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

[Ausdauersportler]

After replacing my failed graphics card with an Nvidia 765m everything works as expected. Brightness I can live with until hopefully someone creates a working rom. Just after I use the mac for a while and temp stays below 60 my wifi quits working. Is this know behavior?

Thanks for any response.

iMac 27 late 2009 High Sierra

Failing hardware or simply a badly reseated WIFI cable near the LVDS display plug. If something fails after you disassembled the complete iMac (for the very first time yourself) to put a new GPU into it is surely not the video BIOS making the WIFI go away.

 

[ZenSurfeur]

Start reading at post #1 of this thread, you will be surprised. This is the end of the book, not the beginning.

reading docs is for chicken.... (copyright Ausdauersportler) )

 

[hwc]

I have successfully completed the K1100M swap into my 2011 iMac 27" originally with a 6970M that had died.

I decided to document my entire process HERE.

So far, everything seems to work. I had lost audio after the Patched Catalina Installer, but have fixed it after doing an unpatch/repatch detailed in my write-up.

 

[ssaman]

I just fund a workaround for the problems I was facing with the horizontal lines with the 21.5" 2010 + GX 780M, just lock the screen of the iMac, let the screen shut down and when you wake it up again the lines are gone. I've replicated this consistently four times to check it wasn't just a fluke.

What could be changing while the iMac is locking that gets rid of the horizontal lines? Maybe an unset variable(s) at boot? it's just a guess since I don't know where to begin debugging this issue.

 

[passatgt]

I just fund a workaround for the problems I was facing with the horizontal lines with the 21.5" 2010 + GX 780M, just lock the screen of the iMac, let the screen shut down and when you wake it up again the lines are gone. I've replicated this consistently four times to check it wasn't just a fluke.

What could be changing while the iMac is locking that gets rid of the horizontal lines? Maybe an unset variable(s) at boot? it's just a guess since I don't know where to begin debugging this issue.

You are right, after a sleep the 16bit issue is fixed. I think its related to some kind of a kext that gets overwritten after a sleep or something like that. I'm not sure.

 

[tobym76]

A quick update. After quite a bit of drama (requiring several goes of dismantling and reinstalling the GPU), the new BIOS from nikey22 seems to have solved most things. Now, the machine boots correctly.

However, I now get a "Panic Medic Boot" popup. I assume that the BIOS is trying to load a kext? Any suggestions how I can solve this?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

You are right, after a sleep the 16bit issue is fixed. I think its related to some kind of a kext that gets overwritten after a sleep or something like that. I'm not sure.

This is similar to what I observe sometimes with AMD cards. Only after at the first sleep some extensions are fully initialised and work properly and the cards operate at full speed and full capabilities. Probably we have to find out how to force the load of some unknown extensions on boot.
I solved this for my AMD cards with OpenCore - but I guess a normal patch will do the same with Nvidia cards. Unless somebody is going to figure this out let the system go to sleep at least once

 

[bokkow]

I finally got my K4100M card in my 2011 27" iMac working. First card was not correct. The second card I got which was a Dell turned out to be bad. Third time was a charm and the replacement card worked the first time.

View attachment 939100

Here are the lessons learned from this experience:

1. Do not use HP versions of the K4100M card. Something is different about them and they don't work.
2. The Dell version of the K4100M cards work.
3. I learned how to completely disassemble this iMac having taken it apart and reassembled it about 18-22 times in total.
4. Just put a little pile of K5 compound on the tall square areas, just enough to fill the gaps.
5. Don't do this work when you're exhausted - too many opportunities to make mistakes which causes more problems.
6. On the bootable USB image, the scp command - that is to be run from your local machine, not the target iMac that you ssh'd into. Run it in a terminal on your local machine.
7. This took about three days to do, don't take up kitchen space if you don't want your wife to be pissed off at you.
8. I love my iFixit toolkit. It came in so handy for this job.
9. The Linux USB image is the way to go. Super convenient and pretty easy if you're familiar with ssh and such.
10. Did I mention to stay away from HP versions of the K4100M? Steer clear of them, they don't work.

