Mac Book Pro Question

Kopesetic

Kopesetic

New member
My brother recently asked me something I couldn't quite answer so I figured I'd ask you guys.

He's using a Mac Book Pro with Mac OSX 5.2 Snow Leopard, I believe. He bought the labtop a while back and had it loaded with Windows XP via Boot Camp when he purchased it so he could play some of his Windows games on it. He was never able to get XP to run stable on it from the day he brought it home. We tried reinstalling XP and his Max OS, and nothing we did would get Windows to run without BSODing 15 mins into boot. The retailer took a look and couldn't figure it out either. His Mac OS has never had any problems either.

Now, we only tried using XP via Boot Camp for a Windows install, nothing else. Would we possibly have a better chance trying to Boot Camp a Windows 7 install or if possible, could we remove his Mac OS all together and just install Windows 7?
 
You need to use bootcamp for hardware support if nothing else. It's not a virtual machine so there are no benefits from having just windows on there (other than available drive space)

Snow leopard is OS X 10.6, not sure where you got 5.2 from? In OS X click on the apple > about this mac > system profiler? (think it's called that in SL) and tell us what model or year it is. I'll then recommend a version of OS X for you to install. Do a completely fresh install and reinstall windows via bootcamp.
 
andrewmchugh said:
OP, Did you install the bootcamp drivers?
Click to expand...

Yes, they were installed

Chris230291 said:
You need to use bootcamp for hardware support if nothing else. It's not a virtual machine so there are no benefits from having just windows on there (other than available drive space)

Snow leopard is OS X 10.6, not sure where you got 5.2 from? In OS X click on the apple > about this mac > system profiler? (think it's called that in SL) and tell us what model or year it is. I'll then recommend a version of OS X for you to install. Do a completely fresh install and reinstall windows via bootcamp.
Click to expand...

Ok, he's using Mac OSX Leopard 10.5, not sure where he got the SL 5.2 either but I'm not overly familiar with Macs. I won't own one personally, their business ethics leave something to be desired in my opinion.
 
Need to know the model mate. Look here for help http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1635

Once we know that we can see what OS versions it supports, then i can make a personal recommendation.

At the moment it sounds like a bad windows/OS X installation. If you have tried reinstalling windows through bootcamp and still have problems, my guess is there's something wrong in OS X. After doing a fresh install with a NEW OS X image, if the problems carry on i'd say it's a hardware problem.
 
Model Identifer: MacBookPro4,1

Also, I can tell you that he will not buy a new OSX version. He's only planning to use the labtop until he can buy a new PC but that might be a little while. So the current OS that he has is all that will be used.
 
Basically, hes tired of the lack of game support for Macs and he is getting ready to change back to PCs. He's using an old system of mine in the meantime but it can't really play the games he plays..we're talking 10 fps on average on lowest res and settings. I have a copy of Windows 7 I can put on his Mac for him if we can get it to work, it'll run his games a lot better than the system he's using now. He is not willing to put anymore money into his Mac because he feels it is just a waste since he's tired of it. All he uses it for at the moment is watching movies and what not while using the old PC. I will be building him a new gaming PC once he has the money for it.
 
First, my ISP is considerably vigilant on preventing piracy. Second, not entirely sure people here would appreciate members condoning piracy, specifically in public forums, even though I'm sure many do.

But, thanks for your recommendations nonetheless. But one quick question. Do you absolutely have to have a Mac distribution installed to install Windows on a Mac?
 
Last edited:
If you haven't done it, you need to have the OSX 10.5 disk and insert it once you have booted into XP to install the bootcamp drivers
 
dipzy said:
If you haven't done it, you need to have the OSX 10.5 disk and insert it once you have booted into XP to install the bootcamp drivers
Click to expand...

Yes, that was done on every install. At this point I'm just hoping that Windows 7 will work. As I previously stated, hes never had an issue with his OSX install, only when trying to use XP.
 
Kopesetic said:
Yes, that was done on every install. At this point I'm just hoping that Windows 7 will work. As I previously stated, hes never had an issue with his OSX install, only when trying to use XP.
Click to expand...

I've tried windows 7 with bootcamp on my imac and it works pretty well
 
has he tried using running Paralells 8? that allows mac users to run windows 7. Just make sure that if your using OSX that your installing 64 bit windows so you can take full advantage of the hardware.

If hes looking to play games on his mac, why not just get a steam account? there are lots of games coming out on there for macs now.

Hes never going to be able to run far cry 3 or BF3 or Crysis on top settings on a mac book that old just because its not really geared up for it. even the new ones would struggle.

If he wants a system to dual boot he would be better off buying a decent laptop and installing OSX on it. There are plenty of site that will tell you what laptops are compatible out of the box, although the process is not as simple as just putting the disc in.

I just build a dual boot pc with windows 7 and osx mountain lion for a friend. both os's run fantastically.

I think you would be best off exploring a mac or hackintosh forum for your answers.

again im not a regualr mac user so this is just opinion, i just know that a lot of mac guys use paralells.
 
Kopesetic said:
No constant crashes? Good performance?
Click to expand...

Haven't had any crashes yet, performance is ok, could be better but i guess it due to the fact that its a mid 2006 imac so not the fastest:lol:

Edit: as mentioned above, Parralells is a good alternative, never have to out of OSX, just run windows from within it
 
Genesius said:
has he tried using running Paralells 8? that allows mac users to run windows 7. Just make sure that if your using OSX that your installing 64 bit windows so you can take full advantage of the hardware.

If hes looking to play games on his mac, why not just get a steam account? there are lots of games coming out on there for macs now.

Hes never going to be able to run far cry 3 or BF3 or Crysis on top settings on a mac book that old just because its not really geared up for it. even the new ones would struggle.

If he wants a system to dual boot he would be better off buying a decent laptop and installing OSX on it. There are plenty of site that will tell you what laptops are compatible out of the box, although the process is not as simple as just putting the disc in.

I just build a dual boot pc with windows 7 and osx mountain lion for a friend. both os's run fantastically.

I think you would be best off exploring a mac or hackintosh forum for your answers.

again im not a regualr mac user so this is just opinion, i just know that a lot of mac guys use paralells.
Click to expand...

I'm going to be building him a new Gaming PC once he can afford it. He just needs something that can run games like SWTOR that doesn't support OSX. I figure getting Win 7 working on his Mac would hold him over until we build his new system.

--edit: I'll look into the Parallels as well.
 
I've read that people have managed to install windows without any OS X installation, but getting hardware recognised is very hit and miss.

If you want to try it...

- Boot from your Leopard install DVD.
- Select "Disk Utility" (at the top under utilities?).
- Select your HD from the list and then click the "Partition" tab.
- Click the Options button and select “Master Boot Record” as the partition scheme.
- From the "Volume Scheme" drop down list select 1 partition.
- Set the format to "MS-DOS" (so windows recognises it).
- Click "apply".
- Reboot holding the "Alt" key.
- When the boot menu appears, hit the eject button.
- Take out the OS X Install Disc and put in your windows disc/USB stick.
- Select the volume you just inserted and proceed as normal.

I may have missed something, but i don't think so. Im doing this from memory so things might be labelled slightly different.
 
Parallels is very good, it's what i use to play games on my hackintosh. Crysis 2 plays sweet on full settings. It lags at checkpoints but soon pics back up again. Got it set to use 8GB of my system RAM, all of the GPU and half of my CPU cores.
 
If your going to be building him a gaming pc, but he still wants to be able to use osx for mac prgrams (logic etc) then head to tonymac and choose parts from there.

i have built my system so i can dual boot and all the gear is brilliant. check my sig to see what i run, its all osx compatible.
 
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