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The Great Driver Hunt


AirmanPika
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Update on fan issues:

 

I did some testing this morning with both OSX and XP, establishing a baseline for a stressed OSX system and then comparing it to XP. The short summary is that at least in general use, XP is fine. Temperatures under a heavily taxed OSX session (playing 1080 HD) were higher than they are in XP under general use. Note that this is not complete data for a real comparison -- it's just a validation that something isn't seriously broken. I'll do more testing for more apples-to-apples comparison later but for now I wanted to allay fears that browsing on XP will melt a macbook.

 

This macbook (1.83 / 1GB RAM) sat idle all night. At the test start, it was in OSX, and a measurement was taken from the aluminum top tight corner of the case (looking down), right against the edge before the curved plastic corner border begins (in other words, above and to the right of the power button right at the corner of the case). I'm using a Braun thermo-scan infrared *human* thermometer, so the range is limited (both low and high), which meant I had to find places on the case to measure that were within its range. I added more points of measurement as the temperatures increased enough in those places to be measurable by the device.

 

All temps are in degrees Fahrenheit (sorry). This should probably be a graph, but...

 

idle overnight: 95

(current time) 11:50: top right 96

12:00: 100 <-- commence playing 1080 stream in quicktime (repeating at end each time)

12:12: 102

12:16: 104

12:20: 105.2

-- added measurement point: top of the power button (which was previously too low to measure)

12:25: 106.3 || power 102.4

12:30: 106.9 || 102.5

-- added measurement point: on top of case, just below the bottom edge of the right speaker grill, against the right side

12:35: 107.7 || 102.8 || bottom grill 96.2

12:43: 107.8 || 103.4 || 96.5

12:46: off scale high || 104.5 || 96.9

12:50: off scale high || 104.7 || 96.9

 

rebooted into windows xp pro

 

- began normal use (installing drivers, browsing)

12:52: 107.5 || 103.3 || 96.7

12:55: 106 || 102.9 || 96.5

1:01: 105.8 || 102.4 || 96.5

1:07: 105.3 || 102.1 || 96.4

- rebooted after applying updates

- resumed heavy browsing

1:14: 105.4 || 102.4 || 97.5

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We've now got a hardware compatibility (and incompatibility) list on the wiki to compliment this driver discussion.

 

Hop on over there and quickly tell us what you've gotten working and what doesn't. This includes hardware that doesn't come with your Mac. As more of us try different hardware, we'll need a place to put it.

 

Also, if someone can copy the information from this thread into that page (and the other dual booting page), you'd be doing the community a real favor!

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Dear JeremyA, with regards to windows and wireless networks...

 

Ran into a couple of issues today with my XP drivers:

 

Wireless Woes:

  • OSX connects just fine to my 128-bit WEP-enabled NETGEAR RangeMax WPN802 access point
  • Windows lists all the nearby networks, but refuses to connect to mine, even when I provide the right WEP key.
  • Windows *will* connect to my work's wifi, which has all kinds of nifty certificates attached to it. I'm starting to suspect that their certificate setup is fudging up my ability to connect to non-certified networks. However, this is mitigated by the fact that the certificates should only be valid when i'm logged into my work / domain account. In that mode, i cannot even come *close* to connecting to my home network (because the certificates fail to authenticate, it won't even prompt me for a WEP key... ever). So all the problems i'm having are when i'm logged in as the local system administrator, where it does ask me for my WEP key, but then times out on connecting to the network. I tried power cycling my wap just for grins, but that didn't change anything. Hrmrmrm....

 

Have you tried to make sure that the option "The key is provided automatically for me" in the "wireless networks" section of the "wireless connection properties", "advanced" is unchecked?

 

Pheww... Windows is a bit of a mouthfull! :idea:

 

Basically, if you haven't here are the steps in a more logical order:

Go to the wireless network connection properties,

Then in the wireless networks tab,

Then select to add a network,

In the next section provide your SSID, make sure you enter the proper encryption settings (open/shared/WPA/WEP etc.),

Uncheck the option "The key is provided automatically for me" and now enter your WEP/WPA key. The key index should stay at 1...

 

This should be "it"... quite simple for windows!

 

Hehe... This is to show you once again how simple, easy and efficent we have it within OSX!! ;)

 

Hope it helps,

 

J

 

PS This is prob. not a problem when you're at work, because of those nifty certificates... probably contain the WEP key...

