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iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
hi all! i found an imac 21 2011 with faulty gpu and without hardisk in the steeet.
can i buy HP ZBOOK k2100m (mxm3.0 a) and use a new ssd?
is the HP gpu compatible? should i install a newer os or start from older version after patch the vbios?
sorry 4 my english
 
NOTNlCE said:
Fans full with no display is expected behavior. Display has a temperature sensor when connected, which is why you get full speed.

Unsure on the Linux boot disk - do you have an internal drive connected? How do you know the iMac is not playing along? Depending on the GPU, you may not get a display, even externally. The boot disk is designed for you to be able to SSH in and run your flashes. Do you see the machine pull a DHCP lease in your router? Are you able to SSH?
Click to expand...

Thanks for you fast response. Good to hear that the fans at full speed is normal behaviour, it shocked me a bit in the beginning (like it was blowing up or something haha).

I have indeed disconnected all drives; even the DVD drive. No display externally with DP to HDMI cable and cannot test VGA as my monitor is not supporting that input.

When I boot the iMac with the Linux USB it is not pulling any DHCP in my router. I cannot ping the device, neither can I connect using SSH. This surprises me, as the older iMac in fact does boot with the drive and does get an DHCP from the router.

I am not sure if the iMac is even booting the linux. Is there some log file on the usb that I can check?
 
kazar said:
hi all! i found an imac 21 2011 with faulty gpu and without hardisk in the steeet.
can i buy HP ZBOOK k2100m (mxm3.0 a) and use a new ssd?
is the HP gpu compatible? should i install a newer os or start from older version after patch the vbios?
sorry 4 my english
Click to expand...

Welcome! Lucky find, you should be able to use the HP GPU as long as you flash the correct VBIOS, linked on the first post. Assuming all other parts are there and there are no other issues, your plan is sound and should get the iMac functioning again.

Regarding OS, I find it best to install High Sierra first since it requires no modifications and go from there. I keep High Sierra on a small APFS volume just in case I need to recover anything or a system update causes issues.

STVN82 said:
Thanks for you fast response. Good to hear that the fans at full speed is normal behaviour, it shocked me a bit in the beginning (like it was blowing up or something haha).

I have indeed disconnected all drives; even the DVD drive. No display externally with DP to HDMI cable and cannot test VGA as my monitor is not supporting that input.

When I boot the iMac with the Linux USB it is not pulling any DHCP in my router. I cannot ping the device, neither can I connect using SSH. This surprises me, as the older iMac in fact does boot with the drive and does get an DHCP from the router.

I am not sure if the iMac is even booting the linux. Is there some log file on the usb that I can check?
Click to expand...

I am not sure. I have not used the Linux method for flashing. Do you have another disk to test, such as a drive with macOS or UEFI Windows? That would let you determine if the issue lies with the Linux drive or if the system is simply not booting past EFI. Do you get a chime (bong) when you power the iMac on? If no, try a PRAM reset (Control+Option+P+R). If still no, something is likely not seated correctly (RAM, GPU, etc.) or something similar.
 
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kazar said:
hi all! i found an imac 21 2011 with faulty gpu and without hardisk in the steeet.
can i buy HP ZBOOK k2100m (mxm3.0 a) and use a new ssd?
is the HP gpu compatible? should i install a newer os or start from older version after patch the vbios?
sorry 4 my english
Click to expand...

Based on the info available in this thread I guess you should be able to put that card to work with the Nicks modified vbios. Regarding the SSD; there are some difficulties as you might need a special cable with temperature sensor if you want to replace the main drive.
 
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thank you, i will try to fix imac. what about temperature sensor in ssd? should i install a generic hardisk or there is a patch also for ssd (special cable??? where).
1.buy new/used gpu hp k2100m
2. vbios fix
3.high sierra on a new ssd
right?
 
kazar said:
thank you, i will try to fix imac. what about temperature sensor in ssd? should i install a generic hardisk or there is a patch also for ssd (special cable??? where).
1.buy new/used gpu hp k2100m
2. vbios fix
3.high sierra on a new ssd
right?
Click to expand...

Yes, should work. Regarding the temperature sensor, the SSD will not cause issues, but the hard drive fan runs faster than standard. It can be fixed with a cable from OWC OR a software package that runs at startup. I prefer the second option.
 
thanks! is possible to install high sierra directly from windows to an usb hd case with a new ssd?(and than place it inside) i'm totally new and have no pendrive 😂
 
kazar said:
thanks! is possible to install high sierra directly from windows to an usb hd case with a new ssd?(and than place it inside) i'm totally new and have no pendrive 😂
Click to expand...

