My advice is to keep your natively supported High Sierra in the default boot partition for future troubleshooting.
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iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade
- Thread starter MichaelDT
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Any stock Kepler card will work on the iMac using the base PC-rom, we've known this for years.
I think the main problem you will have is that with a modded ROM, a PRAM reset in a 2009 iMac causes a black screen until a external monitor is attached. This is what @Ausdauersportler referred to as the chicken/egg paradox a few posts back. A must read, thanks Wolf!
It looks like you have a iMac Late-2009 27", using a corei5 -750 (Lynnfield) and P55 Chipset. Please make sure you update the bootrom to the latest version via the High Sierra 2020-006 updater. This should bring you to 66.0.0.0.0 for the Bootrom Version. This is absolutely necessary for any OS upgrades or future ROM mods.
I'm currently transitioning my roms into a github. I'll work on a K4000M rom as well (prototype already done), and will add it to the repositories in the Github once I have the directory structure organized. Maybe I will put up here first if there is enough interest. But I think your biggest obstacle is the black-screen with pram reset. And yes, I agree with everyone else:
read page 1!
I think the main problem you will have is that with a modded ROM, a PRAM reset in a 2009 iMac causes a black screen until a external monitor is attached. This is what @Ausdauersportler referred to as the chicken/egg paradox a few posts back. A must read, thanks Wolf!
It looks like you have a iMac Late-2009 27", using a corei5 -750 (Lynnfield) and P55 Chipset. Please make sure you update the bootrom to the latest version via the High Sierra 2020-006 updater. This should bring you to 66.0.0.0.0 for the Bootrom Version. This is absolutely necessary for any OS upgrades or future ROM mods.
I'm currently transitioning my roms into a github. I'll work on a K4000M rom as well (prototype already done), and will add it to the repositories in the Github once I have the directory structure organized. Maybe I will put up here first if there is enough interest. But I think your biggest obstacle is the black-screen with pram reset. And yes, I agree with everyone else:
read page 1!
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I bought one from Ebay and it didn't work. I bought another one, again from Ebay. This one worked. I would say, based on my experience, your chances are 50%-50% 🙃 !!
Is there anyone who has done this with a comparable setup that would be game for helping do a real-time walkthrough on this process? I'm using a Dosdude-loaded Catalina iMac but am interested in either the Opencore implementation or correcting the shortcomings associated with using a Nick fix with a k2100m. I had a local tech put the actual GPU in and get the machine back to a usable state after it had a dead or dying GPU when I received it as a donation from a friend who had no idea whatsoever and was just dumping it, basically. It has become my sandbox machine now that it is fixed, but if there are ways to dial in the last of the issues (black screen at boot, not waking from sleep, etc), that would be great.
Since much of the work of correcting the physical device has been done, it seems like it's a task of software mostly, but one a little too far into the weeds for me, if only because a tiny error seems like it can cause some far bigger problems. Would be nice to be shown the ropes. I have read enough of the thread here to have an idea which way to go but find it pretty confusing once all sorts of tabs are open to all the extra explainers and pages with extra code, etc.
I did try a couple of the fixes on the HelloWorldCodes page but it doesn't look like they reliably "took." It was the second go-around that stuff. The first broke something and got me into an endless loop of boot chimes, black screen, and nothing but a power switch would get me out of it. I reinstalled Catalina from the top of the Dosdude order of steps and at least got Catalina going again, then did a second attempt at the HWC stuff. At least nothing seems broken, but it's also not a completed thing. While I am a 20 year Mac user, the Hackintoshy stuff is new to me, and as I see this thread, looks like lots of us are in that same boat with these iMacs.
My sandbox rig:
Mid 2011 12,2 iMac
27"
3.1 Quad i5
16 GB
Quadro k2100m by Nick, 1 GB useful (2 GB card)
Boot ROM 87.0.0.0.0
1 TB SSD in three partition for HS, Mojave, and Cat.
Appreciated.
