Windows 10 on 2011 Macbook: is audio fixable?
I've been trying to install Windows 10 on an early 2011 Macbook Pro. It's not officially supported, but I read everywhere it can be done. There are some troubles though.
I have successfully installed it alongside MacOS High Sierra actually, and everything works fine except for audio. I get the exclamation point on Device Manager and a message saying the device couldn't be started properly.
I found out audio doesn't work because Uefi Windows 10 installation somehow keeps a Cirrus audio-related device from working. At least that's what I understood after googling myself to death.
So I tried to install Windows 10 in Legacy/Bios mode. I chose "Windows" for the setup DVD instead of "Uefi Boot" at boot.
But just before the point where Windows usually asks which disk to install on, it actually asks for a missing driver. This doesn't happen when installing in Uefi mode. I tried feeding it Intel xHCI drivers with usb keys, it sees the keys but says it doesn't find any driver.
I wasn't able to use Boot Camp and had to prepare everything by hand, since I don't get the option to install Windows 10 from Boot Camp, only 8 and 7. If I try to install Windows 10, Boot Camp says the OS is not supported.
I conclude this behavior due to the fact the disk is partitioned in Uefi mode.
Is it impossible to install Windows 10 in Bios mode in such a setup?
I have the solution for audio to work UEFI windows 10
https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/350469/319791
This took 4 years to figure out
On my MacBook Pro (8,1 early 2011, MacOS 10.13) I first installed Win 7 via BootCamp and Win 7 install DVD. In Win 7 I installed the Win 7 drivers supplied by BootCamp. Then I downloaded MediaCretionTool from MS and with it I installed Win 10 over Win 7. After booting Win 10 Hardware Manager showed a few missing drivers. From https://www.driverscape.com/manufacturers/apple/laptops-desktops/macbookpro8%2C1/1927 I downloaded and installed the following missing drivers:
- apple_broadcom_bluetooth_5040_win64
- apple_broadcom_cardreader_100243_win64 => BroadcomCardReader64.exe
- apple_cirrus_logic_hd_audio_win64 => CirrusAudioCS4206x64.exe
- FaceTime HD camera
- Intel_hd_graphics_win64_153332 => DisplayAudio
- intel_mei_10.0.27.1012 => PCI
After that I updated some of the drivers via Windows Update. Now everything works fine.
I did it like this: I let Bootcamp start installing Windows 8.1.
Then on the first reboot I booted from a setup DVD and installed Windows 10 over that, using BIOS mode. After I did all this, installing Boot Camp software in Windows gave me a fully working Windows 10, with audio too.