BootCamp problem: Windows freezes sometimes
 

Hello I didn't really know where to post about this. Anyway I have a problem with my boot camp. When I'm running windows (both xp sp3 and 7beta), it sometimes freezes for about 10 seconds then comes back. I have installed all drivers but it doesn't seem to do anything. Any help?

edit: my pc totally froze when i was on boot camp, i had to restart it... anyone knows what causes this problem? at the very first time i used bootcamp i didnt have it for like a month, then it started freezing.

now it totally froze i had to force shutdown and i logged in mac.

Freeze ups in Windows are usually caused by improper or bad video drivers although it can be caused by other things. I would first check to see if the video driver installed for your GPU is the latest. Reinstall drivers from your Leopard or Snow Leopard disk if necessary.

As a test to see if the freeze is driver related, start Windows in safe mode. For XP, press F8 during the boot cycle to enter safe mode. If there are no freeze ups while in safe mode, that's a pretty good indication that the video driver is the culprit.

Regards.

i tried safe mode and no freezes. but I already installed bootcamp app from the macOSX install cd , and installed the drivers too from the CD. and i don't really know where to find the latest versions of them. also i did windows update.
i'm using windows 7 now by the way, if that's important.

got news. installed the latest drivers from the nvidia site, rebooted as asked, and i get freezes again. Do you know what else it might be?

You can't use a beta version and then complain that it crashes.
Report it to Microsoft...

i don't want to make a bad name in here so i won't say the things i'm thinking about your comment mac fanboy.

did you read my post? my bootcamp partition with XP freezed too as i said.

all else fails delete/create the boot camp partition and reinstall windows.

Excuse me, no need to call me a fanboy. If you experience issues with a beta software you should report it to the developer of the software - that's the point of a beta release.

You should have tried updating the video drivers on XP as was suggested. There is also an issue with XP installs on bootcamp from certain elicit sources. I don't doubt that this does not refer to you.

EDIT:
If you experience no freezes in safe mode it's unlikely to be the drivers which are the issue, as basic drivers such as video are still used. More likely an issue with some 3rd party software.

Windows will load generic VGA drivers while in safe mode and not load other drivers such as for the airport card, etc. I'm still of the opinion his problem is with a bad or incorrect video driver. However, it could very well be caused by other things such as software.

To orfeas0:

Are you running Snow Leopard? SL comes with Boot Camp 3 which includes updated drivers for XP and Vista. Since the Win 7 driver model is the same as Vista, the new drivers may also work. If you're not running SL, then try the Boot Camp 2.1 update for XP. Make sure it's the update for XP and not Vista.

Regards.

This happened to me, turned out to be bad ram OSX worked totally fine too just in windows itd crash

Hi orfeas0, welcome to the Mac OS X Hints forum. Thank you very much for not saying all of the things you were thinking, but the "mac fanboy" term is still name-calling, and we tend to frown on all personal attacks here.

If you have any questions or comments about this policy, feel free to send me or another mod a personal message, and we can discuss.

Trevor

Hello trevor, nice to join you.
On the topic, I'm sure I have the good driver because I downloaded it from the nvidia website, which automatically recognised my GPU and downloaded me the driver for windows 7. What else might cause the problem? I don't have any third party software in it, it's a clean install of windows 7. Also, could it be bad partitioning? If reinstalling windows 7 until I have no crashes would fix the problem, I think I would do it.
Sorry about the flaming, it's just that I said that it froze both in xp and windows 7, so it's not a beta problem, it's my mac's problem.

Also, when I'm in bootcamp, the pc gets hotter than normal. I know it uses the good GPU and that makes it hotter but it shouldn't be that much.
That's all folks. Any ideas are accepted ;)

Or you could ignore my post which had a solution to when i had the exact same problem...... lol

i dont understand what do you mean bad ram? and you just say that OSX worked fine and windows crashed, just like mine. but thats a fact, i mean what is the solution?not using windows or?

Kind of an interesting situation...

Q. When is a Mac no longer a Mac?
A. When it's running Windows.

I honestly hope you're able to find a solution to your problem. As stated in several of the previous posts, RAM, incorrect graphics drivers, or incompatible peripherals ARE the three most common sources of hardware lockups for ANY type of computer. However, if you're dissatisfied with the help you've received so far, I recommend you go find a Windows board somewhere and tell them what you're experiencing, rather than insulting knowledgeable, helpful people here. I can almost guarantee you the first few responses will be very similar to what they have been here though. Aside from Windows-specific errors, complete lockups are just that uncommon these days.

No, I think kel101 is suggesting that you try doing a RAM check. There are several excellent utilities to do this on a Mac...though the name of them escapes my mind at the moment...

Oh, hello Google! Let's see... that's right. I used a program called memtest last time I checked for bad RAM. I'd give that a shot.

Also, I think that the graphics card issue was a good guess. But I'm starting to think we're in that small percentage where it's not likely to be the video card.

Is there anything that seems to cause this problem to happen? Any particular thing you are doing?

not really, even when im on desktop or painting or typing,it still happens.
By the way, the windows partition always uses the good GPU, even though i use the simple one when im on mac. i tried turning the good gpu on the mac and then boot windows just in case there was something to do with that, but no luck. i also erased my vram and all with the alt-cmd-p-r option but still no luck. ill try the ram checking program you said and if the ram is ok then i'll just stay at mac...

i did the ram check and it said it was fine. well see ya around everybody. I'll try to contact apple to see if they have any idea too but i doubt it.
Thanks for all.

the ram checker(s) i used all said it was fine too...but then i replaced the ram and everything worked. So if you have any non-apple ram try removing it and see if the problem still occurs.

Apple we're clueless when i contacted them just so you know.

i dont have non-apple ram, i havent touched my macbook inside, its pure mac ;). but if the ram had a problem, would it occur in macOSX too?my problem is only on bootcamp

like i said my ram problem was only in windows, not in osx. Its just that your situation sounds so similar to what happened to me

I had the exact same problem, also in Windows 7 and XP. I found out, that it was an app called smcFanControl" (to control fan speeds in Mac OS) that somehow changed the SMC in my Macbook and occured the Coot-Camp driver to stop every now and then. After resetting the SMC, everything worked fine.

(reset SMC for Macbooks: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411)

i dont have non-apple hardware on my macbook :) but another problem occured now :P like my pc got slowed down or something... maybe that memtest harmed my ram or gpu? even on mac environment, which played perfectly when using the 9600gt gpu, it now lags when i play WoW. not always, but still... before the memtest it was always running perfectly :S

memtest makes no changes to the System whatsoever. This is purely coincidental.