Since much of the work of correcting the physical device has been done, it seems like it's a task of software mostly, but one a little too far into the weeds for me, if only because a tiny error seems like it can cause some far bigger problems. Would be nice to be shown the ropes. I have read enough of the thread here to have an idea which way to go but find it pretty confusing once all sorts of tabs are open to all the extra explainers and pages with extra code, etc.
I did try a couple of the fixes on the HelloWorldCodes page but it doesn't look like they reliably "took." It was the second go-around that stuff. The first broke something and got me into an endless loop of boot chimes, black screen, and nothing but a power switch would get me out of it. I reinstalled Catalina from the top of the Dosdude order of steps and at least got Catalina going again, then did a second attempt at the HWC stuff. At least nothing seems broken, but it's also not a completed thing. While I am a 20 year Mac user, the Hackintoshy stuff is new to me, and as I see this thread, looks like lots of us are in that same boat with these iMacs.
My sandbox rig:
Mid 2011 12,2 iMac
27"
3.1 Quad i5
16 GB
Quadro k2100m by Nick, 1 GB useful (2 GB card)
Boot ROM 87.0.0.0.0
1 TB SSD in three partition for HS, Mojave, and Cat.
Appreciated.
Give the docs on the first post of this thread at least a chance and read there...instead of and endless number of open tabs make a plan and some notes on a piece of paper.
I did read it. It's not my language. It doesn't interact. It doesn't look over my shoulder as I move through the steps. I was asking for help in real time. The answer to "enough confusion" is not "more confusion."
What a community!! Thank you so much to all of the contributors for sharing what you do. I spent all summer learning what I could here before starting my own upgrade, and I'm absolutely thrilled.
I found an NOS K4100M for my candidate, and had no surprises thanks to the prep and wealth of info on page 1 (honourable mention to pages 2 through 481 as well)
Happily, I have one item to contribute. It IS possible to run a second external display. Connecting the second display to a Thunderbolt hub (I'm using an external HDD) allows it to be detected and used. I did see a brief mention of this in an earlier post, but I don't remember seeing anything definitive to confirm. Works for me with 2011 27" using K4100M. Requires the AppleGraphicControl.kext patch to initialize DisplayPort out of course.
So I'm up and running. Stable and with the ability to move along to Catalina+. I have one final issue to resolve with the GPU throttling to 405MHz and locking there (should be 706), but I'll keep working on that. FakeSMC are installed and initialized. All temps look great except the GPU Proximity as reported by HWMonitor. 129 deg (no value from sensor) which appears to be what Unigene believes is the GPU temp as well. GPU die and GPU heatsink are both comfortably under 55 deg under load and Macs Fan Control is keeping everything happy using the GPU Heatsink temps, but does not receive a value for the GPU itself. Have reset SMC and run AHT, no faults indicated. Since the card was NOS, a bad GPU is unlikely, but not out of the question.
GPU Proximity is known to be a useless reading, but since it is the only one with a 129 value, and the benchmarking software reads the GPU temp as that, I think it is where I'll focus my efforts. Only one thing - where the crap is the sensor for this? Information about it is pretty tough to come by, so if anyone knows, I'd be grateful for the assist. If I can figure out what is causing the false 129 reading in Unigene, I should be able to resolve the throttling. Either that or figure out if there's a way to have the GPU report its temp to the SMC that I've missed. Problem exists in HS, Catalina, and with a clean (patched) install.
Thanks again to all. I only wish I had more to give back for what I've gained. The core group here are proof the Internet can be used for good and not just evil after all! 👏👏👏
EDIT: Sometimes all you have to do to solve your own problem is take a break and write it out. I DO have something else to contribute after all! My advice is that no matter how experienced you are, you can always miss something small. I thought AHT would have indicated this type of fault, but the skin sensor connector at the logic board was not fully seated. Went back in a couple of times before to double, then triple check connectors, but did not look at that side of the board since I didn't expect it to be involved. Fixed that, and the 129 still exists, but the GPU performance is now full go, and meeting expectations.
