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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 guys,

I've trawled through this thread and I still can't find a definitive answer so I thought I'd ask. Sorry if it's already been answered!

I have successfully flashed a 780m using the USB Linux method (thanks xanderon!) using the 780 BR2 rom (thanks nikey22!), however I can't seem to get the internal display working? I have screen shared and I have attached some images below.

I have tried my old 6970m and every works as it should using that.

Any help would be appreciated!

IMG_7595.JPG
IMG_7597.JPG
IMG_7596.JPG
 
spidertnt said:
The 2011 IMac does not need an OWC sensor . Do this
Click to expand...

Is my guessing correct on this?
Heat causes resistance in the temperature sensor. Increasing resistance (less voltage flow across the sensor) is interpreted as increasing heat and calls for more fan speed.

I am guessing that those two wires are the temperature sensor wires and that by shorting them the signal is processed as no increase in resistance and therefore we get system minimum fan speed.

Brilliant in its simplicity. And with a SSD there is no reason for a higher fan speed.

Thanks, now I have 4 machines to open and cut and solder wires.
 
cheaptech said:
Is my guessing correct on this?
Heat causes resistance in the temperature sensor. Increasing resistance (less voltage flow across the sensor) is interpreted as increasing heat and calls for more fan speed.

I am guessing that those two wires are the temperature sensor wires and that by shorting them the signal is processed as no increase in resistance and therefore we get system minimum fan speed.

Brilliant in its simplicity. And with a SSD there is no reason for a higher fan speed.

Thanks, now I have 4 machines to open and cut and solder wires.
Click to expand...
Late 2009/mid 2010 iMacs have a separate cable to the HDD.
There you could also directly use a 593-1029-A or compatible cable, like for the other temperature sensors.
 
ZenSurfeur said:
THE card must be flashed FIRST!

use the @xanderon method and READ post 1
then you will be surprised of the result
Click to expand...

Thanks. I got it flashed now, but have a new problem. The boot screen shows up with purple/gray distorted blocks. I get the apple logo and progress bar, before it kernel panics and crashes, auto-restarts, and keeps endlessly looping.

Edit: I got it to boot into my Bootcamp install, but the purple blocks are still all over the screen.
 
Last edited:
Arthur1330 said:
Hi guys,

I've trawled through this thread and I still can't find a definitive answer so I thought I'd ask. Sorry if it's already been answered!

I have successfully flashed a 780m using the USB Linux method (thanks xanderon!) using the 780 BR2 rom (thanks nikey22!), however I can't seem to get the internal display working? I have screen shared and I have attached some images below.

I have tried my old 6970m and every works as it should using that.

Any help would be appreciated!

View attachment 954068View attachment 954069View attachment 954072
Click to expand...
On the Linux USB flash utility is another older 780M Bios, please check this. If it does not work we have found another failed card. I assume you forgot no display cable to connect since you checked successfully the old card.
 
brkr1 said:
I have bought a K610M and a SSD to upgrade my iMac 27 2011. What else I gotta buy in order to keep my HDD in place?
Click to expand...
This is off topic! There are at least 20 other iMac 2011 threads discussing everything from Bluetooth card replacement to HDD cable secrets...search these, please!
 
Ausdauersportler said:
Da bin ich mir nicht so sicher!

Just to join the club of "white screen" HP labeled K3100M users. Got a card from China via the Bay (advertised as a new one, but the label was already broken). Flashing works, getting boot screen, too. But booting into any version of MacOS starting with High Sierra and finishing with Catalina gives me a white or sometimes a black screen. This cannot be cured or patched with AGC.

I tried a different Dell BIOS from techpowerup.com, too. This I used some month ago successfully with Catalina (before we had the perfectly edited BIOS provided by @nikey22). This experiment fails to. So this card is (half) dead, too. After flashing with the @nikey22 BIOS I can use the Linux flashing tool directly on the screen, but it never makes it to the MacOS. This is dead card number 6 out of 6, now.

Unfortunately I do not have a different HP machine to cross check.

known issue with High Sierra, rerun valley with the settings mentioned on post #1 to compare with submitted results.
Click to expand...
I have also purchased a k3100m and flashed it by removing the Bios chip and programming it using raspberry PI. It would not load OS High Sierra ...tried it again next day and it loaded El Capitan. Was running fine for about 10min. Decided to try and install High Sierra it failed after about 4 min...stuck screen . Tried booting El Capitan again no go...stuck loading. These used board are sold on Ebay by users saying working ...i'm sure they are actually bad and they are only testing them for initial post and not full booting into any OS .
 
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Resplendent said:
Are all of the Nvidia KXXXX cards equally likely to be failing or are some models more reliable?
Click to expand...
We do not have a success statistic. But I am sure the demand this thread created drove prices up, brought cards from untrusted sources back on the market (easy money) and some users are so eager to get a card that they buy everything regardless which return policy or warranty the seller offers.
 
