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Bounty For Booting XP on the Intel iMac

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the what-a-waste dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The race is on. You can try to get the bounty for booting Windows XP on iMac. At this moment there is $2773 waiting for the winner. However several people have brickified their iMacs when playing with EFI." I imagine those tech support calls are hysterical ;)

25 of 348 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I'm sorry by FidelCatsro · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't know sounded fun so I tried it .
    But a little boot on the iMac's stand ,then proceeded to use it to kick a Windows XP CD around the room.
    Unfortunately due to a technicality , I can't claim the prize money.
    I assume though I am the first person to boot windows with an iMac

    --
    The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
  2. Re:BartPE by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 4, Informative

    No, it shouldn't. You apparently either have no idea what BartPE is, or ou completely failed to even read the article summary.

    BartPE is simply a custom version of XP that can boot from removable media. The EFI rom on the MacTel machines seems to forbid booting an El Torito volume.

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
  3. Re:Brickified? by FidelCatsro · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's a cromulent Neologism

    --
    The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
  4. Don't they have this backwards? by SlickCow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What I want is to boot MacOS on my PC. How about a bounty for that?

  5. Re:Brickified? by minginqunt · · Score: 5, Funny


    Enbrickened.

    Fracked.

    Made to exhibit a Brickish form.

    Relegated to brickhood.

    Elevated to the Platonic ideal of "Brick".

    Invited to join the elite group of formerly functioning Von Neumann machines now inculcated in the eternal, static realm of Brick. (FFVNMNIRSRB: pron. Fuff-van-man-IRS-Rub)

    DEAD BRICKED.

    Seriously, kids. Do try this at home. It is big, it is clever. And it will give us a laugh. Let's see you try and do that with your $3000 Alienware rig.

    Muhahahahaha.

  6. I suggest the Free Software Foundation by ettlz · · Score: 4, Funny

    in a twist of irony. Or the EFF.

    1. Re:I suggest the Free Software Foundation by HuguesT · · Score: 4, Insightful

      > Shouldn't it be illegal for a computer vendor to force you to only use a
      > particular OS on your computer?

      Apple isn't forcing anybody to run OS/X. I'm quite sure people buying Macs do it of their own volition. Furthermore I'm pretty sure Linux will be booting on these machines quite soon, this should answer this worry.

      On the other hand there is no requirement on hardware manufacturers that their machines must be made to boot Windows, just because they have an x86-compatible chip inside.

    2. Re:I suggest the Free Software Foundation by SteveAyre · · Score: 4, Insightful

      More like the choice of using unleaded petrol or diesel in your car, or a particular tire size.

      You can use the other if you like, just don't expect it to work as well anymore if at all.

      The fault is with Windows AFAIK not supporting the hardware anyway, which is hardly surprising when it was written several years before Apple announced that they'd be moving to Intel.

    3. Re:I suggest the Free Software Foundation by JonathanBoyd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When did they remove BIOS? Macs have never used BIOS. People haven't bought a computer that Apple have come round and pulled a chip out of. They designed a computer that doesn't use BIOS... just like all the other computers they've been designing. In what sense can they be said to have removed something that was never there in the first place?

    4. Re:I suggest the Free Software Foundation by linuxfanatic1024 · · Score: 5, Informative

      On the other hand there is no requirement on hardware manufacturers that their machines must be made to boot Windows, just because they have an x86-compatible chip inside.

      EXACTLY!!! Most people don't get the idea that two computers can be completely different even if they have the CPU in common. Some examples:

      - Z80: Game Boy, Game Gear, TI graphing calcs, and CP/M machines all have the same processor but totally different architectures.

      - Motorola 680x0: Classic Macs, Amigas, and 68k-based TI graphing calcs are all different

      - PowerPC: Power Macintoshes and PREP machines are incompatible.

      Perhaps the x86 Macs are PC-compatible, but nothing says they HAVE to be. Just look at history.

      --
      Microsoft-free since March 28, 2004
  7. Re:Brickified? by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not to be too picky, but the correct word, I believe, is "bricked". Although whether there's an actual dictionary definiton of the word in this context I do not know.

    This is a new low for a grammar nazi... trying to correct a word that isn't even a word. Brilliant.

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
  8. No EFI backwards compatibility module on iMacs by Randall311 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Therefore getiing XP to boot natively won't happen. There is still a chance at booting Windows Vista though, as it supports EFI. The only thing to overcome is the ACPI requirement that Vista has. The intel chip and mobo inside the iMacs stupport ACPI, but of course it has been removed from Apple's version of EFI. Find a way to get ACPI support onto the Mactel's EFI, and you should be able to have a dual boot config with Windows Vista.

  9. UNBRICK your Intel iMac by Knytefall · · Score: 5, Informative

    From Dave Schroeder, posted to http://nak.journalspace.com/?cmd=displaycomments&d cid=407&entryid=407

    By following these steps, the iMacs that had difficulty with certain EFI modules appear to have been restored to a functioning state:

    1. Disconnect the internal hard disk
    2. Disconnect the iMac from AC power
    3. Plug in AC while holding the power button
    4. Power up the iMac and zap NVRAM (cmd-opt-P-R)
    The hard disk can be reformatted and the operating system restored.

  10. For the last time... by copponex · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If I could have a dual core machine with a really nice graphics card, and the machine was also cool, quiet, and attractive for $1300, and I could boot any OS I wanted on it (OS X, Linux, XP), I think I don't qualify as perverse. The iMac is a compact and powerful machine, and there's nothing available like it at the moment. Furthermore, give me the choice between carrying around two laptops or one (especially for developers or on-site technicians), can you possibly guess which one would be less expensive?

