A MacBookPro + Microsoft Vista + SolidWorks RealView. The nVidia SoftMod.

by Josh on September 9, 2008 · Comments

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macbook vista osx nvidia softmod For those who just won’t allow that shiny, white MacBookPro to be torn from their cold, dead hands and insist on having the best of both OSX and Vista on one box, this post is for you.

We’ve shown you how to go about soft-modding your nVidia graphics card for RealView graphics on a Mac with Windows XP. This will show you how to get SolidWorks with RealView up and running on your MacBookPro within Microsoft Vista. It’s quick, it’s simple and everything you need is right here.

Total Credit goes to Lou Gallo from SolidWorks Heard! who uses a MacBookPro, has done this software mod and wrote it up to share with all the SolidSmack readers interested in using SolidWorks on a Mac.

If you would like to download the process for future reference, here’s a link to the complete how-to. Download (pdf)

It’s a simple 12-step process. This assumes you already have Vista installed using Bootcamp, Parallels or VMWare. All the file downloads to soft mod the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics card to a Quadro 570M driver are included below.

Step 1: Download RivaTuner

Step 2: Install RivaTuner and run.

Step 3: Click on Customize (Note: your adapter will say NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT) select “Low-level system settings”
install vista on a mac with rivatuner

Step 4: Under “Graphics adapter identification” select “custom” then select “040C (unknown device)” and check “Unlock professional capabilities” and click OK. This will require a reboot to apply. (Note: after the reboot, RivaTuner’s tweeks will set your Display Adapter to “Generic Display Adapter”)

Adjust setting for RivaTuner

Step 5: Download the nVidia Quadro 570M driver (direct download)

Step 6: Unzip the driver (don’t install).

Step 7: From the Control Panel, Device Manager, Expand Display Adapters and right click on “Generic Display Adapter” and select “Update Driver”.

Step 8: Select “Browse my computer for driver software”

Step 9: Select “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer”

m570 driver locations for MacBookPro

Step 10: Now click “Have Disk” and browse to your unzip location of the Quadro 570M driver.

Step 11: Now follow the rest of the directions through applying the new driver and now when you launch SolidWorks, RealView should be available in your menu.

Step 12: Hold on to your shorts because it is the fastest ride out there!

Again here’s the process in .PDF format.

Thanks again to Lou Gallo for putting this together.

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Comments

Tagged as: apple, macbookpro, solidworks installation, SolidWorks Tips

nadeem149

Please give details to Soft MOd 9600m GT on HP DV5 1015tx Laptop.
Using Vista Home Premium.
Cant find Low Level System Settings in Riva TUner Tab.
I Tried Every Driver version from Nvidia, but still cant find Low Level System Settings.
Even DOwnloaded latest Riva TUner

janmeissner

hi, are there any news about the macbook pro - 9600 GT and real view graphics?
in university i work with real view and its much more fun :-(
pleez god send a mod...
jan from germany

pros911

the link to dowload fx 570m driver not work anymore and I realy need it Please anyone have anothere working link ?

Josh M

You can usually find in on the nVidia download drivers section

New Mac

Oh by the way, I am using solidworks 2007.

jorge silva

Any news about this? 1 month without news sucks ! :)

Karch

I just did this with my 17" 2.5 MBP and it worked fine, I also found when I went back to the 8600M GT driver, RealView still worked in SW2009 but not SW2008. I had some issues with the Quadro driver resuming from sleep and hibernate (system would lock up) that cleared up with the 8600M GT driver

Jorge Silva

I think is not possible to softmod the 9xxx in to Quadro's
No one manage to do that, and all people say that nvidia has blocked once for all that door...

New Mac

anyone facing problem using the new macbook (not pro) with solidworks so far? I am running it with the new aluminium macboo 2.4 and bootcamp win xp professional. But i facing some blue screen crash and hanged occassionally when using solidworks. The file causing the problem is nvdisp.dll (the nvidea graphics). anyone else have this problem and managed to solved it?

Andrew

Doesn't look like this works for the 9600m gt, there is no "low-level system setting" option. I've tried various versions of rivatuner and different drivers as i was told this could help but no combination give the option.

Either Nvidia have made sure this cant be done or it needs a different approach. Hopefully someone smarter than me will be able to work out a way.....

stratogavster

Just tried this on my 9600M GT (Macbook Pro) and no luck either!!!

There is no 'Low-level system setting' somebody pleeeeease help!!! it does appear that this gpu core is shared by the FX770M so in theory in must be possible to soft mod?

stratogavster

HELP!! I can't even get SolidWorks 2009 to install on my Boot Camp XP SP3 Partition!! the installer just keeps saying it's being 'Interupted" HELP!!!...I NEED SOLIDWORKS ON MY MACBOOK PRO!!

