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

[Umarx]

I am far from expert here but did you follow point by point what's explained in the spoiler "A Short Plan of the Complete Hardware Upgrade Process" of the first post ?.
Did you boot your computer to High Sierra using a second display plugged in the mini port and without Catalina Loader ?

Second display on both ports not lighting up in CL, or HS boot with WX4130.

The only thing is CL selection and screen breaks on boot progress bar but iMac turns on as I hear sound if I press enter or else.

I tried ssh via but it was denied. I am not able to keep my sharing on as it goes off with restart.

Is the card ok or is there a way to check it. Or I am out of options.

 

[Umarx]

Hi All,

Appreciate If anyone can guide in this situation.

Second display on both ports not lighting up in CL, or HS boot with WX4130.

The only thing is CL selection and screen breaks on boot progress bar but iMac turns on as I hear sound if I press enter or else.

I tried ssh via but it was denied. I am not able to keep my sharing on as it goes off with restart.

Is the card ok or is there a way forward, or I am out of options.

 

[globetribe]

Hi All,

Appreciate If anyone can guide in this situation.

Second display on both ports not lighting up in CL, or HS boot with WX4130.

The only thing is CL selection and screen breaks on boot progress bar but iMac turns on as I hear sound if I press enter or else.

I tried ssh via but it was denied. I am not able to keep my sharing on as it goes off with restart.

Is the card ok or is there a way forward, or I am out of options.

did you at least flash the card with the appropriate ROM ?
and what the other computer says when you try to SSH.

My humble guess is you have not followed the How-to explained in the first post. Solution would be to put the old card back in, prepare the iMac for a clean install, follow the guide step by step.

EDIT: having a look right now at your previous post & picture: did you put thermal grease (like Kryonaut) on other transistors than the GPU ... no thermal paste replacement for thermal pad ? just asking

 

[dream_catcher]

Hello everyone,

I've been reworking the K3100M ROM and the related blackscreen issue/boot loop issue that some of you have been dealing with. As @Ausdauersportler mentioned, it could be related to an interaction between the bootrom and the efi driver. Apple added a security update, 2020-005 and then 2020-006 which could be breaking some compatibility at least in the IM12,2 (2011) generation, although they kept the same bootrom version after the 2020-006 update:
Bootrom: 87.0.0.0.0
SMC version: 1.72f2

I'm currently running my modded rom in a test machine (iMac 27", 2011, High Sierra 10.13.6)
It is working well, no black screen upon driver initialization now and login screen should be present upon reboots.
It survives a PRAM reset as well
I added this line to the AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy.kext under the ConfigMap key:

<key>Mac-942B59F58194171B</key>
<string>none</string>

but I'm not sure it is necessary for High Sierra.

Anyhow, the results are very encouraging:
View attachment 1748221
If a few others who own a K3100M could test the ROM out on a 2011 machine (or other machines), I'd appreciate the feedback. As far as I can tell, it should work well with the -BFR and/or -AFR variants, but I could be wrong. I'll update the main K3100M rom page with the new ROM to keep our iMacs working "insanely great!"
Enjoy!

Hi @nikey22 i flashed the new bios, and it didn't worked. Still the same issue.
Does it help if I attached my original rom that I backed up before putting the Nvidia GPU?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Why do you think there'll be no DRM and Apple TV (TV+, I suppose?)? I thought, modern iMacs with Retina displays get most of modern features. Or it will be caused by software issues with installing not proper graphics crad? By the way, where you got your RX480 and how much did it cost? I don't mind moving to it)

Google for Videotoolbox support ...

 

[internetzel]

with CL I am able to boot with one of my internal HDD which has 10.11 (attached) but I can not boot with HS in ssd as the display breaks. Can I option + boot to avoid CL and see or will I loose the CL boot too that way.

Edit: I removed the CL USB and booted to a black screen. With and without option pressed.

In CL I selected Pre-Boot (HS in SSD)and it also went to black screen towards end of startup progress bar.

I plugged the USB back and booted and got CL boot screen.

Stuck in the loop....

I'd say either the VBIOS doesn't fit your specific board type or the board is damaged and breaks down once the OS X display driver uses graphics acceleration - 10.11 doesn't yet have an accelerated driver for that GPU.
Do you have a picture of your card showing the exact type of RAM chips (should have four of those on two sides of the GPU)?

