IMac 27 Late 2009 with Random black screen at startup of Windows 7!

Hi, I'll try to explain the my random black screen issue as best I can.
I have a boot camp partition with Windows 7 x64 Ultimate installed.
I used the USB method to install, all goes well and Windows 7 gets installed, I update drivers, install boot camp etc. all is good, right!
My problem is that everything seems to be in working order, but the built in LED screen will only get lit/active in 1 out of 5 times at startup of Windows, eg. the built in screen stays black/off (black screen issue), like the install issue on iMac 27 I7 w/ATI 4850.
NOTE! When booting OS X the built in LED screen gets lit/active on every startup.
So what I did was connect a second LCD monitor via Display port to DVI, this monitor/screen has no issues, it gets lit/active on every startup of Windows, even if the built in screen/monitor stays black/off (black screen issue).
NOTE! I have tested both the latest drivers from Apple (10.4 19/MAR/2010, found on the USB install method) and AMD ATI Catalyst Driver (10.8 25/AUG/2010). The issue remains on both Apple released drivers and AMD ATI released drives.
1. So to me it seems like there are some detection/communication issues between the built in monitor and the video card on Windows 7, as there is no issue detecting and activating a monitor connected to the display port.
Are we missing a monitor driver in Windows that OS X has, or is this a hardware issue that Apple knows about and compensates for in OS X with on load firmware, driver or a kernel fix?
2. Does anyone else have this issue on their 27" iMac Late 2009 I7, ATI HD 4850 machine?
If yes, did you manage to solve it?
Thanks for any help on this issue.
Cheers,
Kevin

Hi, I've seem to have found out the source of the problem.
The issue is related to heat, and an iMac 27" gets hot pretty fast.
If I boot the iMac straight after first start into Windows 7 I seem to get a lit built-in display at all times. I can also boot OS X first and then into Windows 7 and the built-in screen get lit every time as long as the iMac isn't hot.
Strange thing is that the monitor connected to the display port gets lit every time. So I can only assume that the heat only interfere with output to the built-in LED screen.
So this iMac is going to an Apple premium reseller for service, and I'll tell you guys how it went.

Similar Messages

IMac late 2009 with 6GB RAM, slow with Yosemite

Have you ever used that small pc computers with slow processors, called netbooks? This is what my super fast iMac late 2009 (6GB RAM) with Mavericks turned into, after upgrading it to Yosemite OS X.
I mean, processor itself doesn't look to busy, but user experience is click and wait (when nothing happens, I almost want to click again but then action happens). Opening window animation is like slide show - it is not smooth as it was before, with Mavericks.
Anybody with iMac late 2009 can confirm this or is it my setup only?
I have the basic late 2009 model, except I upgraded it to 6GB RAM soon after I purchased it.
This is how my About this Mac looks like:
And this is how my hard disks look like:
Nothing specially busy here, just slow Yosemite. When I open Safari, Mail, iPhoto and iTunes, it is not good to open any other app, because I might wait much more. I caught my self using iPad while opening fifth app on iMac (just to get an idea, how very slow it feels).

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen. Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then take one of the actions that you're having trouble with. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Will It Work on Leopard: iMac Late 2009 with Quad Core i7, 8GB and 4850 Mobility GPU

Hi. I'm doing an experiment if the garbled screen (unreadable but the OS and files are not being corrupted at all) I'm experiencing since I upgraded to Lion (up to Yosemite) is a software bug (specifically when it's running it's 3D drivers) or a hardware bug (possibly the GPU is failing). I would rule it as a hardware, that the iMac's GPU is failing but when I used Ubuntu 14.04 Live CD which does not use any of the 3D drivers (it doesn't use OpenGL) for its 3D acceleration, it's perfect there which is why I feel it may be a software bug- no problems with 3D acceleration.
If Leopard would work on the late 2009 iMac with i7 quad core, that'd be great.
Thank you in advance.
God bless, Rev. 21:4

