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iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade
- Thread starter MichaelDT
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Since so many people in here have successfully updated to catalina; anyone else having trouble in getting the internal mic to work? I get no input at all. I used "legacy audio patch" at the initial installation, but didn't apply "Audio Volume Patch".
Apologies for going slightly "off topic" with this.
Apologies for going slightly "off topic" with this.
I have the same computer but the quadro k2100 I have came with a Dell BIOS and the GPU led and LCD LED never turned on so I just flashed the (Nick core i) VBIOS for a Quadro K2100M and now all 4 LEDS turn on but the computer doesn’t boot, should I try flashing an HP Bios to have it boot successfully without boot screen and stuff?
That is needed for both internal speakers and mic to work in my iMac 2010 in Catalina.
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My internal mic works with my Catalina install, I haven't done anything special at all...
Sorry, I must have missed the email notice of your reply. I am doing another one of these firmware flashes now, which I already replaced the GPU in and sealed back up (a couple of years ago). Maybe it simply can't be done w/o opening up again, but I'm wondering why the only way is to unplug the SATA connector. Even if I cannot see the Option-key Boot Picker screen, shouldn't I still be able to use the arrow and Return keys to try blindly selecting the EFI Boot option? Or does the lack of boot screen on the GPU actually mean there IS NO Boot Picker?
There is not bootpicker, you cannot select a boot drive and the default booting drive is the one in. After doing a PRAM reset the iMac will default booting on default drive (the one in). There is no other solution than disconnect physically this drive and only then the iMac will boot on Flash drive, the last and unique option.
If you want to understand 'why' you can try everything you can think of, as most of us have done at some point.
But at the end you will open the iMac, to resolve the issue.
Hi,
I bought a GTX 780M card to put in a iMac mid 2010 27'' .
I wanted to flash it before using a CH341A chip with flashrom 1.2 on MacOS.
I am able to read ROM and save it but I have a problem writting it.
Do you know what I can try to flash it with this CH341A method ?
Thanks a lot!
This is the log
I bought a GTX 780M card to put in a iMac mid 2010 27'' .
I wanted to flash it before using a CH341A chip with flashrom 1.2 on MacOS.
I am able to read ROM and save it but I have a problem writting it.
Do you know what I can try to flash it with this CH341A method ?
Thanks a lot!
This is the log
Code:
flashrom -p ch341a_spi -w ~/Downloads/780M_BR2.rom
flashrom v1.2 on Darwin 19.6.0 (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org
Calibrating delay loop... OK.
Found PMC flash chip "Pm25LD020(C)" (256 kB, SPI) on ch341a_spi.
Reading old flash chip contents... done.
Erasing and writing flash chip... FAILED at 0x00000000! Expected=0xff, Found=0x4e, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x00000fff: 0xf85
ERASE FAILED!
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
FAILED at 0x00000000! Expected=0xff, Found=0x4e, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x00000fff: 0xf85
ERASE FAILED!
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
FAILED at 0x00000000! Expected=0xff, Found=0x4e, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x0000ffff: 0xf6c3
ERASE FAILED!
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
libusb: warning [darwin_transfer_status] transfer error: timed out
cb_in: error: LIBUSB_TRANSFER_TIMED_OUT
ch341a_spi_spi_send_command: Failed to read 4100 bytes
libusb: warning [darwin_abort_transfers] aborting all transactions on interface 0 pipe 1
Verification impossible because read failed at 0x0 (len 0x40000)
ERASE FAILED!
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
FAILED at 0x00000000! Expected=0xff, Found=0x4e, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x0003ffff: 0x27c8d
ERASE FAILED!
Reading current flash chip contents... libusb: warning [darwin_transfer_status] transfer error: timed out
cb_in: error: LIBUSB_TRANSFER_TIMED_OUT
ch341a_spi_spi_send_command: Failed to read 4100 bytes
libusb: warning [darwin_abort_transfers] aborting all transactions on interface 0 pipe 1
Can't read anymore! Aborting.
FAILED!
Uh oh. Erase/write failed. Checking if anything has changed.
Reading current flash chip contents... done.