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I can confirm that trying to connect a PocketPC (Windows Mobile 5 Based) using Activesync will crash Windows. Microsoft reccomends an updated BIOS, ironically, since it doesn't match the processor I have installed.

 

Steve

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Has anyone else noticed that the current drivers are hardcoded into the registry from the install disk. Also, when you boot into safe mode (with f5 key if you didn't know), the same driver is being used and again is hardcoded into the registry. No driver install is going to work while that coding is there. Maybe that is something else to look at.

 

Effects

 

Oops, just talking about the video drivers, not all drivers are hardcoded in registry, just video.

 

Effects

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Has anyone else noticed that the current drivers are hardcoded into the registry from the install disk. Also, when you boot into safe mode (with f5 key if you didn't know), the same driver is being used and again is hardcoded into the registry. No driver install is going to work while that coding is there. Maybe that is something else to look at.

 

Effects

 

Oops, just talking about the video drivers, not all drivers are hardcoded in registry, just video.

 

Effects

 

Hi effectively i have seen this while merging the install files of XOM with the ones of WinXP Borg. I was wondering if we can modify this manually (regedit?) after having installing the drivers for the X1600. On the other hand i cannot test since i have broken my WinXP install on my MBP. It's strange i have successfully installed it one time and now i cannot re-install it (even if i take the long way, that is re-installing the 2 OSes after having reformatting the whole disk). OSX still works fine, ouf.

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I think I may have cracked the video drivers, just trying to test. I have to go out now so anyone out there could test would help.

 

Anyways heres how I did it..

 

1) In Windows\System32\Drivers renamed XOMDD.sys to XOMDD_old.sys

2) In same directory renamed vga.sys to XOMDD.sys - this then uses the orignal XP vga driver. (Be careful to make sure it gets names to XOMDD.SYS and not XOMDD.SYS.SYS - better to use a command line to this)

3 ) Installed the Omega ATI drivers.

 

Device manager is now showing the ATI drivers and not XOM drivers. Just installing 3d mark for testing.

 

There ,may be better drivers to use so hopefully this opens the door to help us find a solution

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I've just done the same thing, but I'm not reaching the desktop after a reboot, just getting black lines at the top of the screen (20" iMac).

 

Hope it goes ok for you!

 

Update: the machine is working, it just seems unable to update the display.

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Same thing for me, i'm stuck.

 

How do I fix it btw ? I can reboot in 640x480 via F4 F7 trick but i tried to uninstall the drivers and it didn't fix it...

 

*my mistake, didn't recover the xomdd.sys file Now I'm booting OK with former config*

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I'm still trying to re-install XP Borg on my MacBook, but have you tried to disable the loading of the ROM after having installed the ATI drivers ? After having typed F4, you can type F6 to disable ROMs it seems. Perhaps this disable loading a emulation VGA rom (it has said "VGA.rom missing" last time i have tried [and hang]) ? Also from where come the list of keys allowed ? (F4, F6, F7) An exhaustive list exist ?

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I've got a problem with audio on my CoreDuo Mini. The Sigmatel audio driver is installed but I'm getting no sound from either internal audio or 3.5mm headphone socket. I've not tried optical audio yet. XP has recognised the audio hardware and is letting me play with volume controls but I'm still not hearing anything.

 

Here's my install procedure in case anyone who has theirs working can see where I might've slipped up.

 

Partitioned my Mini's HD: 1st Partition = DOS, 2nd = HFS+

Booted using the separate xom.efi from an "onmac" thread (NOT the one in the original xom 0.1 archive)

Installed windows and then replaced the xom.efi with the one from the archive.

Installed airport driver, rebooted, installed intel integrated graphics driver, rebooted, installed intel chipset, rebooted, installed sigmatel sound driver, rebooted.

 

If anyone can point me in the right direction, I'd be extremely grateful. Obviously gaming isn't my only reason for wanting to run windoze, but FWIW, Half-Life 2 runs a treat...it's just such a shame I can't hear anything!

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EVERYONE!

 

Please ALWAYS post your specs when you say "it works" or "it doesn't work" because we have many different machines running different hardware. What works for the mini might not work for the MacBook.

 

-John

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I think I may have cracked the video drivers, just trying to test. I have to go out now so anyone out there could test would help.

 

Anyways heres how I did it..

