Why is the Radeon HD 6770M in my MacBook Pro 17-inch Late 2011 not recognized by the system (Windows 11)? [closed]

I have a MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2011) with an Intel quad-core i7-2860QM @ 2.5 GHz, Intel HD 3000, and AMD Radeon HD 6770M, which has never given me any problems under macOS. The system is equipped with 16 GB of DDR3 1600 MHz RAM. I also have two SSDs installed: a 1 TB SSD with various macOS systems, and a 2 TB SSD dedicated to Windows 11. The "SuperDrive" optical drive was removed to make room for the 2 TB SSD.

Like many others, I managed to install Windows 11 on the 2 TB drive without using the macOS Boot Camp application, and so far everything runs smoothly—except for the AMD GPU, which I cannot seem to get working properly with the rest of the system.

I managed to install driver version 31.0.21923.11000, issued on 01/07/2025. Device Manager shows no exclamation mark, but upon reboot, the system hangs on the Windows logo with the loading circle. I can hear the login “ding,” which tells me the system has reached the login screen, but the display never progresses beyond that point.

Normally, Windows Update installs driver version 15.201.1151.1008, which I believe dates back to November 2015.

There is a “how-to” guide/answer, where David Anderson demonstrates the process, although his setup is on a 2011 iMac.

That section includes the following steps:

diskpart
list volume
select volume c
format fs=ntfs label=BOOTCAMP quick
active
exit
dism /get-imageinfo /imagefile:d:\sources\install.wim
dism /apply-image /imagefile:d:\sources\install.wim /index:6 /applydir:c:\
dism /image:c:\ /add-driver /driver:d:\$WinPEDriver$ /recurse /forceunsigned
bcdboot c:\windows /s c: /f bios
bootsect /nt60 c: /mbr
exit

However, this method does not work for me, as it always ends with a blue screen. I feel that I may be missing something, and I would really appreciate some guidance.

The only method that works reliably for me is the one toward the end of the guide:

diskpart
list disk
select disk <disk number>
clean
convert gpt
create partition efi size=300
format quick fs=fat32 label="System"
assign letter=S
create partition msr size=100
create partition primary size=<size of your windows in MB (e.g 256000)>
format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"
assign letter=W
create partition primary <--- the remaining partition for apple --->
list volume <--- view your volume letter --->
exit
dism /get-imageinfo /imagefile:d:\sources\install.wim
dism /apply-image /imagefile:d:\sources\install.wim /index:6 /applydir:w:\
dism /image:w:\ /add-driver /driver:d:\$WinPEDriver$ /recurse /forceunsigned
bcdboot w:\Windows /s s:
exit

That said, I do not have any other operating system installed on this drive—it contains only Windows.

My understanding is that the AMD driver may be encountering a signature or compatibility issue because the system is running in UEFI/GPT rather than BIOS/MBR mode. I have searched extensively, but reliable resources are very limited. The only reference that truly stands out is David’s post, where he succeeded in getting the Radeon HD 6750M working. My system uses the HD 6770M, which is very close architecturally to the GPU used in the iMac.

I managed to obtain the latest driver that installs without errors, and the exclamation mark in Device Manager disappears. However, the GPU still does not appear to be fully recognized, and upon reboot, the system hangs at the loading screen.

What am I doing wrong here?

I am unsure whether David had Windows 10 installed first before creating the Windows 11 installation media, as that detail is unclear to me. I also wonder whether there is:

• A specific installation or update sequence?
• A required AMD Catalyst Control Center version in that case which one would that be.
• A need to delay updates or disconnect Ethernet during setup?

If anyone can assist or shed some light on this, I would greatly appreciate it. I would really love to have the AMD GPU fully recognized and functional. Aside from this issue, everything else works perfectly: audio has never been a problem to me unlike others, Bluetooth does not work, and the ambient light sensor does not either even after applying all the updates.

Despite its age, this has been a fantastic and surprisingly powerful machine, which is why I continue to use it in 2026.

While I was playing with the commands D. Anderson left, it made me think a lot, and I was able to come up with another way to be able to convert the SSD hybrid.

Bluetooth could probably be worked around and patched, and Light Sensor that’s gonna be another story.

Version of the Catalyst is 8.0.915.0 with Driver 13.250.28.1000 issued by Apple on **** 12/14/2013

Version of the Catalyst Version 8.0.916.0 after the Generic Driver 15.201.1151.1008 **** 11/4/2015 but could be updated with version 32.0.22029.9039 useless but worth mentioning you still would not be able to have brightness working and Catalyst there wouldn’t be such for that driver;)

As I said it’s better to stay with the one Apple issued 😉 Otherwise you will loose the brightness.

*** I have also update the Apple mux, SMC, and Backlight

I did a bit different for the OOBE, I went in the first time to see if I could edit the registry with the cmd prompt but no luck as "reg add" wasn’t recognized by the Administrator. So I went straight to the registry and made a manual entry to it with

reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f 
shutdown /r /t 0

then restarted and went straight to the desk creating the Admin under the local account.