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

[Ausdauersportler]

What Dremel bit / type of file are people using to grind down the aluminium? and what's the basic safety procedure? Goggles and gloves? Is it is soft enough that you can just file it down slowly and safely?

Have you ever thought about using Google for this “material science” type of question? If had a cheap bit set without descriptions so I had to check them on my own piece by piece and unfortunately some are gone very fast during usage because the material was too smooth. On the other hand harder material could not be used free handed because it starts to jump over the aluminum at lower rpm. Read this https://www.mmsonline.com/articles/choosing-the-right-grinding-wheel an try to find special bits for aluminum.
ALWAYS use a goggle or a safety glass to protect your eyes and gloves are helpful, too.

 

[Aesthetica]

Have you ever thought about using Google for this “material science” type of question? If had a cheap bit set without descriptions so I had to check them on my own piece by piece and unfortunately some are gone very fast during usage because the material was too smooth. On the other hand harder material could not be used free handed because it starts to jump over the aluminum at lower rpm. Read this https://www.mmsonline.com/articles/choosing-the-right-grinding-wheel an try to find special bits for aluminum.
ALWAYS use a goggle or a safety glass to protect your eyes and gloves are helpful, too.

Thanks. Of course I've Googled it! But this is the place on the internet for discussing this exact subject so I like to ask here and contribute to the discussion so that one day it might have all the answers in one place.

Obviously all your answers in this thread are and the fact you enjoy helping is appreciated and I get that you're answering the same questions a lot, but I think generally if people end up in this thread considering doing this upgrade, its because they've Googled it and already decided that this is the best place to get answers. Especially with 220 pages of sometimes conflicting info, its understandable not to take the First Post as a single-source-of-truth too - hope it'll get there one day .

Having said that, thanks for your answer, now to weigh up K2100m vs GTX 765m 🤔🤔

 

[Marsupio]

Hello, very basic question on thermal paste :

What are you definitive recommendations of thermal paste choice for :

1) CPU die (I7 2600 swap) ?
2) GPU die (K2100M swap) ?
3) NVRAM and other components (K2100M swap) ?

Thanks in advance. I know K5-PRO recommendation for NVRAM but still confused on GPU / CPU thermal paste (K4-PRO or other choice ?).

 

[ZenSurfeur]

hello

1 & 2 > promilatech PK3 or Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut
3 > K5-Pro

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Grinding ist not a special topic her, I cannot even remember an answer reflecting your particular question. From my own experience with drilling and grinding I know that there is always a special set of tools for every material you work with. You will not drill wood and concrete using the same material - or you do it only once Even the Dremel is not the only tool to work with, the more professional solutions is this here:

FERM BGM1020 Doppelschleifmaschine 250W - 150mm - Incl. P36 und P60 Schleifsteinen, Schutzbrille und Funkenfänger, Schwarz

www.amazon.de

This grinder needs grinding disks made for the material you want to grind away. And here the journey starts again. The producer of such disks maintains usually an elaborated list containing exactly the answers to your question: Which grinding tool and disk is best suited for which material and how to grind it. We cannot act as a copy of these material lists, this is definitely NOT our special topic here. If you never have used a grinder or a Dremel or a tool at all you probably ask a friend or a neighbor.

When I again and again resend the people to page one than for a very good reason: A lot of people find this thread, read and collect information and make a plan, do the upgrade, ask one or two questions and at the very and then they post a success story. The other type starts his journey at the very last post and ask questions which has been answered a dozen times before. This guys obviously did not read or search the thread for answers - I do not like spoon feeding adults.

The first page is the entry point. It has been updated very often, the last time only a few days ago linking @herrdude's guide to manage the OpenCore boot loader. And because it is reflecting the 6 years of development it might not be easy to read. We are aware of this fact.

If you want to make it there just write up your google research But the more complex we make the first post the more people will complain about it...I am afraid.

 

[kral84]

I am creating a guide that will be linked to the first page to help people fix 2010/09 iMacs which have been patched with the "Legacy Video Card Patch" from the Dosdude1 installer.

