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

[dnarna]

Install the card on a heatsink, disconnect all internal drives, plug in the USB Linux flash stick, boot and wait. Access the machine remotely from another system on your local LAN via SSH and follow the instructions written down in the post describing the Linux flash method. I am just repeating again what has been written there. Follow the written guide
You have to boot the iMac with the Linux USB image!

Got everything installed properly, booted into Linux USB, logged in via SSH, saved copy of existing k2100 rom... noticed my Image Size listed was 0 bytes and Version is "Unavailable (Invalid) IFR-only Image"... odd, but I continued to remove write protect, made second copy and compared them, then went to overwrite and received:

"Only IFR present, Skipping Board ID and Device ID checks, EEPROM does not contain board ID, skipping board ID check.

Warning: Firmware image PCI subsystem ID (1028.15CC) does not match adapter PCI subsystem ID (103C.2256)"

Gah! Thoughts?
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Never mind, it worked. When I verified it said there was a difference, a considerable difference, in size but when I restarted I got a screen. So now I will hook up the internal drives again and then there is some other flashing in order to enable boots screens and other features on the K2100m? Thanks.

 

[pablocarrillo]

Hey all, sorry if I missed your PMs and I've not been around to reply here recently,
I've had some health problems and just quit my job, so it's been a fun month...

On the bright side, I recently made some significant progress on the iMac cards,
I was planning to release this update next week along with the Quadro roms,
but it seems DeeImac has just unknowingly let the cat out of the bag
(no worries Geoff, you weren't to know) so I may as well just tell you now...

I have found a way to get the bootscreen working without needing to do the bootrom mod!
It works for most Kepler cards (but sadly not the new AMD cards, so they'll still need the mod)

These Beta3 roms will enable the bootscreen without the bootrom mod, just flash the vBIOS in the normal way, if you've already done the bootrom mod these roms have no benefit. To be honest I am only releasing these now to avoid any more logic-board casualties - but you can call it an early Christmas preset.

In other news, I finally got native brightness control working on a few of the Kepler cards, but so far I have not been able to replicate this across most of the other cards. At the moment it seems most will still require either a new type of bootrom mod just to enable brightness control, alternatively you can use the OpenCore Boot-loader.

I'm still working on the brightness stuff, but I hope to have the beta Quadro roms ready soon.
After a lot of work I do have some cards working almost perfectly now, so I've decided that
for those who just want to pay for a simple plug & play solution I will be selling these on eBay.
For everyone else, I'm sure saint (?) Nick will make another delivery soon. 🎅

With that in mind, I would politely advise people against posting dumps from my eBay cards.
It's probably best to wait for the goose to finish laying golden eggs, before you eat it for Christmas...

Thanks so Much in advance!!!

I have an Mid 2010 Imac; withNvidia GeForce GTX 765M from Ebay (Alienware);

https://www.ebay.es/itm/Nvidia-GeForce-GTX-765M-2GB-MXM-3-0-B-for-Alienware-M17x-M18x-Replace-675M/193003378584?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

That I updated the firmware with a cheap CH341A USB programmer and a clip; via flashing tool running on a windows computer (I think It is an very easy way to replace the firmware with the card outside from any computer; and no risk to fail) from aliexpress:
https://es.aliexpress.com/item/32725360255.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.61e863c0kbJM4S

Upgraded to Intel Core i7-870 (4x2.93GHz); choosen thanks this guy youtube videos;

And at the point I am really happy with them. With actually an 1TB Crucial SSD; 1TB SATA 7200rpm disk; and Superdrive Unit working. 24GB of RAM. The Imac works really well with High Sierra.

Thanks all the guys that make it work, thanks for all of your really hard work. Internet it´s just great for thah ; sharing
knowledge.

I have an this Mid2010 ; and two final 2009 Imacs, that I will try to run with Mojave, and Catalina; soon.

I´ll keep posting. Greets from Ourense.