Lady Titan said:
HI

my deepest apologies for such a ****** translation, if you happen to notice ))


After installing the video card GTX880m, I installed Catalina patcher, I have a number of problems that I would like to get an answer-help,

1) my display goes out at full brightness it started long before installing a new video card, as well as the brightness even if it happens for some time, it is not the same as it was before installing the video card... is there a problem and how to solve it?

(read more about this, the display flickers when the brightness slider reaches the maximum (((and then lights up for all and immediately goes out, reset the memory and so on everything that is written in the Internet ))) it doesn't help!!! someone writes you need to delete some files and everything will work... is this really the case? is it possible that the diodes themselves are out of order? who can say for sure? but at low and medium brightness everything works ))) wonders....(((()

2) when the aimag goes to sleep mode, it immediately restarts after sleep... I tried the method from the first post, but my computer froze and the problem was not solved, I rebooted forcibly and did not try to fix it again.

3) installing Windows 10 via Bootcamp gives an error, the bootable flash drive is not formatted, here's what I did: I launched the hackin tool unlocked the finder and then led the team in the nano sudo terminal and then the path to Bootcamp ... edited the download from the USB...

I tried to create a flash drive through a second computer on which Windows 10, for reasons not clear, butrum does not see the flash drive, (USB card reader for SD cards) but if you insert the SD card into the aimag, Windows appears and downloads, but then formatting the disk partition, installing gpt and that's the end... question about installing Windows 10 open is it possible to install directly from the ISO image in Catalina patcher?

and I tried to install Sierra to install Windows 7 and update to 10, failed to install, that's what I did, changed the date in the installation mode in the terminal, but in the end it gave me an error about the authenticity or you can't check the author... something similar, I also noticed that the GTX880m video card behaved strangely, the lack of video buffer is very noticeable! I hardly notice such problems on Catalina...

4) is it possible to increase the power of the GTX880m video card to full capacity? since it feels like I'm not getting everything she's capable of from her this is a direct question to by nikey22 ?????????

if someone knows the answers to these problems be human and don't send them to the first post ))) I've already read it many times))) help me solve the problem with specifics!!!! 😉)) + + + 100,000 to karma!!!
Click to expand...


ALL INFO - Recommendation - WITHOUT WARRANTY 😉 no Lady Bonus possible !!!

Hmm, if I read your configuration with Core i7 & GTX880M the power consumption is for sure at
a high level. This should be one of the reasons the display went dark at maximum brightness, but
also you should install the KEXTDrop App to install the modified AppleBackLightFixup.KEXT also as
AppleGraphicsControl.KEXT - everything found as link on page#1 of this threat !

Control or disable all Hibernate / Sleep / Deep Sleep modes with Terminal command "pmset"
- PMSET for Beginners.

- Buy alternative USDT PC for WIN10 Games & Apps (as an iMac runs WIN10 it's same as
you want to drive Off-Road with a Lamborghini) - better use High Sierra for Apps and macOS
Mojave or Catalina for metal based Steam Games (2. partition on HDD / SSD).
- Native WIN10 Installation without using BootCamp (disable macOS HDD and boot with
WIN Install DVD or bootable WINDOWS USB Stick)

For testing various KEXT files to solve your machines different functional problems (?)
KEXT install for beginners

And last and least (as I recognise it in myself) - the worst case sits in front of the machine with
different levels of knowledge - put a roadmap in your head, no chaos - sometimes it's good to
be suitable for multitasking. The GTX880M ROM is in experimental status, so everything can be
happen with different actions - don't trust your data to video card together with unofficial macOS !
 
Last edited:
Arthur1330 said:
Hi guys,

I've trawled through this thread and I still can't find a definitive answer so I thought I'd ask. Sorry if it's already been answered!

I have successfully flashed a 780m using the USB Linux method (thanks xanderon!) using the 780 BR2 rom (thanks nikey22!), however I can't seem to get the internal display working? I have screen shared and I have attached some images below.

I have tried my old 6970m and every works as it should using that.

Any help would be appreciated!

View attachment 954068View attachment 954069View attachment 954072
Click to expand...
ypu don't ell us your model and config......

then what is your boot rom version?

PRAM done?
 
ZenSurfeur said:
ypu don't ell us your model and config......

then what is your boot rom version?

PRAM done?
Click to expand...

I did attach a picture of my model specs but it’s:

Late 2009 27 inch
32GB 1333 ram
i7 880
250GB SSD + 1TB HDD
Running latest version of High Sierra

I did try a PRAM reset - flashed 780 using nikey22 rom

Would you think this is a bad card? I can screen share, however it is unstable and crashes sometimes.

The Mac cannot seem to detect the internal display it seems, however when I switch back to the 6970, everything is fine!
 
Resplendent said:
Are all of the Nvidia KXXXX cards equally likely to be failing or are some models more reliable?
Click to expand...

