24" iMac and BootCamp - Your experience, Getting the 24" to boot to Windows

[Adorimac]

BBB has been notified.

For anyone that ran the VGA "fix" (note the quotes), were you able to set your external monitor to high resolutions? My monitor won't go higher than 1024, but I'm wondering if that's just the old monitors fault.

Let me know.

[Flyinace2000]

BBB has been notified.

For anyone that ran the VGA "fix" (note the quotes), were you able to set your external monitor to high resolutions? My monitor won't go higher than 1024, but I'm wondering if that's just the old monitors fault.

Let me know.

Even after boting to a external monitor i could not get the inernal one to respond by change its resolution. I even tried new nVidia drivers. Nothing.......

[Adorimac]

BBB has been notified.

For anyone that ran the VGA "fix" (note the quotes), were you able to set your external monitor to high resolutions? My monitor won't go higher than 1024, but I'm wondering if that's just the old monitors fault.

Let me know.

Even after boting to a external monitor i could not get the inernal one to respond by change its resolution. I even tried new nVidia drivers. Nothing.......

What about on the external? Did the resolution go above 1024 on that? I have this game I'm trying to play on my external monitor, but the res is crappy and won't hit the games minimum. I'm wondering if it's the fault of the monitor or this whole 24" imac debacle in general

[cheerful]

@Adorimac, it is most likely the debacle in general as you mentioned. seems to me like the Apple with the worm (the 24") in the Apple Intel series of macs.

[linathael]

BBB has been notified.

good move
sometimes Apple does not understand other ways than legal action pressure

[cheerful]

a mass social action is what Apple or any other c.o. needs before anyone actually addresses issue(s). there're some exceptions though. but i agree with you, linathael, very very much on this.

[Adorimac]

@Adorimac, it is most likely the debacle in general as you mentioned. seems to me like the Apple with the worm (the 24") in the Apple Intel series of macs.

argh, i want someone to confirm though - if I have to I will try to round up another monitor to get aboce the 1024x960 so I can play this game.. my current monitor might suck but i'm not sure.. only one i have

[Adorimac]

@Adorimac, it is most likely the debacle in general as you mentioned. seems to me like the Apple with the worm (the 24") in the Apple Intel series of macs.

argh, i want someone to confirm though - if I have to I will try to round up another monitor to get aboce the 1024x960 so I can play this game.. my current monitor might suck but i'm not sure.. only one i have

Anyone? Will an external monitor go above 1024 resolution via bootcamp?

[linathael]

Anyone? Will an external monitor go above 1024 resolution via bootcamp?

I have psoted your question on the French forum. I will let you know
now when running OSX can you get higher résolution than 1024 on the same display?

[Adorimac]

Anyone? Will an external monitor go above 1024 resolution via bootcamp?

I have psoted your question on the French forum. I will let you know
now when running OSX can you get higher résolution than 1024 on the same display?

you know what.. I forgot to try that. But I think the answer is no. Will check.

[Flyinace2000]

I got native resolution on my 19" LCD via DVI (1280x1024) while in bootcamp and the internal monitor is gray.

[Ridcully]

BBB has been notified.

For anyone that ran the VGA "fix" (note the quotes), were you able to set your external monitor to high resolutions? My monitor won't go higher than 1024, but I'm wondering if that's just the old monitors fault.

Let me know.

I can get multiple resolutions on my external LCD in Bootcamp. I'm currently running at 1280x960 but there are other, higher resolutions available.

[Flyinace2000]

Apple will fix this right or are they going to make me buy a XBOX 360 to get my game on"?

[Adorimac]

Apple will fix this right or are they going to make me buy a XBOX 360 to get my game on"?

funnily enough, my roommate owns a 360 and i bought two games for it. i need to add that before this problem with my imac, i've honestly been openly and loudly hateful toward stupid console gaming. well, guess what. it's not so bad, and if I can't play games on my mac, I'll be supporting microsoft even more than by using the copy of windows I already had.

[Adorimac]

Still nothing on this, huh? Thanks Apple!

[Flyinace2000]

Still nothing on this, huh? Thanks Apple!

I did get a xbox 360.....so no rush on a fix. But i really want to play Flight Sim 07 so a fix would be nice.

[Flyinace2000]

here is the sys profile of a 24" iMac at the apple store that does work with boot camp

Machine Name: Mac
Machine Model: iMac6,1
Processor Name: Dual Core Intel Placeholder
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM61.0093.B00
SMC Version: 1.10f2
Serial Number: W86362FFVGN

[linathael]

here is the sys profile of a 24" iMac at the apple store that does work with boot camp

Machine Name: Mac
Machine Model: iMac6,1
Processor Name: Dual Core Intel Placeholder
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM61.0093.B00
SMC Version: 1.10f2
Serial Number: W86362FFVGN

we will have to compare it with previous data posted in this topic
at least the SMC version seems to be excluded as a reason for Bootcamp issue

[oscarucb]

Below is system info for a newly-purchased 24" iMac where the internal display does NOT work in XP (it demonstrates the problem discussed). It was purchased in the US (California) at CompUSA. The EFI update was applied along with all other Apple updates.

