WDF_VIOLATION on Apple Macintosh

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So I bit the bullet and updated to Windows 10 build 1903. And then the fun started on my glorious 2006 MacPro. It finished the update, and on reboot I get the login screen, and then almost immediately a blue screen.

Naturally the QR code is useless as it doesn’t specify any stop codes, and the minidump… Well that requires gigabytes and gigabytes of crap to download to get a tool to read it. (I still haven’t finished that rabbit hole, like COME ON! why isn’t it included?!).

However after hitting F8 a million times, I found that safe mode & networking work just great. Searching online was basically useless as there was no specific stop code to go with this WDF_VIOLATION. Further looking around I did notice one thing, and that it was all Macintosh machines that crash out to this WDF_VIOLATION error. It must be something specific to the Apple hardware running Windows 10!?

Armed with this (dis)information, I went ahead and disabled all the Apple specific drivers & startup items.

From msconfig.exe:

From MSCONFIG.EXE I disabled the following services:

  • Apple OS Switch Manager
  • Apple Time Service

And in the task manager, I disabled the following startup items:

  • Realtek HD Audio Manager
  • Boot Camp Manager

I had the other VMWare serial & USB hook previously disabled, as I just don’t want them at all on my setup. The big upshot is that after rebooting out of safe mode, I’m now up and running on Windows build 1903.

Considering the BootCamp stuff was so woefully out of date, don’t expect Apple to fix this anytime soon. And since I’m on a MacPro 2006, I certainly won’t be getting any updates from Apple. But at least I can struggle to keep this thing up to date otherwise.

Now I can enjoy that ‘new command prompt’ everyone keeps telling me about.

***UPDATE***

I went through this on another Bootcamp Mac, and what I had to do was uninstall the “Boot Camp Services”. It’s startup component triggers the bluescreen as it’s doing some nonsensical inventory, banging around on the drivers in a not friendly way. I had version 4.0.4033 of the Boot Camp Services installed.

Uninstall Boot Camp Services version 4.0.4033

Removing this kept all the old drivers, which continue to work just fine.

43 thoughts on “WDF_VIOLATION on Apple Macintosh”

  1. I bootcamped my 2011 MBP this afternoon and this happened to me too. Although, I can’t get as far task manager before it blue screens

    • You have to do the task manager in safe mode. Hold/Hit F8 constantly between reboots. It took me something like 10 times to get to the point of being able to select safe mode.

      Good luck!

      • I managed to install *most* of the drivers manually, but sound doesn’t work, the keyboard doesn’t light up or use the Mac hot keys or anything and the trackpad doesn’t work like it should in Mac OS. The last supporter version of Bootcamp for the 2011 MBP was V5.something and only supported Windows 7 or 8. As I don’t use it for anything, I might do that, but may not be worth it

  2. Apple’s BootCamp drivers were always atrocious. I remember one version of the trackpad driver would BSOD during bootup, and it happened even if you tried going to Safe Mode (had to boot off USB, and delete the trackpad .sys file before I could do further fixes). Another version of the trackpad driver I could BSOD by hovering my hand over the trackpad just right.

    • I took the Windows drives out of my 2010 MacPro, and used them on my Huananzhi dual Xeon. The Apple garbage was still on there, but it oddly enough worked just fine and I ignored it.

      But build 1903 ignited the same problem.

      I uninstalled the ‘Boot Camp Services version 4.0.4033’ from the machine in safe mode, rebooted and I’m running just fine. Great to know that even if you aren’t on Apple hardware anymore the buggy crap can still blue screen your machine. It looks like it was a startup service as I let it sit a the login prompt for 30 minutes without crashing, but as soon as I’d logged in, it’d blue screen within a minute of logging in.

      What a PITA.

    • heh, I remember the HFS+ driver that was case sensitive on Windows. This made me laugh since it’s not even case sensitive on Mac, and it was funny to watch how software broke when it was expecting case insensitive semantics. From memory I noticed when tab completion didn’t match what I was expecting…

  4. Totally share your frustration about “why isn’t it included.” The debuggers and symbols used to be on the NT CDs. These days it makes sense to get the symbols on demand from the Internet (since the version of a given binary you have is constantly changing and you probably don’t want symbols for them all anyway), but it’s a shame that the debuggers are bundled into such an enormous package. I wonder how many SDK users really want the debuggers, and how many debugger users really want the SDK…

  5. Hey great post, thank for sharing I have a MacPro mid2010 Windows 1809, the upgrade to 1903 crashed a minute or so after login, the same WDF_VIOLATION, rolled back to 1809 hopefully everything fine again. I will try your suggestion and after play around see if I can pinpoint the cause. Thank you very much. Also, have Ubuntu1804 wubi18042r333 install broken. Boot camp 5.1

    • Check what version of Boot Camp Services you have installed. I have a 2007 MacBook that is also running Windows 10, but it wasn’t installed, and it upgraded just fine.

      The only sample I have is my 2006 MacPro and the disks out of my 2010 MacPro into a different machine, which both needed that Boot Camp Manager startup item disabled.

