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Bios / OS specifications fix

E

elberto1

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 28, 2012
20
5
Hi Forum Experts,

Long story short, I had a late 2007 MBP get upgraded by Apple when I took it to the store to replace the defective graphics card. Though it came with a pretty crummy 128mb video card, the video card they replaced it with is a 512MB GDDR3. I know this because under bootcamp, PCID shows me this; and I know this because it can play Portal 2/other games at pretty decent settings.

However, the "About this Mac" menu still shows the old graphics card that came with the computer.

Given that I'm trying to sell this computer, is there any way to get the OS acknowledge the upgrade in Mac OS X (ML)?

Thanks!
 
There's no way they upgraded your GPU, it's soldered to the logic board. The best they could do is upgrade your logic board to the top of the line model for late 2007, possibly early 2008 if the logic board fits in the housing.
 
If you reinstalled and it still says the old card, then I guess OS X is reporting it wrong or you really didn't get a different card. I don't think there is anything else you can do. Sorry.
 
It's probably windows misdetecting the card after a model change (the rev2 boards have a very slightly different chip).

There is no 512MB graphics card for the 2007 MBPs. The best card is the 256MB 8600M GT. The 512MB was available in the 2008 ones, but a 2008 MLB won't fit into a 2007 machine due to slightly different I/O connections.
 
BlaqkAudio said:
There's no way they upgraded your GPU, it's soldered to the logic board. The best they could do is upgrade your logic board to the top of the line model for late 2007, possibly early 2008 if the logic board fits in the housing.
Click to expand...

I considered this too, and I think that this is about right.

I got the logic board replaced in 2009. I think that they gave me a logic board for an early 2008 MBP -- because that has a NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT at 512MB of GDDR3. However, according to PCID - the processor did not undergo the commensurate upgrade and still stands at 2.2Ghz.

My best theory is that the firmware on the logic board is setting the clock speeds lower and under-reporting graphics memory to the OS.

I want to know if there is a way to flash the firmware -- like in PCs when one flashes the bios.

Thanks!

----------
bma said:
It's probably windows misdetecting the card after a model change (the rev2 boards have a very slightly different chip).

There is no 512MB graphics card for the 2007 MBPs. The best card is the 256MB 8600M GT. The 512MB was available in the 2008 ones, but a 2008 MLB won't fit into a 2007 machine due to slightly different I/O connections.
Click to expand...

True, and I considered this. But I know that the graphics card has been upgraded not just through the Windows PC-ID application -- I know it from experience:

I tried many graphics-intensive games on this computer before taking it in and my friend's exact same model, and they were heating up my computer and basically unplayable.

After the upgrade, these same games (which require >256mb graphics cards) were playable and smooth -- this on, ostensibly, a reported "128mb" graphics card. So, in short, I think I believe the PC-ID reporting.


If Apple replaced the logic board with a 2008 one, how can I get the logic board's firmware to accurately report it's specifications? I think this is possible because of my experience with PCs and how their bios can be flashed to recognize (or not recognize) certain compotents.

Then again, I could be wrong.
 
They should add a lot of stuff there there bios emulations for one to let AHCI be used also on the guest os also graphics card switching.
 
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