 

[r6mile]

Quick question (didn't want to post a new thread because of this):

Will a Radeon 5750 1GB from a 2010 27' i7 fit into a 2011 21.5' i5? There is a 2011 21.5 with a faulty GPU going for peanuts locally, and am thinking if fitting my old 5750 into it and giving the PC to my inlaws or my sister (I don't want to get a K2100M etc for them as don't want them to need to use Opencore; I can see myself getting calls when things don't work already!)

 

[herrdude]

Quick question (didn't want to post a new thread because of this):

Will a Radeon 5750 1GB from a 2010 27' i7 fit into a 2011 21.5' i5? There is a 2011 21.5 with a faulty GPU going for peanuts locally, and am thinking if fitting my old 5750 into it and giving the PC to my inlaws or my sister (I don't want to get a K2100M etc for them as don't want them to need to use Opencore; I can see myself getting calls when things don't work already!)

They are both MXM. So, it should work fine.

 

[Yojx21]

I was told that even High Sierra may have the black screen issue after the May, 2020 upgrade. But this happens after booting into the MacOS and not on reboot with the EFI boot screen. The AppleGraphicsControl extension can help with HS!

The vBIOS of the Nvidia has a delay which leads to the behavior you discovered: The screen (without choosing alt/option to have a boot screen) remains black some seconds and after that you see suddenly the login screen. This is normal.

But you should have the EFI boot screen on boot (pressing and holding the option key while pressing power button) and you should use OpenCore to get the brightness control. Without the LCD will cook slowly your iMac

BTW:
Using OpenCore with the MacPro1,1 ID makes the black screen issue disappear, even with Nvidia systems.

I also often see some white lines on black on top of the Apple logo for less than 1 second when I turn it on.

Can’t I control brightness with the slider available on App Store ?

Did you get this problem solved then? I was going to do this Catalina install tonight on my 2011 27/Quadro K2100M.

Not yet unfortunately

 

[FlorisVN]

strange an 27" 2011 core i7 imac, with upgraded GTX765M, is having some strange black screen problems latly.

It is still running MacOS High Sierra latest version and updates, with an GTX765M vbios beta 3.

Problem is that the screen will remain black very often, after a cold boot and normal warm boots/reboots.

When I remote into the iMac, the display is recognized but in a strange way.

Anyway, when I shutdown the iMac, and startup again using the option key, to force the bootscreen the display is working great again.

Im not sure if this problem has been posted here before, that High Sierra (native supported OS) is also giving these black screen problems, but i'm almos certain that after an security update perhaps apple broke something here.. ?

if I am correct somebody else here said to replace a modded kext file ( AppleGraphicsControl.kext ? ), could perhaps also fix this black screen problem for High Sierra.. ?
And I'm sorry if a solution has already been posted here, than I have missed that one..

I hope somebody here can help us out. thanks in advance,
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I'm uploading a patched AppleGrapahicsControl.kext that is now necessary as of 10.15.4, the symptoms after this update are a blank screen but system sounds are heard when holding down the Escape key, as well a loss of any Displayport output. The cause of this is Apple Clamping down on 3rd party kexts from loading, this mainly affects hackintosh users, but affects us as our iMacs are no longer a supported platform.

What does this patched AppleGraphicsControl.kext do to allow 2009-2011 iMacs to properly boot? We now need our board ID's to be added to the AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy.kext within AppleGraphicsControl.kext, this allows the kext to properly load on boot, before this wasn't necessarily needed. I have so far all known 5 board ID's that are supported on our thread.

iMac12,2	(27-inch Mid 2011)	Mac-942B59F58194171B
iMac12,1	(21.5-inch Mid 2011)	Mac-942B5BF58194151B
iMac11,3	(27-inch Mid 2010)	Mac-F2238BAE
iMac11,2	(21.5-inch Mid 2010)	Mac-F2238AC8
iMac11,1	(27-inch Late 2009)	Mac-F2268DAE

Thanks to @Ausdauersportler for the helping/testing for this kext.