I was able to install XP SP2 (using a "real" XP SP2 CD) and the BootCamp 1.1.2 drivers using an external monitor, but absolutely nothing works for enabling the 24" iMac internal display. Also tried installing WinACD and also the latest NVidia drivers from the NVidia site, still absolutely no progress - everything in windows seemingly refuses to acknowledge the presence of the internal monitor. The apple-provided brightness control icon in the system tray noticeably changes the backlight level of the internal display, but otherwise the display always remains entirely dark after boot.

Will other people who do / do not have the problem please include the sysinfo output for the Graphics/Displays panel? This problem is likely to be related to the exact GPU revision involved, and if we can narrow down the exact range of broken versions it will give us more leverage against Apple, and help others preemptively avoid the problem by refusing to purchase the affected systems.

Has anyone made progress via the BBB or other business watchdog organizations to get Apple to fix or at least acknowledge this problem? Is anyone planning a class-action lawsuit?

Their corporate behavior in this matter is offensively reprehensible and to my eyes borders on fraudulence. As others have stated, hiding behind a beta clause is ridiculous considering their heavy advertising of the dual-boot capability of the iMac in TV commercials, online and in person via official Apple sales representatives. Many people are buying iMacs based on this advertisement campaign (in our case it was a major deciding factor) and then being sorely disappointed when the promised feature is completely unusable. The fact that Leopard may or may not fix the problem (more likely not, if it is indeed a hardware flaw) is irrelevant, because Apple is not likely to give away free copies of Leopard to the affected parties. At the very least the company is guilty of false advertisement and gross incompetence (on the part of the support organization), and they should not be permitted to get away with this irresponsible behavior.


Machine Name: iMac
Machine Model: iMac6,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM61.0093.B01
SMC Version: 1.10f2
Serial Number: W86392ZTVGN

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
VRAM (Total): 128 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0395
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3021
Displays:
iMac:
Display Type: LCD
Resolution: 1920 x 1200
Depth: 32-bit Color
Built-In: Yes
Core Image: Supported
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Display:
Status: No display connected

[oscarucb]

BTW - here are some of the other relevant discussions on this topic elsewhere on the web:


http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?t...65&tstart=0
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/12/17/boot-camp-l...rs-in-the-dark/
http://forums.macnn.com/104/alternative-op...no-bootcamp-xp/

Clearly many people have experienced the problem, and the consensus seems to be that those with the problem have no recourse but to spend costly hours on the phone fighting with Apple support until you bully them into issuing you a replacement (which may or may not still demonstrate the problem).


Other tips gleaned from the above sites and my own experiences:

Using an external analog VGA monitor (with a mini-DVI to VGA converter) will allow you to get windows installed (assuming you have a real XP SP2 CD, etc), but apparently no amount of software fiddling in windows will help you fix the internal display if your iMac happens to be one of the affected systems. The internal display is dark from very early at boot time (even before XP starts to load - no splash screens, no boot menus visible, nothing) indicating this is unlikely to be a simple XP protected-mode driver issue - something in the EFI/BIOS firmware or graphics hardware is going wrong long before windows drivers are loaded.

The install program for the Boot Camp drivers changes the windows resolution (without asking, and without a automatic revert timeout!), which might make your external monitor unviewable during the install if it doesn't support the higher res. You can work around this by rebooting (using the power button), repeatedly hitting F8 to get the windows boot menu, and then selecting VGA mode. Then re-install the boot camp drivers.

If you're unlucky enough to install Boot Camp and don't have easy access to an external display, you may be left with an apparently unusable system (always boots to windows CD, which only gives a black screen). Two known workarounds:
* hold down "Option" at boot time to get the boot camp menu and boot OSX, then goto system prefs / startup disk and change it back to OSX.
- or -
* repeatedly hit eject key on kybd during boot, stick in the OSX install CD and reboot from it, then run the startup disk application from the menu in the rescue program.

There are mixed reports that the 7600GT video hardware upgrade may or may not resolve the issue, although I did not attempt that myself.

[linathael]

Thanks Oscar for this update, this is a really nice contribution.
Did someone has tried to use the VGA trick with a external 24" LCD display, wondering if it is linked to any technical support for such size/resolution in WinXP.
in any case, Apple has to changed the machine, as being able to run Win of MacIntel is marketing feature used by Cupertino to sell MAc hardware to consumers.
nevertheless, at hardmac, we remain curious to try to identify the problem, as many option (SMc, ROM, etc...) are not responsible for this issue.

[Jaime W]

I had Bootcamp 1.1.1 up and running windows XP easily and beautifully! No problems at all!!! However after the firmware update I can no longer boot in Windows. I have no Win XP drive listed as a boot option any more. Now bootcamp 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 tells me i need to update my firmware. I don't get it? Any ideas?

I never had blank screen problems or any other problems.

