hardware problems with Vista 64..ram and Nvidia

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jim
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J

Jim

I orginally posted over at Vista 64 but they suggested I try here.
I just ungraded to Vista Ultimate 64 bit (I should add I also called MS
techs but with no solution).
I have 8gb of ram and Vista 64 only see's 4

I have a Nvidia geforce 8800GT graphics card and downloaded the lastest
drivers for Vista 64 bit. Vista see's the card and the correct driver
version however on my performance index I get a 1. It should be getting at
least a 5.4. This card has 512mg of ram on it, plus it is one of there
faster cards. On my Vista 32 it saw the full Nivdia and gave me a 5.7. So I
would like to fix this as well.
I do video editing so I need all the speed I need.

I must add this too...I hope it is not a factor but I am running a Mac Pro
Intel.
However I run Vista only, boot camp is set to vista and when I upgraded I
by-passed boot camp and did a full clean install of Vista 64 on a new drive.
(I found I dont like Mac's) The Mac EFI (bios) will only allow 2gb for
Vista UNLESS you go to Vista 64 and then all will be seen .... I called Apple
support to make sure and they said yes, if you load Vista 64 all ram will be
seen. That is why I went to Vista 64. When I was with tech spport (from
India) they seem to think Vista 64 could only see 4gb but I hope that is not
true.

Any ideas
Jim
 
I didn't see the Mac Pro part on the other ng. Sorry. That matters.

Have you inserted the Leopard dvd while running Vista? Did the driver
package autostart and install the Mac drivers for Vista for you?

I run a Windows partition on my MacBook Pro, but I have not attempted a
64bit Windows because of drivers. I'm not so sure that the Mac drivers for
Vista on the Leopard dvd include 64bit drivers at all. I'm pretty sure that
they are only 32bit. The Boot Camp main page at:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/bootcamp.html does clearly say "Boot
Camp supports the most popular 32-bit releases of Windows XP and Windows
Vista." It never refers to 64bit editions. That means that the Mac drivers
for Windows are almost certainly 32bit drivers only.

If you don't know for sure, check in the apple.com discussions accessed via
the support tab on apple.com.
 
No I did not use anything from Mac. I just booted up with the Vista Ultimate
64 dvd and it loaded fine, I did a clean-full install. There are no Mac
files on this new copy and it is running great. To get back to my Mac I
reboot and hold down the option key. There are Mac files only in the Bios/EFI
for motherboard and chip set.
I got Nivida card driver worked out, there was a conflict from another
driver on my system. Index for graphics card is now back to 5.9.

Still have a issue with Vista seeing all 8gb. I will install sp1 and see if
that helps.
I have been pleasantly surprised with Vista 64. All my software runs great!
I just had to download my hardware 64bit driversf first.
Now I am glad I went to 64bit.
 
I forgot to mention that I do not use boot camp. The Mac Pro just boots up
to the last OS you were using. Only if you hold down the option key while
booting can I change OS.
Apple says that if you run Vista 32 bit, and boot up with either bootcamp or
just a straight boot their EFI/Bios has a limit on ram you can use....only
2gb, which is not a popular feature with anyone. But they say if you intall
Vista 64bit, there is no limit to ram Vista 64 sees...at least up to 128GB
that is.
So far that appears to be true.
I will see if I can get all my 8gb with Sp1.
 
Yes, I am familiar with the Option key for selecting the boot drive.

You need chipset drivers for the mobo. It is an Apple mobo, of course.
Where are you getting the 64bit chipset drivers for Windows for the Apple
mobo? I suspect that the memory controller needs the proper driver to see
8GB.
 
All the drivers were on the Vista 64 bit. I did not install any chipset or
mobo drivers. It seemed to be already there. the only thing I needed was
the printer, video card and mouse drivers (for my logitech) The rest must
have come from the Vista DVD.
I did find my Nvidia problem which was my fault...a driver conflict I
corrected after which it jump to a 5.9.
Also Vista is seeing all 8gb of ram. The sticks were not in the right
order...we had taken some out doing the install with the MS tech. I went
back in and made sure the were paired correctly and that did the trick.
So all is well with my Vista 64 and zero conflicts with any Mac
hardware/software.
Its is an Intel chipset so that must help.
 
Ask yourself why the Mac OS cannot be installed on any Intel motherboard
with a core duo processor?
The advantage of the Mac is a vertically integrated system with exceedingly
limited hardware and software choices controlled by a single vendor.
The disadvantage of the Mac is a vertically integrated system with
exceedingly limited hardware and software choices controlled by a single
vendor.
If the Mac suits one's limited needs and one is willing to pay the Apple
premium all is well.
Apple has restructured what would be the BIOS in a Wintel program so that
calls from the Mac OS cannot be interpreted on a generic Wintel motherboard
without an intervening software layer. While software to do this is out
there on the web it is difficult to install and no commercial vendor can
supply that software without encountering Apple's core of attorneys. If
various web sites are to be believed people have the Mac OS running on
hardware that is light years ahead of anything Apple offers or on the same
hardware at a fraction of the price of Apple manufactured machines.
Windows cannot run on a Mactel without a software layer interpreting calls
from the OS to what is the BIOS/chipset on the Apple motherboard. Therein
lies your rub. I am surprised you got the thing to boot at all. Bootcamp is
the software layer that alters Windows BIOS calls for the Mac chipset. Apple
is not supporting Vista64.
It is not clear that Apple even supports 64 bit programming on their own
platform but that is beside the point.
If you have 64 bit video production software that is Windows based and will
run on Vista 64 you should have done the math: you could build/buy a Wintel
system with better gear than Apple deigns to sell at a fraction of the price
of Apple hardware.
 
I wiil take a look at what you speak of.
I now have Vista Ultimate 64 running on my MacPro. I just booted up with
the Vista 64 dvd and let it do a clean full install. It loaded and works
great. I am not using any Mac OS now but its there if I reboot and hold down
the option key.
Vista 64 is running great..its see my 8gb of ram. The only drivers I had to
download was my Nvidia 64 drivers, printer drivers and my mouse 64 drivers.
Everything else must have come from the Vista dvd.
I called apple first and they said I would to install Vista 64 to see all my
ram. Vista 32 will only see 2gb (their EFI/Bios) limits.
I will use Mac Leopard from time to time for some video editing but Leopard
drove me nuts. It is so limiting and not nearly as stable as Vista.
Apple and all the forums said I would have no trouble running
Vista 64 and they were right...so life is good!

What I would really like to do is run Leopard from within Vista just so I
could go directly to my editing software without rebooting.
But I guess there is no such software.
 
Nogginsaked said:
Ask yourself why the Mac OS cannot be installed on any Intel motherboard
with a core duo processor?
Click to expand...

I own a Mac with a Core Duo processor. Not Core 2 Duo. A Core Duo. The
32bit cpu. I am running OS/X 10.5.3 on it.
 
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