The only issue I have found is that the there are no additonal display resolution settings to adjust.
So the iMac is stuck with its native resolution in OS X 10.5.8 Leopard (I hate the iMac's 2550 x 1900 resolution. Everything is just too small for my 50 year old eyes.)
You can adjust the size of icons and icon text size in the Finder Prefs and View Options, you can adjust the Dock size, but that is pretty much it.
No way to adjust the size of the text in the top main menu bar or make the text in the title bar on Finder windows larger, either.
But everything else works.
I can access all of my other external drives, most of the applications, that are mostly updated to work just with OS X 10.5.8 Leopard, launch and work fine. My Wacom Intuous3 tablet seems to work fine add I can adjust the preferences and controls of all of by pens and airbrush tool.
My older IR Microsoft and Logitech mice work fine.
I can't believe how much faster OS X 10.5.8 runs on this iMac.
If I hadn't updated all of my Apple apps on OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard and all my updated iTunes, iPhoto and Aperture Libraries, long ago, needed more up to date web browsers (TenFourFox wasn't available back in 2011) and Mail clients, more up to date Flash and security updates, I might have just stayed using OS X 10.5 Leopard on this iMac.
It is quite a bit faster than Snow Leopard. Even that much faster considering I am running OS X 10.5.8 from my external FW800 drive.

Will It Work on Tiger: iMac Late 2009 with Quad Core i7, 8GB and 4850 Mobility GPU

Hi. I'm doing an experiment if the garbled screen (unreadable but the OS and files are not being corrupted at all) I'm experiencing since I upgraded to Lion (up to Yosemite) is a software bug (specifically when it's running it's 3D drivers) or a hardware bug (possibly the GPU is failing). I would rule it as a hardware, that the iMac's GPU is failing but when I used Ubuntu 14.04 Live CD which does not use any of the 3D drivers (it doesn't use OpenGL) for its 3D acceleration, it's perfect there which is why I feel it may be a software bug- no problems with 3D acceleration.
If Tiger would work on the late 2009 iMac with i7 quad core, that'd be great.
Thank you in advance.
God bless, Rev. 21:4

Tiger won't work.
Install OSX Restrictions

Upgrade to OSX Lion – iMac late 2009 – with Parallels & BOOTCAMP Windows XP SP3 (32 bit)

I downloaded Lion just after release and tried to install only to receive the error message “cannot install – no recovery” or words to that effect. I was also not given the option to proceed without creating the recoveryand instead the system was restarted in Snow Leopard.
After potentially giving up and accepting that I had wasted A$31, I tried again 2 months later.
Before I did, I read many forums indicating that Lion could not be BOOTCAMPED with Windows XP. I also found forums saying it could, but only from an older Mac such as mine shipped with Snow Leopard. If you have a newly shipped Mac with Lion pre-installed it appears you must use Windows 7.
First step was to upgrade my Parallels to the new Version 7 from 5. I suggest you do this and ensure that all upgrades are also performed on the Windows side.
Then, the most useful forum I found was the following: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/245192-installing-lion-no -recovery-error.html
To create the partition,use “disc utilities” and articles on the Apple site if you are unsure how to do it.
You now have 3 partitions: Mac HD, new partition, Original BOOTCAMP.
Now proceed to install Lion, which worked perfectly.
After installation I found that the new partition was also labelled BOOTCAMP. The BOOTCAMP I wanted to use was the 3rdpartition, the original BOOTCAMP.
After no success launching my BOOTCAMP but knowing it was still there, I decided to delete the 2ndpartition and take this out of the equation (make sure you resize your MAC HD partition to take up the empty space this leaves). I’m not an IT expert so it’s possible I don’t have recovery anymore but I did copy Lion to a USB and I have Time Machine doing regular backups.
I also referred to Parallels - http://kb.parallels.com/en/111629. I removed Hard Disk 1 and replaced with HardDisk 1 that seems to direct it to the newly installed Lion. I could not link it with BOOTCAMP as stated in the article.
Once all this was done, it still wouldn’t boot my Windows and I was ready to give up. I left it for a couple of hours to decide whether to reinstall Snow Leopard, then tried one more time with SUCCESS! I think what was happening is that Lion was still busy indexing and that everything took time to catch up. This is my only explanation.
So now everything isworking exactly as before with no issues, very happy I persevered!