Hardware Overview:

Machine Name: iMac
Machine Model: iMac6,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM61.0093.B01
SMC Version: 1.10f2
Serial Number: W86381DUVGN

[linathael]

I had Bootcamp 1.1.1 up and running windows XP easily and beautifully! No problems at all!!! However after the firmware update I can no longer boot in Windows. I have no Win XP drive listed as a boot option any more. Now bootcamp 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 tells me i need to update my firmware. I don't get it? Any ideas?

I never had blank screen problems or any other problems.

Hardware Overview:

Machine Name: iMac
Machine Model: iMac6,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM61.0093.B01
SMC Version: 1.10f2
Serial Number: W86381DUVGN

could you provide details of the fiormware update you have installed?
thanks

[g3dude]

GOD, can't apple do SOMETHING here?? This makes me so angry! I need to run the adobe suite in XP, and I want to play some games. NOT the four or five that Apple currently offer in universal binary. I don't want three year old games! This machine is my work tool. What did I pay for!

ask to get it replaced as it is covered by the warranty.
it does not imply that it will be fine with the new model ... unfortunately

Did you not know that boot camp is still in beta? Learn to research future purchases first pal! Apple is not promising anything! Don't buy a mac to run windoze! Buy a pee cee! Or wait until they support it fully! Beta does not mean Apple owes you anything. It means, have fun with it, if it works. Don't come crying to Apple when they told you it wasn't finished yet. Be glad that they're even letting you use it!

Owned, nothing she can do, BETA BETA BETA. I even tried to explain how its definetly hardware related or linked to firmware

That's right, remember it's beta....

[linathael]

Did you not know that boot camp is still in beta? Learn to research future purchases first pal! Apple is not promising anything! Don't buy a mac to run windoze! Buy a pee cee! Or wait until they support it fully! Beta does not mean Apple owes you anything. It means, have fun with it, if it works. Don't come crying to Apple when they told you it wasn't finished yet. Be glad that they're even letting you use it!

yep, but then they should not use the ability of running Win on Mac Intel if it is not possible on all models!!
this is as simple as that. It has a name, abusing consumers by improper advertising, and in most countries, at least in EU it is illegal, recognized as a crime, and punished as such.

[Flyinace2000]

Here is an update. I brought my 24" in for the screen humming when dim. They replaced the logic board and guess what?! I can now boot windows. I did not have to reinstall bootcamp.

[linathael]

Here is an update. I brought my 24" in for the screen humming when dim. They replaced the logic board and guess what?! I can now boot windows. I did not have to reinstall bootcamp.

So it proves that it was a hardware issue, and not dependent on BootCamp version or what so ever.
Flyinace could you send me additional details or a summary of your story in order to publish it
thanks

[Flyinace2000]

Here is an update. I brought my 24" in for the screen humming when dim. They replaced the logic board and guess what?! I can now boot windows. I did not have to reinstall bootcamp.

So it proves that it was a hardware issue, and not dependent on BootCamp version or what so ever.
Flyinace could you send me additional details or a summary of your story in order to publish it
thanks

email sent

here it is to all those interested

Here is my recollection of my 24" as i remember them.

I bought my 24" iMac the day it was releases (Sep 15, 2006). I spec'ed it out with the following equipement:

2.13 Ghz Intel Core2Duo
2gb ram
7600GT graphics
BT KeyBoad and Mouse

As soon as it was deliever i reformatted the drive and reinstalled OSX. Afterwards i downloaded and installed BootCamp. Rebooted and installed Windows XP pro without any issues. I then noticed about 6 dead pixels, defective ram, and a screen hum related to the brightness of the screen. So apple care set me up with a replacement computer. I boxed up my original iMac and sent it back. On October 2nd i received iMac #2. I went through my ritual for new computes and wiped the drive and installed the OS from scratch. I installed boot camp and rebooted. This time i got no video from the internal display. After lots of troubleshooting i hooked up my 19" Samsung. After the restart i was able to get into the Windows XP setup via the external monitor only. I finally got windows installed via the external display and decided to poke around. I saw that the windows nVidia drives "saw" the internal monitor but had it set to 640 x 480. I tried to change it to the screens native resolutions but it kept switching back to 640x480. The internal screen was on and getting power because the backlight was on. I could even control the screen brightness via the bootcamp display tool in the system tray. I was defeated. I tried different install CD's. I tried slipstreaming the most up to date nVidia drivers into the Windows install CD. Nothing worked. New versions of boot camp came and went and nothing helped. So during this time the other constant issue was having was the screen huming when dimmed. So i packed her up and brought her to the apple store in woodcliff lake NJ (Tices). The machine was slated to have the LCD replaced. While the genius wrote up the paper work i told him about the BSOD when booting to windows. He became interested and said he would try to get the logic board replaced during the repair. 3 days later i picked up the machine. With a new logic board. I got home and i was able to boot right into windows without even having to redo my bootcamp installation. On a side note the iMac still hums.

Thats my story.

Thanks for all your help.