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

[Dilli]

I have a strange issue with my iMac 27 inch Mid 2011. Though I have baked my GPU thrice earlier and used it, now recently after baking it and installing the card My iMac only shows LED 1 ON of power to logic board and no boot chime or any activity happens on the iMac. After few seconds only the fans come ON.

I don't know what is the issue. if someone could help and let me know how to put things back to normal.

I have also ordered the GPU upgrade of GTX 765M Dell Graphic card from AliExpress. I should get it in another 10-15 days.

My question is after replacing and upgrading the iMac Graphic card to GTX 765M will my iMac boot normally?
I just hope nothing is wrong with the iMac as it is right now like dead except for fans coming ON while pressing the power button.

I tried PVRAM and SMC resetting but no joy. I have even replaced the logic board battery to new , removed power cord , all solutions but my iMac will not start.

Await all inputs and some help.Thanks in advance.

 

[quarkysg]

I just hope nothing is wrong with the iMac as it is right now like dead except for fans coming ON while pressing the power button.

Try taking out the graphic card and see if your iMac boots up. My 2010 iMac 27inch booted up with the faulty card taken out. I ordered the GTX 765M after I determined that my iMac was OK. I had previously setup remote access (SSH and VNC) for my iMac before the graphic cards went south so it helps in the troubleshooting. Hopefully you have remote access setup as well.

HTH.

 

[Dilli]

Try taking out the graphic card and see if your iMac boots up. My 2010 iMac 27inch booted up with the faulty card taken out. I ordered the GTX 765M after I determined that my iMac was OK. I had previously setup remote access (SSH and VNC) for my iMac before the graphic cards went south so it helps in the troubleshooting. Hopefully you have remote access setup as well.

HTH.

I shall try rebooting after graphic card is removed but i don't think I have had any need for remote access earlier so I wonder how things will go through.

 

[FlorisVN]

I have a strange issue with my iMac 27 inch Mid 2011. Though I have baked my GPU thrice earlier and used it, now recently after baking it and installing the card My iMac only shows LED 1 ON of power to logic board and no boot chime or any activity happens on the iMac. After few seconds only the fans come ON.

I don't know what is the issue. if someone could help and let me know how to put things back to normal.

I have also ordered the GPU upgrade of GTX 765M Dell Graphic card from AliExpress. I should get it in another 10-15 days.

My question is after replacing and upgrading the iMac Graphic card to GTX 765M will my iMac boot normally?
I just hope nothing is wrong with the iMac as it is right now like dead except for fans coming ON while pressing the power button.

I tried PVRAM and SMC resetting but no joy. I have even replaced the logic board battery to new , removed power cord , all solutions but my iMac will not start.

Await all inputs and some help.Thanks in advance.

No worry here, I have had this issue also with multiple imac's.
This just usually means your graphics card is soo far gone and dead, the iMac wont even start (post) anymore..
Not even a single fan will start, only LED1 will light up, nothing else.

It could just startup withouth a graphics card at all, you can check this by removing the card and starting up your imac.
of course having screen sharing enabled fore hand could be usefull, but not neccecery in your case.
You just simply want to know if your imac still works..

 

[Dilli]

No worry here, I have had this issue also with multiple imac's.
This just usually means your graphics card is soo far gone and dead, the iMac wont even start (post) anymore..
Not even a single fan will start, only LED1 will light up, nothing else.

It could just startup withouth a graphics card at all, you can check this by removing the card and starting up your imac.
of course having screen sharing enabled fore hand could be usefull, but not neccecery in your case.
You just simply want to know if your imac still works..

Yes true. After seeing your post and post above bought some relief to me. I had this intuition that my graphics card is now dead. So To be more sure about rest of the machine I will start without the card and if all boots well then I am ready for the next step-- UPGRADE Graphic card to GTX 765M which I have already ordered and would take couple of weeks to reach.