Edit: In case of installation to the heat sink without copper shim I'd also expect the card to break down once accelerated graphics drivers are loaded by the OS.

 

[BadBiscuit]

Hi All,

Appreciate If anyone can guide in this situation.

Second display on both ports not lighting up in CL, or HS boot with WX4130.

The only thing is CL selection and screen breaks on boot progress bar but iMac turns on as I hear sound if I press enter or else.

I tried ssh via but it was denied. I am not able to keep my sharing on as it goes off with restart.

Is the card ok or is there a way forward, or I am out of options.

If I understand correctly the backlight is working for you indicate you're seeing OpenCore's boot screen, right? Be sure you are using the correct plist (i.e. AMD) and turn verbose mode on within plist too, so you can see where it is stopping. Booting from there with a macOS install stick to see if that will load, for perhaps it is just an issue with what you are booting from the SSD/HD.

 

[BadBiscuit]

I can't get max brightness bright enough from Big Sur on "VELMA" (my K3000M iMac), nor do I see an "Auto Adjust Brightness" checkbox on the Display panel, even though the system report shows it supported. This was installed using micropatcher v0.5.4. It is also setup to multi-Boot, HS, Mojave and Win10, and none of those have this issue. For that matter Win10 might blind you if left set to max, so I know the card and panel are capable. ☀️😎

Page 1 references @highvoltage12v post,

... A kext modified by @highvoltage12v can be found here to fix this issue. It has been added to all installer packages and the Bit Sur patcher.

which provides a AppleBacklightFixup.kext. It appears micropatcher replaced the AppleBacklight.kext, but I don't see one for "Fixup". Should there be, or is that even what is needed to gain higher brightness range from Big Sur? Below are screenshots of what I see in both Mojave and Big Sur.

Crossing my fingers @Ausdauersportler will have a solution, or slap me for not researching this more before asking. I promise I did do a bit of searching before posting.
🤚

Update: From Mojave "Auto Adjust Brightness" states, "No". Does this indicate unsupported, or just that the feature is off. Perhaps there is a way to disable that in Big Sur, if that is keeping it dim.

 

[jay508]

Good news I took the time to test k500m k510m on a1312 2011 i5 model test k510m k500m windows7 can be used normally without start screen display, q500m can be driven normally without screen display or start display, q500m is the remote desktop test result. There is no way to test the results of macOS without startup.
If you are interested in reverse engineering iMac macos vbios, I can assist in the test. Thank you

 

[Ausdauersportler]

This is a guess:

May be your panel type is a non standard. Find it out using this and post your type. This must be added to the backlightfixup.kext.

There are other ways to check the panel type using About this Mac->System Report but I am not having an iMac right here...

 

[wilma127]

So you have a black screen on boot?

Tried reading the first post or searching the thread?

Yes I have, but there is the NVRAM / SMC Reset...did I miss other options?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Yes I have, but there is the NVRAM / SMC Reset...did I miss other options?

Yes, tried searching the first post for black screen? This post describes 99,99% of all possible problems and steps to do.

 

[wilma127]

Yes, tried searching the first post for black screen? This post describes 99,99% of all possible problems and steps to do.

...just found the kext-thing. Wasn't aware of potentially being part of other common Problems, since I have nearly the same iMac (2009, i7, 11,1, MACOS 10.13.6 / Win10 2004 and GTX780m) that worked fine after nvflashing it under windows.

This iMac (2009, i5, 11,1, MACOS 10.13.6 / WIN10 2004 and GTX780m) has issues. They even share the same HDD image.

OK, I would have been running into this, when the new GTX780m card is here, so I will be looking into that, thank you a lot. Reading "everything", even if it's supposedly unrelated, still is a challenging task I apologize for being noob-ish...👍

 

[Dispetcher]

Hello everyone!
First of all, thank you to those who wrote the bios, patches and kexts.