Good, writing to the flash chip apparently didn't do anything.
Please check the connections (especially those to write protection pins) between
the programmer and the flash chip.hey guys, just wanted to let you know i installed a K5100M on a 27" imac from 2009. everything works perfectly in both osx and windows.
this thread has been of immense help.
I also managed to get cuda to work with adobe cc2017 by installing the web driver for my specific version of High Sierra i found on the link below
www.tonymacx86.com
just another note. after updating the cuda driver you will have to run the web driver installation again for it to work with Adobe.
On another subject. Does anyone know what is the most powerful Xeon Processor i can put into a mid 2011 27" model?
Will i lose some functionality in OSX high sierra? I read i will lose the sleep function.
and lastly, i seem to have lost functionality of one of the RAM banks after upgrading from an i5 to an i7 2600, hence my ram only works in single channel mode. could it be a defective CPU or have i maneged to detach a component from the motherboard?
this thread has been of immense help.
I also managed to get cuda to work with adobe cc2017 by installing the web driver for my specific version of High Sierra i found on the link below
NVIDIA Drivers
just another note. after updating the cuda driver you will have to run the web driver installation again for it to work with Adobe.
On another subject. Does anyone know what is the most powerful Xeon Processor i can put into a mid 2011 27" model?
Will i lose some functionality in OSX high sierra? I read i will lose the sleep function.
and lastly, i seem to have lost functionality of one of the RAM banks after upgrading from an i5 to an i7 2600, hence my ram only works in single channel mode. could it be a defective CPU or have i maneged to detach a component from the motherboard?
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Is the rx480 working on 27" imac 2011? Because everything I read about this upgrade for the 2011 was not compatible. Are other cards also working like rx460, quadro m3000m, m2000m?Upon testing the RX480 for a few days, it really works very well WITH the OpenCore Catalina Loader 0.6.3 seamlessly.
But it does run a little hot with an idle temp of ~50C, reaching ~70C during benchmarking, and dropping down to ~40C upon waking from prolonged sleeping.
I have an internal SSD partition into High Sierra and Catalina in APFS format, and the OpenCore Loader in the SD slot.
I noticed that after setting the Startup Disk once to the OpenCore Loader, even if I reset it to the Catalina partition, it will still start up automatically to the OpenCore Bootloader pickup screen.
If the Loader is removed on restart, nothing comes out for internal display or external display.
But on key press, I can hear the sound response, just no video out.
When I try to reboot to High Sierra via either the Bootloader or by setting the Startup Disk in System Preferences, the 1st stage boot (full brightness screen) can work all the way to fill the status bar but then stop there, without proceeding further. So, now I can't boot back to High Sierra.
Any possible solution to that ?
I am thinking to put the patched AppleGraphicsControl.kext into the S/L/E of Catalina partition for the black screen when without OpenCore Loader as that seems to be culprit as described by many in previous posts. Will see whether this will solve the issue when I am back from work tonight.
However, I don't think it will solve the problem of failure to boot back to High Sierra with the Bootloader. Probably the OpenCore components need further fine-tuning as it is meant to boot into Catalina (and BigSur) but not older OSX.
Problem solved. It is related to corrupted prelinked Kernelcache on replacing the AppleGraphicsControl.kext into S/L/E. I rebuilt them in Terminal and can dual boot again with or without quadroOC.
May be that's why the EG ROM is now favored by Ausdauersportler for troubleshooting.
At least you would have an external display for manipulation of the system.
But I don't dare to flash the Bootrom of my iMac at this early experimental stage yet in case I brick it.
If you read the first post, you will know it doesn't POST in iMac 2011. Currently it works only in iMac 2009 and 2010.
All working GPUs with Metal support are listed in first post. Check over there.
Those not listed mean they are not supported.
Hi there!
Interesting!
This is what I am getting on my iMac 27" 2011 with Nvidia K610M:
pulse frequency 10kHz, Vpp=3V and max. duty cycle of about 93%
The other picture is for 50% duty cycle.
Output voltage before ballast resistors is something about 36V - this is nowhere near 42.3V stated on the board.