If you have not already entered in your wireless providers info, you will need to do that. Just like you did when you entered your network info on the mac side.

IMac (late 2009) with Yosemite ran slowly now won't boot; stuck on Apple logo loading

I've been using my iMac less and less over the past weeks mainly because I have to much to do and can do most of my work on my Macbook Air, but today I had to get an old file of my iMac and when I woke it up from sleep it wouldn't run as fast as normal but instead so laggy that it felt exaggerated, so after waiting a couple of minutes while it did one thing per minute I understood that it wouldn't blow over on it's own, so I tried to restart it bur iTunes was syncing with my phone (and the chunkiness made it impossible to stop) so I forced it eventually to shut down by holding the power button. Now it is stuck on the Apple start-up logo but with a loading bar underneath that has been stuck on more or less 49% for a long while, I manually shut it down once more but it is still stuck on the same place. I have also noticed that it is extremely warm on the back. I have no idea if this helps but I wasn't home the whole last week and the iMac was on during that time + my window is on the sunny side so it might have been damaged by the sun. I have no idea whatsoever what to do, I'd appreciate any help I could get. Thanks in advance.

Snaleks wrote:
I have no idea when to press shift because my sound is turned off, I can't turn it on in Recovery Partition mode, help? (Sorry for being so helpless):
Within 1 second of seeing any video at all should be OK.

IMac early 2009... won't run 64-bit Windows 7 ?

I can't believe this. But according to Apple, my computer that's not even a year old cannot run the current 64-bit version of Windows. How lame is that.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1846

Generic, yes, but didn't take into account EFI64 (UEFI 2.x) req'd to native boot a 64-bit DVD of Vista SP1 or later. Apple has a list of those that are supported (actually, a list of UN-supported).
http://jowie.com/blog/post/2008/02/24/Select-CD-ROM-Boot-Type-prompt-while-tryin g-to-boot-from-Vista-x64-DVD-burnt-from-iso-file.aspx
A tutorial from MacBook Pro owner and 64-bit install:
http://deseloper.org/read/2009/05/windows-7rc-x64-with-boot-camp/
FAQ, Updates, etc http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp
System Requirements: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1899
Windows 7 FAQ: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3986
List 64-bit Compatible: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1846
Boot Camp 64-bit 3.1 http://support.apple.com/kb/DL979
Boot Camp Vista Upgrade Utility http://support.apple.com/kb/DL977
iMac (27-inch, Late 2009) displays a black screen during installation of Windows 7 using Boot Camp
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3173
Windows7news: Fix for Vista Upgrade to 7 :
+Vista users who tried to perform an upgrade to Windows 7 were experiencing an error at exactly 62% of the update.+
Windows performed an automatic rollback to Windows Vista at this point leaving the user puzzled and confused. Some users even experienced an endless reboot problem which would initiate the upgrade process again only to fail again at 62%.
Vista user needs to click on the Fix-It button on the Microsoft support website after the upgrade failed at 62% to fix the issue and initiate the upgrade again.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975253