IT WON'T INSTALL

I've tried safe mode but I get a message about administrator privileges!

stratogavster

Fixed my install issue....installed XP Manager and used the "Fix MSI issue" thing...once I did that SolidWorks Installed OK!! BUT another problem!!....everytime I open Solidworks it claim to have encounterd a problem and has to close!!

Any ideas? (I can continue to use solidworks if i drag the error window out of the way, but its annoying)

Josh M

hi, I've been watching the convo and while I don't have a MBP, I'll ask some others that have tried this mod.

stratogavster

cool!! any help would be appreciated!! any how...i'm f**ked solidworks won't even install on my bootcamp vista 32bit!! it keeps telling me the installer has been interrupted....fresh install of vista but with solidworks mounted via isobuster. Do you think I need MS office installed before it will work...i read somewhere solidworks needs office?

somebody please release an affordable and GOOD parametric application for mac!! come on Solidworks...come over to mac!!...

Dave Moore

Same here. I hope some genius figures this one out.

New Mac

Anyone try softmod for 9400M Nvidia for the Aluminum Macbook? I try following the soft mod spec but can't figure out which Quadro Driver I should use. GPU is 0863. Anyone try their new MacBook?

Andrew

I just ordered a laptop with the 9600m gt which should be here in a couple of weeks, i'll see if it works. apparently its the equivilent card of the fx 770m which is in the dell presicion

jorge

Let us know something...

Jorge silva

In this case. "no news is bad news ..."
Anyone?

Andrew

Actually in this case no news is ....er, no news. Still aint recieved the laptop yet, this'll be one of the first things i try when i get it so should be able to update soon.........

solidgirl

Andrew,

any news - did you get a new MBPro?

Dave Moore

The quadro soft mod is disabled in hardware on the 9600m. If you want to have realview capability on a Mac buy a last gen Macbook Pro and mod it. OTOH Solidworks screams on the unibody MBPro. It puts the workstation on my desk to shame.

Josh M

Hey Dave. Thanks for the update on the 9600. Sounds like you have a good setup.

Dave Moore

No prob. You might want to do a post on this since it's a question lots of people seem to be asking

SolidGirl

Josh, is the soft mod of the 8600/old MBP reversible?

I may borrow a pals book as a temporary measure, but I guess that they would want the graphics card back, as was, when I'd finished with it... is this a permanent modification?

dMidi

It is reversible but I doubt the 9600 gpu has the same id as the 8600. You can certainly try, but I think you'll have to find an id that corresponds with a quadro fx gpu that shares it's internal with the 9600.

Go ahead and try the fix, it doesn't touch your gpu in any way...it's only a 'softmod' (ie software modification) and not a BIOS fix (which could brick the gpu).

doug

Anybody have some explicit instructions for rolling back the softmod? I'm having some boot-up issues and I want to eliminate this as a possible source. When dMidi said that it is reversible, I'd like to know how.

Or Josh M, is the option for rolling back the video card driver in the control panel or somewhere in the Riva tuner? And is this the only step that needs to be done?

gol10dr

It is not a mod in rivatuner. You can simply go into the device manager and right click on the driver listed under Display and select Roll Back. I have used that before. What version of MBP did you tune? Just curious since I have been running this for quite a while without issue.

doug

I have a Macbook pro from late 2007. The tuning has worked just as described, I use Solidworks and I was able to access the Realview graphics for my CAD drawings. I love the way that part works! But, there is at least one drawback, and maybe more:

As soon as I did the install I noticed that I was not able to wake the computer from sleeping. If I closed the lid before shutdown, I had to hold the power button down to get the computer to turn off, and then I could turn it back on. Not a big deal and well worth the benefit of the Realview graphics enhancement.

There is another issue that I am grappling with and it may have nothing to do with the tuning, but I want to eliminate the tuning from the list of causes. Every 2 weeks or so (sometimes once a week), I get a "Missing operating system" message on boot up of Vista. I've not found a way around this, and I have to do a complete restore of my Vista partition from backup. Sometimes when I do this I actually lose my mac OSX as well and I have to restore everything. Total pain.

In searches for solutions I have come across a good number of people who have a similar problem and they have narrowed it down to Nvidia drivers and such. I never had this problem before doing the Rivatuner, but I also didn't see this problem show up until about a month after the mod.

Other possibilities: I switched to a domain account about a month before the Riva mod. I also did a EFI upgrade to the mac side of things about a week before the first time I saw the missing operating system problem. I'd blame it on the EFI upgrade except I've seen no other mac people have this problem (at least on the forums).

gol10dr

Doug - I have not seen this before but have seen some issues with sleep mode with Vista. I know this has nothing to do with the mod and think there are some issues with sleep mode in Vista in general. I have a system in the office (PC) that will not wake from sleep all the time and had to disable it.

My neighbor had the same issue with his PC as well. As far as the missing OS message, I am not sure what would cause that. Are you using Parallels or VMWare to connect to Bootcamp periodically? I have had that corrupt my OS before, not OSX but Vista.

