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

[Cordonblu]

Hello there,

So parts have arrived earlier ( wifi upgrade is still coming from HK ) so I will be doing the upgrade this Sunday, wish me luck!
Btw I have bought a 30cm slimline cable to put a ssd under the ODD, do anyone know if 30cm is enough or will I have to do some tricks with sata extension cables?
Figured out from google fotos, yes 30 cm is indeed enough as the 3rd sata conector is like 10 to 15 cm away from the ODD location.

Cheers.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

If that’s the case, any reason why you didn’t add that to the mystical 1st post?

I did, I made the comment "heat sink modification needed" on page one, I made the table. @jborko made the PDF, I had endless discussion with him about that, just because his installation did not really went smooth and straight as mine.

What can I say? Probably a watchmaker like @Pascal Baillargeau will install the card on the sink without grinding away the small part, other users with two left hands do not care about touching the sink and will fail. So my advice is still have some safety distance, keep in mind that there is still the danger of causing a short.

Especially when 80% of the installation end up in a not posting system you will fence out any other problem in advance. As a matter of fact all people posting here more than once in a while did this installation several times and are aware of potential problems.


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Hello there,

So parts have arrived earlier ( wifi upgrade is still coming from HK ) so I will be doing the upgrade this Sunday, wish me luck!
Btw I have bought a 30cm slimline cable to put a ssd under the ODD, do anyone know if 30cm is enough or will I have to do some tricks with sata extension cables?

Cheers.

Depends, in the worst case you have to cut a hole into the plastic part separating the air flow channel over the ODD fan from the heat-sink area. I have packed a new 2.5 HDD and a 2.5 SSD in a sandwich at the same spot where you normally have the old big 3.5 HDD using a simple SATA Y splitter and a data cable of 30cm/12inches....

 

[Cordonblu]

Depends, in the worst case you have to cut a hole into the plastic part separating the air flow channel over the ODD fan from the heat-sink area. I have packed a new 2.5 HDD and a 2.5 SSD in a sandwich at the same spot where you normally have the old big 3.5 HDD using a simple SATA Y splitter and a data cable of 30cm/12inches....

Well that's actually a clever idea, I'm not a fan of drilling the plastic housing but a sandwich with a 2.5 hdd actually sounds like a good alternative.

Cheers.

 

[Allistah]

Questions for those that have the Quadra K4100M. If I buy the video card, I have to buy the heatsink in addition? If so, how do I know I'm getting the right one? I have a 2011 27" that has a "AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2 GB" in it right now so do I just use the heatsink that I have in this machine and only buy the K4100M to use with the heatsink that's in this machine already?

 

[Ivan_B]

hello everyone, has anyone had any random reset problems? I am using a flashed k1100m, in catalina 15.4, any post about this?

 

[RRPC]

Questions for those that have the Quadra K4100M. If I buy the video card, I have to buy the heatsink in addition? If so, how do I know I'm getting the right one? I have a 2011 27" that has a "AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2 GB" in it right now so do I just use the heatsink that I have in this machine and only buy the K4100M to use with the heatsink that's in this machine already?

This need's to be the 3 pipe heatsink.
And the m370 is also a mxm B card
So is the k4100m as well
You probably have the 3 pipe, but check.
You can maybe source one locally. Or via eBay
Or Alie

 

[Allistah]

This need's to be the 3 pipe heatsink.
And the m370 is also a mxm B card
So is the k4100m as well
You probably have the 3 pipe, but check.
You can maybe source one locally. Or via eBay
Or Alie

Thanks for the reply. I'll check. So for this card, will I have to do something special every time there is an update for Catalina or since it works natively, things will just work?

 

[RRPC]

Thanks for the reply. I'll check. So for this card, will I have to do something special every time there is an update for Catalina or since it works natively, things will just work?

I'm not sure. But as long it's a security update. I don't expect that the card will be broken soon.

Sinds it's mostly native. I don't expect a lot of issues butAlso keep a eye out on this topic. As this is the only place that can help you.
And as last, maybe when there is a bios update for the 4100 you need perhaps need to update (flash) that to the card.
regarding a Kext. (Driver).
Also keep a eye out for that. Maybe you have to modify a kext when updates are coming. But I guess the guys here are working on it.