    So, please, just drop this joke. It's been told a million times. If you don't have anything useful to say, just save your breath.

  11. Re:Brickified? by i.r.id10t · · Score: 5, Funny

    That Mac isn't dead... its pining for the fjords..

    --
    Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
  12. How to report a brickified iMac to Apple by pvera · · Score: 4, Informative

    1.Walk it into any Apple store or Apple authorized repair shop.
    2. Tell them your mac stopped working.
    3. When they ask you for the symptoms, tell them it showed a spining ball in many colors, like a rainbow. Then it beeped. Then it told you to reboot in many languages.
    4. When you rebooted it, it refused to power up.
    5. The proper answer to any probing questions is "uh, I don't know."

    Under any circumstances are you to give the impression that you know more about macs than the guy taking your repair order. If the contents of the drive are an issue, take the drive out, connect it to another machine and delete the partitions. Check out the "user installable parts" document for your mac, it will tell you the exact procedure for pulling a drive without voiding the warranty. For the first generation iMac G5 it even tells you the color of the 3 screws that you need to remove, I bet that has not changed with the Intel version.

    --
    Pedro
    ----
    The Insomniac Coder
    1. Re:How to report a brickified iMac to Apple by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Or alternatively, you could call them and tell them what actually happened. That way they can diagnose the fault, and fix it. In the event that the person you talk to is someone who reads Slashdot and is therefore convinced that someone experimenting with different commands on their computer is actually doing something illegal, immoral, or just "against the Man(tm)" and that Apple is perfectly within their rights to not honour a warranty under such circumstances, you ask to speak to their supervisor.

      There is no reason why typing commands at a prompt should completely brickify a computer. Result in data loss? Yeah. Mean you have to reinstall the OS? That's fine. But render a computer utterly incapable of being restored to a usable state by the user? Absolutely not. We're not talking about plugging the AC cable into the Firewire slot here, or dropping it from the top of the Empire State Building, we're just talking about experimenting with the subsystem that boots the computer in order to try to, legitimately, boot another operating system.

      This isn't a slam against Apple here. I suspect these machines do, indeed, have a by-pass somewhere in them to restore the firmware (there's already a supposed fix circulating which may actually be the solution), and there are plenty of companies that also make it relatively easy to brick their systems (would it be too fucking much to add a $5 ROM to your $800 laptops that contains a "good" version of the firmware in case there's a problem with the flash?); far from it: I have great difficulty believing Apple would refuse to honour a warranty over such an issue, and I suspect, ultimately, they'll have a KB article up soon enough ensuring users can fix the issue themselves. In the event they do not, I'd be surprised if they're not seeing this as a design flaw, rather than a user issue.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  13. OH NO, The slashdotters cometh. by colin_n · · Score: 4, Funny

    I just got a message from a friend of mine saying I have been /.ed . Now my life is complete

    --

    --------- I have no signature
  14. Tech support brickfied call by digitaldc · · Score: 4, Funny

    However several people have brickified their iMacs when playing with EFI. I imagine those tech support calls...

    UserX: Hi, is this Apple tech support?

    Tech Support Operator 213453098: Yes, how can I help you?

    UserX: Well, I was trying to win a contest by booting Windows XP on my iMac and then totally brickified it.

    Tech Support Operator 213453098: Oh that's too bad, can you please start from the beginning?

    UserX: Okay, I had XP copied to a disc, I put it in the iMac and fiddled with the EFI a bit to boot XP and all of a sudden I had a screen with a bunch of letters and numbers on it. I tried to hardboot it and get back OSX, but it failed...so I brickified it.

    Tech Support Operator 213453098: So you corrupted your iMac to the point will it will not boot at all?

    UserX: No, I got so mad I just threw a brick at it - now it's just a pile of sparking wires and smoking plastic.

    Tech Support Operator 213453098:     Please hold, let me transfer you to our anger management department. You estimated wait time is... thirty-five .... minutes. Have a great day, sir.

    --
    He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
  15. Re:Why? Seriously by LurkerXXX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Right, because no one else has other software needs than yours.

  16. Re:Why? Seriously by NutscrapeSucks · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Turn your argument around. Nobody really "needs" a Mac in the first place. We could get everything we need to get done on a standard Windows PC, but instead we buy Macintoshes because we *want* to, not because we need to.

    Surely you will admit that there are some very popular Windows packages that have not been ported to the Mac. As well about a million inhouse and vertical software packages designed for Windows. A lot of people in the Mac community see this as something that would be legitimately useful to them, and not just "because it's there". They're doing this because they think it would add value to their Mac system.

    --
    Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
  17. Re:Brickified? by vjzuylen · · Score: 4, Funny

    Then wouldn't it be "to embricken"?

    --

    Hee-hee. Dying tickles!
  18. Re:Brickified? by mjpaci · · Score: 5, Funny

    embricken

    It could be one of those detached (or whatever it's called) German verbs...

    Wann hast du deine iMac emgebricken?

    Die iMac verbindung bricken em.

  19. Re:the opposit by Golias · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The "restore" DVD contained a normal Mac OS X 10.4 installer

    It has recently been established that the "normal" Mac OS X 10.4 DVD which comes with the new iMac will not work on other Macs.

    I believe that's what the grandparent post wast bitching about.

    --

    Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

  20. Article: Will Macs boot Windows? by DECS · · Score: 4, Informative

    EFI isn't the only problem for the new Macs to run Windows. I wrote an article that looks at a range of problems: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/Jan06.IntelMacsWin1. html