My only question is when I get the Alienware Dell GTX 765M Graphic card and after using the necessary thermal paste and fix it and install it, Will my iMac boot normally? Will it work like it should. I saw few videos on Youtube, and i am aware that few things may not work but will it work for me without inserting any vbois etc because I am not good at all this and don't have any means of being some other hardware to load this vbios.

I just want to replace the Graphic card and boot my machine and later install mojave along with High Sierra.

 

[FlorisVN]

Yes true. After seeing your post and post above bought some relief to me. I had this intuition that my graphics card is now dead. So To be more sure about rest of the machine I will start without the card and if all boots well then I am ready for the next step-- UPGRADE Graphic card to GTX 765M which I have already ordered and would take couple of weeks to reach.

My only question is when I get the Alienware Dell GTX 765M Graphic card and after using the necessary thermal paste and fix it and install it, Will my iMac boot normally? Will it work like it should. I saw few videos on Youtube, and i am aware that few things may not work but will it work for me without inserting any vbois etc because I am not good at all this and don't have any means of being some other hardware to load this vbios.

I just want to replace the Graphic card and boot my machine and later install mojave along with High Sierra.

Yeah, its completly dead now, and dont put any more time into that dead crappy amd card..
Good you have ordered a Dell/Alienware GTX765M, it will be a good replacement for you..

Im pretty sure these iMac's, will be able to start and post withouth a GPU at all.

Keep in mind, you also need to made a small modification to the GPU heatsink, in order to make the GTX765M fit.
Use a dremmel for this, thats should be the best..
See pictures from me and others here in this thread.
Also check out the opening first wikipost of this big thread.

You will indeed loose bootscreen and some other things, if you dont apply the EFI bootscreen mod from Nick.

I would also highly reccomend you run MacOS High Sierra, but you already got this running I see.. ?

Afterall all this, it should indeed be plug and play..
doing the EFi bootscreen mod someday, I would highly recommend..

 

[Dilli]

Yeah, its completly dead now, and dont put any more time into that dead crappy amd card..
Good you have ordered a Dell/Alienware GTX765M, it will be a good replacement for you..

Im pretty sure these iMac's, will be able to start and post withouth a GPU at all.

Keep in mind, you also need to made a small modification to the GPU heatsink, in order to make the GTX765M fit.
Use a dremmel for this, thats should be the best..
See pictures from me and others here in this thread.
Also check out the opening first wikipost of this big thread.

You will indeed loose bootscreen and some other things, if you dont apply the EFI bootscreen mod from Nick.

I would also highly reccomend you run MacOS High Sierra, but you already got this running I see.. ?

Afterall all this, it should indeed be plug and play..
doing the EFi bootscreen mod someday, I would highly recommend..

Ok. Tks for your inputs. I shall wait for my gtx 765m to arrive and follow what you said. Incase of any help I will post here and seek it.

 

[FlorisVN]

Ok. Tks for your inputs. I shall wait for my gtx 765m to arrive and follow what you said. Incase of any help I will post here and seek it.

Yeah, just wait for your GTX765M, and do the upgrade should be best in my opinion.
get your dremmel ready, to make the heatsink modifications.
Also be sure you are using the larger heatsink. (the one from the AMD 6970m, not from the AMD 6770m)

Keep us posted..

perhaps we can save another 2011 iMac here from the death..

 

[Dilli]

Yeah, just wait for your GTX765M, and do the upgrade should be best in my opinion.
get your dremmel ready, to make the heatsink modifications.
Also be sure you are using the larger heatsink. (the one from the AMD 6970m, not from the AMD 6770m)

Keep us posted..

perhaps we can save another 2011 iMac here from the death..

noted . Will let you know once card is received and project upgrade will commence. Thanks again

 

[duvelhedz]

Will do mate, I'll try and get something over to you for tomorrow evening. Thanks again.

Yes, they did, and yes, there is...

This version has an older EFI, but should work better on the 27".

