell you that Apple strongly advises that Secure Boot be set to Full Security prior to your Windows 10 installation (I'd imagine external boot media can be allowed during this point with no issue), but also mentions that it doesn't matter what you set it to thereafter.
THAT ALL BEING SAID, if you have a MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) and a Mac Pro (2019) and they are both set with secure boot being disabled and with external boot media being allowed and one is booting to the USB stick and the other one isn't...well...that's just odd-seeming.
From what I read so far...Apple is making it harder for people to use their newer hardware with Windows
It's not that they're making it harder to use with Windows, per se.
It's more that Intel Macs from around 2015-16 ish (depends on model, really) up until 2020 started using more and more non-standard components. The T2 Security Chip sort of forced that either you use the Boot Camp Assistant or that you have to do A LOT of tweaking and modification to get a clean Windows installation to happen. In 2006-2014 Intel Macs, you could stick in a Windows install drive (be it a DVD or a USB stick), wipe the drive on the Mac like it was a PC and install Windows if you wanted to just have your Mac be 100% a PC. With newer Intel Macs, it got way trickier. I just turned a 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro into a macOS-free Windows 10 machine (because it caps at Monterey, I already have other Macs running Monterey, and newer MacBook Pros that function as Macs) and even that was way more of a challenge than it would've been on a 2014 or earlier model. Throw in the T2 and it gets even harder.
As for Apple Silicon Macs, Apple isn't making it harder for folks to use Windows. You can still spin up a VM of Windows on an Apple Silicon Mac. It just has to be the ARM64 version (because ARM64 is what Apple Silicon is ultimately derived from). Apple is making it difficult for one to natively dual-boot Windows for ARM64 on an Apple Silicon Mac. But they're also making it difficult for one to natively dual-boot ANY OTHER NON-macOS OS on an Apple Silicon Mac as well. Though, even if they made an exception for Windows (as they did with T2 Macs and Boot Camp), Microsoft still needs to get their head out of their behinds and open up licensing for Windows for ARM64 to more than just OEMs.
, especially them getting rid of eGPU support which is a headscratcher.
Ehh...it's not a headscratcher if you look at their computing model for Apple Silicon as a whole. You don't get a higher bandwidth connection between the GPU and the rest of the system than when the GPU is literally on the same chip die as the rest of the system. Similarly, the RAM is shared and directly accessible by all parts of the SoC. You cannot get that kind of bandwidth from an eGPU. Similarly, the way Apple GPUs process graphics is fundamentally different from how AMD's, NVIDIA's, and Intel's all did. If you were to get an eGPU for an Apple Silicon Mac, you wouldn't be getting a Radeon, you'd be getting something from Apple. But even then, it wouldn't really do you much. This is partly why Apple has folks upgrade to the M1 Max from the M1 Pro for better graphics on 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros and why the logical upgrade on a Mac Studio isn't two M1 Maxes, but rather the M1 Ultra which is two M1 Maxes in all but name - you're better off beefing up the graphics in the SoC than providing external graphics or discrete GPUs (in the classical Intel/PowerPC Mac setting).
That right there is a no go. Especially with their M1 series computers.
I mean it's Apple Silicon and how it inherently handles graphics processing. It's a bit of a gamble on Apple's part. And I think it is having them head towards their graphics being really good at some things while being lame at others (versus the Intel/PowerPC Mac model of discrete GPUs being generally good at all things). So far it seems to be paying off.
Now...Im going to ask you how old is that USB thumb drive. Is it USB2 or 3? It maybe recognized or perhaps the it is not formated correctly to be recognized or it is locked.
It's seen by their Mac and seen by another Mac of similar vintage (assuming the OP was talking about an Intel 16-inch MacBook Pro and not an Apple Silicon 16-inch MacBook Pro). Just with different booting results on either one. And that part is a head scratcher, especially if Startup Security Utility settings are the same across both Macs. Otherwise, it's T2 shenanigans.