​

** NVIDIA Quadro K4100M ROM **​

Genuine Native Boot Screen & Brightness Control​

In the words of Steve Jobs, “this is insanely great!”

After much testing and research, I've put together a ROM for the NVIDIA Quadro K4100M which will allow:

• Genuine native brightness control
• Genuine ‘gray’ early-boot screen
• Genuine macOS bootloader compliance

Features (testing in progress):

• Target Display Mode: testing
• Target Disk Mode: functional via both TB ports
• External Monitor: 1 DP/Thunderbolt port functional only
• iGPU: H.264 with usual highvoltage12v HD3000/Framework Kexts mods
• dGPU temp sensor: testing
• Internet Recovery: present
• Apple Hardware Test: n/a

This ROM does not require a 3rd party bootloader like OpenCore.
This is an alternative ROM and mainly for the audience that just want a “drop-in” answer to upgrading their video card on the iMac 2011.

I appreciate the ongoing ROM testing done by @Ausdauersportler, @highvoltage12v. With their efforts we can expand its utility across multiple macOS versions and peripherals.

This rom does not require the use of an external EDID parser or a separate graphics core-console stack module, but I’ve left them in there for now. It uses a built in EDID_override_Protocol and GOP_protocol. The rom is based on a TianoCore EDK2 build which houses its own generic video driver. During bootup, the efiROM is responsible for video rendering before the control is seamlessly transferred off to a different handle, the macOS video drivers.

warning: as stated previously these cards are based on a WSON flash package and therefore are much more difficult to recover from a bad flash. Please take precautions and verify flashing.


******
UPDATE
******
21 07 2020: working on Mojave 10.14.6, security update 2020-004 (18G6020)
20 07 2020: working on High Sierra 10.13.6, security update 2020-004
20 07 2020: working on Catalina 10.15.4
20 07 2020: working on Catalina 10.15.6 + kext mods

 

[Cordonblu]

Thanks for the reply. I'll check. So for this card, will I have to do something special every time there is an update for Catalina or since it works natively, things will just work?

May I ask how did you got a R9 in there? None of 2011 iMac had the R9 as a option.

 

[Allistah]

This need's to be the 3 pipe heatsink.

Oops, I lied. I checked the wrong machine. The 2011 27" iMac has an AMD Radeon HD 6970M card in it. Based on this page, it looks like I do have the three pipe heatsink in it. https://www.aliexpress.com/i/32679588326.html

Since things on the K4100M are listed to work natively, does that mean I could flash the bios on the video card and then do a clean install of Catalina without any other OS' installed on other partitions? Or is that still not recommended?
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May I ask how did you got a R9 in there? None of 2011 iMac had the R9 as a option.

I was mistaken, I checked my MBP when I wrote that. Sorry for the confusion. My 2011 27" iMac has a AMD Radeon HD 6970M which has the 3 pipe heatsink on it.

I also couldn't stand it anymore, I had to buy me a K4100M for $119 off Ebay. Now I need to figure out what I need to flash the firmware reliably.

 

[Cordonblu]

Oops, I lied. I checked the wrong machine. The 2011 27" iMac has an AMD Radeon HD 6970M card in it. Based on this page, it looks like I do have the three pipe heatsink in it. https://www.aliexpress.com/i/32679588326.html

Since things on the K4100M are listed to work natively, does that mean I could flash the bios on the video card and then do a clean install of Catalina without any other OS' installed on other partitions? Or is that still not recommended?
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I was mistaken, I checked my MBP when I wrote that. Sorry for the confusion. My 2011 27" iMac has a AMD Radeon HD 6970M which has the 3 pipe heatsink on it.

Yes, In theory you have to flash de vbios ( check that everything is working in high sierra, check #1 ), install catalina with the dosdude1 patcher and the required kext stated in post #1 and you are ready to roll.

Cheers.

 

[Mytime]

iMac 2011 i7 Mojave 10.14.6 SU 2020-002 on RAID-0 K4100M by Nick[D]vB (ROM) with OC -----> flash by USB method K4100M by nikey22 (ROM) no issues, only use AppleBacklightFixup.kext


ps. guys, you did a great job!