I found an NOS K4100M for my candidate, and had no surprises thanks to the prep and wealth of info on page 1 (honourable mention to pages 2 through 481 as well)
Happily, I have one item to contribute. It IS possible to run a second external display. Connecting the second display to a Thunderbolt hub (I'm using an external HDD) allows it to be detected and used. I did see a brief mention of this in an earlier post, but I don't remember seeing anything definitive to confirm. Works for me with 2011 27" using K4100M. Requires the AppleGraphicControl.kext patch to initialize DisplayPort out of course.
So I'm up and running. Stable and with the ability to move along to Catalina+. I have one final issue to resolve with the GPU throttling to 405MHz and locking there (should be 706), but I'll keep working on that. FakeSMC are installed and initialized. All temps look great except the GPU Proximity as reported by HWMonitor. 129 deg (no value from sensor) which appears to be what Unigene believes is the GPU temp as well. GPU die and GPU heatsink are both comfortably under 55 deg under load and Macs Fan Control is keeping everything happy using the GPU Heatsink temps, but does not receive a value for the GPU itself. Have reset SMC and run AHT, no faults indicated. Since the card was NOS, a bad GPU is unlikely, but not out of the question.
GPU Proximity is known to be a useless reading, but since it is the only one with a 129 value, and the benchmarking software reads the GPU temp as that, I think it is where I'll focus my efforts. Only one thing - where the crap is the sensor for this? Information about it is pretty tough to come by, so if anyone knows, I'd be grateful for the assist. If I can figure out what is causing the false 129 reading in Unigene, I should be able to resolve the throttling. Either that or figure out if there's a way to have the GPU report its temp to the SMC that I've missed. Problem exists in HS, Catalina, and with a clean (patched) install.
Thanks again to all. I only wish I had more to give back for what I've gained. The core group here are proof the Internet can be used for good and not just evil after all! 👏👏👏
EDIT: Sometimes all you have to do to solve your own problem is take a break and write it out. I DO have something else to contribute after all! My advice is that no matter how experienced you are, you can always miss something small. I thought AHT would have indicated this type of fault, but the skin sensor connector at the logic board was not fully seated. Went back in a couple of times before to double, then triple check connectors, but did not look at that side of the board since I didn't expect it to be involved. Fixed that, and the 129 still exists, but the GPU performance is now full go, and meeting expectations.
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Try some online translation services and luckily we are not discussing an English language novel, it is just a few computer instructions and as a fun fact: English is the language of this technology. Study math, you need Latin or Ancient Greek or French if you want to read Gauss in his original publications. You are lucky just to play with this iMac.
if you have one to send me I would install it immediately for the brightness, not having read I bought the k4000m by mistake
I documented and all k3100m have hynix ram so that's the problem? because they all have hynix ram, your working what ram has?
if i try to install the k4100 rom on k4000 what can happen? maybe it could work, if it doesn't work, is there a way to fix it?
hey buddy thanks for all your work.so guys, I have a little gift for you to give back after such an incredible thread
hope you like it, the headaches to get it running were immens for me as a newb.
I couldn't stand it to use fckin windows to flash the cards and so I prepared this ~350mb drive
I created a Linux Live USB (based on grml.org) Thumb Drive with nvflash_linux and Nicks Bioses preloaded. and its booting by itself so you can work blind with a new unpatched nvidia card plugged in. Also, its starting a ssh daemon and using DHCP to get an IP so you can remote login
Steps
Download
14 days left to download, uploaded here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/cztz4xqj2sru9gj/2011_imac_usb.zip/file
mirror by NOTNICE, thnx: https://cloud.notnlce.com/index.php/s/xkJP34GD6a9WziE/download
Prepare USB Drive or SD Card
so, you take a small usb thumb drive, partition it with disk utility on a Mac: GPT + FAT32
and just unzip the files structure onto the drive, no dd or etcher or something. just copy paste it. folder structure see attached screenshot. (you can remove the .roms I downloaded and download itself if you want to be sure about the correct file size. I did not verify them at all. use/flash at your own risk please)
Test & Try
test your thumb drive with a more or less working GPU/ external Screen or just have faith in me
Swap Hardware
swap your GPU to NVIDIA and (!) disconnect every SSD/HDD, makes it easier to boot blindly from one USB or SD Card, connect the ETH Cable (!)