Thanks to this thread and all who helped me through this process. I really appreciate it. I think I had this thread bookmarked for well over a year waiting for a card that worked better than the existing cards did. Finally the K4100M came to the working list and I was all over it. Thanks again to everyone and @nikey22 for the firmware that allowed this to happen!

Special thanks to @highvoltage12v for answering so many questions in this thread along with all the others that replied. You all rock!

Good to hear you got your K4100M up and running but I also have to say that I guess you were unlucky with HP cards. First (and only) K4100M I ordered is an HP and installing was a breeze.. Correct score in Valley as well (2444). HP / Dell, doesnt really matter hardware is the same

 

[Ausdauersportler]

A quick update. After quite a bit of drama (requiring several goes of dismantling and reinstalling the GPU), the new BIOS from nikey22 seems to have solved most things. Now, the machine boots correctly.

However, I now get a "Panic Medic Boot" popup. I assume that the BIOS is trying to load a kext? Any suggestions how I can solve this?

Help us adding a signature including your full hardware settings and your problem (like I did) in your profile here and please be more precise. Make a screen shot, describe exactly when this happens. I am not good at guessing this morning, sorry.

 

[tobym76]

Help us adding a signature including your full hardware settings and your problem (like I did) in your profile here and please be more precise. Make a screen shot, describe exactly when this happens. I am not good at guessing this morning, sorry.

Sorry. Just to clarify, I have a 27" 2011 iMac with 3.4GHz i7. GTX 780m 4GB graphics with the BIOS from nikey22. 8GB RAM. 500GB SSD.

The error was a screen like this:

I have now been using the machine for an hour or so and it has twice crashed and restarted, but without showing a crash report. I can dig through the console to see if I can find one.

Meanwhile, I am fighting with Boot Camp Assistant to try and create a Windows 10 installer. I think I will give up and go back to doing it manually!

Thanks for any suggestions.

Toby

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Sorry. Just to clarify, I have a 27" 2011 iMac with 3.4GHz i7. GTX 780m 4GB graphics with the BIOS from nikey22. 8GB RAM. 500GB SSD.

The error was a screen like this:

View attachment 939487

I have now been using the machine for an hour or so and it has twice crashed and restarted, but without showing a crash report. I can dig through the console to see if I can find one.

Meanwhile, I am fighting with Boot Camp Assistant to try and create a Windows 10 installer. I think I will give up and go back to doing it manually!

Thanks for any suggestions.

Toby

Having the same setup but no such problems.
Never saw this error message before. Which OS? Fresh install or do you have installed some third party apps coming with extensions?

 

[tobym76]

Never saw this error message before. Which OS? Fresh install or do you have installed some third party apps coming with extensions?

High Sierra installed fresh over the Internet. No 3rd party apps. But maybe the BIOS from nikey22 tries to load a kernel extension?



Anyway, the bad news now is that I am back to seeing a black screen with only a single diagnostic LED turning on. I am starting to wonder if the GPU is dead/dying. Is it worth trying to bake it? Or should I try to re-flash with the original BIOS and return it to the seller? Or is there some other trick I should try first?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

High Sierra installed fresh over the Internet. No 3rd party apps. But maybe the BIOS from nikey22 tries to load a kernel extension?



Anyway, the bad news now is that I am back to seeing a black screen with only a single diagnostic LED turning on. I am starting to wonder if the GPU is dead/dying. Is it worth trying to bake it? Or should I try to re-flash with the original BIOS and return it to the seller? Or is there some other trick I should try first?

No baking! You cannot return and become a baker at the same time

One LED means clearly that your system board cannot communicate any longer with the graphics card. And it may be really a sign of a dead or dying card. Have you seated the card firmly in the slot? Hardware problems cannot really be solved here. If you have the chance to return, then do it better sooner than later.