The open core version of the rom works for me, but not the newly released version with native brightness control. Computer will just shut down when trying to load into any Catalina, but will work with Linux Ubuntu

 

[Wania]

The open core version of the rom works for me, but not the newly released version with native brightness control. Computer will just shut down when trying to load into any Catalina, but will work with Linux Ubuntu

I used this ROM from the post, it is the same size as the one before (262KB). how did you flash the card?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

The open core version of the rom works for me, but not the newly released version with native brightness control. Computer will just shut down when trying to load into any Catalina, but will work with Linux Ubuntu

Probably you try a new installation of Catalina 10.15.6 using the @dosdude1 patcher, again. If the installer fails than your have a serious issue. Otherwise you just have a misconfigured Catalina.

 

[Machist]

The open core version of the rom works for me, but not the newly released version with native brightness control. Computer will just shut down when trying to load into any Catalina, but will work with Linux Ubuntu

It shut down or restart? do you get kernel panics?
My iMac runs fine High Sierra, but Mojave and Catalina restart/crash.

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

I did, I made the comment "heat sink modification needed" on page one, I made the table. @jborko made the PDF, I had endless discussion with him about that, just because his installation did not really went smooth and straight as mine.

What can I say? Probably a watchmaker like @Pascal Baillargeau will install the card on the sink without grinding away the small part, other users with two left hands do not care about touching the sink and will fail. So my advice is still have some safety distance, keep in mind that there is still the danger of causing a short.

Especially when 80% of the installation end up in a not posting system you will fence out any other problem in advance. As a matter of fact all people posting here more than once in a while did this installation several time and are aware of potential problems.


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Depends, in the worst case you have to cut a hole into the plastic part separating the air flow channel over the ODD fan from the heat-sink area. I have packed a new 2.5 HDD and a 2.5 SSD in a sandwich at the same spot where you normally have the old big 3.5 HDD using a simple SATA Y splitter and a data cable of 30cm/12inches....

Depending on the versions, graphics cards could be slightly different, so people could take advices but nothing replace your own visual inspection for potential problems when assembling a video card, a heatsink, and the backplate.
We have to be certain that what's written on first post is almost 100% true or 100% true, there is no place for suppositions. It's better to be prepared to do a heatsink mod, than saying that is not needed.

 

[Allistah]

I just bought this K4100M off Ebay (Tested Dell M6800 NVIDIA Quadro K4100M 4GB video graphics card N15E-Q3-A2). I've already made the bootable USB drive to flash it via SSH so I'm good to go there. I've only been using this 2011 iMac 27" in target display mode only from my MBP but now this will bring some new life into it. I'll post back with my results once I get the card and can install and flash it.

 

[highvoltage12v]

It shut down or restart? do you get kernel panics?
My iMac runs fine High Sierra, but Mojave and Catalina restart/crash.

What kind of shut down are we talking about? Does it have the "do not proceed" 🚫 logo, or does it kernel panic and reboot. Usually with the 🚫 the machine will shutdown after 30 seconds. This means that the platformsupport.plist needs to be manipulated again for the iMac to boot again. The dosdude1 Post install App can fix this.

 

[haeskone]

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.


I'm adding 10.14.6 2020-003 here as well as 10.13.6 2020-003. The original file named Simply "AppleGraphicsControl.kext.zip" is still for Mac OS Catalina 10.15.4+

First, thanks for your effort!

I'm trying to install your updated patched kext but after a reboot the display remains black. OS is 10.15.6 on a 12,2 iMac with K1000m GPU. Does the kext ne to be installed to /System/Library/Extensions or in /Library/Extensions. Hackintool is trying to install it to /L/E and it seems it won't load properly after reboot.

 

[highvoltage12v]

First, thanks for your effort!

I'm trying to install your updated patched kext but after a reboot the display remains black. OS is 10.15.6 on a 12,2 iMac with K1000m GPU. Does the kext ne to be installed to /System/Library/Extensions or in /Library/Extensions. Hackintool is trying to install it to /L/E and it seems it won't load properly after reboot.

That's why I recommend kext utility from Cvad, it needs to be installed to /System/Library/Extensions it's a System kext that is being replaced. Also open terminal and enter Sudo reboot after running kext utility. Sometimes with Catalina after a /S*/L*/E* install it will hang at the desktop.