Apple IMac 27 has a problem. Random black screen. Over 1 year without any fix

Apple IMac 27 has a problem.
Random black screen.
Over 1 year without any successful fix.
IMac 27 10.8.4 (12E55) - bought in 2010
3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1067 Mhz RAM
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB
The IMac computer screen goes black randomly but the machine still running beyond.
In order to go back to normal i need to awake the computer by hitting with the pointer a hot corner previously created " sleep mode" ( top left ).
..the black screen would come back after one second again..and then again and then again and then again..with different intervals..sometime 2 seconds after the other, sometime as soon as appears the user login screen.
I took the machine to an Apple Store two times over one year, they opened, cleaned it but they didn't replace anything has they could not understand what they real problem was. I was happy for that because they didn't try to make me spend money on something which was not going to solve my issue for sure.
Last time i kindly asked them to inspect everything meticulously, part by part, i left the machine with them for over 2 months. They couldn't understand why this was happening..after couple of weeks, 5 more machines came in with the same problem.
On some of them., upon request of the client they changed the graphic card but apparently this was not the fix, the problem come back again. Apparently changing the graphic card or the screen or else it didn't solve any problem to anyone. I'm almost thinking to "trough it out of the window"..we all spend money for this machines and i think we need to know if Apple is looking in to this or not.
Lately i tried to do an SMS RESET and PRAM RESET, it feels it got better a little but problem still coming back.
Also, all usb devices are disconnected and the problem still there
Below you will see a copy of the console report. I honestly don't understand much of it as i'm not a computer guy.
27/07/2013 11:03:39.837 WindowServer[119]: Created shield window 0xb3 for display 0x04272d40
27/07/2013 11:03:39.837 WindowServer[119]: device_generate_desktop_screenshot: authw 0x7fad92c79dc0(2000), shield 0x7fad92c34370(2001)
27/07/2013 11:03:39.906 WindowServer[119]: device_generate_lock_screen_screenshot: authw 0x7fad92c79dc0(2000), shield 0x7fad92c34370(2001)
27/07/2013 11:03:41.701 WindowServer[119]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fad92c79dc0(2000), shield 0x7fad92c34370(2001), lock state 3
27/07/2013 11:03:41.702 WindowServer[119]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: err 0x0
27/07/2013 11:03:41.704 WindowServer[119]: Created shield window 0xb4 for display 0x003f003d
27/07/2013 11:03:41.704 WindowServer[119]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fad92c79dc0(2002), shield 0x7fad92c34370(2001), lock state 3
27/07/2013 11:03:41.704 WindowServer[119]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: err 0x0
27/07/2013 11:03:45.186 com.apple.launchd.peruser.502[163]: (com.akamai.client.plist[740]) Bug: 12E55: launchd + 95444 [7DCC9489-2DF5-3807-83FA-EF5666EE8078]: 0xd
27/07/2013 11:03:45.208 com.apple.launchd.peruser.502[163]: (com.akamai.client.plist) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
27/07/2013 11:03:52.117 WindowServer[119]: CGXSetWindowBackgroundBlurRadius: Invalid window 0xffffffff
27/07/2013 11:03:52.118 loginwindow[43]: find_shared_window: WID -1
27/07/2013 11:03:52.118 loginwindow[43]: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0xffffffff
27/07/2013 11:03:52.118 loginwindow[43]: find_shared_window: WID -1
27/07/2013 11:03:52.118 loginwindow[43]: CGSSetWindowTags: Invalid window 0xffffffff
27/07/2013 11:03:53.763 WindowServer[119]: Created shield window 0xba for display 0x04272d40
27/07/2013 11:03:53.763 WindowServer[119]: device_generate_desktop_screenshot: authw 0x7fad92c87490(2000), shield 0x7fad92e6eef0(2001)
27/07/2013 11:03:53.838 WindowServer[119]: device_generate_lock_screen_screenshot: authw 0x7fad92c87490(2000), shield 0x7fad92e6eef0(2001)
27/07/2013 11:03:53.880 WindowServer[119]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fad92c87490(2000), shield 0x7fad92e6eef0(2001), lock state 3
27/07/2013 11:03:53.880 WindowServer[119]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: err 0x0
27/07/2013 11:03:53.883 WindowServer[119]: Created shield window 0xbb for display 0x003f003d
27/07/2013 11:03:53.883 WindowServer[119]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fad92c87490(2002), shield 0x7fad92e6eef0(2001), lock state 3
27/07/2013 11:03:53.883 WindowServer[119]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: err 0x0
27/07/2013 11:03:55.209 com.apple.launchd.peruser.502[163]: (com.akamai.client.plist[742]) Bug: 12E55: launchd + 95444 [7DCC9489-2DF5-3807-83FA-EF5666EE8078]: 0xd
27/07/2013 11:03:55.252 com.apple.launchd.peruser.502[163]: (com.akamai.client.plist) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
27/07/2013 11:04:04.482 WindowServer[119]: CGXSetWindowBackgroundBlurRadius: Invalid window 0xffffffff
27/07/2013 11:04:04.482 loginwindow[43]: find_shared_window: WID -1
27/07/2013 11:04:04.483 loginwindow[43]: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0xffffffff
27/07/2013 11:04:04.483 loginwindow[43]: find_shared_window: WID -1
27/07/2013 11:04:04.483 loginwindow[43]: CGSSetWindowTags: Invalid window 0xffffffff
27/07/2013 11:04:04.704 WindowServer[119]: Created shield window 0xbf for display 0x04272d40
27/07/2013 11:04:04.726 WindowServer[119]: device_generate_desktop_screenshot: authw 0x7fad92ebdb20(2000), shield 0x7fad92e6eef0(2001)
27/07/2013 11:04:04.795 WindowServer[119]: device_generate_lock_screen_screenshot: authw 0x7fad92ebdb20(2000), shield 0x7fad92e6eef0(2001)
27/07/2013 11:04:05.245 WindowServer[119]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fad92ebdb20(2000), shield 0x7fad92e6eef0(2001), lock state 3
27/07/2013 11:04:05.246 WindowServer[119]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: err 0x0
27/07/2013 11:04:05.253 com.apple.launchd.peruser.502[163]: (com.akamai.client.plist[744]) Bug: 12E55: launchd + 95444 [7DCC9489-2DF5-3807-83FA-EF5666EE8078]: 0xd
27/07/2013 11:04:05.249 WindowServer[119]: Created shield window 0xc0 for display 0x003f003d
27/07/2013 11:04:05.249 WindowServer[119]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fad92ebdb20(2002), shield 0x7fad92e6eef0(2001), lock state 3
27/07/2013 11:04:05.249 WindowServer[119]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: err 0x0
I'm now thinking to try to take the machine to its original firmware and see if it still does it, does anyone have any sugestion?
I use a lot photoshop and other image software, this computer is essential for my work. For more then one year this issue caused me problems.
Luckly i have a Macbook Pro too and i managed to do some of my work there. At last I was thinking to buy an external screen and attach it to the Macbook pro in order to work on my big images. But who wants to spend money again!!!???? This is not a fixture, this is silly. I wish to have my IMAc working again.
The warranty it's obviously over and this problem happened right after the warranty was over...
I write this post because i'm so tired of this issue and online nothing can be found apart from posts from so many people that have the same problem and no fixture has been found.
The only fixture seams to be to buy a new computer... Ole'!!!..new money flowing in in the cashier!! forget it!!! i would rather change company if apple doesn't respond to this.
For over 10 years i have been a Apple owner..
When this problem appears it's like someone it's playing a joke at you...
Comments welcome..
Thanks

