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

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
@doscore
You are correct, the bios chip on your card is Pm25LD010: 128K x 8 (1 Mbit).
It should be Pm25LD020: 256K x 8 (2 Mbit)

Someone replaced the EEPROM on that card, but probably unintentionally just chose the wrong size. You will just need to solder on a new one.
You don't have to use PMC brand.

Try:
Winbond 25x20CLNIG
Macronix MX25L2006EM1I-12G

I've done it many times, <link>
Good luck!
 
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Thanks for the great write ups and everything. Got the K2100m flashed with absolutely no problems. I did forget to put thermal pads on the ram chips. I’ll probably go back and do that when I upgrade the Bluetooth and wifi.
 

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Some time ago I've read that iMacs 2009-2011 could start with Mojave/Catalina with original Radeon HD 4670 256 mb graphics. Than I've purchased one, but later noticed that it has no 256 mb, but 1 gb (Acer Aspiere 8935G version).
iMac 2011 starts with this card, no image, no boot screen, but chime sound plays, and system normally loads (I think).

If you want, I can mount it again and would go to Remote Control or Teamviewer to get a screenshot of "About Mac" sheet or system info.
Is it real to flash this unit with modified Apple Rom? An original Apple rom is on a web. I can grab rom from 1GB unit and send/upload to you guys. Maybe it would be interesting for community?
 

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Game1Experts said:
Can someone help me please? I recently bought nvidia quadro 3000m for imac 2009 21 inch but when I press the Power button my screen is black and the fans go loud all cables are connected.When I switch to the original mac gpu all works great. I never flashed the gpu since I cant find the rom or how to actually do this. I tried to see from the motherboard lights too without the screen and I have only the power led button on. Can you help me? Thanks for your time.View attachment 1716699
Click to expand...
This is slighly off topic here, all the cards will only work within the machines listed on page #1 and post #1 and using a MXM-B card in a 21.5“ iMac is another nuisance I will never understand....the core2duo machines are excluded!

I own a similar system with damaged 4670 GPU and I will start experiments in the next weeks. But you are literally on our own right now. We have a single feedback of a „working“ K610M in an 27“ Late 2009 core2duo. All seven problems, but showing a picture.

A single LED means no usable BIOS found. At least the systems does a POST. You may fetch different BIOS versions from the web but be ware of the memory problem. Not every available BIOS will work with every card and it‘s memory type - first post, again. Did you read it?

Possibly one should start a different thread „Late 2009 (core2duo) Graphics Card upgrade“

Note:
The fans are running at high speed because the internal display and it's temperature sensor has not been plugged in!
 
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Razor-G said:
Some time ago I've read that iMacs 2009-2011 could start with Mojave/Catalina with original Radeon HD 4670 256 mb graphics. Than I've purchased one, but later noticed that it has no 256 mb, but 1 gb (Acer Aspiere 8935G version).
iMac 2011 starts with this card, no image, no boot screen, but chime sound plays, and system normally loads (I think).

If you want, I can mount it again and would go to Remote Control or Teamviewer to get a screenshot of "About Mac" sheet or system info.
Is it real to flash this unit with modified Apple Rom? An original Apple rom is on a web. I can grab rom from 1GB unit and send/upload to you guys. Maybe it would be interesting for community?
Click to expand...
Off topic, too! You may start a new thread about it or search the wide web for similar attempts. You cannot be the first one asking this.

A K610M is as cheap as the ATI and known to work with Big Sur - why wasting time on a (known to die fast) non metal GPU?
 
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Povilas1988 said:
Thank you i think only tomorrow wil reasemble imac gain. and will check all things and write some specs about my mac. Thank you one more time.
Click to expand...
So I have Elpida Besed K2100M Patched it . Using this info https://forums.macrumors.com/thread....1596614/page-467?post=29425279#post-29425279 There are mentioned that i neet to use open core. I try to find dome info about htat i planing tu use Catalina on this imac. keep looking info on OC . some help would be appreciated.
Thank you all.
 
