Problem installing ATI X1600 drivers in Windows 7 64bit

[BaconMaster]

Hi,
I have an old Mac (2006 or 2007, Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz, 2Gb RAM, ATI X1600), and I've installed Windows 7 64 bit on it (which as you may know isn't supported by Apple for this old a model). I got it to install just fine, and it's been running for a while now quite happily.

My issue is that I can't get it to install correct drivers for the graphics card (or the monitor, but that's less of an issue). It only shows up in Windows 7 as "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter". The graphics card works, but I have no DirectX at all, and the graphics are awful and sluggish in OpenGL, which is the only thing that seems to work. All I'm trying to do is some very light 3D work.

Bootcamp says x64 isn't supported on my machine, but I can run the installer manually and it installed everything, such as the mouse, keyboard, iSight camera, Bluetooth etc. And it showed it was installing the ATI drivers too. But still my graphics card shows up as standard VGA. Does the bootcamp version of the ATI drivers not include support for the X1600 because it's too old or not supported officially?

I've even tried going to the ATI site and finding older drivers that still support the X1600, although I'm not sure if the Mac variant is slightly different and therefore requires special drivers. I just don't know.

I've tried other programs to clear out the drivers in safe mode and reinstalling, and every other combo I could think of, but I can't find a working solution. I've spent several hours Googling all kinds of ideas, but nothing has worked.

So I'm aware that this is one of several reasons that Win 7 64bit isn't supported on this machine, so these sorts of issues are no surprise to me. But aside from this one issue, it's been working well, and I'd like to get it working. I haven't got any older versions of Windows to install instead, so that's probably not an option.

Any ideas, or will I just have to put up with it? Thanks.

 

[bobtomay]

You're going to have to use the Vista 64 bit drivers. AMD has not touched the drivers for Win 7. You can find it here.

However, there's really no point on running Win 7 64 on these machines (I have one and run Win 7 32). You're not gaining any advantage and you're still hardware limited to 3GB RAM.

 

[BaconMaster]

Thanks, but those are the same drivers I tried from ATI's site (version 10.2, Vista 64).
So either those drivers don't support the Mac card, or I'm doing it wrong. But I've tried everything I can think of.

And I know I'm not gaining anything by using 64 bit on this machine. I only have 2Gb of RAM anyway, but that's the installation disc I have, so that's what it got. But having Windows on it has been handy, despite this problem.

 

[chscag]

That's strange. Every Windows 7 DVD I've seen (including the one I have) includes both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions. Where did you buy the DVD from? Is it a Microsoft boxed copy\digital download or an OEM version?

 

[bobtomay]

Could be educational. The copy of 7 Ultimate I have on my Mac is an educational copy (think it cost me $27 or thereabout) and the 32/64 were def separate discs when I got it.

 

[chscag]

That's what I was referring to (the package includes two DVDs, one for 32 bit, the other 64 bit), Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, all include both DVDs. I didn't realize the educational copy was only $27. That's quite a bargain compared to the discount prices you see on Amazon and NewEgg.

I'm wondering where he bought his copy from if it only included the one DVD for 64 bit.

 

[harryb2448]

If you have the original discs and used Bootcamp, use that to delete and install the 32 bit version which is the correct Windows 7 OS for your Mac.

 

[bobtomay]

Our package only had the one DVD. We had to pick which version we wanted at the campus bookstore. My wife may have gotten it cheaper than normal since she was staff at the college. I think we could have gotten Office for $17. Most of the stuff she had access to was much cheaper even than the standard educational discounts.