Bootcamp and Lion

I updated my Macbook Pro to Lion and the bootcamp partition that i had running Windows XP with no problems now no longer connects to my home wireless.

Windows says that the wireless is working but i no longer see my connection. Is this because Bootcamp no longers supports XP?

Using parallels i created a new virtual machine running XP and all works fine.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

It appears that Windows Vista and Windows XP are no longer supported with Bootcamp 4.0. That being said, I don't see how Bootcamp would be where the issue is since your Mac can get Windows XP up and running. I don't think Bootcamp is going to go into your Windows partition and mess around with just your wireless card.

In all likelihood, if Lion had an issue with your previous installation of Windows XP, it wouldn't even allow you to boot into that OS. You aren't experiencing boot issues so my guess is that the problem is with something else instead. It could be a bad driver but that can easily be fixed on the Windows side. Then again, none of this matters unless you are running Bootcamp 4.0.

Parallels and other virtual machines can get around Bootcamp's restrictions because they don't use Bootcamp. Instead, they rely on their own set of internal drivers for Windows allowing you to run more than just Microsoft's OS.

 

You could try uninstalling your current version of Boot Camp and install an older version such as 2.0 or 3.0. However, if your system's hardware is newer than the older version of Boot Camp you are installing, you may not be able to install it. If that's the case, you may just be stuck with trying to hunt for drivers. I think the Airport Extreme card that comes in all MacBook Pros uses a Broadcom chip. You may be able to use one of their drivers should you be able to find the model number of the actual chip.

 

Instead of trying to run windows XP how about running windows 7 pro (or ultimate). And if you have to run apps that will only work in XP then you can setup XP Mode inside of Windows 7.

I run some older versions of Oracle Apps which will not run in Win 7 (or vista either) and requires XP. Previously I used XP in bootcamp. But then I eventually switched to Win 7 and now I run those older apps in XP Mode inside of Win7.

XP Mode is simply a windows RDP to an XP virtual machine. It is a fully licensed XP Professional SP3 and comes "free" with Win7 Pro/Ultimate. And you can setup your virtual XP Mode applications (such as my usage of Oracle Apps) to be seamlessly integrated with the host windows 7 environment.

Anyways, if you must have XP and if you can't get it to work in Bootcamp on your Mac then I suggest you try installing Win7 Pro/Ult in bootcamp and setup using XP Mode.

OR.... install XP Pro without bootcamp using Parallels, VMWare, or virtual box, etc.

 

A virtual machine installation of Win XP would actually make more sense as that OS does not take a large amount of resources to run. My 13" MBP runs Win 7 Ultimate fine in Parallels. It can be a little slow at times but the operation is still a lot after than Win 7 Home on my Atom dual-core nettop. XP would be able to run pretty much the same in a virtual machine as it does with a bootcamp installation.