Windows 7 via Bootcamp

Hi,

I've searched the forums and I'm quite surprised that no one has brought up the issue of installing Windows via bootcamp on the new Macbook Pro lines. I have the 13" Macbook Pro, 2.53Ghz with 4 Gigs of ram myself and the issue that I am having with windows via bootcamp is the audio drivers. The sound output is very low, even when I've maxed it out on the windows side. I find this slightly annoying since Apple advertises that Window's will work with their macbook pro's. I seem to be not the only one experiencing this issue with their new macbook pro's. I found another thread from apple's website with tons of users having the same problem. It can be found here: Apple - Support - Discussions - Very Poor Volume Output - Windows XP ...

More so, It seems as though I can't turn off the backlight on my keyboard nor does the internal microphone work with steam, skype, or msn. However, windows does pick up the mic when I check in the control panel. I really hope apple finds a fix for this soon as I, and many other users find this really annoying. I've read that apple won't take this seriously until a lot of people start complaining. So what are your thoughts on this issue?

It's still in RC aka beta. Apple will not support it until it actually hits store selves also note not all the companies have released all the drivers for their product lines.

gagnerants said:

It's still in RC aka beta. Apple will not support it until it actually hits store selves also note not all the companies have released all the drivers for their product lines.

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Wrong buddy, Apple doesnt need to support it right now. Windows 7 is fully supported by the MBP at the moment with bootcamp and VMware. For bootcamp just google bootcamp 3.0 and download that. And if you audio doesnt work google windows 7 retek or something like that drivers and install them.

gagnerants said:

It's still in RC aka beta. Apple will not support it until it actually hits store selves also note not all the companies have released all the drivers for their product lines.

Click to expand...

Its not in the RC anymore. I downloaded Windows 7 Professional through my MSDN using my university username and password. No where on the site did it say it was a beta. As for the audio drivers, apparently apple switched its hardware from Realtek to Cirrus or something like that and there have been problems. As of right now, I don't think there is a driver to fix the issue but I could be wrong. There are temporary drivers created by users to temporaily solve this problem, but I prefer not to go that route..

jayt said:

Its not in the RC anymore. I downloaded Windows 7 Professional through my MSDN using my university username and password. No where on the site did it say it was a beta. As for the audio drivers, apparently apple switched its hardware from Realtek to Cirrus or something like that and there have been problems. As of right now, I don't think there is a driver to fix the issue but I could be wrong. There are temporary drivers created by users to temporaily solve this problem, but I prefer not to go that route..

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True, but Windows 7 doesn't come out until later next month. So until then, you can install it if you want, but don't expect everything to work perfectly.

I have my copy from university on my Macbook and it runs fine, but I'd expect Apple to offer improved drivers at some point, if your hardware is fully supported yet.

Im running the RTM 7600 version and everything works including sounds....I dont know why you guys have trouble....

Really? I'm having problems with a red light in my Audio jack, which causes my speaker output to be very low. I've read about the toothpick trick but I really don't think that will solve anything. The red light only shows up on the Windows side but everything works fine in OS X. I'm convinced there is a driver issue here and i'm not sure how you were able to get everything to work flawlessly. From what I found, a lot of people are experiencing the problems as I am with the 2009 macbook pros.

Vienio said:

Wrong buddy, Apple doesnt need to support it right now. Windows 7 is fully supported by the MBP at the moment with bootcamp and VMware. For bootcamp just google bootcamp 3.0 and download that. And if you audio doesnt work google windows 7 retek or something like that drivers and install them.

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And just where is he supposed to legally download Boot Camp 3.0 without buying Snow Leopard? Only way right now to obtain Boot Camp 3 is to buy Snow Leopard.

Regards.

I can confirm that the RTM Windows 7 (Enterprise Edition) works just fine with Boot Camp 3.0 as provided with Snow Leopard. You will get a warning from Windows, however, when you attempt to install the Boot Camp Windows Support Package.

As a side note, Windows 7 is a very strong showing from Microsoft this time. I will have no hesitation in converting my current desktop/gaming box from a dual-boot Vista/XP machine to a single partition Windows 7 machine.

I'm currently running Windows 7 Ultimate with Snow Leopard via Bootcamp 3.0 and everything is working brilliantly. I agree with cwa107 that it is a strong show from Microsoft. I really like it and will definitely be using it as my primary OS on my Windows machines.

cwa107 said:

As a side note, Windows 7 is a very strong showing from Microsoft this time.

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I second that, I can't wait to buy it and put it on my MacBook.

I'm running Win 7 on my HTPC at the moment and like it a lot.
Of course I did set the UAC to never notify me.