What I did is the following: I have upgraded my graphics card to Nvidia Quatro K2100M. After I updated High Siera Os to Big Sur. Maybe this method could be useful for someone.
The installation process was as follows. First I installed on my macbook Big Sur + external ssd. Then, after installation, I imported all the data and programs from imac using the migration assistant.
After that I loaded imac from external usb (Big Sur). The system booted normally. Then, using Carbon Copy Cloner, I cloned the system to the built-in ssd.
Reboot to the built-in disk and you have a fully working system with all the programs that were on High Siera.
After that, using Patched Sur updated to the latest version 11.2.3

I noticed one strange thing, namely that the Startup Manager isn't showing the Catalina loader. In the finder I can see the Catalina loader, however, not from thr Startup Manager.
But I'm afraid if I would do a PRAM reset, the system may not boot normally.
I tried to do it in different ways on another usb drive Catalina loader, but Big Sur does not see it either. Does anyone maybe know how to solve this problem?

 

[passatgt]

so guys, I have a little gift for you to give back after such an incredible thread
hope you like it, the headaches to get it running were immens for me as a newb.

I couldn't stand it to use fckin windows to flash the cards and so I prepared this ~350mb drive

I created a Linux Live USB (based on grml.org) Thumb Drive with nvflash_linux and Nicks Bioses preloaded. and its booting by itself so you can work blind with a new unpatched nvidia card plugged in. Also, its starting a ssh daemon and using DHCP to get an IP so you can remote login

Steps

Download
14 days left to download, uploaded here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/cztz4xqj2sru9gj/2011_imac_usb.zip/file

mirror by NOTNICE, thnx: https://cloud.notnlce.com/index.php/s/xkJP34GD6a9WziE/download


Prepare USB Drive or SD Card
so, you take a small usb thumb drive, partition it with disk utility on a Mac: GPT + FAT32
and just unzip the files structure onto the drive, no dd or etcher or something. just copy paste it. folder structure see attached screenshot. (you can remove the .roms I downloaded and download itself if you want to be sure about the correct file size. I did not verify them at all. use/flash at your own risk please)

Test & Try
test your thumb drive with a more or less working GPU/ external Screen or just have faith in me

Swap Hardware
swap your GPU to NVIDIA and (!) disconnect every SSD/HDD, makes it easier to boot blindly from one USB or SD Card, connect the ETH Cable (!)

Find IP
let the iMac boot, everything is black, the boot loader is waiting 20s before booting, so give the whole process 1min time, then head over to your Router Page and find the right IP that the iMac got through DHCP

SSH to the iMac
now fire up your terminal on a Win/Mac/Linux Machine of your choice and ssh to your iMac with
ssh root@YOURIP
Password: flash
Confirm the ssh id with yes and you should be in your iMac

Working Directory
cd /lib/live/mount/medium/flash

read the RADME in there… I will enjoy my brand new k2000m in my 27" 2011 iMac with Catalina 10.15.3
… and because this is so easy, I rebuild it to a K1100M and flashed that also

(someone could write some fancy scripts but I thought its saver that everyone is doing it command by command and don't stop thinking and trusting some scripts)

I'm trying to use this. It boots up fine, but i don't see my iMac on the network. I'm actually trying with a working GPU now to see what happens. I'm connected directly into my router but only my first iMac shows up as a wired connection. This is how far it loads:



Any ideas how to proceed, what to check? Thanks

 

[dksp]

The iMac with the Linux should appear as "GRML" something…

 

[passatgt]

The iMac with the Linux should appear as "GRML" something…

If i remember correctly, the IP address should be visible in the "You can connect with SSH to: " row, but it's empty, so its not detecting my network for some reason.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

On th

Hello everyone!
First of all, thank you to those who wrote the bios, patches and kexts.

What I did is the following: I have upgraded my graphics card to Nvidia Quatro K2100M. After I updated High Siera Os to Big Sur. Maybe this method could be useful for someone.
The installation process was as follows. First I installed on my macbook Big Sur + external ssd. Then, after installation, I imported all the data and programs from imac using the migration assistant.
After that I loaded imac from external usb (Big Sur). The system booted normally. Then, using Carbon Copy Cloner, I cloned the system to the built-in ssd.
Reboot to the built-in disk and you have a fully working system with all the programs that were on High Siera.
After that, using Patched Sur updated to the latest version 11.2.3

I noticed one strange thing, namely that the Startup Manager isn't showing the Catalina loader. In the finder I can see the Catalina loader, however, not from thr Startup Manager.
But I'm afraid if I would do a PRAM reset, the system may not boot normally.
I tried to do it in different ways on another usb drive Catalina loader, but Big Sur does not see it either. Does anyone maybe know how to solve this problem?

