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ATI fireGL X3 NOS on ebay

Well I flashed my Card in Tiger safe booted (I hear thats the best way to do it) now i don't know if u have tiger But I know harrymatic Has some sort of guide some where and i believe he flashed his card in Leopard. to flash the Graphics card U tape Pins 3 and 11 on the card insert it into ur G4 then you download this http://thomas.perrier.name/graphiccelerator.html and you find the FireGL X3 ROM here http://themacelite.wikidot.com/wikidownloads2 then you copy the contence of Graphicscelrators DMG onto ur desktop along with ur ROM then you open the graphiccelrator app then go to the ATI tools folder and Run me first then run ATI multi duper to back up ur PC card ROM (and any other ATI cards installed at the time) then once u have ur backup you go back to the graphicelrator app and in one of the menus in the menu bar there will be Install mac ROM into ATI multi flasher click on that it will ask you for ur Mac rom select the one you downloaded from the web then it will ask for a ATI Multiflasher and u go to the ATI tools folder and select the one there then click ok or so and it will install the ROM into the ATI Multi flasher then once thats done You open the ATI multiflasher and it should say do you want to flash something like R420 in slot 1 and you click on YES then it will proceed to flash it If it asks to flash any thing els like ur PCI GPU say No then it will close and u can close every thing shut down ur mac attach a display to the FireGL X3 and turn the mac on if every thing went well u will get a display :D I hope this all makes sence and I belive u should install the ATI 4.5.7 Display update... oh and i see harymatic beat me to it LOL well Ill still post this it took way to long to write up just to throw away LOL
 
Alright, I'm going to order one of these.

I don't actually have a use for one at the moment(except maybe to upgrade the 9600 in my Quicksilver) but am a sucker for a good graphics card at a bargain price.

I'll buy the card and then figure out a use for it :)

By the way, if I'm not mistaken, one wouldn't need to tape pins to use the card in a G5 or Sawtooth-it's only ADC-capable G4s that need it.
 
bunnspecial said:
Alright, I'm going to order one of these.

I don't actually have a use for one at the moment(except maybe to upgrade the 9600 in my Quicksilver) but am a sucker for a good graphics card at a bargain price.

I'll buy the card and then figure out a use for it :)
Click to expand...
My plan Friday night had been to search for another 9800 Pro with 256mb. Then this came along Thursday morning.

Needless to say, I'm not looking for another 9800 (although I did just pick up a 9200 PCI).
 
The ATI X800 and the flashed FireGL X3 won't work in the Sawtooth. They need an AGP 4X or AGP 8X slot.
 
Intell said:
The ATI X800 and the flashed FireGL X3 won't work in the Sawtooth. They need an AGP 4X or AGP 8X slot.
Click to expand...

Good to know...

BTW, isn't this equivalent to the OEM X800(aside from the lack of ADC)? I think someone was selling them pre-flashed as such.

In any case, I just bought one.
 
It's very close to the Mac ATI X800. Slightly faster in some regards. I don't think the dual-link DVI works on it.
 
Delivered!

Now I get to wait until after the kids go to bed before going to work on this! :D
 
Help!

OK. So I taped the pins correctly. The Mac boots with the card in. I verified that by pulling the tape off the pins and trying to boot the Mac. Nothing.

So, I taped the pins again and again I know I got it right because the Mac boots.

My problem is that the ATI MultiFlasher does not seem to be seeing anything in Slot 1, my AGP card.

Here is what I am doing…

Pre-attempt:
1. Boot into Safe Mode
2. Double-click on the RunMeFirst app.
3. ATI Multi Dumper

ATI Multi-Dumper dumps the ROMs and txt files for Slots 2 and 3, which are my ATI Rage 128 and ATi Radeon 7000 respectively.

There is no dump of Slot 1, the AGP card.

So now I do this…
3. Double click on Graphic Accelerator.
4. Load the FireGL rom.
5. Double-click the ATI MultiFlasher.

At this point, the Multiflasher asks me if I want to flash Slot 3. I say no because that's my Radeon 7000 PCI card. Multiflasher then asks me if I want to flash Slot 2. Again, I say no because that is my ATI Rage 128 card.

At this point, the app quits! I get NO MESSAGE about Slot 1, my AGP card.

What am I doing wrong?

Obviously I have taped the pins correctly! The Mac does not boot if it's wrong. The card is getting power (I have the Molex connector connected and the fan is spinning).

I know this card can be flashed, the OP has done it.

Do I have to boot into Tiger to do this? I'm running Leopard.

Help!
 
So…I did a Tiger installation on my spare FW drive. The system still does not see a AGP card.

For one brief moment System Profiler showed my Radeon 7000 and Rage 128, both in slots 2 and 3. And all it showed was "Display" for something else. I assumed that meant my AGP card, but ATI MultiFlasher is still not asking to flash Slot 1.

