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Windows 10 on old mac hardware : driver issue

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Jul 23, 2012
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Motherboard
Asus Prime X570 Pro
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Ryzen 9 3900X
Graphics
RX 590
Mac
  1. iMac
  2. MacBook Air
  3. MacBook Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
  2. iOS
Hi,

I have old macs running Win10 x64 (1809) just fine:
- iMac12,2 (Radeon HD 6970M)
- 2x iMac11,3 (Radeon HD 5750)
- 3x macMini5,2 (Radeon HD 6630M)
These are old machine and I needed to manually select the driver for the GPU since the driver automatically selected by Windows didn't work so well... But again, everything runs smoothly on 1809. ...Well, except that I had to disable sleep on the iMacs, otherwise the monitor wouldn't turn back on (still reachable via VNC/RDP, though) but that's just a detail...

Now I tried to update to 1903 and it seemed to go fine. I can reach the login screen (and stay there for hours...) and everything is OK until I enter the password.
When I enter the password, I can see the desktop for a couple seconds and then the computer crashes (either a graphic glitch-> reboot, or an error message->reboot).
I thought : "Well windows tried to update the GPU driver and now everything is screwed up"... (but is the GPU driver really only loaded after the user logs in? I assumed it would be loaded sooner during the boot process.)

I rebooted into safe mode and went to the device manager. There were a bunch of yellow triangles now:
- monitor (generic non-PNP)
-
GPU
- Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth
- AMD high definition Audio device
- Cirrus Logic CS4206A (AB24)
- Microsoft Hyper-V Virtualization Infrastructure Driver


Well... that doesn't look promising...

On the iMac11,3, I tried to manually replace the GPU driver (in safe mode) by the one for the Radeon HD 5750 (picked from a list) but upon reboot I don't get any improvement (graphic glitch -> reboot)...
- Because of the monitor driver issue?
- Because of the other driver issues?

I then rolled back to 1809 and tried the following:
- Prevent windows from updating the GPU driver according to this method (group policies):
However, after updating to 1903 again, I still get the same issue. And now the GPU is detected as a generic VGA adapter in safe mode.
- Does this mean the method to prevent driver update didn't work?
- Does this mean the problem is not only dependent on the GPU driver issue?

I don't know what to try now. I am not sure what the cause(s) of my problem(s) is/are.

Can anyone help me sort all that mess out?
Thank you very much in advance for your help.

Best,
-a-

PS: I know this is not a windows site and I understand if nobody wants to help me out but I know some of you smart guys out there may know how to troubleshoot this.
 
Are you able to boot into safe mode with internet support after updating?
 

I recently read somewhere that windows 10 killed support for certain BT devices that it deemed to cause security flaws in the USB driver. Maybe that is what is happening to you but with different hardware. Windows 7 and the abomination that was windows 8.1 is still better than windows 10 any version IMO... Unless you can lock that B up with no internet access... it will call home and do what ever it wants. Windows 10 is the devil! Any reason you do not just stop the updates?
 
I recently read somewhere that windows 10 killed support for certain BT devices that it deemed to cause security flaws in the USB driver. Maybe that is what is happening to you but with different hardware. Windows 7 and the abomination that was windows 8.1 is still better than windows 10 any version IMO... Unless you can lock that B up with no internet access... it will call home and do what ever it wants. Windows 10 is the devil! Any reason you do not just stop the updates?
Well... I ... Kind of... like... the current windows10 better than the previous versions :oops:

I always try to keep all my systems up to date rather than to have a patchwork of devices with different OS versions. I believe updated machine are safer (even if that may not always be true) and they are also easier for me to maintain if they're all on the same page... However, if I have no choice I guess I will have to stay on 1809 for these or have them replaced ASAP.

Tx
-a-
 
I recently read somewhere that windows 10 killed support for certain BT devices that it deemed to cause security flaws in the USB driver. Maybe that is what is happening to you but with different hardware. Windows 7 and the abomination that was windows 8.1 is still better than windows 10 any version IMO... Unless you can lock that B up with no internet access... it will call home and do what ever it wants. Windows 10 is the devil! Any reason you do not just stop the updates?
Win 10 properly adjusted to disable functions does not "call in" any more than Apple's Mac OS any version properly adjusted will "call in". All of the modern OS's have what I call security faults but the OS developers call a "better experience". They all track everything so they can "offer" better responses keyed to the individual - a gross violation of privacy IMHO. So far as function and ease of use goes, I would class Win7 and Win10 as great improvements over Vista and Win8/8.1.
 
Win 10 properly adjusted to disable functions does not "call in" any more than Apple's Mac OS any version properly adjusted will "call in". All of the modern OS's have what I call security faults but the OS developers call a "better experience". They all track everything so they can "offer" better responses keyed to the individual - a gross violation of privacy IMHO. So far as function and ease of use goes, I would class Win7 and Win10 as great improvements over Vista and Win8/8.1.

I do not get the same beat you in the head till you upgrade feeling from Mac OS, or older versions of windows. I feel like windows 10 is always trying to force you to upgrade and do updates even when you disable stuff. I never ran windows 8 but as for windows 8.1 I never had issues with it running it native or running it in a VM. I only changed over to windows 10 when I started having driver compatibility issues with z370 stuff ie could not find good drivers. I would not even run window if Autodesk would make Revit for the Mac or if I could force myself into changing to a different design software after 20 years...
 
... Any idea about what I could do about this drivers issue?
 
... Any idea about what I could do about this drivers issue?

I reread your first post, yes the graphics driver is only loaded and accelerated after you log in. When in safe mode everything will have a yellow triangle because safe mode does not load drivers. I really do not know much about windows 10 on older hardware, has apple done a drivers package update recently? Maybe try a windows 8.1 or 7 driver...
 
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