Apple updates Boot Camp audio driver that was causing blown MacBook Pro speakers

AppleInsider

Apple has issued an update to Boot Camp drivers within Windows, preventing the random, loud pops from over-ranging and damaging the new MacBook Pro's speakers. However, the driver doesn't fix speakers already damaged by the problem.

AppleInsider has confirmed that users who have installed Boot Camp since 1 p.m. Nov. 23 should already have the updated drivers. Older installations may require the user to manually run an Apple software update process from within the Windows installation.

Users with un-updated drivers could still experience a periodic loud pop out of proportion with the volume settings while booted into Windows. The loud pops are induced by an out-of-date Windows audio driver in Boot Camp.

Users who never booted into Windows through Boot Camp are not affected by the problem, nor are users running Parallels or other similar solutions.

Some users reported that MacBook Pro speakers were permanently damaged as a result of the pop over-ranging the hardware.

AppleInsider was told by Apple to have users manifesting speaker damage that persists in macOS after exiting Windows contact Apple Care phone support to document the problem, and to make a Genius Bar appointment for assessment and rectification.

suddenly newton

Speakergate. /s 

blastdoor

I'm genuinely surprised that Apple still supports Boot Camp. Are there any statistics on what fraction of Mac users use Boot Camp? 

Also, among Boot Camp users, why do they use it? Is it mostly about games? Aside from games, I would think Parallels (or VMware) would be the better solution. 

iphonenick

I run Windows via VMware from my bootcamp partition many for Outlook and a custom internally developed application, but some applications don't play nice and require booting into Windows to function properly.

macxpress

blastdoor said:

I'm genuinely surprised that Apple still supports Boot Camp. Are there any statistics on what fraction of Mac users use Boot Camp? 

Also, among Boot Camp users, why do they use it? Is it mostly about games? Aside from games, I would think Parallels (or VMware) would be the better solution. 

I use it at home to play games on my MacPro tower. Otherwise, I'd rather just use Parallels for everything else. I guess maybe if there's something else really graphics/CPU intensive you'd want it to be fully in Windows and not in a VM. 

Soli

That's a bad bug and oversight by Apple, but at least there would be no argument that Apple would have to replace/fix the machine.

Soli

blastdoor said:

I'm genuinely surprised that Apple still supports Boot Camp. Are there any statistics on what fraction of Mac users use Boot Camp? 

Also, among Boot Camp users, why do they use it? Is it mostly about games? Aside from games, I would think Parallels (or VMware) would be the better solution. 

I don't know the percentage, but I do know that I still use it occasionally and will be installing it for someone that just bought a new Mac. It's a very small investment for Apple while adding value since to the Mac line since it can help people choose a Mac over Windows that need to use Windows from time-to-time, and alleviate switching woos. VMs can be nice, but they be wonky and have an unfavorable business model of wanting you to pay for a new update every year when macOS is updated.

MacPro

Apple, Please please lean on AMD to update the ADM Crimson drivers too for Boot Camp!  When I boot into Windows 10 on my 6 core Mac Pro and run Steam I am so far behind in driver versions it isn't true.  VMs can't run GTA V before someone suggests I use one!

MacPro

blastdoor said:

I'm genuinely surprised that Apple still supports Boot Camp. Are there any statistics on what fraction of Mac users use Boot Camp? 

Also, among Boot Camp users, why do they use it? Is it mostly about games? Aside from games, I would think Parallels (or VMware) would be the better solution. 

You are correct, it's about high end CPU/GPU intensive games which are sorely lacking sadly for macOS. As a keen gamer (GTA V, Watch Dogs2, Tomb Raiders  etc)  when not doing professional photography and videography work on my 6 core Mac Pro with its Thunderbolt RAIDs.  Absent Bootcamp Drivers booting into Windows external SSDs for Steam etc. is doable, but the keyboard and other Apple unique drivers would be sorely missed.  Boot Camp isn't just for creating a partition on your internal, it's a valuable source of Apple drivers for Windows for those of us making our own external boot drives for Windows.  Of course for trivial PC crap like Office I use VMWare or Parallels.

volcan

digitalclips said:

Of course for trivial PC crap like Office I use VMWare or Parallels.

I'm not putting any Windows or VM crap on my Mac. If I need to do anything in Windows I have a $600 Asus all-in-one running Windows 10 with Office or else I just have my secretary do it.

dysamoria

Soli said:

That's a bad bug and oversight by Apple, but at least there would be no argument that Apple would have to replace/fix the machine.

No argument? You really trust Apple that much?

Soli

dysamoria said:

Soli said:

That's a bad bug and oversight by Apple, but at least there would be no argument that Apple would have to replace/fix the machine.

No argument? You really trust Apple that much?

Apple has acknowledged the mistake is theres, but how could this possibly be the customer's fault: "Don't blame us because you turned the software volume up past 50% on your new Mac"? You know that the factory warranty is at least 1 year, right?

jcdinkins

blastdoor said:

I'm genuinely surprised that Apple still supports Boot Camp. Are there any statistics on what fraction of Mac users use Boot Camp? 

Also, among Boot Camp users, why do they use it? Is it mostly about games? Aside from games, I would think Parallels (or VMware) would be the better solution. 

I use it.  I have SQL Server 2016 installed in windows and I want to be able to use it to its fullest extent processor-wise.  I get that having a standalone windows server may be the better way to go, but I like having the convenience of being able to use the mac to do what I need to get done without having to do that.

roundaboutnow

blastdoor said:

I'm genuinely surprised that Apple still supports Boot Camp. Are there any statistics on what fraction of Mac users use Boot Camp? 