I don't know the answer to this. I would imagine there is a way around your situation - most of the ways I am seeing to get a macOS install with Windows require a USB flash drive, but you may be able to use the "Internet Recovery Feature" to reinstall macOS without having to jump through hoops.
 
kazar said:
thank you, i will try to fix imac. what about temperature sensor in ssd? should i install a generic hardisk or there is a patch also for ssd (special cable??? where).
1.buy new/used gpu hp k2100m
2. vbios fix
3.high sierra on a new ssd
right?
Click to expand...
Depending on your model there are really simple hardware solutions, which may be acknowledged by other readers:

2009/2010: The temperature sensor is a standard resistor connected by a cable to the logic board. High temperature means higher resistance leads to higher fan speed. Without a cable (infinite resistance) you get maximum speed and a lot of noise. Connecting both cable ends together (which is a short) you have no resistance and a fan speed at minimum level. I guess even the HD fan goes up, when you max out the CPU and GPU usage or the ambient temperature of your environment goes up. We have winter and I cannot test this right now. I found such a "short" cable used in an old 2009 which got an SSD from a bigger Apple service partner here in Germany. Which makes me believe that a lot of iMacs have such a "solution" inside.

2011: More complicated, the Apple SATA power cable has some additional lines (more than 4 or 5 when you buy a standard PS SATA Y splitter). These lines read some signals from the internal HD. Finding the compatible HD or SSD may solve this. I found out by chance and later by searching the web that adding a SATA Y splitter cable obviously disables the temperature control and leads to a silent running HD fan ( near the base of 1100 rpm). I found such a cable in one of my machines when changing the GPU and asked myself why it may be there. It had a non apple 3.5" HD and no place to add another hard drive.

I own right now each model (2009, 2010 and 2011) and at least here in these machines my solutions are working properly. Sometimes I fire up MacFanControl just to get a quick read the current rpm values.
 
I am not sure. I have not used the Linux method for flashing. Do you have another disk to test, such as a drive with macOS or UEFI Windows? That would let you determine if the issue lies with the Linux drive or if the system is simply not booting past EFI. Do you get a chime (bong) when you power the iMac on? If no, try a PRAM reset (Control+Option+P+R). If still no, something is likely not seated correctly (RAM, GPU, etc.) or something similar.
Click to expand...

I have inserted a USB with Arch Linux; YES the iMac system is booting! On top of that my external display is working now so I can do command line. This looks promising. Will play a bit more to get things going. Thanks for your support.
 
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STVN82 said:
I have inserted a USB with Arch Linux; YES the iMac system is booting! On top of that my external display is working now so I can do command line. This looks promising. Will play a bit more to get things going. Thanks for your support.
Click to expand...
Then check your USB flash stick, again. When I created it first I used ExFAT instead of FAT which made it not bootable. I did not use it to flash, I just checked out, if I can read the BIOS using linux version of nvflash. At least this worked two days, ago.
 
HighSierraCosworth said:
Let’s see here
Catalina crashes in the installer.
16GB of RAM would require me to go out and get more, and I don’t see this being the problem, when my MacBook Pro was running a patched Mohave install with 6GB.
ive done 2 clean Mojave installs since then, and both have the same kernel panic issue. Back on High Sierra, and I’ve had none.
High Sierra’s preferred format is still APFS and not HFS+, and I’ve been using APFS on all of my MacOS installs. My only install on HFS+ is a 2007 white MacBook on snow leopard.
I would also like to point out that the install with the kernel panics was hours old, I didn’t exactly have the time to load it up with 3rd party crap to Bork it.
Click to expand...
I stand corrected, you are using APFS, I see that now in the Etre report.
I also see there this line:
2020-02-08 11:09:23 AdGuard for Safari.app Crash
Executable: /Applications/AdGuard for Safari.app
?not sure of its significance, can you remove it.

I mentioned RAM b/c in the Etre report, there is a line that suggests:
Virtual Memory Information:
Physical RAM: 8 GB

Free RAM: 18 MB
Used RAM: 5.02 GB
Cached files: 2.96 GB

?maybe this is okay, as I agree with you 8Gb should be enough. Still a swap of RAM sometimes has
helped me in the past to troubleshoot. Do you have 2 4Gb modules to try instead? Or Try to remove one of your 2Gb modules and see what happens, process of elimination.

I assume you have tried the usual fixes like PRAM reset and SMC reset?