      Good luck!

      • My experience. I had the same experience when I tried to upgrade or clean win 10 1903: blocking and restarting windows. The blockage occurred after the upgrade from 1809 on which the 5.1 bootcamp drivers were installed on my 2012 MacBook Pro. I tried to do a clean 1903 installation but as soon as I installed the 5.1 bootcamp drivers, windows crashed with continuous restarts and blue screen. But I managed to solve it definitively by installing the bootcamp 6 drivers directly after the clean installation of 1903. I suppose if you start from 1809 with the 5.1 drivers you need to update the bootcamp 6 drivers before proceeding to upgrade win 1903

        • I have a MacBook Pro Mid 2012 No Retina. I tried to install Bootcamp 5.1.5769, but the installation failed with a warning message that this bootcamp version was not meant for this model of computer. How can I force the upgrade to bootcamp 6, if possible? Thank you in advance.

    • In my case (maybe because I installed win 1809 and 1903 on external hd usb) it was not possible to start in safe mode, it gave me a sort of error after entering the “recovery” section and windows always restarted in normal mode and with the same error. I advise to manually upgrade the bootcamp 6 drivers to the previous version 5.1 if you want to install win 1903 as an upgrade of 1809, or if you do a clean install of 1903 then install the bootcamp 6 drivers

    • You kick ass man!! Thanks so much for the save!! My ass was on the line with a client that needed this updated to 1903. Bootcamp is garbage!! Just out of curiosity, where did you find this file or what made you think to replace this particular .sys file? Thanks again man!!

      • This file work on MacPro mid 2010? Please answer me if you can, quickly. On win 10 partion a have a lot of inportant data, иусщгыу i must avoid formatting the partition!

        • Is this file work on MacPro mid 2010? Please answer me if you can, quickly. On win 10(1903 )portion a have a lot of important data, becouse i must avoid formatting the partition!

    • Today i go to the risk and replace MacHAL Driver.sys on your MacHAL Driver.sys and vuala Bingo!!!! It’s work amazing on my Mac Pro min 2010(BootCamp 5.1)

      • Thanks so much, you are save me. Today i go to the risk and replace MacHAL Driver.sys on your MacHAL Driver.sys and vuala Bingo!!!! It’s work amazing on my Mac Pro min 2010(BootCamp 5.1)

    • Thank you, works like a charm on my Mac Pro 2,1 with Boot Camp 4.0.4033. All keys on the Apple keyboard (brightness, volume) and the speakers on the Cinema Display are working. Great job!

    • The driver worked for me as well. I have a early 2014 MacBook Air running boot camp and windows 10. Thank you! You’re a life saver.

  9. I beg all of who has MacPro mide 2010 5.1 (BootCamp 5.1621)Please answer, please help me! Is idagerous change this file, as this user says Gerlin Miguel Nolasco Hernandez ? I repeat this noties:

    For those ones who still having that issue here a solution boot your machine on safe mode and replace this file on C:/Windows/System32/drivers/MacHAL Driver.sys with this one:

    https://mega.nz/#!TrIhmQqA!bPX5u934PCjRHq5TOcpwiPHOV_sMIrUeKGUDVo37pTY

    And all will work like charm.

    Hope help someone

  10. Hi, thank you very much for your post. I have an iMac mid 2011 with your same issue. I disabled the Boot Camp Manager and it’s working like charm. Thanks a lot!
    Out of curiosity, what functionality am I missing by having disabled the manager?

    • I think it’s some easy way to boot back into MacOS. So you will probably have to hold down the command key on powerup/reboot to select the OS from the firmware…. .I think.

      I’ve given up on MacOS and run Windows 10 full time now.

      • I run the latest version of 10 on my 2006 Mac Pro. Trust me you can most certainly as well. 32bit firmware won’t stop anything you are only restricted by CPU capabilities regarding if you have to use the 32bit version or the 64bit version.

        Even my 2006 MacPro which has 32bit firmware, with 64bit processors it’s more than capable of running the latest 64bit version of Windows.

        A Core i5 (I5-2500S) is no doubt more than capable. I’d certainly see about adding RAM from the base 4. I have 16 in my 2006 MacPro, and 32 in my 2010 MacPro. Although I don’t run MacOS anymore.

        • One thing to keep in mind when installing Windows on macs is to not force UEFI install of Windows (even if it’s possible to do so through the firmware boot menu), if BootCamp installs it in BIOS mode. If you install in UEFI mode on such machine, it’ll appear to work until you install drivers, after which you’ll have inevitable BSODs that don’t happen when booted in BIOS mode (this most commonly happens with nVidia graphic driver).

  11. So today I ran in to the BSOD after installing Windows 10 via Bootcamp.

    A reddit post explained to replace the: C:/Windows/System32/drivers/MacHAL Driver.sys with an older version and cited this as the source of that info.

    I replaced the file by logging back in to OSX and mounting the Windows partition then copying over an older driver

    This stopped my BSOD and I am a very happy!
    much appreciated to all involved.

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