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justmetoo · Sep 28, 2006, 07:57 AM

Hi,
Just installed boot camp and WinXP Pro yesterday [MacPro w/ X1900]. It went well till the 1st reboot after install. I was not subsequently prompted by a "new hardware wizard" (I think it was supposed to be called, according to the BC instructs) to look for new drivers. My screen resolution was ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE, and when I went in to change display/monitor settings, I saw that only 4 colours were supported and a 640x480 screen size.

I fussed about, but many options were dimmed and unavailable. Then when I rebooted (to make active what few changes I could make...) the black screen with Win logo came up, but after that the screen was black. Just black, and Ctrl-Alt-Del wouldn't shut down, so I had to power off via the main button. OSX works fine on reboot with Option key held down...

Perhaps my Mac drivers didn't install properly

But I can't do a damned thing with just a black screen, so I'll try to wipe the partition and reinstall all over, but I suspect something else. I use a DCL-LCD monitor that requires the short Apple DVI-VGA adaptor that shipped with the computer. Here lies the problem perhaps

I Found the following tid-bit of info after madly searching for anything related to boot camp and monitor problems... I just can't freaking believe that this was buried on the support pages, I mean, really, shouldn't this info have been included in the boot camp documentation, OR AT LEAST in the FAQ for BC webpage???

[ Boot Camp Beta 1.1: VGA adapters, Mini-DVI adapters are not supported ]

Boot Camp Beta 1.1: VGA adapters, Mini-DVI adapters are not supported
Issue or symptom:
With Boot Camp Beta 1.1 and Windows XP, VGA adapters are not supported, even if they work in Mac OS X. For example, you cannot use displays, projectors, or TV output devices if they require a VGA adapter.
Video output over Mini-DVI adapters for MacBook computers, or DVI-to-VGA adapters for MacBook Pro computers, is also not supported even if it works in Mac OS X.
Products affected
Boot Camp Beta 1.1
VGA-based device adapter
Solution
If your VGA-based device connects directly to your Mac with no adapter, it should work.
This document will be updated as more information becomes available.
[BTW, this doc had an update of Sept 2006...]

Is this the source of my problem? Any help/advice, similar experiences posted would be greatly appreciated....

cgc · Sep 28, 2006, 09:14 AM

After you first install XP and boot into it, it will be in 640x480 in 16 color mode. You need to insert the driver CD BootCamp burned for you and run it. The BootCamp directions spell it out very nicely...one of the few instances reading the directions actually helps

Murphy · Sep 28, 2006, 04:02 PM

justmetoo,
I'm having a similar problem except that instead of a black screen mine remains "stuck" in low res: 4 color / 640x480. I'm using a Planar monitor with DVI (no sort of adapter), so now I question where the problem lies. I've uploaded the Mac drivers (per Bootcamp), and looked around for an ATI driver (thinking it might be a problem with the X1900), but to no avail.....

justmetoo · Sep 28, 2006, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by cgc

After you first install XP and boot into it, it will be in 640x480 in 16 color mode. You need to insert the driver CD BootCamp burned for you and run it. The BootCamp directions spell it out very nicely...one of the few instances reading the directions actually helps

CGC,
I am aware you are trying to help, BUT I did follow the directions, to the "T". I'm glad it worked out for you, but lets try and be more helpful than telling me to RTFM. And besides, my screen was in 4 [FOUR] color, not 16 color as you mention [any other option was not available], just like Murphy's was...

Murph,
With your similar issue (thank the gods I'm not the only one

), I believe we need to reinstall the drivers again, however, with a black-screen-of-death, I'm not sure how, or whether we can even boot into Windoze in safe mode to check out the driver situation... The local IT/Win "experts" at my work think it sounds like a driver issue too, but I'm pretty sure Apple would've included the right driver for the X1900, afterall, they only offer 3 vid cards.

I think I'll just reformat the partition and reinstall this weekend. Wish me luck...

ghporter · Sep 29, 2006, 06:49 AM

Originally Posted by justmetoo

I think I'll just reformat the partition and reinstall this weekend. Wish me luck...

Windows is sometimes kind of fragile. I think the preponderance of Windows users "reformatting and reinstalling" for a host of reasons is a testament to their perseverence, not the "ease of use" of the Windows installer. That said, I think this is the best course of action. Make sure the CD is immaculately clean before you start the process, and stay on top of the whole thing while it runs. If you don't get any error messages during install, but you still have a black screen, there's something odd going on-Windows MUST be able to use the screen, or it wouldn't give you anything during installation.

Originally Posted by justmetoo

CGC,
I am aware you are trying to help, BUT I did follow the directions, to the "T". I'm glad it worked out for you, but lets try and be more helpful than telling me to RTFM. And besides, my screen was in 4 [FOUR] color, not 16 color as you mention [any other option was not available], just like Murphy's was...

He WAS trying to help-your response comes off as kind of unpleasant. And it's amazing how many people come here BEFORE even bothering to find out if there ARE instructions...

justmetoo · 08:12 AM

Originally Posted by ghporter

...He WAS trying to help-your response comes off as kind of unpleasant.

My sincere apologies if I have offended, unpleasantness was not intended. It is so easy to read-between-the-forum-lines. That said, and perhaps slightly in my defence, I did mention in my OP that my display was stuck in 4 color mode, not 16 where it supposidely should have been, that I had read the BC instructions, and that I had installed the BC Mac drivers...

