Windows Vista, iMac, BSOD, Internal_Power_Error

[Omni Geno]

So I was so overjoyed that my new iMac with Radeon 4850 was freeze-free after installing the firmware update that I installed Vista and some games. But everytime I try to boot into Windows I get a BSOD with the message "Internal_Power_Error" and it just restarts.

I can boot into Safe Mode but I don't know what I could possibly do from there. So I restart and try lots of different options in the boot menu and all of them give me the same BSOD.

Strangely, I'd try Use Last Known Good Configuration and it wouldn't work, then 2 tries later it does work. But most of the time it doesn't.

Anyone have any ideas on what to do?

iMac (2009)
2.93 GHz Core 2 Duo
ATI Radeon HD 4850
4GB RAM
640GB HDD with 150GB Boot Camp partition
Vista Ultimate 32-bit

Thanks!

 

[rockym]

Fix to BSOD INTERNAL_POWER_ERROR

I received my spanking new imac 3.06 HD 4850 yesterday.

• Reinstalled OSX to remove bloatware igarageband anyone ?
• updated the hell out of OSX (Software update until no mopre available)
• Recovered from heart failure when it went BOOOOOOP and showed a black screen for 20 seconds when doing firmware upgrade
• Ran bootcamp to repartition
• Inserted Vista Ultimate DVD and installed
• Ran Windows update until no more updates available

At this point everything was fine and I had Vista bootable and OSX bootable so I then installed the Bootcamp drivers from the OSX DVD. Reboot BANG .... BSOD ... INTERNAL_POWER_ERROR.

I booted into safe mode and all was OK, booted into vista and BSOD.

I restored to a system restore prior to Bootcamp drivers and all worked fine.

I downloaded Bootcamp 2.1 and tried installing those drivers over the existing drivers and BANG ... BSOD INTERNAL_POWER_ERROR.

I restored to a system restore prior to Bootcamp drivers again and all worked fine as before. I installed the bootcamp drivers from the DVD (unchecked the auto update option although I don't think this would have much effect). Once the drivers were installed I DID NOT REBOOT.

I right clicked on COMPUTER in the START menu and chose MANAGE.

Then I chose DEVICE MANAGER and selected the display adaptor (ATI). I right clicked and chose to uninstall the driver. When given the option I chose to delete the driver too.

I rebooted and voila no BSOD.

So its something to do with the graphics card drivers.

have tried installing the ATI Catalyst drivers and these didn't crash the machine but not sure they worked (graphics card shows no available driver).

I had to get into work by this stage but will carry on tonight ... at least I can get into vista and run in hi res mode though.

 

[babsvii]

hey i think i might be having the same problem as you are... thought im not sure what it says on my screen... when i go to start windows it flashes a blue screen with some kind of power error... then goes to restart but doesnt... i have to press the power button myself at that point... then it goes to the screen that offeres me safe mode or normal start... i pick normal and most of the time it will let me go to windows... sometimes it does the blue screen again... does this seem like the same thing u are getting?... also i have the new imac 3.06 with the ati.

 

[rockym]

Yeah ... when it starts up again and says "check for solution" just click the "details" button and it will show you ... pound to a penny its INTERNAL_POWER_ERROR.

Jeez this iMac sucks .... it wasn't even stable under OS/X .....

After starting in safe mode and removing the ATI driver it works (no 3D graphics obviously).

Just trying to install BootCamp 2.1 drivers .... but its getting close to bed time

I installed the catalyst drivers but they did not work.

 

[babsvii]

what would be the point in getting the ati card if i cant even use it?? i have been just continuing to use it most of the time i can restart my computer and it will work just fine... do u think this could cause damage in the long run?

 

[rockym]

It appears to be a driver error ... ATI do not have Mobility HD 4850 drivers and the mobility modder doesn't support the 4850 either.

I'm sure they will bring out the updated drivers but Apple are notoriously arrogant and slow. They are a brilliant company at design, marketing and spin but treat their customers with contempt unfortunately.

Rest assured they will bring out working drivers as one of their claims to fame is that their Macs run Windows faster and better than PCs.

I'm just going to try windows XP and see if I can get that working.

Vista sucks anyway

 

[rockym]

Oh and apart from the annoyance it shouldn't damage your machine ...

 

[babsvii]

well thats good to know... im not too worried ill keep running vista for now cause eventually once windows 7 comes out ill be installing that!

 

[Omni Geno]

It appears to be a driver error ... ATI do not have Mobility HD 4850 drivers and the mobility modder doesn't support the 4850 either.

I'm sure they will bring out the updated drivers but Apple are notoriously arrogant and slow. They are a brilliant company at design, marketing and spin but treat their customers with contempt unfortunately.

Rest assured they will bring out working drivers as one of their claims to fame is that their Macs run Windows faster and better than PCs.

I'm just going to try windows XP and see if I can get that working.

Vista sucks anyway

They weren't exactly slow about fixing the iMac's freezing problem.

Anyway, so if we don't have the Radeon 4850 driver installed we can't use the hardware acceleration at all? I'm using Vista only for games so there's really no point.

