I recently acquired a dual-boot MacBook, and I will be using the XP side 99% of the time.

I just tried installing BOINC 6.10.18, and as soon as the boinc.exe service loads, I get a BSOD error and immediate reboot. The BSOD only lasts for a split second, so I can't read any of the error codes displayed.

Is there something special I need to know about running BOINC under windows on Mac hardware? I wouldn't think it should matter now that Apple uses Intel hardware.

FYI, I also installed BOINC under the MacOS side and it runs fine. I did this after getting the BSOD errors under XP.

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My Mac is a PPC G5, so I can't dual boot. Still, working in tech support, I would say...

1) I'm at home, where my XP PC died, so I'm on Vista, but I think... Control Panel, Administrative Tools (which opens a new window), Event Viewer. Open this immediately after a crash and reboot. Go through all three logs, and look for errors.

2) Are you using BootCamp or Parallels? Is the one you are using at the latest version?

3) Use the auto-updater in each to make sure the OS is fully updated from Apple / Microsoft. Also, on the XP side, open IE and go to "Tools" in the task bar, and "Windows Update" / "Microsoft Update". (It should be one or the other.) If you go to the web site in XP, it will show you options that do not automatically download, including hardware drivers. I would recommend getting all hardware drivers, especially if any are listed for Intel / "chipset" / "motherboard".
- 3a) If you want to be brave, you can go to Intel.com and find the latest batch of Intel chipset drivers. On most PC's, this is a good thing, but occasionally it will end badly. If you do this, in my experience, (1) reboot so the OS is "clean", and kill anything open or in the system tray you can, (2) install the Intel drivers, (3) reboot immediately even if you don't have to. I've found if the drivers want a reboot and you don't right away, or worse install something else, they get "unhappy". Also, the Setup.exe is notorious for sitting for about a minute apparently doing "nothing" before something happens.

4) Go to the manufacturer and get the latest video card driver. It's amazing how many issues this fixes.

4) It will take a few uninstalls, but try an older client, and try the "beta" client. That will tell if it's something version specific.

5) Check your antivirus software. Check the logs after an install to see if it grabbed anything. Also, manually scan the BOINC directory and see if it grabs anything.

Mike

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To which I would add: it would be helpful if you could get the details of the BSOD, at least the 'STOP' number and any associated data (such as any file name referenced).

On ordinary PC hardware, you can call up a boot menu by pressing 'F8' after the BIOS initialises, but before any part of the Windows loader is visible on screen. I guess (hope!) that you can do the same thing on the Mac: you would have to select Windows as the operating system to load, and then immediately start tapping F8 until the boot menu appears. You may have to practice a bit to catch it in time.

Once you have control at the menu, two choices (in particular) would be useful:

1) Disable restart after errors (or words to that effect). That would keep the BSOD on screen (just once, for the current session) so you could take notes.

2) Safe mode, which will stop the BOINC service loading and hopefully give you a stable desktop for further investigation. From here, you can right-click and choose 'Properties' for "My Computer" (start menu or desktop, depending on configuration). On the 'Advanced' tab of what is now showing as "System Properties", you can choose 'Startup and Recovery' settings to disable automatic restarts on system failure permanently.

[Anyone care to translate that 'right-click' for the one-button Mac mouse environment?]

1) I'm at home, where my XP PC died, so I'm on Vista, but I think... Control Panel, Administrative Tools (which opens a new window), Event Viewer. Open this immediately after a crash and reboot. Go through all three logs, and look for errors.

Unfortunately I can't remember the exact time when I tried installing BOINC, so I can only estimate the portion of the error log that might be relevant. There were a couple of errors relating to ACPI and MSI installer.

2) Are you using BootCamp or Parallels? Is the one you are using at the latest version?

BootCamp ver. 2.2

As far as I can tell, it is the most current build.

3) Use the auto-updater in each to make sure the OS is fully updated from Apple / Microsoft. Also, on the XP side, open IE and go to "Tools" in the task bar, and "Windows Update" / "Microsoft Update". (It should be one or the other.) If you go to the web site in XP, it will show you options that do not automatically download, including hardware drivers. I would recommend getting all hardware drivers, especially if any are listed for Intel / "chipset" / "motherboard".

Believe me, everything is up to date. When I was issued the machine, the hard disk was imaged from a master that was made a year ago. I spent hours updating both OSes.

5) Check your antivirus software. Check the logs after an install to see if it grabbed anything. Also, manually scan the BOINC directory and see if it grabs anything.

None installed.

Well, I don't know what I did differently, but I tried installing 6.10.18 again and it works fine. After it worked successfully following a couple of reboots, I updated the nVidia drivers and it is also working on the GPU.