My problem is, at max. brightness setting (as seen on the 'scope) I am measuring only 233 cd/m2 light intensity. Nowhere near another iMac's 399 cd/m2.
233cd/m2 is not really dim, but not too bright either.
Why there is a difference between the pulse frequency of our macs?
Could that be a reason for me not getting a full brightness?
If not, is there something else not functioning properly? The LED driver board faulty?
OK, please let me know if you have any idea where to look.
And many thanks for the inspiration!
Best regards,
alejon
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Why you do not use OC to get native brightness control with this particular card? There is also a patch to get full brightness with this card. Read the first post....
@nikey22,
I tested the new ROM on for Quadro K3000M on my 2GB Dell card. With the new lower clock settings stability is improved. I can start unigine heaven benchmark now. With reduced resolution settings for the OpenGL app this is running a while, but card is detected as 4GB with the previous issues like crashing / freezing when exceeding the physical RAM limit.
Is it possible to provide a ROM with stock clock settings, when a new ROM is released (not needed for now), just for users who only want a replacement card and do not need extra power of the GPU?
Also tested your ROM with my card and changed settings for subvendor ID, since this was different, but this had no effects on the issues or detected VRAM size.
I checked the option of nvflash, do you know what can be changed with the softstrapping options via nvflash?
I tested the new ROM on for Quadro K3000M on my 2GB Dell card. With the new lower clock settings stability is improved. I can start unigine heaven benchmark now. With reduced resolution settings for the OpenGL app this is running a while, but card is detected as 4GB with the previous issues like crashing / freezing when exceeding the physical RAM limit.
Is it possible to provide a ROM with stock clock settings, when a new ROM is released (not needed for now), just for users who only want a replacement card and do not need extra power of the GPU?
Also tested your ROM with my card and changed settings for subvendor ID, since this was different, but this had no effects on the issues or detected VRAM size.
I checked the option of nvflash, do you know what can be changed with the softstrapping options via nvflash?
I did try it on k3100m it works but anything you click on is unreasonable and pink colour.
Could that be simply related to aging ?
LED has a life span and the luminance falls gradually with time, the rapidity of which depends on the operating conditions and on external factors such as temperature, relative humidity and changes in the thermal load etc.
I have read the first post. But I thought something changed and it wasn't updated. So rx480 works only in the 2010 and 2009 models. Rx460 also works I think. What about quadro m3000m and m2000m? Are they compatible with the 2010 model? I got all those cards a few weeks ago and I want to try them
Test them and report here to share your results. Unfortunately there won’t be any “Mac” vBIOS for these GPUs. But some may have an external display output with the PC BIOS and might be able to display in internal LCD panel when the Mac OS video driver is loaded or with the use of OpenCore.
I'll buy an imac 2010 next month. Of course i will post the results and maybe will try also other mxm cards. I'll maybe be lucky. Thank you for the reply
Wir sind nicht Experte mein Freund! Ich kann nicht wissen ob die Liste updated ist! Der Typ mit der rx480 hat nie gemeind dass er das 2010 Model hat und der Post hier ist für das 2011 Model. Ich dachte er hatte Glück gehabt.
Hi guys i got an iMac mid 2011 stock, only ram upgrade, i already opened (totally) it 2 times for thermal paste, i want to upgrade his GPU wich is the stock 6750m, im planning GTX 680m or the 660m coz i dont need so much power and its cheap, but i want to know if that will works, also i have bootcamp windows 10 into it, will i be able to install its drivers on windows? (in case of GTX 680/660m) if one day i need install windows again, i will be able to do it with those GPU's?
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Just read the first post on the supported cards.
If the GPU is not listed in the table, you are on your own.
No Mac vBIOS is available for them.
But they should work in Windows via BootCamp by their PC BIOS.
i saw so many guys with the 765m and 780m, those one have the vbios then, ill order one 780 right now, also, theres any way to install windows in legacy mode using USB? or i really have to buy an DVD-R to do it?
I am talking about the Maxwell cards and as far as I know my own post about the RX480 BIOS versions include the incompatibility note with 2011.
Sorry, but I am sick of discussing facts again and again with people doubting without reading and without evidence.