And yes I agree, there are too many who rush to post without trying to figure the issue out themselves, something I hope nobody accuses me of, and why I provided a link(however desperate to explain) to the DVI-VGA adapter issue.

[edit: and absolutely no unpleasantness is expressed in this reply

, really]

cgc · Sep 29, 2006, 06:41 PM

I read your post and thought it possible you meant "4-bit color" instead of "4-colors." In any case, your symptoms were so similar to the symptoms everyone has prior to installing Apple's BootCamp-derived drivers I thought I'd toss that idea out. Now, everyone who's trying to help can mark that off the list of possible causes.

Here's a quote from Hardmac.com : Le "Macbidouille" in English

Several readers have reported that they can't use their 23" Apple Cinema Display under Windows XP running through Bootcamp on a MacPro equipped with a Radeon X1900 XT.
When booting in XP, the display is seldom detected and only for short periods of time, stopping working as soon as you reboot. 20" Cinema Displays do not -erh- display the same problem.

It seems like the problems comes from Apple's custom Radeon X1900 XT, or rather to the drivers, which are quite flaky under XP.

Let's hope Apple get to work and fix the problems quickly.

It looks like this is another issue Apple needs to resolve - similar to the MacPro SATA speed issues which were fixed via a FirmWare and SMC update.

justmetoo · Sep 30, 2006, 11:02 AM

Thanks cgc, that lead is VERY MUCH appreciated. I'm not "burning" to get Win up all that quickly, so maybe I'll troll for some more info (before I waste more time wiping and installing all over again) on that lead re: the X1900 drivers...

Besides, my toddler wonders if daddy is going to ever spend time with him again now that the MacPro is here

Great weekend all!!!

Wayne · Oct 5, 2006, 05:52 PM

I also have a mac pro with the ATI video card dvi output to dvi input to 19" HDTV lcd monitor. Like the other posts, after partitioning the drive, and upon the initial reboot with the windows xp sp2 cd, my computer restarts with the white display then blacks out. Thus, I cannot proceed with the installation. (I also tried to use the dvi/vga adapter and output to the monitor's vga input but same problem.)

Next, I did a hard reboot with the option key. If I leave the windows xp cd in the drive I will see the hard drive icon for the mac drive and a cd icon for windows xp. When I choose windows xp it blacks out again.

Please let me know if there is a work around. Thank you.

liewrwh · Oct 10, 2006, 08:29 PM

The problem I faced is some what similar but is rather weird. I hv a JVC 32" LCD TV with a VGA port (no DVI/HDMI), the manual stated that the VGA port will not support Mac. True enough, didnt work and I had to buy an Apple DVI-Video adapter to get it up with composite video (bad text display though). During Bootcamp, the display went blank at the start of XP installation. So, I connected using VGA to a data projector and completed the installation. Then guess what, when running XP, the VGA works with the TV! Switch back to OS X and blank. Set the same 1024x768 res on both systems. Same hardware, how could this be? Do the operating systems really changes the output so much? Sigh..... whatever happened to the old days when you can just plug in any comp to any display and it works

ghporter · Oct 10, 2006, 09:46 PM

liewrwh, the operating system runs drivers which run the video hardware. If there are no OS X drivers to tell your video output card how to talk to your video device, then it will NOT run, no matter what, under OS X. On the other hand, there are obviously Windows drivers (apparently in XP itself) for your output device, so it DID work.

The old days had crappy displays with terrible resolution. Today's devices, like your LCD TV, need a lot more careful timing, a much larger bandwidth signal. and a lot more tweaks to work correctly. I'd say you made otu well on this.

jafar78 · Oct 24, 2006, 03:31 PM

Hi all,

I got mine working however, it is not the best solution (it is really pain to switch to a different PC). I have a Belkin 4 port switch using it with my 3 computers; one is MacBook Pro. I could not get it to work using the adaptor and the VGA cable. My monitor has a direct AVI. when I use the direct AVI it works however, I have to do alt F5 to change to the big main monitor. I hope this helps. If anyone has any suggestoin please let me know.

Regards, --jh

jafar78 · Oct 24, 2006, 03:39 PM

Hi all,

I forgot to mention in my last post that I can use the second monitor with 1200x1600 when I use it as extened desktop.

Regards, --jh

phantomdragonz · Oct 26, 2006, 08:38 PM

Uh, with my x1900XT I had to install the ATi drivers from ATI.com... works wonders on my dual 19" dvi monitors...

The bootcamp CD did not have any drivers for my video card... but then again I did this before bootcamp was updated to.1.1.1

Zach

justmetoo · Nov 6, 2006, 10:46 AM

RESOLVED! Well for me at least, then again, maybe nobody else is having this issue....

After Bootcamp 1.1.1 and 1.1.2, 3 Windoze partitions (2 wiped), and numerous attempts at installing the Mac drivers from the BC burned CD,

I took the advice above and went to the ATI website to download the drivers...

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/...mp;folderID=27
(you'll need the .NET Framework and Catalyst)

EVEN THEN, I had to install, install, install 3 times before they took and worked... I AM FINALLY OUT OF 4 COLOR HELL!!! Talk about "flaky drivers"...

BTW, I am using XP Pro OEM version, which is not recommended in the BC doc., but works fine now, and registered with M$. There were 66 patches to download...