Do not like this, but a PRAM reset may sometimes help. A few days ago I had a 2011 with a K4100M in a boot chime loop, had had to disassemble and reassemble the complete system to get this error away. Cannot say what it causes. It was even impossible to do the PRAM reset because the system did "power on - chime - reboot - chime - reboot - chime ...." unless you pulled the power plug out of the wall....

 

[bokkow]

One issue i noticed is banding and gradient problems. For example on this screenshot you can see some dark bars at the bottom, its not fully white:

View attachment 939234


Theres significant banding when launchpad is visible too:

View attachment 939235

I'm noticing the same with my system on 10.15.5. I'm not too bothered with it, I'm not sure if this wasn't there with the K2100M (not too keen on building it back in just to have a look :/)

Btw; a printscreen viewed on a different device doesnt show this banding we’re seeing of course. Only possibility to make this visible for others is by taking a picture

Edit: perhaps @nikey22 has a suggestion being the person who made it possible to have these cards supported at all

 

[Allistah]

How do I know if I've installed the brightness fix for the K4100M and it is working? I had brightness control before which got it most of the way there. Wasn't sure how to tell if it was all the way fixed. Maybe since I can't tell the difference it is not fixed. Any way I can check this?

 

[highvoltage12v]

How do I know if I've installed the brightness fix for the K4100M and it is working? I had brightness control before which got it most of the way there. Wasn't sure how to tell if it was all the way fixed. Maybe since I can't tell the difference it is not fixed. Any way I can check this?

Your LCD would look Dim at 100% brightness, if you are okay with this, than just don't install the patch. But if you installed the Kext along with Lilu using Kext utility it should be working.

Also you can go open "System Profiler" scroll down to System/Extensions and let show you all the loaded extensions. If "AppleBacklightFixup" is there than it is working.

 

[Allistah]

Your LCD would look Dim at 100% brightness, if you are okay with this, than just don't install the patch. But if you installed the Kext along with Lilu using Kext utility it should be working.

Also you can go open "System Profiler" scroll down to System/Extensions and let show you all the loaded extensions. If "AppleBacklightFixup" is there than it is working.

I didn't think it was in there.. The screen seems more dim now than it did before I added the K4100M which is why I asked. This is what I have currently in the area where it would show up.

 

[Allistah]

I went and found the kext

Your LCD would look Dim at 100% brightness, if you are okay with this, than just don't install the patch. But if you installed the Kext along with Lilu using Kext utility it should be working.

Also you can go open "System Profiler" scroll down to System/Extensions and let show you all the loaded extensions. If "AppleBacklightFixup" is there than it is working.

I went and found the kext you posted in the last week or so and loaded that up. Brightness is now fixed. I knew something was off...

 

[nikey22]

I think the screen is running at 16 bit, even though system report says 24bit.

Yes, thank you for the comment. I am aware of the issue. I did notice it on my High Sierra install. However, when testing with others the issues did not present itself. There seems to be a problem with the UGADRAW_Protocol Table component of the embedded EDK2 generic driver that describes the color-depth information. It may indeed be set to a lower pixel-depth.

Remember, this monitor is exceptional in that it produces a relatively high-res picture to begin with (at least in the 27" LCD displays). So the generic driver may not be using it to its full capacity. I'll have to disassemble the ROM again and find out where the information is stored and called to. For now, sleep and changing the resolution back/forth seem to correct the issue, because the correct pixel-depth is triggered by the MacOS drivers and not the older embedded ones. We're working on it.

 

[bokkow]

Yes, thank you for the comment. I am aware of the issue. I did notice it on my High Sierra install. However, when testing with others the issues did not present itself. There seems to be a problem with the UGADRAW_Protocol Table component of the embedded EDK2 generic driver that describes the color-depth information. It may indeed be set to a lower pixel-depth.

Remember, this monitor is exceptional in that it produces a relatively high-res picture to begin with (at least in the 27" LCD displays). So the generic driver may not be using it to its full capacity. I'll have to disassemble the ROM again and find out where the information is stored and called to. For now, sleep and changing the resolution back/forth seem to correct the issue, because the correct pixel-depth is triggered by the MacOS drivers and not the older embedded ones. We're working on it.