So, I shut down and pulled out the rage 128 card. Now all the Tiger installation see is my Radeon 7000 and ATI Multiflasher only asks to flash Slot 3.

I can't seem to find anything online as to why this is.

I'm guessing I am going to have to flash this card in a PC?
 
OK, I give up for the night.

I even tried a VNC method and System Profiler says no information for Graphics/Displays and ATI Multiflasher loads then quits.

If anyone has any idea why my AGP card is not being seen, despite the fact that I taped the pins and the Mac boots I'd like to hear it.

Worst case scenario though, harrymatic gets his card working before mine and can tell me what I need to do. :D
 
If you have access to one Erik, it would be worth testing the card in a Windows machine just to verify that it isn't dead. If not, you could try cleaning the edge connector with a pencil eraser to make sure that dirt isn't causing a problem. Even without a Mac ROM, the card should still show up in System Profiler.

I can't remember the exact flash process off the top of my head but I was definitely able to do it from within Leopard - not sure if it was in safe mode though.
 
Just thought id point out then when I flashed Both my FireGL X3 and a Radeon 9800 Pro Hercules Prophet card I had, that nether of them Showed up in system profiler before flashing (this is safe booted tiger) but ATI Multiflasher could still see the cards (for example my FireGL X3 was called R420 somthing by ATI multiflasher)
 
Thanks guys. Multiflasher though is not asking to flash Slot 1.

At this point, some notes.

1. I give up on flashing the card on my Quicksilver. There's a G4/400 AGP at work, I will try it on that and see if anything happens.
2. I thought, possibly it might be my AGP slot because in the past I've had to twist the 9800 Pro a little bit to make it work, but no, I but the 9800 Pro back in the Mac and had no issues.
3. Multiflasher and Multi Dumper saw the 9800 Pro and dumped the rom AND asked me if I wanted to flash it. So. I know it's not my AGP slot.

I'll take a crack at it at work. Maybe the Mac there can do it and then my Mac will recognize it. We'll see.

For now, I've got the Mac open and plan to do some other work so I'll focus on that right now.

I will just say that I am 1 for 4. The one and only time this flashing stuff ever went easy for me was the SATA card.

Still have a dual DVI PCI card that refuses to flash on the PC. :(

EDIT: Moving along…in other news, the fan I added to my makshift drive cage seems to be driving drive temps into a very decent range (91 and 88º respectively) for my drives.
 
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Sadly the G4 sawtooth is AGP 2X the ATI fireGL X3 wont fit... :( Im wondering if ur issue is quick silver specfic? Im not aware of such a case but who knows... Both me and harrimatic (I think) used MDDs (I only own 2 G4 towers my MDD and my sawtooth)
 
Well then. Bummer.

Looks like I have another unflashed PC card sitting around then. At least until I can borrow an MDD or something.

That sucks because my 9800 Pro has a VGA cooler on it that blocks my first PCI slot. Which means that the other card I have arriving will sit too.
 
I can't offer any advice or consolation other than the fact that I've never had any success flashing within OS X. My main machine where I've tried it is a Digital Audio running Tiger. I've never tried a safe mode boot, though, so may try it.

One thing I do generally do when I'm flashing is to have my primary card be a different brand than the one I'm trying to flash. I don't think this makes any real differences, but does idiot proof it and ensure that I don't inadvertently flash the wrong card.
 
My only other option is to try and flash it on one of the PCs at work.

Anyone have any instructions on how I'd do that?

I am amassing a nice collection of unuseable video cards. Sigh. :(
 
Much like the SATA card flashing process, you need some way to boot into DOS. I always use a Windows 98SE DOS boot disk, but a FreeDOS CD will also work.

Here's a guide to using the MS-DOS ATI flash utility: http://themacelite.wikidot.com/ati-flash

And here's the utility itself:
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1123/atiflash-3-60/

Put the flash utility and the Fire GL X3 ROM on the boot disk (or another if there's not enough free space) and just follow the instructions. It's inconvenient to have to use a PC to do this (I keep an old Windows machine around just for this purpose), but the ATI flash program for PCs is much more reliable and comparable with every card.
 
eyoungren said:
My only other option is to try and flash it on one of the PCs at work.

Anyone have any instructions on how I'd do that?

I am amassing a nice collection of unuseable video cards. Sigh. :(
Click to expand...

Be sure you have a computer with an AGP slot, a floppy drive, and a stack of floppy disks.

You need to boot into Windows and make a bootable DOS floppy.

While you're there, download the ATI Flash utility(most recent DOS version you can find) and the relevant ROM. For your own sanity, while you're still in the Windows GUI, drag the ROM into the ATIFlash folder.