Hi, I've seem to have found out the source of the problem.
The issue is related to heat, and an iMac 27" gets hot pretty fast.
If I boot the iMac straight after first start into Windows 7 I seem to get a lit built-in display at all times. I can also boot OS X first and then into Windows 7 and the built-in screen get lit every time as long as the iMac isn't hot.
Strange thing is that the monitor connected to the display port gets lit every time. So I can only assume that the heat only interfere with output to the built-in LED screen.
So this iMac is going to an Apple premium reseller for service, and I'll tell you guys how it went.

How do I find out what is causing a random black screen on iMac?

Hello I get random black screen on a iMac and I haven't made any hardware changes. How can I find out what is causing this?
Thanks
Jer
iMac 2.66 core 2 duo with Snow Leopard 10.6.8

You can do an SMC and PRAM reset. These won't hurt anything and 'might,' maybe help the screen issue. If it doesn't, then take it into an Apple store or AASP for their guidance and advance testing diagnostics.
SMC:
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord.
Wait fifteen seconds.
Attach the computer's power cord.
Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.
PRAM:
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

I just buy a imac 27inch when after intalling everthing for windows 7 and all the drivers i need and goes to the restard part my imac just goes to a black screen with a blinking cursel and it just wont proceed anyone can help me with this?

i just buy a imac 27inch when after intalling everthing for windows 7 and all the drivers i need and goes to the restard part my imac just goes to a black screen with a blinking cursel and it just wont proceed anyone can help me with this?

