Flashing AGP cards for use in mac - PC needed?

[hopfenholz]

Hi all,

I've recently been on a few late night eBay buying sprees and ended up with a couple of AGP cards I'd like to see if I can get working in my G4 (DA) and G5 systems. Namely a GeForce 6200 256MB and an ATI FireGL X3.

Am I going to need an actual PC system to flash these or can this be done from a mac?

Cheers,

Joel

 

[ifrit05]

The FireGL can be flashed in Mac OS X in safe mode using Graphiccelerator, but the easiest way to flash these cards in the modern day is to actually use an SPI Programmer.

 

[hopfenholz]

Very happy to buy one from Amazon, they don't look expensive, but tutorials / howtos seem thin on the ground and I don't want to brick the card. Any pointers gratefully received

Also does this necessitate replacing a ROM chip and re-soldering as that is probably beyond my skill level!

 

[ifrit05]

Very happy to buy one from Amazon, they don't look expensive, but tutorials / howtos seem thin on the ground and I don't want to brick the card. Any pointers gratefully received

Also does this necessitate replacing a ROM chip and re-soldering as that is probably beyond my skill level!

No soldering needed. Look up the part number of the BIOS chip to get a data sheet, usually the manufacturer will list the pinout. The only pins you need to worry about are Vcc (Voltage/3.3v, NOT 5v!), GND, MOSI, MISO, CLK, and CS. Everything gets paired from the BIOS chip to the programmer.

The good thing about the CH341A is that you don't need to unsolder, get some female to female leads and a 8 pin pamona clip, like this:

Then it's a matter of looking up the datasheet of the BIOS chip to set the wires right. BIOS chips look like this:

Could be Winbond, ST, or MX. Usually ST on ATI chips.

Then use a flashing program, like AsProgramer for Windows. It comes with drivers for the CH314A.

The CH314A can be found on eBay and Amazon, the clip is weirdly absent on amazon right now but I found this (if you're stateside): https://www.electromaker.io/shop/pr...JjJRr_NBfznSFXQ--j_mpXGjy5SctdBXOwaJ26PRn0WmM, and the female to female leads can be found here: https://www.adafruit.com/product/266