For the last couple of days, I've been trying to install and run Windows 8 on my MacBook Air. I use the word "trying" deliberately.
Windows would install just fine, so no problems there. It would also begin booting, but part way through the start up process (sometimes before the login screen, at login, or just slightly after) it would freeze. Not BSOD or an extended pause. It would just become unresponsive.
Initially I thought the install media had corrupted, so I recreated the install media with the Boot Camp Assistant. This was unsuccessful in resolving the freezing issue.After reading many articles linked from discussions.apple.com, another solution kept cropping up. Enabling a boot entry called disabledynamictick with the following command and rebooting;
bcdedit /set disabledynamictick yes
While initially promising, this was also unsuccessful.Other articles recommended some rather extreme measures in the search for stability. Potential solutions such as the installation of Hyper-V and experimental Intel video drivers. While hopeful, I couldn't begin the installation of Hyper-V or even an updated driver. There simply wasn't enough time between power on and freeze to be able to install a new driver, let alone Hyper-V.
Turns out, the solution was simpler than any of that.
The Power Plan!
By default, Windows 8 uses the Balanced power plan. Changing this to High Performance has (seeming) resolved the freezing issue.
Admittedly, because of the non-deterministic time to freeze, it did take three attempts to change the power plan.
With an uptime of 2 hours so far, as compared to the previous record of just under a minute, I would consider the issue resolved.