Also, among Boot Camp users, why do they use it? Is it mostly about games? Aside from games, I would think Parallels (or VMware) would be the better solution. 

I installed VMware to run off of a Bootcamp partition on my iMac 5K. I use AutoCad LT on Mac side, but for occasional heavy lifting, I have a network license of Autodesk Design Suite (which includes Revit and 3DS Max as well as full-version Acad) on the Windows side. There are also a few audio-visual device configuration apps (for hardware audio processors, etc.) that are Windows only. For the config apps, I can jump over to Windows via VM, but if I want to dedicate all system resources to Autodesk apps, I can re-boot via Bootcamp to Windows. I appreciate this flexibility. (BTW, the AutoCad Windows UI still sucks on a high-dpi monitor).

PS: I used to run Office on Windows, but I think Office Mac has improved enough on 2016 version to be fine now. 

thewhitefalcon

digitalclips said:

Apple, Please please lean on AMD to update the ADM Crimson drivers too for Boot Camp!  When I boot into Windows 10 on my 6 core Mac Pro and run Steam I am so far behind in driver versions it isn't true.  VMs can't run GTA V before someone suggests I use one!

The problem is those FirePros really weren't meant for gaming.

e1618978

blastdoor said:

I'm genuinely surprised that Apple still supports Boot Camp. Are there any statistics on what fraction of Mac users use Boot Camp? 

Also, among Boot Camp users, why do they use it? Is it mostly about games? Aside from games, I would think Parallels (or VMware) would be the better solution. 

100% of my macs dual boot Windows - there are some tools that are Windows only (like PSoC Creator for example), some games that are Windows only (Neverwinter, etc) and some things that work better in Windows than on the mac (Sming).   I wish that bootcamp allowed you to triple boot Mac/Windows/Linux actually, that would be great.

Ive never used Parallels, but Ive used Virtualbox and bootcamp has fewer issues than a guest OS running in virtualbox.

curt12

Soli said:

blastdoor said:

I'm genuinely surprised that Apple still supports Boot Camp. Are there any statistics on what fraction of Mac users use Boot Camp? 

Also, among Boot Camp users, why do they use it? Is it mostly about games? Aside from games, I would think Parallels (or VMware) would be the better solution. 

I don't know the percentage, but I do know that I still use it occasionally and will be installing it for someone that just bought a new Mac. It's a very small investment for Apple while adding value since to the Mac line since it can help people choose a Mac over Windows that need to use Windows from time-to-time, and alleviate switching woos....

Microsoft recently added a Linux subsystem to Windows 10 for a similar reason (http://www.techrepublic.com/article/microsoft-tells-devs-whatever-youre-doing-in-linux-windows-10-will-soon-do-it-too/).

randominternetperson

jcdinkins said:

blastdoor said:

I'm genuinely surprised that Apple still supports Boot Camp. Are there any statistics on what fraction of Mac users use Boot Camp? 

Also, among Boot Camp users, why do they use it? Is it mostly about games? Aside from games, I would think Parallels (or VMware) would be the better solution. 

I use it.  I have SQL Server 2016 installed in windows and I want to be able to use it to its fullest extent processor-wise.  I get that having a standalone windows server may be the better way to go, but I like having the convenience of being able to use the mac to do what I need to get done without having to do that.

So you have a Mac running Windows just to run SQL Server?  So when you want to run macOS you have to shut down Windows and your SQL Server database?  Or can one run Windows and macOS simultaneously now?  I'm not trying to be snarky, I'm trying to understand the use case.

blastdoor

digitalclips said:

blastdoor said:

I'm genuinely surprised that Apple still supports Boot Camp. Are there any statistics on what fraction of Mac users use Boot Camp? 

Also, among Boot Camp users, why do they use it? Is it mostly about games? Aside from games, I would think Parallels (or VMware) would be the better solution. 

You are correct, it's about high end CPU/GPU intensive games which are sorely lacking sadly for macOS. As a keen gamer (GTA V, Watch Dogs2, Tomb Raiders  etc)  when not doing professional photography and videography work on my 6 core Mac Pro with its Thunderbolt RAIDs.  Absent Bootcamp Drivers booting into Windows external SSDs for Steam etc. is doable, but the keyboard and other Apple unique drivers would be sorely missed.  Boot Camp isn't just for creating a partition on your internal, it's a valuable source of Apple drivers for Windows for those of us making our own external boot drives for Windows.  Of course for trivial PC crap like Office I use VMWare or Parallels.

Thanks to everyone who answered my question!

So it sounds like it's largely, but not exclusively, about games. 

Bummer that Apple doesn't do more to support games on the Mac. I would think that Mac marketshare, particularly in the US, is now large enough that more games could be ported and perform well on the Mac *IF* Apple provided better support. Oh well. 

jcdinkins

This does lead me to another question.  How is the performance with Parallels vs a straight boot camp boot to windows?  Also, as a follow up, can I run more than one instance of parallels running a windows instance?  In other words, is it like a VMWare config?  Thanks in advance.

macplusplus

blastdoor said:

I'm genuinely surprised that Apple still supports Boot Camp. Are there any statistics on what fraction of Mac users use Boot Camp? 

Also, among Boot Camp users, why do they use it? Is it mostly about games? Aside from games, I would think Parallels (or VMware) would be the better solution. 

Most digital signature devices required to login into corporate or government networks don't have drivers for the Mac, or they are obsolete. This is just one example of why Windows is needed by those Mac owners. Although Parallels is enough in most of the cases, at some point implementing BootCamp may be needed.

Parallels is fairly good for games too, but it uses only 1 GB of the available VRAM, so for heavy games BootCamp is better.