Vista RC1 on MacBook

When I heard that RC1 is available for download, I downloaded it and installed it on my MacBook right away. Compared to my Vista Beta 2’s installation note, I found the following favorable points.

  • The installation is a breeze. You don’t need to delete the EFI partition any more. There is also no need to repair the installation. Just follow Boot Camp’s instruction to install Vista RC 1.
  • After installation, the Startup Disk in OS X’s System Preferences is still working. You can set the default startup disk to either Vista or OS X at ease. It was a major hassle for Vista Beta 2 if you ever want to switch between the startup disks.
  • The Intel 945GM driver is now WDDM certified. You don’t have to use the Lakeport driver to use Aero theme.
  • Waking up from sleep or hibernation is more reliable and faster.

And of course, there are still problems with drivers. With Boot Camp 1.1, you have drivers for microphone and iSight. However, these drivers still don’t work under Vista RC1. There is also no way to adjust the screen brightness. There is also a weird problem with my clock. It’s almost always wrong everytime I reboot the machine.


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18 Comments

  1. I’d like to have iSight working as well. Before, I wanted to use it with Skype for Windows because the Skype for OS X doesn’t support iSight. Now there is a Skype 2.0 beta for OS X. I don’t have an incentive to get it working under Vista.

  2. Ben,

    Have you tried to run the driver CD from Boot Camp? I got my audio driver that way. You need to run it in compatibility mode and the process would hang in the end but it’s OK.

  3. For those of you having issues with MacBook sound on Vista after an upgrade from an earlier version of Vista (and maybe XP – not sure), there is a bug with the Sigmatel driver installation package that affects the upgrade scenario. It will look like the install worked, but you’ll get the error “No Audio Output Device Installed” as a tooltip from the system tray speaker icon, and in the Control Panel sound settings dialog. You can get around this by going to Device Manager, *uninstalling* the Sigmatel audio that appears under sound devices (choose to remove the software too, this won’t remove the installer, just the copied driver), and running the installer’s setup.exe (as Administrator).

    Iain

  4. Iain,

    Thanks for your input. Even though I didn’t run into the problem as you described, there might be someone out there who might find this useful.

  5. I will try to install a RC2 build on a macbook with 1B ram. I already run Win XP there, so I will just wipe it off and do a clean vista install. Any recommendations?

  6. I just installed RC2 on my MacBook. I used BootCamp 1.1.1. The microphone works now. However, the startup disk is not working any more and you cannot see the Windows partition from Mac OS X. 🙁

  7. I really wanna try RC1 on my Macbook!

    But sadly, I cannot use the Akamai Download manager, because Safari’s Download manager doesn’t seem to download the full Vista RC1 .iso file, it clearly states the file should be 2.52GB, but I keep getting a download of 2GB or 2.2GB =(

    Its obviously a failed download, think I’ll give it a pass and wait for the actual release or something..

    I’m no computer guru, in fact I got my Macbook as a present, but I’m a long time Windows user, so yea..

    Hopefully someone here will help me with my downnload problems, each download took about 2hours, and I had 5 failed attemps, sigh..

  8. Hey Amida168, thanks for the tip! Not sure why my Safari has problems downloading Windows Vista RC1, but I’ll give Firefox a try nontheless, heard from others that it’s a good program! Didn’t try it out earlier because I didn’t wanna install more things on my Macbook =)

    Thanks again for the tip, I’ll get back with the results..

  9. haahaa, I give up..

    well, I bought a Dragon Burn to try to burn the RC1 .iso file, and it keeps saying “preparing” (after 1hour) when its burning on my DVD-RW (basically it ‘hanged’). So I cancelled it, tried to do a erase, and it’s stuck on erasing (after 2hours).

    I also tried using Disc Utility to burn, failed, tried using it to erase, it got ‘hanged’ again, and now my DVD-RW got stuck in my Macbook. I guess I’ll just wait for Vista to ship, I’ll go dig out my Windows XP and install it on my Macbook then.. Provided I can get my DVD-RW out of my SuperDrive or whatever you call it.

    Both occasions I force quit, but now Dragon Burn won’t force quit..

    Read online faqs, when over to Apple’s and Dragon Burn’s website, no go, I’ve no idea where I’m going wrong! This is so frustrating!

    Oh well, thanks for the help Amida168, but I kinda lost interest.. Heh… Wasted enough time on this…

    Keep up the good work, and nice site by the way, I’ll come visit when I’m free.

    Cheers…

  10. Thanks Iain. This worked for me 🙂

    FYI, I’m using the full release of Vista Business (Build 6000) on a MacBook 2.0GHz CPU and 2GB RAM.

    If anyone knows how to get around the drivers for Performance Counters and one USB HID, please let me know.

    “For those of you having issues with MacBook sound on Vista after an upgrade from an earlier version of Vista (and maybe XP – not sure), there is a bug with the Sigmatel driver installation package that affects the upgrade scenario. It will look like the install worked, but you’ll get the error “No Audio Output Device Installed” as a tooltip from the system tray speaker icon, and in the Control Panel sound settings dialog. You can get around this by going to Device Manager, *uninstalling* the Sigmatel audio that appears under sound devices (choose to remove the software too, this won’t remove the installer, just the copied driver), and running the installer’s setup.exe (as Administrator).”

  11. I just installed Windows Vista today (Not so legally) as an .iso. It was an upgrade from XP on my MacBook 2.1GHz.
    The speakers aren’t working at all.. But it says they’re working fine everywhere.
    I tried re-installing the drivers but for some reason when I push in the Installation disk 1 it thinks I’m using a MacBook Air :S
    I’ve no idea what’s going on.
    Vista= Major suckage :/

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