I'm just wondering why I get the error sometimes but not other times. It's like playing the slot machines - sometimes you get lucky but usually you don't.

If any of you install XP and have no problems (after testing it for a while) let me know.

 

[runebinder]

After uninstalling the ATI drive thats part of the Bootcamp install, have you tried right clicking the display adapter in Device Manager, and selecting update to let Windows Update try and find a driver for it?

One thing Vista is fairly good at is finding the right drivers via Windows Update, worth a shot if you haven't already tried it.

 

[Omni Geno]

After uninstalling the ATI drive thats part of the Bootcamp install, have you tried right clicking the display adapter in Device Manager, and selecting update to let Windows Update try and find a driver for it?

One thing Vista is fairly good at is finding the right drivers via Windows Update, worth a shot if you haven't already tried it.

That's an interesting idea. I'll try that out when I have the chance.

 

[rockym]

Well Vista was a non starter ... tried every combo and the only way I could get it working was by removing the ATI graphics driver.

Vista couldn't find the correct driver either.

My solution, and it works brilliantly, was to unearth my copy of XP. Installed that, installed the bootcamp drivers from the OSX DVD, the firmware had already been upgraded previously.

Voila, stable system, no BSOD.

Only annoyance is a pulsing

MMMMMMM ..........................
MMMMMMM ..........................
MMMMMMM ..........................
MMMMMMM ..........................
MMMMMMM ..........................
MMMMMMM ..........................
MMMMMMM ..........................

sound from the drive or the fan ..... annoying but heh ... Macs aren't known for their quality parts !

At least its now stable and working.

 

[rockym]

They weren't exactly slow about fixing the iMac's freezing problem.

Anyway, so if we don't have the Radeon 4850 driver installed we can't use the hardware acceleration at all? I'm using Vista only for games so there's really no point.

I'm just wondering why I get the error sometimes but not other times. It's like playing the slot machines - sometimes you get lucky but usually you don't.

If any of you install XP and have no problems (after testing it for a while) let me know.

Its been out for quite a while and they only released the drivers a few weeks ago ... so even with OSX its been quite a while, their solution (if you read around the forums) was to swap out peoples iMacs to an identical model with an identical solution.

 

[Bill Gates]

Is everyone with this problem using a 32-bit version of Windows Vista? I've been wanting to upgrade my iMac from XP to Vista Business 64-bit to use a spare copy of mine and to take advantage of some benefits it offers over XP, but not at the expense of a proper, working graphics driver.

 

[babsvii]

im using vista 64bit.... so its happening on both i guess... i have just kept using it sometimes i need to restart a couple times but most times it starts just fine. once there is a solution where i dont have to delete the drivers then i will do something to fix it...

 

[rockym]

I was using Vista 32 bit ... it might be "intermittent" but to all intents an purposes its as near as damn it every time ....

Windows XP is stable (the drivers on the disk are actually for XP).

 

[Bill Gates]

I just found something that could possibly work. I remember doing something quite similar with GeForce laptop drivers years ago. Could someone please try this and report back? The pictures require registration, but you should be able to follow without. If not, registration only takes a second. (I did so to see the pictures.) Basically he is installing the desktop driver instead by manually selecting it in device manager, so if you know how to do that, you don't even need to click the link. Also, I believe the newest driver available is 9.5 now, so that'd be worth a shot instead. I'm not sure if any features or power management settings are lost by doing this.

http://forum.gt725.de/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=205

 

[rockym]

I can't do that as I am stable on XP. I'll be waiting for your Win7 offering Bill

 

[Bill Gates]

I can't do that as I am stable on XP. I'll be waiting for your Win7 offering Bill

I've updated my drivers thread with a Windows 7 driver. It is untested, however. Please report back with your results if you dare to test it.

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=7645113#post7645113

 

[rockym]

I'll stick with XP for now ...

I hated Vista anyway, but the disks were handy when I started to install. My XP installation disks were in the loft.

 

[Omni Geno]

I've updated my drivers thread with a Windows 7 driver. It is untested, however. Please report back with your results if you dare to test it.

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=7645113#post7645113

Hey Bill, not sure what you did with those drivers, but it worked! I booted into Safe Mode to avoid a BSOD on startup. I uninstalled the ATI driver that came with Boot Camp and then restarted normally. The computer automatically reinstalled the driver, but I promptly went to the Device Manager to manually change the driver. I chose the driver that you uploaded and restarted. I ignored the fact that it was unsigned.

Vista 32 boots and works now! Thanks so much!

 

[idreaminbeige]

I just found something that could possibly work. I remember doing something quite similar with GeForce laptop drivers years ago. Could someone please try this and report back? The pictures require registration, but you should be able to follow without. If not, registration only takes a second. (I did so to see the pictures.) Basically he is installing the desktop driver instead by manually selecting it in device manager, so if you know how to do that, you don't even need to click the link. Also, I believe the newest driver available is 9.5 now, so that'd be worth a shot instead. I'm not sure if any features or power management settings are lost by doing this.

http://forum.gt725.de/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=205

Works for me too! no more occasional blue screens on startup (after 8 attempts) AND i can finally select all of the 16:10 screen resolutions which i couldnt before. Thanks Bill.