Support articles for things like this would be here:
http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp

Imac start up goes to black screen with white writing

My imac on start up comes up with a black screen which has a lot of white writing on it. The mac then stops on this screen and to does nothing else. To re start the computer I have to un plug it. After doing this it will then work fine. this scenario happens about once a month.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Regards
Scott.

From reports I've read on here, a PRAM reset is likely to solve the problem:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

IMac late 2009 crashing with Maverick

I have a problem with my iMac (late 2009) that I cannot solve. It has become very slow, and crashes regularly after some time. Impossible to repair it, neither from the disk recovery partition, nor an external HD boot and using Disk Utility. So everytime I have to download Maverick again and install it to be able to work. I have noticed that after the fresh installation, and and a few days of working, Disk Utility shows problems with Disk permissions that need to be repaired. This occurs systematically.
To complete the story, the iMac was working fine when I bought it, but was returned to Apple for the HD substitution (Apple replacement programme). After this, and/or after installing Maverick (but I am not sure the 2 things are related), the problem started.
I have also tried PRAM resetting, no effect. Any suggestion?

For 2009 iMac owners on Mavericks, I recommend this procedure. Saved me a lot of frustration after almost a month of constant crashes and getting no work done.
I downloaded a temperature monitor to see what was happening. Before the fix, the temperature on the "north bridge heat sink” would just go up and up without fail. Particularly when using flash or a video related application. It would just keep rising until until the graphics card just shuts down.
It’s a 3 year old bug related to 10.6.3 and GPU drivers (ATI/AMD). Here’s the link to the guy who figured it out and should be testing for apple. You have to use terminal to solve the issue. He explains everything in detail.
http://www.pauloamgomes.net/blog/fix-weird-os-x-freeze-imacs-late-2009
After the fix, the temperature at the graphics card stays level. I’ve also decided to use a fan control app for the moment so temperatures stay around 50 and the iMac runs like it should. Even in my hot room in the summer.
Been crashless since doing the procedure. Try it out. better than lugging a 27" iMac around town.

B(lack)SOD after install windows 7 on iMac late 2009?

I know it's been covered a million times, and I have read the forum and support pages and tried everything imaginable, but I still get a plain black screen after I install windows 7 on my late 2009 iMac 27" macos 10.8.5.
I know this is because the display drivers are not installed, and I have downloaded the correct drivers from here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3983?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
...and followed the instructions to the letter from here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3173
...but it still doesnt work.
For whatever reason, it is not installing the drivers from my MS-DOS (FAT) formatted USB drive. I have the 'drivers' folder and the 'AutoUnattend.xml' file in the root of the USB drive.
at the end of the page in the second link above it says: "If the screen remains black after several minutes, power it off (hold the power button for several seconds), then go back to step 4. Ensure that your USB device or SD card is formatted as Master Boot Record, FAT, and that AutoUnattend.xml and Drivers are on the root level of the directory."
I have done this over and over and over again. A problem with bootcamp assistant, is that you have to start from scratch each time, I dont need to partition the drive and reinstall Windows, I know it is installed, I just need to install the drivers.
Is there anyway to install the drivers manually? Or does anyone have any other ideas?
Many thanks in advance.

I have exactly the same problem...

Apples update didn't work for me: Boot Camp: iMac displays a black screen during installation of Windows 7

Boot Camp: iMac displays a black screen during installation of Windows 7 - Apple Support
I have followed each of the steps listed in the link above with no success.
Prior to adding the extra drivers I was able to start the Windows install process up to reformatting the "Windows" Bootcamp drive. After that the computer would go through some instal processes and eventually restart. After the restart the screen would go black. The black screen lead me to the Apple Support link above dated March 5 2015. After going through steps listed in the link above, I get an error message stating that the D:\Sources\instal.win. file cannot be located. I am forced to restart the computer at that point and theWindows install process attempts to start again but always ends up at the same point.
Note: I am installing windows 7 Pro from a DVD. I scanned the AutoUnattend.xml file and noticed that it refers to "Windows 7 ULTIMATE" but not "Pro" or any others that I could see. (see below). Could that be part of the issue?
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
<cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:d:/sources/install.wim#Windows 7 ULTIMATE" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>
iMac (27-inch, Late 2009)
2.66 GHz Intel Core i5
16 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB

Here is an over-simplified explanation of WIM and CLG files. Assume your DVD Media contains
W7- Ultimate
W7- Professional
W7- Home Premium
W7- Home Basic
WIM Files
File1
y
y
y
y
File2
y
y
y
y
File3
y
File4
y
y
File4
y
y
y
The File .wim will contains a compressed image which contains File [1...5].
The W7-Ultimate .clg will have 5 entries, with all set to 'Y'.
The W7-Professional .clg will have 5 entries, with 'Y','Y','N','Y','Y'.
The W7-Home Premium .clg will have 5 entries, with 'Y','Y','N','N','Y'.
The W7-Home Basic .clg file will have 5 entries, with 'Y','Y','N','N','N'.
This allows a single .wim Image file on the DVD media to be used to install any of the 5 flavors of Windows. When you enter your product key, the Installer knows what specific W7 variant you have the key for and will tell the WIM to extract the specific files the installer needs to be extracted.
The following line
<cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:d:/sources/install.wim#Windows 7 ULTIMATE" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
is telling that a retail product key will be entered, which should go look for this specific .clg file (from the five you already have on disk). You can test if it will work for you by changing this line to the following
<cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:d:/sources/install.wim#Windows 7 PROFESSIONAL" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
If it does not work, the other issue can be related to device discovery. Typically A: and B: device names are reserved for Floppy Drives. C: is your internal HDD.
D: can either point to the Optical drive, or the USB. The normal convention is that the removable media is named from Z: backwards. Y: and Z: are usually used for Network drives, so X: should be your USB. First try with the change to "Professional". If it does not work,

27in iMac (late 2009) ATI 4850 drivers problem in Windows 7

This iMac is less than a month old. Windows 7 was working fine until a couple of days ago. While at the Windows 7 desktop the screen pixlated and froze. A tip bubble appeared in the notification bar that said the ATI driver quit but was recovered. The screen went black then restored itself. A moment later the whole thing occurred again. Is this a known issue? Is there a fix? Thanks for any help.

BANDING AND DRIVER CRASHING SOLVED:
I bought the following iMac on April 18, 2010 to run Windows 7 and Autodesk REVIT 2011.
27" iMac (Late 2009)
Intel Core i7, quad-core, 2.8GHz
8GB (4x2GB) memory
1TB Hard Drive
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB Display Adapter
Apple Magic Mouse
Apple Wireless Keyboard
Apple BootCamp with Windows 7 Ultimate
Installed OSX, downloaded and installed all updates.
Installed BootCamp 3.1
Installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit and had the problem of the black screen during install. This was solved with the fix from apple support (copy latest drivers to a flash drive and continue to install windows). This resulted in apple windows driver 8.681.0.0 and the 16 bit color with banding. Rolled back the driver to 8.661.0.0. The banding issue was solved, but then had intermittent crashing (reset of the driver) in Chrome and REVIT 2011. This driver caused yellow "dots", then lockup and generally would reset. Very disruptive to REVIT.
SOLUTION:
Went to ATI website and downloaded Catalyst 10.4, then manually installed ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4850 display driver version 8.723.0.0. This display driver has 32 bit color, does NOT exhibit the color banding and has not had screen flicker, driver resets, or crashing in any programs run so far. I use this computer only for Autodesk REVIT 2011. The ATI HD 4850 is not officially supported by Autodesk, but I am able to run REVIT 2011 with hardware acceleration and anti-aliasing with no problems. So far that has been only for one day, but was not able to go more than a few minutes with the previous drivers.
I have not run any speed benchmarks yet, but compared to my Windows 32 bit XP machine, the performance is much improved.

IMac 27 Late 2009 with Random black screen at startup of Windows 7!

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for