1. 1. Using another Mac: download Kext Utility from here http://cvad-mac.narod.ru/index/0-4 download Hackintool from here http://headsoft.com.au/download/mac/Hackintool.zip download and unzip my files from here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gefiM7iDledurrHvYnvAtp4YGiWG-SbF/ and copy them with Hackintool and kext utility to a flash drive.​
2. Move my files to the desktop, Open Hackintool, move to the Tools tab and click on the GateKeeper icon, enter your password and Finder should restart, this unlocks the System Partition.View attachment 885780​
3. Navigate to /System/Library/Frameworks/ select the OpenGL.framework and drag it into a blank area within the Frameworks Folder. Finder will request to replace the existing file, select "Replace". DO NOT REBOOT View attachment 885781​
4. Navigate to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ select the GPUSupport.framework and drag it into a blank area within the PrivateFrameworks Folder. Finder will request to replace the existing file, select "Replace". DO NOT REBOOTView attachment 885783​
5. To fix permissions on both replaced frameworks, we need to open terminal and enter the following:

   sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework &&
   sudo chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework &&
   sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GPUSupport.framework &&
   sudo chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GPUSupport.framework

   DO NOT REBOOT.
   View attachment 885784​
6. Move Kext utility into the "UNDOING DOSDUDE1 Video patches" folder and drag all 5 kexts onto the kext utility icon, Kext utility will install the kexts, replacing the Legacy kexts. Then give a timeout warning, this is normal. You can now reboot your iMac. View attachment 885785View attachment 885789

Due to the file upload limit on Macrumors, I had to post the ZIP file to Google Drive.

UNDOING DOSDUDE1 Video patches .zip

drive.google.com

thank you my friend... but i have still have the legancy driver installed ... ( patcher say installed !! ) imac 2011 .. i have an gtx860m its broken after that i installed my amd6xxx card with legancy drivery and now i have change the card to k1000m and i have the legancy driver installed too... fresh install with timemachine backup..(timemachine backup restore the patch )

 

[Ausdauersportler]

thank you my friend... but i have still have the legancy driver installed ... ( patcher say installed !! )

In this case create a new installer USB memory stick and opt out using the menu of the patcher software from the automated post install of recommended patches. It is by far more easy to reinstall the OS than trying to delete the wrongly installed video legacy patches by hand.

 

[tobee1k]

Hoping someone can give me a pointer here - I've done a few 2011 upgrades on 21.5" iMacs, this is the first one I've done on a 27". Problem I've got is no display, and an apparently unresponsive keyboard.

So to give you a brief rundown of what I did and what parts I used - I took everything apart as usual, no problems, definitely nothing broken while working. I took out the old i5 CPU and replaced with i7 2600k - put some new thermal paste in place and reassembled. I then removed the AMD graphics card and replaced with a K2000M. I had removed the original X clamp from the K2000M but noticed that the original AMD card had an X clamp screwed in place with a kind of rubbery backing (presumably to prevent it conducting electricity. I screwed this clamp back in place the same way round as it had been on the AMD card. I fitted two Samsung SSDs, one in the expansion slot and one in the ODD connector. It was a bit of a squeeze getting the connectors on with the hard drive cables in place as well, but everything lined up eventually.

I put the logicboard back in place and connected up all the cables (again, definitely nothing broken and everything connected where it should be). Put the screen back on and plugged in, pressed the power button and I got nothing, no fans, no chime, nothing at all. I took the screen back off to see what the LEDs would show when I powered on, this time I got the startup chime followed by a slow, regular beep - I had forgotten to put the RAM in. So, put in the RAM, put the screen back on, one screw and my hand holding it in place - this time I got the chime followed by hard drive activity.

Before I had done this work, I setup the Mac to boot into Windows with the thought that I could flash the Nvidia card from within Windows. So the hard drive rumbled away for a while but nothing showed on the screen. So I switched it off, restarted and pressed ALT, although I was obviously blind at this level with the unflashed card, I remembered the key presses to boot into Mac OS. However, the Mac didn't seem to respond to the keyboard at all. Left to its own devices, sometimes it will randomly reboot.

So to sum up - power, yes; boot chime, yes; hard drive activity, yes; display of any kind, no; recognition of keyboard input, probably no.

Any thoughts much appreciated. Thanks

 

[snam11]

well, first thing first:
1 i would reset pram,
2 with no hdd connecter i'd use usb linux to boot even with non working display and flash the vga using another mac/pc via ssh

keep in mind original amd clamp on newest vga are larger than the others, so you need some mod or you'll destroy some caps in the nearby

 

[ZenSurfeur]

Hoping someone can give me a pointer here - I've done a few 2011 upgrades on 21.5" iMacs, this is the first one I've done on a 27". Problem I've got is no display, and an apparently unresponsive keyboard.