I flashed this to one of these cards and got no video at all from it Are you sure that the correct file?

 

[Underbeat88]

I finally got the GTX 765m. And I successfully installed it in my iMac 2011. Installed mac OS Mojave. I noticed one bug, the temperature of the video card is not displayed. I noticed one more moment, a very long time out of sleep. Who has any suggestions on this?

 

[highvoltage12v]

I finally got the GTX 765m. And I successfully installed it in my iMac 2011. Installed mac OS Mojave. I noticed one bug, the temperature of the video card is not displayed. I noticed one more moment, a very long time out of sleep. Who has any suggestions on this?

That's normal for the Nvidia MXM card to not display temps anymore. For the sleep issue you need the HD3000 Kexts I posted a while ago on this thread. I'll have to find the post when I'm not on mobile.
[automerge]1571956618[/automerge]
#1,438 The kexts need to be installed with Kext Utility, select all kexts and then drag them on top of Kext Utility, allow gatekeeper to open the app first. These kexts are for Mojave I have another post for Catalina.

cvad-mac.narod.ru - Kext Utility

 

[Dilli]

I will require all those when my 765M arrives too.

 

[Ooze]

Still working on Driver testing with the WX7100. Seeing if I can get it to ramp up to intended speed. No luck so far, but I've just been clean reinstalling different amd drivers. Thinking about trying flashing the card as well, see where that takes me.

 

[Underbeat88]

That's normal for the Nvidia MXM card to not display temps anymore. For the sleep issue you need the HD3000 Kexts I posted a while ago on this thread. I'll have to find the post when I'm not on mobile.
[automerge]1571956618[/automerge]
#1,438 The kexts need to be installed with Kext Utility, select all kexts and then drag them on top of Kext Utility, allow gatekeeper to open the app first. These kexts are for Mojave I have another post for Catalina.

cvad-mac.narod.ru - Kext Utility

Thanks Bro today I will install.

 

[CK1987]

hello i am new to this and i found this card on aliexpress. Woud ld it work if i put this card into mi imac 27" 2011 A1312?

Page Not Found - Aliexpress.com

the OS is high sierra

do i need to install nvidia driver before i replace the card or can i just replace it and it will work?

thank you for your help this is a nice Post.

best regards

Christian

 

[FlorisVN]

hello i am new to this and i found this card on aliexpress. Woud ld it work if i put this card into mi imac 27" 2011 A1312?

Page Not Found - Aliexpress.com

the OS is high sierra

do i need to install nvidia driver before i replace the card or can i just replace it and it will work?

thank you for your help this is a nice Post.

best regards

Christian

that card looks fine to me, and should work.
You wont need nvidia web drivers, these kepler based cards also run on the built kn MacOS drivers just fine..

You only need to do the heatsink mod, and yes its basicually plug and play.
You can also add the efi bootscreen mod provided by Nick.
I would highly reccomend this, but its not necessary.

 

[CK1987]

that card looks fine to me, and should work.
You wont need nvidia web drivers, these kepler based cards also run on the built kn MacOS drivers just fine..

You only need to do the heatsink mod, and yes its basicually plug and play.
You can also add the efi bootscreen mod provided by Nick.
I would highly reccomend this, but its not necessary.

thank you very much. i'm gonna try it.

 

[Kung-Foo-Kamel]

Just in case this hasn't been mentioned in this very long thread.

If you have an iMac 2011 27" and you would like to run Mojave or Catalina, the quickest and simplest way is to purchase a HD4670 or a HD4850 from a 2009 to 2010 iMac and install that.

I have a fully decked out 2011 27" and I refuse to purchase a new Mac just to run the latest OS so I can view web pages, write emails and manage my network.

So I just purchased a faulty 2009 27" iMac ripped the GPU out and installed it in my 2011, fired up and works great, fully supported, back light works etc.