Perhaps I can say that the K1100M and the K2100M are 👑 Best Value For Money 👑

These cards are more modern and have more power (with same or less power consumption)
than the older K1000M and K2000M and they are of course more powerful than K610M.

The BIOS for these cards and the possibilities are okay, if you look at the price.

The Quadro K3XXX / K4xxx and K5XXX and all upcoming GTX Video cards (!) have a price
normally beginning at 100$ (on ebay from reseller refurbished) and for that reason you are
investing a bunch of money to get an old iMac more modern - and for last it's not worth the
overall price.

But if you ask for the technican side: the iMac was not perfectly created to put a Video card
above 75W inside (!) and if you have a look at heat development of all components you need
tools like Brightness Slider or Macs Fan Control. And if the components get hotter than normal
in daily use there's an oldering process of the rebuilded components.

Perhaps it's (for most people) unnecessary because of private data, games and an above ten
years old imac, but for heat development and resale price the K1100M & 2100M are the best
value - compare these video cards with the used suitable Mobile Workstation prices on ebay
and anybody can explain by itself...
 
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I think k2100m is the best value perf/price low power consumption and no need heatsink 3 pipes version

AMD card is a lottery .....

Then K3100M, K4100M and K5100M and GTX are best values for the models who had the magical @nikey22 vbios "mac edition" but they need heatsink with 3 pipes and some dremelisation
 
Last edited:
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Arthur1330 said:
I did attach a picture of my model specs but it’s:

Late 2009 27 inch
32GB 1333 ram
i7 880
250GB SSD + 1TB HDD
Running latest version of High Sierra

I did try a PRAM reset - flashed 780 using nikey22 rom

Would you think this is a bad card? I can screen share, however it is unstable and crashes sometimes.

The Mac cannot seem to detect the internal display it seems, however when I switch back to the 6970, everything is fine!
Click to expand...
then what is your boot rom version?

PRAM done?

Do i have to repeat again and again?
 
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ZenSurfeur said:
with the @nikey22 k4100m mac vbios edition, you don't need OpenCore anymore.
did you flash the card? which method?
are you sure the card is fully functional ,
Click to expand...

I didn't flash the card, xanderon did and I bought the card from him.
Apart from the duller colors, the card seems to be fully functional. Benches run fine, idle PECI temp around 35 - 40 and around 55 while under load.
 
decat said:
I didn't flash the card, xanderon did and I bought the card from him.
Apart from the duller colors, the card seems to be fully functional. Benches run fine, idle PECI temp around 35 - 40 and around 55 while under load.
Click to expand...
If the duller colors go away after waking from sleep or changing the screen resolution, it's normal. @nikey22 mentioned a color gamut issue a while back. It affects all Proper boot screen cards.

Sorry everyone for not being around as much as I used too, life is going back to "normal", so not as much online time during the day.
 
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highvoltage12v said:
The following guide will work on any MXM swapped card that has Brightness control enabled either through OpenCore (K2100m/K1100M) or Natively (K4100M) doing so allows for the Native Apple kext to be used and Not AppleBacklightFixup.kext

Here is a short guide on how to create your own AppleBacklight.kext for the 27” 2011 (F10Ta007) iMac. The same could be done for the 2010 iMac (F10T9cd7) and 2009 iMac (F10T921e)

1. Navigate to /System/Library/Extensions, find the AppleBacklight.kext and drag it to the Desktop.

View attachment 936404

2. Right click on the kext to show package contents open contents/info.plist. with TextEdit.

View attachment 936405



3 With info.plist Open in we need to Find the original value “F10Ta007”/“F10T9cd7/“F10Ta007” and NULL it out, This value is based on your iMacs Display year/Model. Enter Null or whatever value you want here.


4. Now to Fix Brightness we need to Replace the screen Value to the one that belonged to a 21.5” iMac, this Value is F10Ta00cM. Find this value using Find in TextEdit.


5. Replace Value F10Ta00cM with the one for your iMac’s Display model, I’m using a 2011 27” so the value is “F10Ta007”

View attachment 936407

Code: 
<key>F10Ta007</key>    (2011 Model used)
<data>
ABEAGAA3AF8AigCzAOsBJAFnAakB1AIJAlQCogL4A00D
</data>
Make sure your Data entry looks like this one above. Save info.plist

6. Reinstall AppleBacklight.kext using kext Utility. Catalina users need to Unlock their System Partition using Hackintool first.
View attachment 936408. View attachment 936409


You should Now have proper (2009-2011) 27” iMac Backlight stepping that will properly Dim and raise you’re LCD to full brightness.
[automerge]1595447252[/automerge]

I see you have a 21.5" iMac what size MXM card did you fit into your iMac?
Click to expand...
Can I use this method for my 21,5" Mid 2010 iMac? Or it´s just exclusively for 27" models?
 
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