My way of installing Windows XP WITHOUT needing to take out the HDD

[Piggyhero2006]

What I used for this was a bootable macOS install on a flash drive (I used 10.6.8), a program called Data Rescue 3, and of course the .img file.
I tried for hours with disk utility and other programs but this was the only one that worked.

Guide for the bootable macOS usb here: https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads/installing-mac-os-x-leopard-on-the-apple-tv-1st-generation.733/

Data Rescue 3 program here: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/40429-data-rescue-3

After getting everything set up I opened the data rescue program and mounted the .img file (mount by simply double clicking on the file in Disk Utility). In the program click on View and then Drives and Volumes. Before you restore the image to the HDD unmount both the partitions on the .img file AND the partition on the HDD or else it will throw an error. I then selected the .img file and then selected the clone option. I selected the HDD itself (not the partition) and allowed it to begin restoring. After it was done I rebooted and disconnected the macOS drive and it began booting into Windows XP.

I hope this helps anyone who doesn't want to remove their HDD from their Apple TV to do this.

[Piggyhero2006]

Also, I tested the old and new Nvidia drivers with ClassiCube. The old one got around 20-25 fps while in fullscreen while the newer one gets around 42-47 fps. Its basically a 2x improvement!

[DistroHopper39B]

I will eventually create a Linux-based installer for XP on the Apple TV that does essentially what you did, but your method will work great too.

Also, I tested the old and new Nvidia drivers with ClassiCube. The old one got around 20-25 fps while in fullscreen while the newer one gets around 42-47 fps. Its basically a 2x improvement!

Wow, interesting! I'll investigate NVIDIA drivers again - I think this commit might have fixed all versions of the NVIDIA driver. I'll investigate to make sure that you can install v179 straight out of the box instead of what's currently been tested (v86.38, then upgrade to 179).

[Piggyhero2006]

On the topic of the NVIDIA driver, Is it possible to have properly scaled resolutions beyond 1080p? I've created a custom resolution for my moniter thats 3440x1440 and it technically works but its one of those resolutions where you scroll accross your moniter by moving your cursor to the edges. I've tried to change settings in the NVIDIA control panel but nothing applies. I attempted to change some settings in the registry editor and nothing has worked either. Also, none of the 3D settings in the NVIDIA control panel apply either. I wonder if this is an issue with the driver or the GPU itself.

[DistroHopper39B]

The resolution issue is an issue I've had too, XP doesn't like to run at some resolutions for an unknown reason. This doesn't happen under Linux so my only guess is that it's a driver issue. As for the 3D settings, is 3D acceleration enabled? Check the installation guide for how to enable it, it doesn't seem to automatically enable (though if ClassiCube runs it should be)

[Piggyhero2006]

Yes, acceleration is enabled. Maybe it's a problem with administrative permissions.

[Piggyhero2006]

Huh, I tested the old driver again and got better performance? The options in the NVIDIA control panel apply with this driver but I don't understand how the performance is better. I know for a fact I got around 20-25 fps in fullscreen with the old driver beforehand but now I'm getting 45-60 fps. I don't understand what I might have changed.

[Piggyhero2006]

All I did was rollback the driver in the device manager.

[Piggyhero2006]

Or maybe it's because my apple tv got so hot it was throttling

[Babasha1979]

Also, I tested the old and new Nvidia drivers with ClassiCube. The old one got around 20-25 fps while in fullscreen while the newer one gets around 42-47 fps. Its basically a 2x improvement!

Hi! Can you benchmark your ATV with 3DMark 2001 SE and give us results? Tnx!

[Piggyhero2006]

3DMark 2001 SE

Alright I benchmarked it with the old and newer driver, here are the results:

Old driver (8.6.3.8): default settings, 1024x768: 7292 default settings, 1920x1080: 4512

New driver (6.14.11.798): default settings, 1024x768: 7097 default settings, 1920x1080: 4208

[Babasha1979]

3DMark 2001 SE

Alright I benchmarked it with the old and newer driver, here are the results:

Old driver (8.6.3.8): default settings, 1024x768: 7292 default settings, 1920x1080: 4512

New driver (6.14.11.798): default settings, 1024x768: 7097 default settings, 1920x1080: 4208

Tnx for results! Will think about my next project on ATV1

[Piggyhero2006]

Just bought an apple tv off of ebay for 10 bucks and it turns out it has 128mb of vram and also has a 160gb HDD. I got lucky. Ill benchmark this one too to see if there is any improvement with performance.

[Piggyhero2006]

Nevermind, It turns out the vram is dying and a lot off graphical glitches occur when playing classicube. I wonder if there is any replacement chips that solder on.

[Piggyhero2006]

Update: I’ve tested some more with my functioning 64mb variant and have better results. With MSI Afterburner I was able to overclock the gpu and memory with the newer beta drivers. It wouldn’t let me overclock with the older drivers. I don’t recommend it because the cpu is going to be the bottleneck in most cases but I found it stable at 470mhz for core and 864mhz for memory.
So for the benchmark I got 7398 for 1024x768 and 4855 for 1920x1080.
I also did benchmark the 128mb one but the results were worse because of the dying vram. Some other drivers for different graphics cards also install and work for some reason but I don’t think there is any difference in performance. The driver for the Geforce Go 7800 GTX allowed me to select higher resolutions and refresh rates but they didn’t apply at all. Some of them also just gave me a black screen on reboot too.

[Piggyhero2006]

I’ve also have gotten 179.28, 180.48, and 181.22 to install by doing the force install method from device manager and selecting the GeForce 8800 GTX from the driver list. But, I don’t actually think it is working. When try to change display settings an Invalid Display Settings pops up saying that “The current selected graphics display driver can not be used. It was written for a previous version of Windows, and is no longer compatible with this version of Windows The system has been started using the default VGA driver”. So in terms of the default VGA driver, isn’t that just the default Nvidia driver it uses? This probably is also why none of the graphic settings in the control panel actually apply and it’s stuck to using the default preset. I’m not 100% sure that this is the case because I don’t understand why it says the driver is working properly in device manager and that the control panel launches in the first place. Could someone else test this too?