So to give you a brief rundown of what I did and what parts I used - I took everything apart as usual, no problems, definitely nothing broken while working. I took out the old i5 CPU and replaced with i7 2600k - put some new thermal paste in place and reassembled. I then removed the AMD graphics card and replaced with a K2000M. I had removed the original X clamp from the K2000M but noticed that the original AMD card had an X clamp screwed in place with a kind of rubbery backing (presumably to prevent it conducting electricity. I screwed this clamp back in place the same way round as it had been on the AMD card. I fitted two Samsung SSDs, one in the expansion slot and one in the ODD connector. It was a bit of a squeeze getting the connectors on with the hard drive cables in place as well, but everything lined up eventually.

I put the logicboard back in place and connected up all the cables (again, definitely nothing broken and everything connected where it should be). Put the screen back on and plugged in, pressed the power button and I got nothing, no fans, no chime, nothing at all. I took the screen back off to see what the LEDs would show when I powered on, this time I got the startup chime followed by a slow, regular beep - I had forgotten to put the RAM in. So, put in the RAM, put the screen back on, one screw and my hand holding it in place - this time I got the chime followed by hard drive activity.

Before I had done this work, I setup the Mac to boot into Windows with the thought that I could flash the Nvidia card from within Windows. So the hard drive rumbled away for a while but nothing showed on the screen. So I switched it off, restarted and pressed ALT, although I was obviously blind at this level with the unflashed card, I remembered the key presses to boot into Mac OS. However, the Mac didn't seem to respond to the keyboard at all. Left to its own devices, sometimes it will randomly reboot.

So to sum up - power, yes; boot chime, yes; hard drive activity, yes; display of any kind, no; recognition of keyboard input, probably no.

Any thoughts much appreciated. Thanks

Hello
1> your k200m is flashed with Nick modified bios ?
2 > can you tell us which diagnostic leds are on ?

 

[tobee1k]

Thanks, I've tried resetting the PRAM, no joy. I bet I've destroyed caps - I wasn't going to put the X clamp on but I bet that is the problem. It seems odd though that the computer clearly thinks the card is ok - it tries to boot, and the hard drive is obviously doing something for about 20 seconds, but then either gives up or reboots the Mac. I think I'll start by putting the old card back in and see where that gets me. Thanks
[automerge]1586613477[/automerge]

Hello
1> your k200m is flashed with Nick modified bios ?
2 > can you tell us which diagnostic leds are on ?

No, it's not flashed, I was hoping I could do that from within Windows.

Only the left two LEDs are on.

 

[ZenSurfeur]

Thanks, I've tried resetting the PRAM, no joy. I bet I've destroyed caps - I wasn't going to put the X clamp on but I bet that is the problem. It seems odd though that the computer clearly thinks the card is ok - it tries to boot, and the hard drive is obviously doing something for about 20 seconds, but then either gives up or reboots the Mac. I think I'll start by putting the old card back in and see where that gets me. Thanks
[automerge]1586613477[/automerge]

No, it's not flashed, I was hoping I could do that from within Windows.

Only the left two LEDs are on.

first flash the card ! using this method > flash but the best way is using a usb bios flasher
third led off means graphic card is not recognized, so you need to flash it
[automerge]1586614152[/automerge]
hello
Combo cleaner find an infection inside iMac Opencore Loader
does anyone got this?

 

[tobee1k]

first flash the card ! using this method > flash but the best way is using a usb bios flasher
third led off means graphic card is not recognized, so you need to flash it
[automerge]1586614152[/automerge]
hello
Combo cleaner find an infection inside iMac Opencore Loader
does anyone got this?
View attachment 905168

That's great, thanks for the help. I'll give that a shot.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Any thoughts much appreciated. Thanks

I did some CPU upgrades recently in the mid 2011 27" series exchanging i5-2400 and i5-2500S with the i7-2600. When ever you plan this kind of exchange make sure that the TDP of the new CPU fit's into the design of the logic board and power supply. The i7-2600 has been used by Apple in this model, the K not and it has a different device-ID and is probably not really recognized - but this is an assumption backed up by some posts on German languages Apple forums about problems after upgrading to the i7-2600K model.

When changing the graphics card flash the BIOS in advance using the CH341A clip programmer (queens choice) or the Linux flash image mentioned in the post just before, this Linux image can be used remotely without firing up the internal LCD or an external display.

 

[tobee1k]

I did some CPU upgrades recently in the mid 2011 27" series exchanging i5-2400 and i5-2500S with the i7-2600. When ever you plan this kind of exchange make sure that the TDP of the new CPU fit's into the design of the logic board and power supply. The i7-2600 has been used by Apple in this model, the K not and it has a different device-ID and is probably not really recognized - but this is an assumption backed up by some posts on German languages Apple forums about problems after upgrading to the i7-2600K model.