 

1) In Windows\System32\Drivers renamed XOMDD.sys to XOMDD_old.sys

2) In same directory renamed vga.sys to XOMDD.sys - this then uses the orignal XP vga driver. (Be careful to make sure it gets names to XOMDD.SYS and not XOMDD.SYS.SYS - better to use a command line to this)

3 ) Installed the Omega ATI drivers.

 

Device manager is now showing the ATI drivers and not XOM drivers. Just installing 3d mark for testing.

 

There ,may be better drivers to use so hopefully this opens the door to help us find a solution

 

Yeah try the mobility driver.

 

-- to everyone---

 

Try to explain why you think your solution works.

Maybe someone figures it out faster because they were missing clues (and it helps the non programmers understand some of this :P )

The more we are the faster we can crack the driver problems :(

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Sorry if that was aimed at me, John.

 

No, just a general announcement. We really need to be detailed as possible, or we won't learn anything from each other.

 

I hate the lack of Spell-Check in IE. I'm rebooting into the Mac.

 

:(

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I think I may have cracked the video drivers, just trying to test. I have to go out now so anyone out there could test would help.

 

Anyways heres how I did it..

 

1) In Windows\System32\Drivers renamed XOMDD.sys to XOMDD_old.sys

2) In same directory renamed vga.sys to XOMDD.sys - this then uses the orignal XP vga driver. (Be careful to make sure it gets names to XOMDD.SYS and not XOMDD.SYS.SYS - better to use a command line to this)

3 ) Installed the Omega ATI drivers.

 

Device manager is now showing the ATI drivers and not XOM drivers. Just installing 3d mark for testing.

 

There ,may be better drivers to use so hopefully this opens the door to help us find a solution

 

Does anybody else think this helps? Has anyone tried it on MBP and is there any improvement in video redrawing etc.? I would hate to try it and throw away a functioning install.

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Does anybody else think this helps? Has anyone tried it on MBP and is there any improvement in video redrawing etc.? I would hate to try it and throw away a functioning install.

 

Read the posts just under it :(

________________________________________________________________________________

I've just done the same thing, but I'm not reaching the desktop after a reboot, just getting black lines at the top of the screen (20" iMac).

 

Hope it goes ok for you!

 

Update: the machine is working, it just seems unable to update the display.

 

________________________________________________________________________________

 

Same thing for me, i'm stuck.

 

How do I fix it btw ? I can reboot in 640x480 via F4 F7 trick but i tried to uninstall the drivers and it didn't fix it...

 

*my mistake, didn't recover the xomdd.sys file Now I'm booting OK with former config*

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On my iMac, unlike my Macbook, I'm able to install the Radeon drivers with no difficulty (shows the driver and says it's working OK, even on a regular boot). But the system is still using the xom video driver as was stated earlier, it's "hard coded". I tried disabling the xom driver from Windows and the system boots but with no video (it's good to have speakers plugged in so you can hear windows sounds :(

 

I'm getting basically the same thing by renaming the vga.sys or the ati driver to the xomdd.sys video driver. However just a side note, I think the shutdown problem really is related to the video, because I am able to fumble around in the dark and shut windows down, and the iMac shuts down properly.. While there is no video being displayed because of the above :P (So it makes sense that by joining the NT domain, if it's not displaying a particular graphic, then it doesn't "lock up"... Like maybe it's trying to change resolution at the last minute or something else incompatible with the xom video driver).

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Read the posts just under it :(

________________________________________________________________________________

I've just done the same thing, but I'm not reaching the desktop after a reboot, just getting black lines at the top of the screen (20" iMac).

 

Hope it goes ok for you!

 

Update: the machine is working, it just seems unable to update the display.

 

________________________________________________________________________________

 

Same thing for me, i'm stuck.

 

How do I fix it btw ? I can reboot in 640x480 via F4 F7 trick but i tried to uninstall the drivers and it didn't fix it...

 

*my mistake, didn't recover the xomdd.sys file Now I'm booting OK with former config*

Please do not try this, it does not work. I tried it on my MBP and again it locked up with just a few dark lines showing at the top of the screen and could not log in back to safe mode. Luckily I started the MBP in disk target mode and hooked it up to the firewire on my vaio laptop and was able to undo the changes and recover my installation. It is now working well and back up but you can't modify the NFTS partition from a mac you have to use a PC. My 2 cents...

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