Finally,
I've noticed also that your Darwin Kernel is older : 18.7.0; I'm not sure why, mine is 19.3.0
open a terminal and type:
uname -r
see what it reads out

I'm sorry I can't be more help, but this is an interesting case and we need to find an answer.
 
nikey22 said:
I stand corrected, you are using APFS, I see that now in the Etre report.
I also see there this line:
2020-02-08 11:09:23 AdGuard for Safari.app Crash
Executable: /Applications/AdGuard for Safari.app
?not sure of its significance, can you remove it.

I mentioned RAM b/c in the Etre report, there is a line that suggests:
Virtual Memory Information:
Physical RAM: 8 GB

Free RAM: 18 MB
Used RAM: 5.02 GB
Cached files: 2.96 GB

?maybe this is okay, as I agree with you 8Gb should be enough. Still a swap of RAM sometimes has
helped me in the past to troubleshoot. Do you have 2 4Gb modules to try instead? Or Try to remove one of your 2Gb modules and see what happens, process of elimination.

I assume you have tried the usual fixes like PRAM reset and SMC reset?

Finally,
I've noticed also that your Darwin Kernel is older : 18.7.0; I'm not sure why, mine is 19.3.0
open a terminal and type:
uname -r
see what it reads out

I'm sorry I can't be more help, but this is an interesting case and we need to find an answer.
Click to expand...
No, I haven’t done PRAM or SMC. I’ve decided to stay on high Sierra until I get a cable to add in a second SSD, so I can have two internal drives with the 2 installs. That should be later this week, if not early next week, so at some point soon, I can start a fresh install, take it from the beginning, and omit adguard for Safari, it’s Been fussy on my MacBook as well. I’ll run that command once I start up the fresh install. I have a 4GB stick, but it’s in my MacBook Pro, so I’ll only pull it out if I really need to
 
Is anyone getting 4k@30Hz from their DisplayPort? In particular with one of the cheaper cards? It is not possible with the factory cards, but the circuitry for the port supports Thunderbolt, so it should have the bandwidth. I guess an active DisplayPort->HDMI adapter will be necessary.
 
JessieComputes said:
Is anyone getting 4k@30Hz from their DisplayPort? In particular with one of the cheaper cards? It is not possible with the factory cards, but the circuitry for the port supports Thunderbolt, so it should have the bandwidth. I guess an active DisplayPort->HDMI adapter will be necessary.
Click to expand...

I can test the K1100M this evening and report back!

EDIT: Tested before I left for work - what's odd is that the iMac SEES my 4K display and even detects that it should be outputting 4K@60Hz, but I am not getting a display signal on the monitor itself. It looks like the monitor even detects that there should be SOMETHING, but it stays black screen. Going straight mDP to mDP. Will test more cables, etc. later.

EDIT 2: Got a signal with mDP to DP adapter & Cable, but signal is intermittent at best. Might be my adapter. I'll try iMac #2 tonight.
 
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Have the possibility to test a Dell K3100m and a HP K5100m in an Imac 27 2011. How could we make a Vbios for them? Remote access would be possible.
 
i flashed 3 cards now, 770m, k2000m,k1000m. flashing worked on all of this cards but only with the 2000m i have a display. with the other cards i have no display but 4 green led lights. any idear?
 
JessieComputes said:
NOTNICE - Thank you for testing the potential for 4K output. Much appreciated. Pity it did not work.
Click to expand...

Very possible it is my adapter, cable, etc. that is the issue. I have an identical iMac with a K1100M that I will test tonight and I'll dig out a few more cables. It seems the card should be more than capable and the physical port and bus should work.
 
NOTNlCE said:
Have you tried in Mojave? It is very easy to add a new APFS volume and quickly install the system to test. I will be home later this afternoon and can send info and/or test Catalina on my machines to try and assist.
Click to expand...
Hey dude!

Did you try that?

Thank u! 😀
 
SKYNET-1 said:
thx, so with a 880 plug n play like the 780 but no but screen?
Click to expand...

I am not sure what you are asking. I don't believe anyone here has tried to use a GTX 880M, though with the correct VBIOS it may work. Typically the "Dell" or "Alienware" VBIOS for these cards support the internal eDP connector by default. There is no modified VBIOS for boot screens at the moment.

Jake F. said:
Hey dude!

Did you try that?

Thank u! 😀
Click to expand...

I have not gotten a chance to try this, busy weekend came up unexpectedly. Not sure when I will get the chance. My iMacs are running Mojave with AirPlay support, perhaps it may be easier to downgrade?
 
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