Wait a minute! What's goin' on here!

Is this a Microsoft forum or an Apple forum?
Are we having a MS love fest now?
What's the matter with you guys?
Don't you know good Apple fanboys aren't supposed to be carrying on about that other OS?

Jayt - if you're seeing a red light when nothing is plugged in, that is almost invariably caused by it being stuck in the open position. However, there are some audio problems around and many have solved them by going back to BootCamp 2.1.

bobtomay said:

Are we having a MS love fest now?
What's the matter with you guys?

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Well when we do have to go over to the dark side might as well make it enjoyable, lol.

bobtomay said:

Wait a minute! What's goin' on here!

Is this a Microsoft forum or an Apple forum?
Are we having a MS love fest now?
What's the matter with you guys?

Click to expand...

It's a slight guilty pleasure of mine going back to Windows . Although you have to admit they did a really good job! I only really need it for CAD work, lol.

bobtomay said:

if you're seeing a red light when nothing is plugged in, that is almost invariably caused by it being stuck in the open position. However, there are some audio problems around and many have solved them by going back to BootCamp 2.1.

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I've read your posts about the "Toothpick" method and how other users found it successful, however I don't think this is the case with mine. When I boot into OS X, everything works fine; The red light is off and the speakers output sound perfectly. It's only when I boot into Windows when the speaker output is low and red light comes on.

My theory on this is because I have the 2009 13" MBP, which uses hardware from Cirrus Logic rather than RealTek hardware used with the 2008 MBP. From my first post, there is a thread on the Apple Forums with nearly 300 posts with identical problems as me (all of which users are using the 2009 model with Cirrus Logic hardware). That is why I was curious why a thread wasn't started on this forum with the same issue.

CWA - You said you got Windows 7 to work fine on your machine. I'm curious, are you using the 2008 model of the MBP with RealTek hardware?

Thanks for all your replies!

I believe cwa's current is an '08 model.

Yeah, I have not seen that particular thread.
Don't keep up to date as much as I should any more.

Vienio said:

Im running the RTM 7600 version and everything works including sounds....I dont know why you guys have trouble....

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I had trouble on my uMBP too. Wouldnt accept changes for audio, backlit keyboard or the trackpad. So I just removed windows all together and installed WINE.

Hi i just registered to this mac forums because i think im about to eat the forbidden apple

Believe it or not, this topic changed my thoughts, i was about to buy a high performance pc to fill the daily needs for a long term (programming, games, performance). But by doing some Google, found about bootcamp's fully compatibility with windows 7; needed for a lot of task.

i was exceptic about changing but now im convinced, i mean getting the best of the both worlds by the same prices its like heaven. I would like to request some information points:

-do i get the same performance, running bootcamp(windows 7) on macbook pro than with a pc with the exact same specifications? talking about frame-rate, speed, windows experiences

txt0pr said:

-do i get the same performance, running bootcamp(windows 7) on macbook pro than with a pc with the exact same specifications? talking about frame-rate, speed, windows experiences

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Yes, because from a hardware standpoint, Macs are really not much different than any other PC. The big difference is in the OS.

jayt said:

It's a slight guilty pleasure of mine going back to Windows . Although you have to admit they did a really good job! I only really need it for CAD work, lol.



I've read your posts about the "Toothpick" method and how other users found it successful, however I don't think this is the case with mine. When I boot into OS X, everything works fine; The red light is off and the speakers output sound perfectly. It's only when I boot into Windows when the speaker output is low and red light comes on.

My theory on this is because I have the 2009 13" MBP, which uses hardware from Cirrus Logic rather than RealTek hardware used with the 2008 MBP. From my first post, there is a thread on the Apple Forums with nearly 300 posts with identical problems as me (all of which users are using the 2009 model with Cirrus Logic hardware). That is why I was curious why a thread wasn't started on this forum with the same issue.

CWA - You said you got Windows 7 to work fine on your machine. I'm curious, are you using the 2008 model of the MBP with RealTek hardware?

Thanks for all your replies!

Click to expand...

So is there an definite answer to the "red light".
I don't think that all of us have a stuck jack.

I'm experiencing the same issues here, very low sound.

Mine is an early 2008 MacBook Pro (2.4GHz). I also encountered the red light issue when using an earlier version of the Boot Camp drivers, but after updating to Boot Camp 3.0 (on the Snow Leopard disc), the problem immediately corrected and audio started working fine.

I will boot into Windows 7 now to see if I can determine the manufacturer of the audio codec. System Profiler reports it as "Intel High Definition Audio", but I think that is more of a descriptor of the chipset drivers.