Then, put your AGP card in it. Go ahead and connect your monitor to it so that you can verify it's working

Stick the DOS disk into the floppy drive and boot the computer off of it. You may need to go into the BIOS and tell the computer to look for a bootable volume in A: before checking the hard drive.

In any case, your computer should boot to an A:> prompt. At this point, you can eject the DOS disk and pop in your disk that has the ATI flasher on it.

Follow the instructions here to flash the card

http://themacelite.wikidot.com/ati-flash
 
bunnspecial said:
Be sure you have a computer with an AGP slot, a floppy drive, and a stack of floppy disks.

You need to boot into Windows and make a bootable DOS floppy.

While you're there, download the ATI Flash utility(most recent DOS version you can find) and the relevant ROM. For your own sanity, while you're still in the Windows GUI, drag the ROM into the ATIFlash folder.

Then, put your AGP card in it. Go ahead and connect your monitor to it so that you can verify it's working

Stick the DOS disk into the floppy drive and boot the computer off of it. You may need to go into the BIOS and tell the computer to look for a bootable volume in A: before checking the hard drive.

In any case, your computer should boot to an A:> prompt. At this point, you can eject the DOS disk and pop in your disk that has the ATI flasher on it.

Follow the instructions here to flash the card

http://themacelite.wikidot.com/ati-flash
Click to expand...
Thanks. Probably roll on this on Tuesday. Not looking forward to taping the pins again (third time) but oh well.

I'd do it tomorrow but way too much actual work at work to get done. :D
 
Hang on eyoungren don't you Have a Power Mac G5 at work? Maybe you can try flashing it in that... (at least you don't have to tape the pins in a G5) even if you cant flash it in the G5 once you flash it on a PC you can then test it in the G5
 
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LightBulbFun said:
Hang on eyoungren don't you Have a Power Mac G5 at work? Maybe you can try flashing it in that... (at least you don't have to tape the pins in a G5) even if you cant flash it in the G5 once you flash it on a PC you can then test it in the G5
Click to expand...
That is true, I do have the G5.

However, it's being used by the other designer. I would have to interrupt her work and have her sitting idle while I used the Mac to do personal business.

I could, but I'd rather not. So…I'll try the PC route.

P.S. In other news, this weekend is not a total loss.

The GigaDesigns dual decided it would work for me at 1.6Ghz and 1.5v. That's something!
 

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thats cool. Nice going on the giga designs CPU I have a 1.4Ghz Single 7455B Giga designs CPU upgrade sadly its only a 1.25GHz chip factory OCed to 1.4Ghz But I have it running nicely at 1.5Ghz and I even got it to boot and run a bit at 1.6Ghz But applications like geekbench would crash when running its test (even if it ran at 1.6Ghz i cant go any higher as on a 100Mhz Bus i have to use my highest multiplier LOL)
 

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LightBulbFun said:
thats cool. Nice going on the giga designs CPU I have a 1.4Ghz Single 7455B Giga designs CPU upgrade sadly its only a 1.25GHz chip factory OCed to 1.4Ghz But I have it running nicely at 1.5Ghz and I even got it to boot and run a bit at 1.6Ghz But applications like geekbench would crash when running its test (even if it ran at 1.6Ghz i cant go any higher as on a 100Mhz Bus i have to use my highest multiplier LOL)
Click to expand...
Well, I ran it for a while and old, familiar problems came back. I really need the Mac to be stable for what I am doing now for our church, so I put the Sonnet back in.

Until I can pick up a dual Sonnet with our tax refund this was probably the last time I use the GigaDesign processors.

There is a reason that years and years later Sonnet still demands high prices on parts!

----------
harrymatic said:
Much like the SATA card flashing process, you need some way to boot into DOS. I always use a Windows 98SE DOS boot disk, but a FreeDOS CD will also work.

Here's a guide to using the MS-DOS ATI flash utility: http://themacelite.wikidot.com/ati-flash

And here's the utility itself:
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1123/atiflash-3-60/

Put the flash utility and the Fire GL X3 ROM on the boot disk (or another if there's not enough free space) and just follow the instructions. It's inconvenient to have to use a PC to do this (I keep an old Windows machine around just for this purpose), but the ATI flash program for PCs is much more reliable and comparable with every card.
Click to expand...
harrymatic, I missed your post. Thanks for this!

Probably tomorrow. We'll see.
 
I tried flashing today in my DA G4(with the pins taped) and in my G5(no taped pins). Both were booted into Tiger in safe mode, and I had no luck.

Unfortunately, I also discovered that I can't put the card in my "flashing" desktop, as the AGP slot is keyed wrong(thinking back, I think this is related to slot voltages). It's a PIII-based desktop(dual 450mhz PIII Xeons).

I know where there's a working but out of service P4 desktop at work that I can probably use for a little while tomorrow...I'll report back.
 
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