Just a quick note that its working great on my MBP. With the RC I would have issues with the keyboard and having to install a few drivers from the CD manually. This time it worked great, and it seems faster too. I had to upgrade the video card driver, but that is something I would have done anyways.
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Win 7 RTM in Bootcamp
- Thread starter StuBeck
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Also, which model of MBP do you have?
I've downloaded the 64-bit release but haven't yet tried it on my "Late 2006" MBP.
I've downloaded the 64-bit release but haven't yet tried it on my "Late 2006" MBP.
I had Win 7 RC on my old unibody MBP. I used the bootcamp drivers and after that it ran great. Mine was 64 bit. The OSX DVD has the drivers for 64 bit. Windows 7 is a really great OS in my opinion. 
Mine is MBP 13-inch 2.53 GHz and it installed fine. Windows Update was offering an updated driver for either Ethernet or WiFi (can't remeber, sorry), but I didn't install it. Instead, I went straight to Apple drivers on OS X install DVD. Everything was fine except audio (low volume, but I've already found the solution here -- it's Cirrus Logic h/w) and video (for that, I had to install drivers from nVidia.com).
Thing is: w/ Aero on, regardless of wether the computer is sitting idle or not, it clearly overheats. I can hear the fan blowing and the upper-left corner of the keyboard gets extremely hot. I'm not sure this is default behavior 'cause I still didn't try any OpenGL/DirectX apps/games.
It got better after I disabled Aero.
I used to own a DELL and in Vista, switching from the Balanced power plan to the battery-saver would dim the display, clock the cpu down (i.e. SpeedStep) and turn Aero off. That doesn't happen on the MBP and I'm not sure wether this is a driver limitation or a Windows 7-specific behavior.
Oh, and I'm running 64-bit.
Thing is: w/ Aero on, regardless of wether the computer is sitting idle or not, it clearly overheats. I can hear the fan blowing and the upper-left corner of the keyboard gets extremely hot. I'm not sure this is default behavior 'cause I still didn't try any OpenGL/DirectX apps/games.
It got better after I disabled Aero.
I used to own a DELL and in Vista, switching from the Balanced power plan to the battery-saver would dim the display, clock the cpu down (i.e. SpeedStep) and turn Aero off. That doesn't happen on the MBP and I'm not sure wether this is a driver limitation or a Windows 7-specific behavior.
Oh, and I'm running 64-bit.
I had trouble getting audio to work on Windows 7 RTM, the Windows 7 Realtek driver wouldn't install. Windows 7 kept telling me that a better or more suited driver is already installed
Other than that getting my Bluetooth Apple Mouse and Keyboard took a bit too much effort.
I'm waiting until Apple releases a Windows 7 Boot Camp driver kit before Boot Camping Windows 7 - if I decide I still need it...
Other than that getting my Bluetooth Apple Mouse and Keyboard took a bit too much effort.
I'm waiting until Apple releases a Windows 7 Boot Camp driver kit before Boot Camping Windows 7 - if I decide I still need it...
Heats up the macbook lot, when left untouched for 30 mins
I thought I was the only one experiencing this. Is this normal? I was running beta but stopped because I noticed my macbook pro was heating up badly.
Win7 64-bit (RTM of course) has been working great on my MBP. My biggest beef is with the outdated drivers on the Leopard disc, but that's not Microsoft's fault.
I tried for 4 hours yesterday to get Win7 RTM x64 installed on my iMac, but had problems and needed to blow away my initial BootCamp and re-install the 32 bit version.
Biggest issues were that the MacHAL and KeyAgent drivers weren't signed, so 64 bit won't let them install. This meant Bootcamp control panel wouldn't let me select which drive I wanted to boot with, meaning I couldn't boot back into OS X. I had to boot to the leopard DVD and use the utilities menu to get back to the OS X boot drive.
I'd love to have the 64 bit version working but after much time Googling I couldn't find any workable solutions, so I reverted back to the 32 bit version which installed without a hitch - except sound level is low...still trying to solve that one, but I spent enough time "playing" with Win7 yesterday and needed to do some other things.
Biggest issues were that the MacHAL and KeyAgent drivers weren't signed, so 64 bit won't let them install. This meant Bootcamp control panel wouldn't let me select which drive I wanted to boot with, meaning I couldn't boot back into OS X. I had to boot to the leopard DVD and use the utilities menu to get back to the OS X boot drive.