Find IP
let the iMac boot, everything is black, the boot loader is waiting 20s before booting, so give the whole process 1min time, then head over to your Router Page and find the right IP that the iMac got through DHCP
SSH to the iMac
now fire up your terminal on a Win/Mac/Linux Machine of your choice and ssh to your iMac with
ssh root@YOURIP
Password:flash
Confirm the ssh id with yes and you should be in your iMac
Working Directory
cd /lib/live/mount/medium/flash
read the RADME in there… I will enjoy my brand new k2000m in my 27" 2011 iMac with Catalina 10.15.3
… and because this is so easy, I rebuild it to a K1100M and flashed that also
(someone could write some fancy scripts but I thought its saver that everyone is doing it command by command and don't stop thinking and trusting some scripts)
I bought a K4100M and tried your solution here and it showed card mismatch, even though when I connected to the machine with another linux machine it showed the correct GPU K4100M. I even tried adding the vbios rom from nikey22 to the USB stick.
your guidance would be appreciated greatly.
Hey girls and guys, first of all thank you for that just awesome thread here. I've learned a lot what's possible with our old but gold machines. Really a great community!
My project sadly just failed uptil now so just wanted to show what i did and help some guys to just don't make my mistakes or buy the same card i did. At least maybe some of the experts could help me out.
I have two imacs 27'' 2011 i7, one with a working 6770M, the other one with a faulty 6970M.
I got a 780M from ebay, bought it in summer, seller said he got it out of a dell laptop, was working. The 780M looks a bit different then the 780M i saw here. The card has two "springs" named "Pad 1", "Pad 2", located on the upperside (one at the lefternside, close to the screw hole, the other one at the top of the card, righternside). I have broken one of them (the one close to the screw hole.) Pictures attached. Had someone the same issue with that kind of the 780M? Does someone now if i can just remove both of these "springs"?
Back to topic, i swaped the card, had my Linux USB Stick ready to rock but nothing came up in both imacs. Just the first LED light, boots for a second or something like this, CPU fan on and then reboot and bootloop. No bootnoice. I checked all kinds of memorys, tested my hardware several times, PRam, SRam resets, renewed the thermalpaste, pads...Both imacs exactly the problem. (No bootnoice, bootloop).
Any thoughts an this? Something what i forgot or should try out?
Just annoying and really sad. But thanks a bunch again too all who made and make this thread so helpfull!
conclusion: maybe the "springcard" is a sign for a non working 780M in the 2011 imac.
My project sadly just failed uptil now so just wanted to show what i did and help some guys to just don't make my mistakes or buy the same card i did. At least maybe some of the experts could help me out.
I have two imacs 27'' 2011 i7, one with a working 6770M, the other one with a faulty 6970M.
I got a 780M from ebay, bought it in summer, seller said he got it out of a dell laptop, was working. The 780M looks a bit different then the 780M i saw here. The card has two "springs" named "Pad 1", "Pad 2", located on the upperside (one at the lefternside, close to the screw hole, the other one at the top of the card, righternside). I have broken one of them (the one close to the screw hole.) Pictures attached. Had someone the same issue with that kind of the 780M? Does someone now if i can just remove both of these "springs"?
Back to topic, i swaped the card, had my Linux USB Stick ready to rock but nothing came up in both imacs. Just the first LED light, boots for a second or something like this, CPU fan on and then reboot and bootloop. No bootnoice. I checked all kinds of memorys, tested my hardware several times, PRam, SRam resets, renewed the thermalpaste, pads...Both imacs exactly the problem. (No bootnoice, bootloop).
Any thoughts an this? Something what i forgot or should try out?
Just annoying and really sad. But thanks a bunch again too all who made and make this thread so helpfull!
conclusion: maybe the "springcard" is a sign for a non working 780M in the 2011 imac.
Attachments
No 2nd LED on?
check all the connections and the card fit. 2nd LED should be on even without a GPU AFAIK
This looks like a k3100m, not a 780m.