To install this kext unlock your System partition using Hackintool. drag the kext on-top of the kext utility icon let it install/timeout with an error. Open terminal and enter "sudo reboot" skipping this step may leave your iMac hanging at the desktop (A Catalina issue)


How to install:
When booting you need to Hold Alt/Option to bring up the AppleBootPicker, then select the Catalina partition. Since the iMac's Screen is on when using AppleBootPicker the Macs screen will remain on the entire boot process allowing you to log in and then proceed to install the Patched AppleGraphicsControl Kext.

perhaps this or a similar fix is also out there for High Sierra.. ?
We are recently experiencing these same issues on HS..

Perhaps you already posted a fix for this, I dont know.. ?
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I was told that even High Sierra may have the black screen issue after the May, 2020 upgrade. But this happens after booting into the MacOS and not on reboot with the EFI boot screen. The AppleGraphicsControl extension can help with HS!

The vBIOS of the Nvidia has a delay which leads to the behavior you discovered: The screen (without choosing alt/option to have a boot screen) remains black some seconds and after that you see suddenly the login screen. This is normal.

But you should have the EFI boot screen on boot (pressing and holding the option key while pressing power button) and you should use OpenCore to get the brightness control. Without the LCD will cook slowly your iMac

BTW:
Using OpenCore with the MacPro1,1 ID makes the black screen issue disappear, even with Nvidia systems.

We indeed are experiencing also black screen issues with High Sierra latly, I think after the latest High Sierra security update.
I'm almost sure that the 2020-003 is giving these problems.. ?

You already found a fix for HS perhaps.. ?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

strange an 27" 2011 core i7 imac, with upgraded GTX765M, is having some strange black screen problems latly.

It is still running MacOS High Sierra latest version and updates, with an GTX765M vbios beta 3.

Problem is that the screen will remain black very often, after a cold boot and normal warm boots/reboots.

When I remote into the iMac, the display is recognized but in a strange way.

Anyway, when I shutdown the iMac, and startup again using the option key, to force the bootscreen the display is working great again.

Im not sure if this problem has been posted here before, that High Sierra (native supported OS) is also giving these black screen problems, but i'm almos certain that after an security update perhaps apple broke something here.. ?

if I am correct somebody else here said to replace a modded kext file ( AppleGraphicsControl.kext ? ), could perhaps also fix this black screen problem for High Sierra.. ?
And I'm sorry if a solution has already been posted here, than I have missed that one..

I hope somebody here can help us out. thanks in advance,
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perhaps this or a similar fix is also out there for High Sierra.. ?
We are recently experiencing these same issues on HS..

Perhaps you already posted a fix for this, I dont know.. ?
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We indeed are experiencing also black screen issues with High Sierra latly, I think after the latest High Sierra security update.
I'm almost sure that the 2020-003 is giving these problems.. ?

You already found a fix for HS perhaps.. ?

First page, first post, search for black screen. You should already know this.

 

[FlorisVN]

First page, first post, search for black screen. You should already know this.

thx, yes I have missed something out there, about a black screen fix for High Sierra I think.
So far what I see is a fix for Catalina 10.15.4, and a fix for Sierra..

I guess I have to make an modded AppleGraphicsControl.kext for HS.. ?

The AppleGraphicsControl.kext modded kext which @highvoltage12v made, is only for Catalina I presume.. ?

I must be missing some info here I guess, I hope you can provide me some answers..
thanks in advance.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

The „patch“ is editing the Info.plist file of the extension package. Give it a try..

 

[highvoltage12v]

thx, yes I have missed something out there, about a black screen fix for High Sierra I think.
So far what I see is a fix for Catalina 10.15.4, and a fix for Sierra..

I guess I have to make an modded AppleGraphicsControl.kext for HS.. ?

The AppleGraphicsControl.kext modded kext which @highvoltage12v made, is only for Catalina I presume.. ?

I must be missing some info here I guess, I hope you can provide me some answers..
thanks in advance.