I'd love to have the 64 bit version working but after much time Googling I couldn't find any workable solutions, so I reverted back to the 32 bit version which installed without a hitch - except sound level is low...still trying to solve that one, but I spent enough time "playing" with Win7 yesterday and needed to do some other things.
Running Win 7 x64 without BC on a MBP SR. I had already partitioned my hard drive to set up a test/recovery partition, so Boot Camp refused to play. The problem with the x64 release is that it won't boot properly on Mac hardware without some additional jiggery pokery, which I found on this blog. You will need access to Windows to burn the iso, though.
As for drivers, they all installed absolutely fine using the x64 setup.exe file within the Boot Camp drivers folder. Make sure you install the latest drivers from Nvidia directly. My Windows score shot up after I did that. Windows update found some newer drivers - wireless and bluetooth I remember amongst others.
Mine does. Something is borked on yours, it seems.
No need for any of this. There is a workaround for unsigned drivers, by force installing these and signing them with a downloadable utility before rebooting to stop Windows removing these on the the next boot. I wouldn't recommend it if you are not sure whether the drivers are likely to screw up your install or not.
As for selecting the default boot drive, you can use fdisk in Mac OSX or diskpart in Windows to do this.
Windows is easier:
Run command prompt in administrator mode and enter diskpart
at the > prompt enter select disk 0.
It will confirm that hard disk 0 has been selected. Now enter list partition
This should list all partitions on your hard drive. The first partition is your hidden EFI partition, which is 200MB. The rest are your visible partitions. You will need to identify your OSX partition based on size. Note the partition number. Enter select partition x, where x is your partition number.
Diskpart will confirm your OSX partition has been selected. Now enter active. This will set your OSX as the default boot partition. Enter exit and reboot.
As for drivers, they all installed absolutely fine using the x64 setup.exe file within the Boot Camp drivers folder. Make sure you install the latest drivers from Nvidia directly. My Windows score shot up after I did that. Windows update found some newer drivers - wireless and bluetooth I remember amongst others.
Mine does. Something is borked on yours, it seems.
No need for any of this. There is a workaround for unsigned drivers, by force installing these and signing them with a downloadable utility before rebooting to stop Windows removing these on the the next boot. I wouldn't recommend it if you are not sure whether the drivers are likely to screw up your install or not.
As for selecting the default boot drive, you can use fdisk in Mac OSX or diskpart in Windows to do this.
Windows is easier:
Run command prompt in administrator mode and enter diskpart
at the > prompt enter select disk 0.
It will confirm that hard disk 0 has been selected. Now enter list partition
This should list all partitions on your hard drive. The first partition is your hidden EFI partition, which is 200MB. The rest are your visible partitions. You will need to identify your OSX partition based on size. Note the partition number. Enter select partition x, where x is your partition number.
Diskpart will confirm your OSX partition has been selected. Now enter active. This will set your OSX as the default boot partition. Enter exit and reboot.
To those of you running 64 bit windows 7 on your macbook pros I have a question. While doing medium graphics intensive operations and configuring your mac to optimal fan/heat settings (setting fan default to 2,000rpm and possibly undervolting a bit) how often do the fans have to rev up? is the computer basically always sizzling and always with loud fan speeds 3,000-4,000rpm? or could it be that there are moments of silence like 10-20 minutes between fans revving?
I'm considering buying a macbook pro 15" 2.8ghz mid2009 for architecture school. I'll need to use windows quite a bit for 3d cad work but don't want to have the computer unbearably loud and hot all the time. I can handle a little heat just not constant max-speed fan volume.
I'm considering buying a macbook pro 15" 2.8ghz mid2009 for architecture school. I'll need to use windows quite a bit for 3d cad work but don't want to have the computer unbearably loud and hot all the time. I can handle a little heat just not constant max-speed fan volume.
Just installed RTM 32bit last night on my 2008 BlackBook. At first when I tried to upgrade to 64-bit from the Vista install that I had previously it said no way, probably because I had 32bit Vista. So without thinking I formatted that partition and installed 32bit anyways (oops). Anyways so far so good, except I'm doing all this on the road and I forgot my Leopard disk. I downloaded the BootCamp update from apple.com, but Windows refuses to open it or find any drivers in the package so I guess I'll have to wait until I get home to update my drivers. Should I just format again and install the 64-bit version? I honestly don't think I'll even use Windows that much, but I wanted to see how 7 is and I'm impressed so far.
Thanks for the tips.....although the easiest fix would be for Apple to get off the dime and sign their drivers.
unfortunately i don't see them doing that anytime soon. I am running the RC as well and have been impressed. It makes me look at my work computer (XP) and wish i could just upgrade the dang thing.