When changing the graphics card flash the BIOS in advance using the CH341A clip programmer (queens choice) or the Linux flash image mentioned in the post just before, this Linux image can be used remotely without firing up the internal LCD or an external display.

Ah thanks for that, I hadn't thought about the CPU, just thought it was a 2600 with the option of overclocking but that would maybe explain the weird rebooting and the fact that it doesn't seem to respond to key presses. I'll try some dismantling and see if I can narrow down the problem.

Thanks again guys

 

[nathansz]

770m flashed with nicks bios on 2011 27" 3.4gz i7

was fine first day played nhl 09 in windows and hitman and cities skylines in catalina

now having glitchy graphics, like flashing artifacts, just web surfing and email in Catalina

they don't show up in screen shots

any ideas?

thanks in advance

 

[ZenSurfeur]

770m flashed with nicks bios on 2011 27" 3.4gz i7

was fine first day played nhl 09 in windows and hitman and cities skylines in catalina

now having glitchy graphics, like flashing artifacts, just web surfing and email in Catalina

they don't show up in screen shots

any ideas?

thanks in advance

Hello
- any idea about the GPU T°?
- which thermal compound did you use?
- which heatsink did you use?
- can you post recto/verso picture of the card?

 

[nathansz]

Hello
- any idea about the GPU T°?
- which thermal compound did you use?
- which heatsink did you use?

thanks

does it sound like a heat issue?

-temps are attatched
-K5 Pro on the RAM
-Arctic Silver 5 on the die
-original 3 pipe heat sink from 6970 2GB, ground down to sit flush and original x-braket ground down to miss a capicitor on the left
[automerge]1586621965[/automerge]

Hello
- any idea about the GPU T°?
- which thermal compound did you use?
- which heatsink did you use?
- can you post recto/verso picture of the card?

I didn't take any photos unfortunately

I'll have to open back up for that

 

[ZenSurfeur]

some t° are quite hot compared to mine
picture of the card recto/verso please
[automerge]1586622201[/automerge]
my temps
some of yours are quite hot

 

[highvoltage12v]

thanks

does it sound like a heat issue?

-temps are attatched
-K5 Pro on the RAM
-Arctic Silver 5 on the die
-original 3 pipe heat sink from 6970 2GB, ground down to sit flush and original x-braket ground down to miss a capicitor on the left
[automerge]1586621965[/automerge]


I didn't take any photos unfortunately

I'll have to open back up for that

I think you should change your ODD fan to 2200rpm and the CPU fan to 2200RPM before taking everything back apart. I keep my fans at higher RPM.

 

[nathansz]

some t° are quite hot compared to mine
picture of the card recto/verso please
[automerge]1586622201[/automerge]
my temps
some of yours are quite hotView attachment 905194

thanks. as per highvoltages suggestion I'm going to try bumping the fans up before I take it all apart again. if it gets to the point of take apart I'll be sure to take photos
[automerge]1586622932[/automerge]

I think you should change your ODD fan to 2200rpm and the CPU fan to 2200RPM before taking everything back apart. I keep my fans at higher RPM.

thanks. I'll try the fans first. If I don't HAVE to open it back up I'd really rather not.

 

[tgaillar]

Yes, it could. Someone probably spent a lot of time creating that rom. Flashing a dump to an unmodified K3100 would probably end badly, for everyone. If you kill the golden goose then you probably shouldn't expect any more Easter eggs, if COVID-19 does that anyway I'll promise to hit the upload button before calling the ambulance...

I am seeing this (same icon), did I miss something?

 

[Nick [D]vB]

did I miss something?

Yes. I said before Christmas that I would be selling some cards on eBay, the post is still linked on page 1.

 

[Jforte]

Yes. I said before Christmas that I would be selling some cards on eBay, the post is still linked on page 1.

I didn’t read it... So, you can confirm about boot and brightness controls. (and auto brightness)?
(you don’t give any feedback to my questions, neither here, nor on eBay...)

 

[Nick [D]vB]

Yes, but I would stick with your 780M, it is a faster card and I am working on a vBIOS update that will add brightness control.

Combo cleaner find an infection inside iMac Opencore Loader
does anyone got this?
View attachment 905168

PSA - This is a false positive, the DirectHW driver is actually part of DosDude1's RomTool

(used by Flashrom to back-up the Bootrom), it's safe but you can just delete it if you have backed-up already.