There is a replacement AppleGraphicsControl.kext for Catalina and High Sierra, still have to do one for Mojave.

 

[FlorisVN]

There is a replacement AppleGraphicsControl.kext for Catalina and High Sierra, still have to do one for Mojave.

ok thats great, I must have missed that one.
I suppose perhaps these custom AppleGraphicsControl kexts are not yet been added to the first wiki post.. ?

I just added all the bord ID"s you have posted here earlier from compatible 09-2011 models, and added that inside the plist file from AppleGraphicsControl.kext .

I then presume this will fix our black screen issue's.. ?

Am I correct here that this black screen problem was not present before on HS.. ?
At least that where our experience's..

We have changed to nvidia vbios beta 3 not so long ago, we never had these problems on HS with vbios beta 2 and the bootrom patch from Nick.
Or perhaps this all is related to some MacOS changes after latest 2020 updates.. ?

Sorry if this has already been explaned here, then I must have overlooked this info, and I am not aware of it..
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The „patch“ is editing the Info.plist file of the extension package. Give it a try..

thx, it's clear then to me I think now thx.
I have used these Sierra instructions on HS, I presume then that it is fixed now..

I have added all the board ID's from other compatible iMac's here (09-10-11), if this kext has not been posted here from HS, then perhaps it's an great Idea to put them all in the first wiki post.. ?

What do you think of this .. ?

 

[TwoH]

Hey all, quick question - I have a 21.5" 2011 6750M GPU in a 27" 2011 iMac currently which seems fine, but I am interested to know if there any known issues using the 21.5" GPU on the 27" that I haven't noticed? Thanks in advanced.

 

[FlorisVN]

Hey all, quick question - I have a 21.5" 2011 6750M GPU in a 27" 2011 iMac currently which seems fine, but I am interested to know if there any known issues using the 21.5" GPU on the 27" that I haven't noticed? Thanks in advanced.

as far as I know, this will work.
the card is smaller but will fit and work fine, as far as I am aware of..

the HD6770M which was also available in the 27" model, was I thought also the smaller version, with the 2 heat pipe cooler.
So no problems I see in your hardware configuration...

 

[FlorisVN]

@highvoltage12v

I was blind, and did not see you posted your modded HS graphics kext here before.
( https://forums.macrumors.com/thread....1596614/page-275?post=28501872#post-28501872 )

Anyway, if you can also make one for Mojave that would be great.

I would suggest we put these kexts also in the firs (wiki) post of this little thread..

I can also confirm here btw, that there is a 50/50 chance of getting a black screen these days, running HS with latest updates with an upgraded nvidia card.
So far it seems to be fixed with the modded kext..

 

[FlorisVN]

I hope perhaps @dosdude1 , can also change/add this modded AppleGraphicsControl one day in his Patchers for us..

At least for 2011 iMac users out there, I would say..

 

[Sharpino89]

A couple of times after rebuilding the computer, I had to reset the PRAM to get the card recognized by the iMac. Also try Alt/Option at boot to see if it shows you your boot options. I believe you said that it was working on BootCamp on the same machine which should rule out LCD connection problems.

Ok so according to your comment the wx7100 should be fully recognized also at boot and in High Sierra with imac 2010, correct?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Ok so according to your comment the wx7100 should be fully recognized also at boot and in High Sierra with imac 2010, correct?

Radio Eriwan: In principle, yes! But we had so many issues with WX1000 that nobody would guarantee this

 

[kral84]

Does the 3 pipe cool the K2100m/k1100m card better than the 2 pipe?or does it make a difference?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Does the 3 pipe cool the K2100m/k1100m card better than the 2 pipe?or does it make a difference?

This is probably the overkill - even the faster K2100M is not really burning more than 30W heat, less than half of what the original 6790M was using. You can safely assume that each MXM A heat sink will work.

BUT: You have to use the Mac Fan Control or something similar. The SMC is not reacting on the available sensor data, the GPU die temperature is still missing.

