Running Windows XP 64-bit on a MacBook Pro (Santa Rosa).

The only challenge with running XP 64 on a MacBook Pro is getting the drivers installed. The Boot Camp driver disc is little help in this area but does contain some useful drivers. The Boot Camp driver disc is meant to take care of regular XP and Vista installations. This leaves XP 64 users out in the cold. You need to manually install the drivers for each device not recognized by the Windows installation.

The one primary device that I was unable to find drivers for was the wireless card - Atheros AR5008/AR5416. This might be a deal breaker for some. It’s a shame that Atheros or others don’t provide working XP 64-bit drivers for the AR5008.

A few other devices that are relatively minor are no support for Bluetooth, built-in iSight, trackpad, keyboard multi-function keys.

I can live with the minor devices not working but others may not. Bluetooth is pretty important to some.

Summary of Driver Problems:

Major:

• Wireless Card (Atheros AR5008/AR5416)

Minor:

• Bluetooth
• Trackpad
• Special Keyboard/Trackpad functions
• Native Backlight Support

Here is the quick and dirty of getting Windows XP 64-bit running on the MacBook Pro

• It is helpful to have a Windows XP 64-bit CD w/SP2 already included
• Install Boot Camp and burn the driver disc as usual. I used v1.4 at the time of writing this.
• Copy the Chipset drivers located in the Intel folder on the Boot Camp CD
• Download the latest drivers from the NVIDIA web site for the GeForce 8 Series for Windows XP x64
• Copy the Realtek High Definition drivers from the Boot Camp CD for the sound card
• Download the latest driver from Marvel site for the Yukon Series needed for the Ethernet card (e.g. yk51×64_v10.15.7.3.zip).
• Before installing Windows, I found it much easier to gather all the drivers needed and save them to a flash drive.
• Install the Boot Camp software and partition the drive. Then start the Windows installation by booting off the Windows CD. You can do this using Boot Camp or by restarting the system and holding down the [Option] key with the Windows CD in the drive.
• Once XP 64-bit is installed then you can start installing drivers as detailed below. I suggest the following order.

1. Chipset
2. Video Card
3. Ethernet Controller
4. Audio
5. Keyboard

Now for the driver installation

1. Run the chipset installer from the “Intel” folder located on the Boot Camp Driver disc. It’s compatible for 32-bit and 64-Bit based systems. Reboot after this installation.
2. Run the video driver installer that was downloaded from the NVIDIA web site.
   • You will receive an error about no compatible devices being found. Click okay and exit from the installer. This dumped the drivers onto the hard drive in C:\NVIDIA.
   • Open Computer Management > Device Manager > Right Click Display Adapter > Update Driver
   • Browse to C:\NVIDIA > Choose 8600 GT and proceed through all warnings and reboot
3. Unzip the Marvel Ethernet drivers to a location on the hard drive
   • Open Computer Management > Device Manager > Right click on the Network Controller > Update Driver (try to identify which one is the Ethernet and which one is the wireless first)
   • Browse to where you unzipped the drivers > Select Drive > Then choose from the list “Marvel Yukon 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller” (notice this is a slightly different model but this is correct)
4. Now that the Ethernet card is working it’s time to install SP2 for XP 64-bit to get the update needed for the audio device. Do this by using the Windows Update tool.
5. Run the audio driver installer to get the sound card working.
6. To get the keyboard functions keys and backlight working download InputRemapper from http://www.olofsson.info/index.html?inputremapper.html
7. Wireless Card - Download drivers from here
8. Bluetooth – Update: It appears Windows has built-in drivers to allow the Bluetooth device to work in a very limited way. A Bluetooth keyboard or mouse can successfully be used but there are no options for configuration. You’ll need to be lucky enough that the devices will find each other and automatically start working.
9. Built-in iSight – Update: Certain applications will find the iSight device even though for all intensive purposes Windows does not recognize the device is installed. Applications such as Windows Messenger, AIM, and MSN messenger should allow you use the camera. The microphone should also work but the volume is very low and needs to be cranked way up.

About Wireless

At this point, I still have not found working drivers. If anyone out there has found a driver, please drop me a line.

XP 64 drivers have been released! You can find them here. This is excellent news which will make lots of people happy, not just Mac Book users.

Quick Instructions:

1. Open Device Manger > Right Click on ‘Network Controller’ > Click ‘Uninstall’
2. Restart the MacBook
3. Cancel all ‘New Hardware Wizard’ if any appear when logging in
4. Open Device Manager > Right Click on ‘Network Controller’ > Update Driver
5. Browse to the location of the wireless drivers > Choose ‘netathwx.inf’ and then choose ‘Atheros AR5008X’ from the list

Update: Regarding the wireless drivers, the links above point to a site that contain the drivers needed to make the internal wireless card work. Some may still have difficulty getting the wireless card to work even after getting the drivers. When installing the drivers from Device Manager, I have found that you have to switch between the 'netathwx.inf' file and the 'netathw.inf' file. You also have to switch between ‘Atheros AR5008X’ and ‘Atheros AR5008’. You do this by selecting one or the other and after it says the installation failed, you immediately go back and choose the other file or device name. I can't explain why this occurs other than I think each installation attempt triggers something in the system allowing the drivers to eventually install. After a successful install, the drivers are very stable and the wireless card works very well.

Update: This page receives a lot of traffic from people looking to install Windows XP 64-bit on their MacBooks. As listed at the top of the page, these instructions were originally written for the MacBook Pro Santa Rosa release. There have been several revisions to the hardware since then. However, there is good news. Apple started putting x64 drivers on the Leopard CDs that come with new systems. These drivers will often allow a successful XP 64-bit deployment. I recommend doing a standard Windows XP 32-bit install followed by using the Leopard CD to install all the drivers. Then make a list of all the hardware listed in Device Manager. After this is completed, you can then attempt a Windows XP 64-bit install followed by manually installing the correct x64 drivers from the CD since you'll now know what you're looking for. You can search for any missing drivers not included on the CD.

Update: I have made all discussed drivers available for download.

MacBook Pro 17-inch, Rev. D (Santa Rosa) 171mb

MacBook Pro 17-inch & MacBook 13-inch Unibody, Rev. F (aluminium) 327mb

If you find the drivers useful, please post feedback in the comments below. Thanks!