MacBook Pro and Vista x64

Draeconis

Draeconis

Draeconis

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28 Feb 2008
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I've been posting a bit about getting a MacBook Pro for a while now, I'd say I was annoying you, but you're all Mac Fans, so clearly that is impossible!

My question is; Can you run Vista x64 on a MacBook Pro? I know support for Vista x64 was added to the Leopard disk for the Mac Pro, but I don't know about the MacBook Pro, and I'd quite like to give it a try.

I doubt XPx64 would work on it, and I've not heard very good things about how it's constructed, but I use XP 32bit at the moment because I've not had much of a good time Vista 32bit on my current machine.

And of course, when I do get it, I will post pictures, with the obligatory bread in the background.
 
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I think it works although not sure it's officially supported.

Why would you want to go Vista 64-bit if 32-bit isn't giving you a fun time? I can assure you the former version is a lot worse.
 
64Bit Vista has "worked" since RC1 on Bootcamp although it is not officially supported I didn't really find I had any trouble with it when I had it installed. Though unless you have more than 4Gb of RAM I don't think there is much point in running a 64Bit OS at the moment.

But like Slogan has said, if you don't get along with it on your current machine why bother with it on your Mac? :)
 
32bit didn't run a few of my audio apps properly, and they are coded to take advantage of 64bit, plus the specs of my current laptop is not as impressive as the MacBook Pros available today. It got mid 5's on some things but high 4's on others.

There is an element of 'Can I do it?' within it really, and I've not had a chance to test out a 64bit OS because my CPU on my current machine is only 32bit.

Guess I'm just curious, I could always just run it as a virtual machine I guess.
 
wij said:
64Bit Vista has "worked" since RC1 on Bootcamp although it is not officially supported I didn't really find I had any trouble with it when I had it installed. Though unless you have more than 4Gb of RAM I don't think there is much point in running a 64Bit OS at the moment.

But like Slogan has said, if you don't get along with it on your current machine why bother with it on your Mac? :)
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If you have 4gb ram then just use VMWare and dedicate loads of RAM to it. I tried it and decided that it wasnt worth it in the end. I only need a few apps to work in windows and i can just use VMWare in Unity mode...that way i dont loose my OSX apps too
 
Vista 64 is a fantastic desktop OS, if you can get the drivers for it (either from Apple or from the people who make the components) then give it a go.
 
I'm tempted to give Vista 64 a try now it's been SP1'd, unfortunately I've got a Core Duo so no 64bit for me :(

Sticking with good old XP SP2 for the moment.
 
I'm about to upgrade 32 for 64. I initially went with 32 because there was no driver support. However, I got hold of the 64bit drivers that came with the latest Mac Pro's and can now make full use of my 4gig of RAM in windows.

Just need to find the time to do it really.

Panzer
 
MagicBoy said:
I'm tempted to give Vista 64 a try now it's been SP1'd, unfortunately I've got a Core Duo so no 64bit for me :(

Sticking with good old XP SP2 for the moment.
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I'm in exactly the same boat. Though I'm currently running XP SP3 build 5508, which seems ok :)

I'm buying the Mac versions of my audio apps, so they're not an issue. Guess I still want to play Age of Empires :P
 
I'm glad this thread came back up.

Thought you would all like to know that I've just successfully upgraded my 32-bit OEM Vista Installation to 64-bit. Full 4Gb of RAM for me in Vista *Dances*

If you intend to do likewise I've got a few tips from my experiences.

1. Even with the Apple 64-bit drivers that come with the latest Mac Pros, the MBP Wireless and Ethernet drivers don't install with the other drivers when you install Bootcamp.

What I did was go back into OSX, find the wireless drivers, stick them on a pen drive and then boot back into Vista and install them. From there I could use device manager to find the Ethernet drivers for me. Now that you've been given some notice, be sure to have them ready beforehand.

You can find the latest Atheros wireless drivers here.

2. Also missing from the Apple drivers was support for the Nvidia 8600GT Mobile. I know most people (myself included) get the latest Nvidia drivers direct but it's worth noting that you will have to download these.

I also had to manually install these drivers using the 'Have Disk' method because Device Manager could only recognise my graphics card as a 'Default VGA Adapter'. The Nvidia install process also told me that there was no hardware in my system that required their drivers.

I'm not sure if this is Apple, Nvidia or Windows fault but don't panic if you get the same message. Also since doing this I've had some trouble getting Aero to work. It seems because the 8600GT isn't being properly recognised, Vista won't unlock the Aero theme so I've had to manually select that as well.

Apart from that little glitch I had no trouble getting it to work at all. It still runs games properly and the Nvidia control panel is installed so the drivers must work.

I'll keep the thread updated if I run into any other problems but I only really use Vista for gaming so I won't really find the full ins-and-outs of it.

Hope that little write-up helps.

Panzer
 
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I found it pretty straight forward installing Vista 64 on my MacBook, I just used the Mac Pro drivers and then used the 64bit bootcamp installed which is inside the apple folder of the Mac Pro drivers, then everything worked. I do find when running Vista the MacBook gets pretty hot, this was the case on my friends Imac as well.
 
Panzerbjorn said:
I'm glad this thread came back up.

Thought you would all like to know that I've just successfully upgraded my 32-bit OEM Vista Installation to 64-bit. Full 4Gb of RAM for me in Vista *Dances*

If you intend to do likewise I've got a few tips from my experiences.

1. Even with the Apple 64-bit drivers that come with the latest Mac Pros, the MBP Wireless and Ethernet drivers don't install with the other drivers when you install Bootcamp.

What I did was go back into OSX, find the wireless drivers, stick them on a pen drive and then boot back into Vista and install them. From there I could use device manager to find the Ethernet drivers for me. Now that you've been given some notice, be sure to have them ready beforehand.

2. Also missing from the Apple drivers was support for the Nvidia 8600GT Mobile. I know most people (myself included) get the latest Nvidia drivers direct but it's worth noting that you will have to download these.

I also had to manually install these drivers using the 'Have Disk' method because Device Manager could only recognise my graphics card as a 'Default VGA Adapter'. The Nvidia install process also told me that there was no hardware in my system that required their drivers.

I'm not sure if this is Apple, Nvidia or Windows fault but don't panic if you get the same message. Also since doing this I've had some trouble getting Aero to work. It seems because the 8600GT isn't being properly recognised, Vista won't unlock the Aero theme so I've had to manually select that as well.

Apart from that little glitch I had no trouble getting it to work at all. It still runs games properly and the Nvidia control panel is installed so the drivers must work.

I'll keep the thread updated if I run into any other problems but I only really use Vista for gaming so I won't really find the full ins-and-outs of it.

Hope that little write-up helps.

Panzer
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Any chance you could link the drivers you downloaded mate? Specifically the nV and network card drivers.

cheers.
 
Sure thing mate. I got the Atheros wireless drivers from here

Use the top link for the latest ones I think.

The nV ones I got from the Nvidia site, just get the latest 64bit Forceware drivers for the 8600GT

I've also added the link to my original post for future reference.

Panzer
 
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