Ah! Good to know it is something known
Just to confirm; changing resolution and back again does indeed correct the issue for the time being.

 

[Charbelbodo]

Hi,
I have the choice between the Quadro K2000m and the Quadro K1100m. I'm aware that the k2000m does not support native brightness control but that could be remedied using the "Brightness Slider"app.
Which one of these card is better to use on a 27" imac 2011?
My use : video editing, 2 and 3 D animation.
Thanks for any response

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi,
I have the choice between the Quadro K2000m and the Quadro K1100m. I'm aware that the k2000m does not support native brightness control but that could be remedied using the "Brightness Slider"app.
Which one of these card is better to use on a 27" imac 2011?
My use : video editing, 2 and 3 D animation.
Thanks for any response

In terms of performance both are equal (slow). I would never use a card not offering native (with or without OpenCore) brightness control. If you really target on video editing take a look at the AMD cards. These offer native H.264 and HEVC @4K.

 

[Kardionoize]

Hello all
I finally managed to upgrade my imac to an nvidia quadro k1100m gpu and istalled the hdd with mojave from my dead macbook but i cant figure out how to get the backlight kext running, also does anyone know how to open my bootcamp partition with windows 10 or install a new one?

Thanks in advance

 

[bokkow]

Hello all
I finally managed to upgrade my imac to an nvidia quadro k1100m gpu and istalled the hdd with mojave from my dead macbook but i cant figure out how to get the backlight kext running, also does anyone know how to open my bootcamp partition with windows 10 or install a new one?

Thanks in advance

Clean install with the latest version of High Sierra should be the way to go for a start. Not a pre existing Mojave install.

Considering the W10 install seems to be a partition on the same HDD as the existing Mojave install that means it is installed with your MacBook as hardware? Save yourself the trouble and after installing MacOS make a clean W10 partition as well.

Now for the backlight; fully read the very first post of this thread.

 

[Terros]

** NVIDIA GeForce GTX780M ROM **

Genuine Native Boot Screen & Brightness Control

"this is insanely great!"
-Steve Jobs​

There are many members here that have this card now and have been using it with & without Opencore. The previous rom iterations did not initialize the “built-in” iMac LCD screen but instead spoofed it to use the Cinema Display as the internal screen which rendered brightness control non-functional, and forced the use of a bootloader to add the feature back via a kernel extension.

I have put together a ROM for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX780M which will allow:

• Genuine native brightness control
• Genuine ‘gray’ early-boot screen (stage 1 & 2 progress bar)
• Genuine macOS bootloader ready

This ROM does not require a 3rd party bootloader like OpenCore.

ROM testing has already been underway for the past few weeks by @Ausdauersportler and @highvoltage12v.

There is an overclock present on the GTX780M from the base rom. I would suggest you to use a 3-pipe heatsink for this GPU. Apply proper thermal pads and appropriate heat dissipating grease like K5pro to the areas that are in contact with the heat sink. Keep mac fans up and running to achieve better control of cooling as well.

As with the K4100M, you will need to use a brightness kext mod to obtain the proper range of brightness in macOS. There will be a separate instruction for Windows 10 users to adjust the RMBrightness scaling accordingly.


Important Links:
USB Flashing for SSH @xanderon method <link>
@Curtis Gross – walkthrough video <link>
Heat Sink MOD to grind down the edges <link>
Heat Sink mounting @tgaillar <link>
Kexts for sleep/iGPU (Mojave/Catalina) <link>



More GPU Roms to come... Enjoy!

Thanks so much for this!

One issue I've picked up after the flashing though with my 780M is now when I select any device, other than OSX (push and hold ALT at startup) the machine just freezes, including if I reboot to Windows. I tried CD Drive boot too, also freezes.

OSX Starts fine and brightness control works great! No more burning my retina's!

Wondering if I missed something somewhere or if anyone else experienced the same?