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Making Windows 10 run on an old MacBook Air

[Deleted User][Deleted User]
edited May 2017 in Hardware
See this thread first: https://winworldpc.com/winboards/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=9348.

I said that Win10 didn't work on my old Late 2010 11" MacBook Air, but I believe the explanation merits a new thread. Here it is.

Windows 10 works, with a few major issues:

- The machine shuts off while booting due to NVIDIA's graphics drivers (which were installed on the first boot of Win10). I decided to go into safe mode and disable the graphics card in Device Manager. This forced Windows to use the generic Microsoft Display Driver on normal boot.

- Apple's BootCamp drivers do NOT work with Windows 10; they crash the machine on startup. That means no multitouch trackpad, so say goodbye to multitouch gestures! I used a mouse instead.

- Even after fixing the graphics card issue, the machine would randomly overheat and shut down. It seems as if Win10 doesn't know it's running on a laptop and puts the fans and CPU at full power, draining the battery along with it.

Interestingly, although BootCamp seems to reboot the machine in legacy BIOS mode to install Win7, I was able to install Win10 from a flash drive in the Mac's EFI (not UEFI) boot mode.

None of these issues happen with Ubuntu or macOS. I know; I've tried.

After struggling with this experiment for a few days, I decided to wipe its hard drive. The lesson? Don't install Windows 10 on unsupported devices. You don't want to risk destroying a perfectly good computer.

If you have an idea about how to fix these issues, please reply to this thread.

Thanks :)

Comments

  • calvinbcalvinb
    I use 10 on only unsupported hardware, almost all of which are over a half-decade old. Apple is notorious for dropping things out of support though, and this included Boot Camp stuff, not helped by Apple's non-standard hardware.
  • thinkpadmanthinkpadman
    ampharos wrote:
    Apple is notorious for dropping things out of support though, and this included Boot Camp stuff, not helped by Apple's non-standard hardware.

    Just wondering about a MacBook Air of this age if there's a cutoff on support for OS X (i.e. whether for instance Sierra could be installed). I went to look at a technical spec page on Apple's website though they didn't specify the OS support. I'm interested as you may recall I purchased a MacBook late last year with El Capitan just as Sierra was released. It's the first Intel-based Mac I've owned so I'm a little wary of support longevity.
  • ubuntuxpubuntuxp
    Erito17 wrote:
    I said that Win10 didn't work on my old Late 2010 11" MacBook Air, but I believe the explanation merits a new thread. Here it is.

    Interestingly, although BootCamp seems to reboot the machine in legacy BIOS mode to install Win7, I was able to install Win10 from a flash drive in the Mac's EFI (not UEFI) boot mode.
    In case you didn't know, all Intel macs before 2013 only supports Windows using the legacy BIOS mode. In EFI mode, some hardware devices don't work very well, if at all. For instance, on my 2012 MacBook Pro, audio doesn't work with builtin speakers or audio jack. Have you tried installing Windows 10 in BIOS mode?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]
    thinkpadman wrote:
    ampharos wrote:
    Apple is notorious for dropping things out of support though, and this included Boot Camp stuff, not helped by Apple's non-standard hardware.

    Just wondering about a MacBook Air of this age if there's a cutoff on support for OS X (i.e. whether for instance Sierra could be installed). I went to look at a technical spec page on Apple's website though they didn't specify the OS support. I'm interested as you may recall I purchased a MacBook late last year with El Capitan just as Sierra was released. It's the first Intel-based Mac I've owned so I'm a little wary of support longevity.

    I checked the compatiblity list for macOS Sierra on Apple's website. MacBook Airs that are Late 2010 or newer support Sierra. So this means that this Mac will not support the next macOS version.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]
    ubuntuxp wrote:
    Erito17 wrote:
    I said that Win10 didn't work on my old Late 2010 11" MacBook Air, but I believe the explanation merits a new thread. Here it is.

    Interestingly, although BootCamp seems to reboot the machine in legacy BIOS mode to install Win7, I was able to install Win10 from a flash drive in the Mac's EFI (not UEFI) boot mode.
    In case you didn't know, all Intel macs before 2013 only supports Windows using the legacy BIOS mode. In EFI mode, some hardware devices don't work very well, if at all. For instance, on my 2012 MacBook Pro, audio doesn't work with builtin speakers or audio jack. Have you tried installing Windows 10 in BIOS mode?

    It would always BSOD on bootup in BIOS mode (I don't remember what it was complaining about). That's why I had to use EFI.
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