 

[jborko]

Also make sure you do a proper thermal paste application and ensure the card sits well with the heatsink. That will help much more than the 3 pipes. Wx4170 here on 2 pipe heatsink and no thermal problems (after proper paste application)

 

[Amsterdamned]

I’ve read much if not all of this thread but haven’t seen any talk of the GeForce 6xx Cards. Many are Kepler-based so should work. They’re potentially a lot cheaper than the 7xx cards and are used in the iMac 2012 range. Any thoughts?

Edit. ok, reading the whole thread from the start, again, and I find it in post #1! I obviously need to clean my glasses...However, the 6xx cards seem to have dropped off the radar and I don’t see anything in post #1 to suggest a bios was ever created for them. The 660m is pretty cheap on eBay and a lot easier to find than the kxxxm cards plus should have native support. I’m not looking for a gaming card just the cheapest, easiest upgrade path to metal support.

 

[Mdsflyer]

I've got a 2011 iMac running great with a K2100M thanks to all the great work and help available via this forum.

I used Dosdude patcher to install Catalina and then the Opencore setup to get the brightness slider working.

I'd like to have this booting without a USB drive installed and I've put the Opencore files into the Main drives EFI folder. This does work but it does require me to select the drive I wish to boot from within the Opencore picker at startup. I have tried using CTRL and ENTER to automate this drive selection but that doesn't seem to register with Opencore as when I reboot I once again have to manually select the drive.

Has anyone got Opencore installed on the hard drive and booting without user input? If so could you please explain what your setup process was to achieve that.

 

[SubDriver]

Another option, if you have a spare hdd or ssd could be to install on it Mojave (with dosdude installer) and swap this Mojave disk with high sierra disk, you should succeed to reach desktop without opencore. And then make opencore flash drive your default boot option. You are very close to succeed.
You have to find a way to avoid the hassle to swap graphic card.
What you can do too is taking out your High Sierra disk and boot on it on another Mac to make the necessary changes regarding sharing, teamviewer configuration, going to desktop directly without password. Then put it back in your iMac and boot.

Pascal and Ausdauersportler - Thanks for the help last Sunday. I removed my High Sierra hard drive and discovered the file system had become corrupted. After repairing it, I booted my MacBook Pro from it to make sure it would boot correctly and then I reset the remote login and screen sharing. Then I put it back into my 2011 27" iMac and attempted to boot from it.

Unfortunately, I am still getting the black screen on startup. HOWEVER, I am now able to SSH in from my other Macs. Through this, I was able to obtain the following images which show that the video card is properly recognized as a WX7100.

Additionally, I verified my boot rom is 87.0.0.0.0 (see below)

As a reminder, the High Sierra system has not been updated since last July so it does not have the May 2020 update on it yet. And I have confirmed the video card is functional in my iMac via booting from a Ubuntu Live USB drive.

I have not yet tried to go through OpenCore (hoping to get the screen to work in HS working without OC).

Any other suggestions would be welcome. I am thinking of trying to update the OS to Mojave and giving that a try. I do not intend to upgrade this iMac beyond Mojave due to several applications I use that are not supported in Catalina. What do you think?

Again, appreciate all the help!

 

[NOTNlCE]

I have not yet tried to go through OpenCore (hoping to get the screen to work in HS working without OC).

Again, appreciate all the help!

Which VBIOS is on your WX7100? In my experience, AMD cards will only ever have a black screen without OpenCore when using the GOP VBIOS, and if using the EP2 VBIOS, a hardware level mod is required for any screen backlight. I strongly recommend the OpenCore implementation over soldering. Before booting OpenCore with my WX4130, I also had nothing but a black screen, but once OC booted, all fine.

 

[rtowner75]

curious if anyone has been successful in getting sidecar to work on your 27" with the wx7100 card?
I seem to have everything else working fine now except this. I can connect my iPad via bluetooth and handoff and airdrop are working, airplay is selectable and when I select my iPad I get this error: "A miscellaneous error occurred (-455)"

Any ideas?
thanks in advance!
Robert