Can any of you guys running the Win7 RC or RTM (at medium GPU/CPU intensity) tell me how frequently your fans rev up from the default 2,000rpm? For how long do they stay that fast before revving down. (see a few posts up)
I want to decide on my purchase today, any input would be much appreciated. THANKS.
I want to decide on my purchase today, any input would be much appreciated. THANKS.
Hey joaomario, this is really not that easy. I don't measure my fan's rpm but do know that it began blowing quite hard once. After that I dimmed the display, turned Aero off and everything was acceptable. Macs are not known to manage power as efficiently in Microsoft's environment as other notebooks (that have a couple of years of Windows/PC experience in their backs). Snow Leopard/Boot Camp 3 should bring improvements, though.
I own a 13-inch, and depending on the size of the notebook (i.e. on how much space it has to spread heat) it will blow air more often than not. Plus, consider how hot it is on your office/school/city/country. In other words, your mileage may vary.
If you really need to run Windows apps that often then, by all means, buy a Windows PC. While it is true that the MacBook is an excellent hardware (probably the best notebook out there), it is a fallacy that it is the best hardware to run Windows. For comparable hardware quality (and price) you should look for Sony Vaio instead.
You can, on the other hard, buy a Mac, wait for drivers to get better, and use Windows virtualized as often as possible.
I have a 15" macbook pro (2008 unibody version). Installed 64bit Windows 7 Ultimate on bootcamp. Everything works fine except the mouse driver sucks (same issues as Vista/XP)
I also have VMware Fusion, which I had to remove the old bootcamp vmware file and have it detect the settings again (otherwise I would run into BSOD problems). Afterwards everything is running great. No activation issues either.
I also have VMware Fusion, which I had to remove the old bootcamp vmware file and have it detect the settings again (otherwise I would run into BSOD problems). Afterwards everything is running great. No activation issues either.
driver issue?
I put windows 7 on bootcamp but it being my first time with bootcamp I got scared as my computer got so hot you couldnt touch it. Eventhough I have apple care I dont really want to fry my computer if I dont have to. Has anyone found a GREAT solution to the heating issue. I have read all over and some people use fan controlers and whatnot but I have yet to see a definate answer of what really works well.
I read about all of you guys running bootcamp to play games. What all do you guys do for cooling? All I need windows for is to run autocad and solidworks. Well maybe some server admin if I cant get into it via rdp from the mac side.
I had parallels working but autocad 2010 does not run at all on it, so Im trying to find a solution that works well.
Even all the threads here on this forum I have yet to really see an answer to the heating issue. Seems most people just deal with it and dont seem to concerned..
Any advice for a guy new to bootcamp. Installation was a breeze. I installed the bootcamp drivers but I did not install any vender drivers like nividia or realtek etc that I have seen people do here. Before I go and start using it i need to make sure it cools well first.
Thanks
Dusty
I put windows 7 on bootcamp but it being my first time with bootcamp I got scared as my computer got so hot you couldnt touch it. Eventhough I have apple care I dont really want to fry my computer if I dont have to.
Has anyone found a GREAT solution to the heating issue. I have read all over and some people use fan controlers and whatnot but I have yet to see a definate answer of what really works well. I read about all of you guys running bootcamp to play games. What all do you guys do for cooling? All I need windows for is to run autocad and solidworks. Well maybe some server admin if I cant get into it via rdp from the mac side.
I had parallels working but autocad 2010 does not run at all on it, so Im trying to find a solution that works well.
Even all the threads here on this forum I have yet to really see an answer to the heating issue. Seems most people just deal with it and dont seem to concerned..
Any advice for a guy new to bootcamp. Installation was a breeze. I installed the bootcamp drivers but I did not install any vender drivers like nividia or realtek etc that I have seen people do here. Before I go and start using it i need to make sure it cools well first.
Thanks
Dusty
Well on my MBP they only rev up depending on how heavy the load is, but never just randomly. A lot of people have complained about the cases getting kind of hot, which I agree with but it's really not a big deal. And even then, the heat issue could be fixed with a software update. 90% of the problems people have under Windows on a Mac could be fixed by Apple from a software update. I'm really really looking forward to Boot Camp 3.
Thanks a lot to all who replied. I do hope bootcamp 3 will be all you guys are hoping it to be. I know the sensible thing for me to do is to get a windows pc as I will be doing a lot of cad but I just love the macbook pro design. I'll have to decide soon though.