I know most in this thread are trying to make their Mac game worthy, but I learnt years ago, Macs are not for gaming, no matter whether its a 765m or a 980m, the cards are still last gen, cpu and chipset bandwidth will hinder and your limited to a 310watt power supply, and the OS is just not properly supported, I prefer to just stream games with Moonlight if I want to play on my Mac, even tried a 1080ti eGPU and still wasn't worth trouble, better to have the 1080ti in a windows box and stream the games over lan to the Mac.

 

[FlorisVN]

Just in case this hasn't been mentioned in this very long thread.

If you have an iMac 2011 27" and you would like to run Mojave or Catalina, the quickest and simplest way is to purchase a HD4670 or a HD4850 from a 2009 to 2010 iMac and install that.

I have a fully decked out 2011 27" and I refuse to purchase a new Mac just to run the latest OS so I can view web pages, write emails and manage my network.

So I just purchased a faulty 2009 27" iMac ripped the GPU out and installed it in my 2011, fired up and works great, fully supported, back light works etc.

I know most in this thread are trying to make their Mac game worthy, but I learnt years ago, Macs are not for gaming, no matter whether its a 765m or a 980m, the cards are still last gen, cpu and chipset bandwidth will hinder and your limited to a 310watt power supply, and the OS is just not properly supported, I prefer to just stream games with Moonlight if I want to play on my Mac, even tried a 1080ti eGPU and still wasn't worth trouble, better to have the 1080ti in a windows box and stream the games over lan to the Mac.

do keep in mind these older HD4xxxx series are also known to faill very often.
And they are not metal compatible.
I would still advise to upgrade to a Metal compatible card, and apply the efi mod from Nick.

But of course your upgrade could perhaps be a solution for some..

 

[jmilan0302]

Just in case this hasn't been mentioned in this very long thread.

If you have an iMac 2011 27" and you would like to run Mojave or Catalina, the quickest and simplest way is to purchase a HD4670 or a HD4850 from a 2009 to 2010 iMac and install that.

I have a fully decked out 2011 27" and I refuse to purchase a new Mac just to run the latest OS so I can view web pages, write emails and manage my network.

So I just purchased a faulty 2009 27" iMac ripped the GPU out and installed it in my 2011, fired up and works great, fully supported, back light works etc.

I know most in this thread are trying to make their Mac game worthy, but I learnt years ago, Macs are not for gaming, no matter whether its a 765m or a 980m, the cards are still last gen, cpu and chipset bandwidth will hinder and your limited to a 310watt power supply, and the OS is just not properly supported, I prefer to just stream games with Moonlight if I want to play on my Mac, even tried a 1080ti eGPU and still wasn't worth trouble, better to have the 1080ti in a windows box and stream the games over lan to the Mac.

I use a HD 4670 from a Late 2009 21.5" in my 27" 2010 and there is no EFI bootscreen actually. Everything else works good though.

 

[FlorisVN]

I use a HD 4670 from a Late 2009 21.5" in my 27" 2010 and there is no EFI bootscreen actually. Everything else works good though.

I think the HD 4670 uses an LDVS instead of DP.
correct me if im wrong, but i think 4670 is only used for C2d imac's, and therefore has LVDS layout instead of DP which we need for a bootscreen for our core i series iMac's..

but indeed it could work just fine, other than a missing bootscreen..

 

[guest00x]

I have installed HD 4670 on iMac2011 and it works fine.

 

[Borak]

I can't natively install Mac OS Mojave.
I installed the GTX 770M and it has Metal support. What may be happening?

 

[FlorisVN]

I can't natively install Mac OS Mojave.
I installed the GTX 770M and it has Metal support. What may be happening?

that is correct,you need a patcher tool like dosdude1's Mojave/Catalina patcher in order to install Mojave or Catalina.
Your 2011 iMac is not natively supported by Apple.


Mojave patcher can be downloaded here :

dosdude1's Personal Web Server - Software

I would also highly reccomend applying the Nick's bootrom mod, this will make your live much more easier !