Can you peel the plastic cover that is on the left side of the gpu chip?
Does it has a serial number?
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No I couldn't.
That's just the idea how you can try to gain your target.
There is a clear guide for backlight adjustment linked to page #1 already.
I stick with the cards listed on page 1.
Actually, I stick with AMD cards only. They are the only one type that support HEVC encode/decoding, AFAIK.
2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade
Backlight Control Background: The 2011 iMac display backlight system uses pulse-width-modulation (PWM) to control backlight intensity. A PWM control signal is generated within the logic board-video card circuit and routed to the PWM input on the backlight board. The PWM frequency is 13KHz and...
forums.macrumors.com
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2nd LED comes only up if the BIOS chip is containing a valid and usable BIOS. HP cards usually do not have one...
Bonjour,
I'll give you some news, it was indeed my power supply that had failed (I was frankly not sure).😅
I'm redoing a Big Sur installation.
Now I'm waiting to rebalance my Time Machine backup (I know it's not very advisable).
Otherwise I still don't know why but my SD card reader and my ethernet card don't work anymore, I'll see later if it's related to my modded EFI (knowing that I put back the original one).
Otherwise special thanks to the electrical security systems, I forgot to unplug my machine while I was putting away the inside of my machine and electrified myself 😱, the circuit breaker turned off immediately!😌
Bonne journée.
Edit: I forgot to ask a question, it's normal that I have the ventilation on full, I forgot to read something?
I'll give you some news, it was indeed my power supply that had failed (I was frankly not sure).😅
I'm redoing a Big Sur installation.
Now I'm waiting to rebalance my Time Machine backup (I know it's not very advisable).
Otherwise I still don't know why but my SD card reader and my ethernet card don't work anymore, I'll see later if it's related to my modded EFI (knowing that I put back the original one).
Otherwise special thanks to the electrical security systems, I forgot to unplug my machine while I was putting away the inside of my machine and electrified myself 😱, the circuit breaker turned off immediately!😌
Bonne journée.
Edit: I forgot to ask a question, it's normal that I have the ventilation on full, I forgot to read something?
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Ventilation on full must be because lack of temperature sensor on hard drive, dvd drive and or gpu...Bonjour,
I'll give you some news, it was indeed my power supply that had failed (I was frankly not sure).😅
I'm redoing a Big Sur installation.
Now I'm waiting to rebalance my Time Machine backup (I know it's not very advisable).
Otherwise I still don't know why but my SD card reader and my ethernet card don't work anymore, I'll see later if it's related to my modded EFI (knowing that I put back the original one).
Otherwise special thanks to the electrical security systems, I forgot to unplug my machine while I was putting away the inside of my machine and electrified myself 😱, the circuit breaker turned off immediately!😌
Bonne journée.
Edit: I forgot to ask a question, it's normal that I have the ventilation on full, I forgot to read something?
Use Mac fan control aplication...
That were my thoughts too. So there is no way to flash them right?
Would it be a good idea to add some pictures at the first post that these cards won't work. I mean mine looks slightly different then the one on the first post and it is definitely a 780M (checked the chipnumber).
@Jforte i peeled off the plasticcover and add another picture.
Thank you all!
Attachments
Bonjour,
That's already done.
My question was asking if it had something to do with the new board, otherwise I see that it's the CPU fan that's at full speed, so maybe I plugged the sensor back in wrong, I don't know yet?
Maybe. Install Mac fan control to see that bafore teardown the imac...Bonjour,
That's already done.
My question was asking if it had something to do with the new board, otherwise I see that it's the CPU fan that's at full speed, so maybe I plugged the sensor back in wrong, I don't know yet?
The BIOS chip at right lower corner of image with a red-white dot looks like a WSON type EEPROM that is not amenable to clip-flashing. You can only flash it in Linux or Windows.
And there is no clear identifiable pattern of what combination of GPUs and iMacs would work or not work, and there can never be an exhaustive list of the different kinds of GPUs with different RAM chips in the market.