On the first post there are three patchers listed. No need to re invent the wheel, again.

 

[dannyp881]

good evening, I installed my k610m on imac 2011 21.5 and as you can see in the picture only one led lights up. As soon as I turn it on, the LEDs become two. I tried to use the Xanderson usb stik method but I can't flash the video card. Has anyone had problems like mine?

 

[BadBiscuit]

This is a guess:

May be your panel type is a non standard. Find it out using this and post your type. This must be added to the backlightfixup.kext.

There are other ways to check the panel type using About this Mac->System Report but I am not having an iMac right here...

When I execute the command provided at that link:

ioreg -lw0 | grep IODisplayEDID | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6

I get these results:

??????
?<"x"o??UL
???)P0 5
Color LCD
???)P0 5

"With the first line being the LCD panel model and the second line being the color profile you are using (same as set in your Display preferences)."​

In contrast, the results on a machine where max brightness is good ("SCRAPPY"), it is this:

??????
x"o??UL

UPDATE:
@Ausdauersportler , I believe this may be what you were trying to recall for retrieving the display's model:

non-working is: 00009CB5, where as from the same manufacturer (00000610), the working one is: 0000A00C

I may be able to figure out how to update the kext, but unsure how to then replace it on the patched system. What do you suggest?

FINAL UPDATE:
User error (bad user, bad user). The kext is fine for this panel. I just realized that OpenCore is what injects it within the system where it is working. The system with the K3000M had not needed OpenCore, BUT when booted from it, the max brightness issue is now resolved. I'd prefer not to use it for seems to cause Win10 issues, and is otherwise not needed by the other macOS installed. I'll try to add the kext to Big Sur only. I'm a little scared to try manually updating a kext on it, but suspect that is the best way to proceed.

 

[jeremiasm]

Hello there!

Would NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M GDDR5 2GB - (N15P-GX-B-A2 MXM) work on my 27 inch Imac late 2009 with the @nickey22's custom firmware?

And do I need kinda flash my 2009 bootrom or smc to 2010?

EDITED: And can I use the 2-pipe heatsink build-in late 2009?

Thank you for your help!
Jeremias

 

[BadBiscuit]

If i remember correctly, the IP address should be visible in the "You can connect with SSH to: " row, but it's empty, so its not detecting my network for some reason.

You are correct that the IP address should show confirming it is connected. I would try using the same patch cable and router port as the machine that works to rule that out first. Next I would try resetting (i.e. power cycle the router) suspecting the DHCP is not working. Check MAC address to assure it is not spoofed and conflicting with another machine, and lastly suspect a defective ethernet port.

BTW, can you ever have enough USB sticks? I know I can't ...

 

[passatgt]

You are correct that the IP address showed show confirming it connected. I would try using the same patch cable and router port as the machine that works to rule that out first. Next I would try resetting (i.e. power cycle the router) suspecting the DHCP is not working. Check MAC address to assure it is not spoofed and conflicting with another machine, and lastly suspect a defective ethernet port.

Thanks. This solved my issue: #12,897

But sadly this WX4130 card is not working in my 2011 27"(as expected?). Flash was successful, but after the chime its just black screen, both internal/external, num lock is not working, so its not booted up. I will keep trying but i guess its a dead end, might work with a 09 or 10 iMac.

 

[jeremiasm]

Hello there!

Would NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M GDDR5 2GB - (N15P-GX-B-A2 MXM) work on my 27 inch Imac late 2009 with the @nickey22's custom firmware?

And do I need kinda flash my 2009 bootrom or smc to 2010?

EDITED: And can I use the 2-pipe heatsink build-in late 2009?

Thank you for your help!
Jeremias

Any idea?

 

[BadBiscuit]

good evening, I installed my k610m on imac 2011 21.5 and as you can see in the picture only one led lights up. As soon as I turn it on, the LEDs become two. I tried to use the Xanderson usb stik method but I can't flash the video card. Has anyone had problems like mine?

The LED state sounds normal for an unflashed card with LCD panel off. You need to focus on your flashing method. Did you pre-test the usb stick? What is meant by, “can’t flash”?