It will timeout with an error in Kext Utility on Catalina which is normal.

 

[haeskone]

Thanks a lot, must have skipped this recommendation. Working now!

 

[Machist]

What kind of shut down are we talking about? Does it have the "do not proceed" 🚫 logo, or does it kernel panic and reboot. Usually with the 🚫 the machine will shutdown after 30 seconds. This means that the platformsupport.plist needs to be manipulated again for the iMac to boot again. The dosdude1 Post install App can fix this.

Catalina installer crash (kernel panic) Once Installation goes ok, but I get panics very often. I try to reinstall it and installer crash. Sometimes when you do disk partition sometimes installer language selector.

Mojave seems to work fine, but then I get panics also there. Every 10-15 minutes it restart again.

It not seems to be hardware problem because High Sierra work fine. I have run test 3 days now and no issues.

 

[highvoltage12v]

The following guide will work on any MXM swapped card that has Brightness control enabled either through OpenCore (K2100m/K1100M) or Natively (K4100M) doing so allows for the Native Apple kext to be used and Not AppleBacklightFixup.kext

Here is a short guide on how to create your own AppleBacklight.kext for the 27” 2011 (F10Ta007) iMac. The same could be done for the 2010 iMac (F10T9cd7) and 2009 iMac (F10T921e)

1. Navigate to /System/Library/Extensions, find the AppleBacklight.kext and drag it to the Desktop.

2. Right click on the kext to show package contents open contents/info.plist. with TextEdit.

3 With info.plist Open in we need to Find the original value “F10Ta007”/“F10T9cd7/“F10Ta007” and NULL it out, This value is based on your iMacs Display year/Model. Enter Null or whatever value you want here.


4. Now to Fix Brightness we need to Replace the screen Value to the one that belonged to a 21.5” iMac, this Value is F10Ta00cM. Find this value using Find in TextEdit.


5. Replace Value F10Ta00cM with the one for your iMac’s Display model, I’m using a 2011 27” so the value is “F10Ta007”

<key>F10Ta007</key>    (2011 Model used)
<data>
ABEAGAA3AF8AigCzAOsBJAFnAakB1AIJAlQCogL4A00D
</data>

Make sure your Data entry looks like this one above. Save info.plist

6. Reinstall AppleBacklight.kext using kext Utility. Catalina users need to Unlock their System Partition using Hackintool first.

.

You should Now have proper (2009-2011) 27” iMac Backlight stepping that will properly Dim and raise you’re LCD to full brightness.
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Catalina installer crash (kernel panic) Once Installation goes ok, but I get panics very often. I try to reinstall it and installer crash. Sometimes when you do disk partition sometimes installer language selector.

Mojave seems to work fine, but then I get panics also there. Every 10-15 minutes it restart again.

It not seems to be hardware problem because High Sierra work fine. I have run test 3 days now and no issues.

I see you have a 21.5" iMac what size MXM card did you fit into your iMac?

 

[Machist]

I see you have a 21.5" iMac what size MXM card did you fit into your iMac?

MXM-A
NVIDIA QUADRO K1100M N15P-Q1 2GB

 

[highvoltage12v]

MXM-A
NVIDIA QUADRO K1100M N15P-Q1 2GB

Okay, that is a Proper MXM-A card, but your issue is strikingly similar to my 2011 21.5" iMac when it had the incorrect (test) MXM-B card installed. The issue could be from Too many drives installed into your iMac, or a weak power supply. My issues were Reboots when setting up a New User account at the Welcome screen. Shuffling through iTunes Songs Quickly and downloading large files using Safari. Basically the MXM card draws power from the same rails as your drives do and doing something with a large power draw will cause these panics. Do you have a 3.5" HDD in your iMac still? This is drawing the needed 12V your MXM card also needs. I suggest removing (unplugging) it for the time being to help diagnose this issue. If this helps, try swapping it for a 1TB ssd as this will only draw 5V instead of 12v.

Eventually the real issue here is your power supply. I swapped mine with one from my 2010 Model iMac which helped a bit, but removing the improper MXM-B card from my iMac was my solution. I think removing the HDD from your iMac will be yours.