I started using WinClone to backup my Windows partition in case of a corruption. I would see if there are some issues with your HDD as well since corruption on both OS partitions. I think I have the same exact hardware setup as you and have not experienced the issue as well.

If you suspect that the HDD is corrupt, I would call Apple Care to see if they can't get you a new drive. It is good to hear that you have partition backups! Keep me posted. ~Lou

doug

I rolled back the driver, but now I only get a Standard VGA adapter as my display adapter. I used the mac boot disk to go through the Boot Camp drivers, but no joy.

I've also scanned for hardware changes.

Any thoughts on getting my 8600 to show back up? I only have a windows performance rating of 1.0 right now!

gol10dr

If you are on vista you can have it find drivers. If that doesn't work
I would guess your install is coript on some way. I would remove
rivatuner as well.

Sent via mobile

doug

Thanks! Removing Rivatuner seems to be the last step. I can see my 8600 video adapter now and I'm completely back to normal.

Thanks for your help!

Doug

gol10dr

Sorry I didn't mention that first. I assumed you removed it. Glad to
hear you are back to normal!

Lou

doug

So to be more specific for Josh, this is only on the Vista side of things that I am having problems, so I will try the rolling back of the driver. I'm going to do some backing up before I do the roll-back - but just a question:

Right now my display adapter is listed as NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M. Will the roll-back change that back to the 8600M? I guess I'll find out soon enough... But I would like to try to go all the way back to the stock system it that is possible. As in before I did anything with the RivaTuner.

Josh M

I'm not too familiar with the Mac process, but on the PC it was a driver instl. just installed the previous driver. I'll try to find out a little more from Lou Gallo who know the process inside out. Thanks.

Josh M

I haven't tried to reverse it, but I've have rolled back drivers on PC's, I imagine it would work much the same. The option for rolling back is in the advanced setting for the Video Card.

Jorge Rui

Any news about the compatibly of the new 9600GT M with this tweak? Does this work?
What about the number of windows that can be open ?

SolidGirl

Does anyone know, will this work with soldiworks *2009* ?

Mudslung

I just Modded an FX 5500 with SolidWorks 2009 (Student-Edition) and it works perfect.

Josh M

I haven't tried it, but I don't see why it would not work. I would almosot assume that it would work better. I've had better results with RealView in 09 on a PC.

SolidGirl

...and Mac Book Pro's now look like PC's... what's with this new grey & black styling?
My clunky Dell is grey & black... :|

Dave Moore

They're making their laptops look like their desktops.

The difference between Apple and Dell is build quality. The new MBPs are glass and precision machined anodized aluminum with the exception of the keyboard.

SolidGirl

Yes, and their desktops are looking more and more like PC's.

Slightly nicer PC's, granted, but remarkably similar all the same, narrowing the gap and moving away from the established Mac brand style - but strangely further towards their brand opposite....hmm I'm baffled.
I guess the black frame is something to do with viewing movies in the dark.
I'm not sure the high gloss screen is conducive to design work... I hope it's not a serious issue since the mat screen is no longer available.

Still, I want a Mac for all the benefits they afford, that will still deliver high enough performance with Solidworks. Sadly the aesthetic benefits are diminishing, as i need to buy now, not next year by which time they may have swung back...

Does anyone know if this soft mod of the 8600M on last years MBP is more or less effective than results on the New MBP with the standard issue 9400M & 9600M ?
[SW 08 &/or 09...?]

Dave Moore

I'm buying a new MBPro next week, so I'll let Josh know if I can apply the softmod successfully.

solidgirl

Hello Dave....

did you get a new MBPro? ...how did you get on...any news?

Dave Moore

See my reply to Andrew's thread.

SolidGirl

thanks Dave :)

stratogavster

Great post!!! BUT I really want to know, like D Midi, if anybody has managed to softmod a new 9600M GT Macbook Pro to a Quadro?

D Midi

Any thoughts on the ability to softmod the newer nvidia cards? For example, the 9600m gt is a popular GPU and is going to be used on the new Macbook Pros announced today (Oct 14 08).

I really wish Nvidia would sell a supported version of this. I would happily pay $100 directly to Nvidia to be able to make a solidworks workstation out of any laptop - the market is crying out for this. For example, there are no 16:9 workstations and I like the Sony Vaio Z @ 13" and the HP HDX16t @ 16" - and even the Macbook Pro @ 15".

Josh M

I haven't tried any of the newer cards, but I imagine people are going to be trying it. If you try to soft-mod, let us know or send me an email on the steps you had to go through and I can post it.

btw, I love your comment - "...to be able to make a solidworks workstation out of any laptop" - that would indeed be nice.

Allan Bjerre

I have a Macbook Pro with a Radeon x1600 card. Does anyone know how to mod this?
I know it is possible to soft-mod ATI cards as well, but I have been browsing a lot of forums without finding the right procedure.