Povilas1988 said:
So I have Elpida Besed K2100M Patched it . Using this info https://forums.macrumors.com/thread....1596614/page-467?post=29425279#post-29425279 There are mentioned that i neet to use open core. I try to find dome info about htat i planing tu use Catalina on this imac. keep looking info on OC . some help would be appreciated.
Thank you all.
Click to expand...
Update Found what i need to provide full install. wil try to reintal Imacs ssd. didint have working imac with GPU so i will try on my MBP
 
Ausdauersportler said:
Too bad...

As I wrote before some cards behaving exactly the same way. But you can still use it in a 2009/2010, at least my cards did it. Currently I have all three systems here at home in my lab: 2011, 2010, 2009...easy to compare and sort errors out.
Click to expand...
My k4100m has hynix vram chips... could this be the problem? Is there a way to work this out, like the k2100m solution?
 
KennyW said:
Well, I did try editing that part of DeviceProperties

in hope of reducing the brightness or changing the bright white background color of OC Bootscreen to something less dazzling, and it didn't work. Now I know that it is related to the brightness control of the GPU ! Probably only for nVidia ? as my AMD GPU isn't affected at all by its value.

P.S. Finally found the needed info.
It is in NVRAM section under "4D1EDE05-38C7-4A6A-9CC6-4BCCA8B38C14 / DefaultBackgroundColor". Apparently it's a four-byte BGRA data, hex colour with two extra zeros, defining boot.efi user interface background colour.

You need to add the following lines to the Config.plist under "NVRAM / Add":

<key>4D1EDE05-38C7-4A6A-9CC6-4BCCA8B38C14</key>
<dict>
<key>DefaultBackgroundColor</key>
<data>AAAAAA==</data>
</dict>

These are the color codes example:
AAAAAA== (00000000) Syrah Black
v7+/AA== (BFBFBF00) Light Gray

You can also set the subsequent Apple Boot Screen background color with DarkBoot:
github.com

GitHub - w0lfschild/DarkBoot: :computer: Customize the boot, login and lock screens on macOS

:computer: Customize the boot, login and lock screens on macOS - w0lfschild/DarkBoot
github.com github.com

:D
Click to expand...
Working very well!
Now I have a totally black boot.
Thanks!
 
Povilas1988 said:
Update Found what i need to provide full install. wil try to reintal Imacs ssd. didint have working imac with GPU so i will try on my MBP
Click to expand...
One Quescion about OpenCore . Tried to make Open Core USB. But Only have 2015 MBP 13 with Catalina in it. i cant reinstal that MAc because i am uzsing it for work and my daily use. I flasched Catalina Loader and Now i cant Open Mu usb. it apears as unitialized. So cant do all steps to power my imac. Imac is 2010 21,5 but it had faultu GPU and didint turn on any more. As i Understand i have to confogure Open Core only in High sierra ?
 
Razor-G said:
Some time ago I've read that iMacs 2009-2011 could start with Mojave/Catalina with original Radeon HD 4670 256 mb graphics. Than I've purchased one, but later noticed that it has no 256 mb, but 1 gb (Acer Aspiere 8935G version).
iMac 2011 starts with this card, no image, no boot screen, but chime sound plays, and system normally loads (I think).

If you want, I can mount it again and would go to Remote Control or Teamviewer to get a screenshot of "About Mac" sheet or system info.
Is it real to flash this unit with modified Apple Rom? An original Apple rom is on a web. I can grab rom from 1GB unit and send/upload to you guys. Maybe it would be interesting for community?
Click to expand...
I think you can flash the 256mb Apple ROM onto this card, but you might need to replace the bios chip with a higher capacity one. I did a similar project with a 6750M, i bought a dell(or hp, i'm not sure, it was a long time ago) version with 1gb memory and it was running perfectly fine with the original 512mb apple rom after i replaced the bios chip(the apple bios size was larger than the original bios chip).

Also later i got a modified 1gb rom for this card(the apple rom was changed to address 1gb instead of 512mb) and that worked fine too. I'm not sure how to do this rom modification though.
 
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passatgt said:
I think you can flash the 256mb Apple ROM onto this card, but you might need to replace the bios chip with a higher capacity one. I did a similar project with a 6750M, i bought a dell(or hp, i'm not sure, it was a long time ago) version with 1gb memory and it was running perfectly fine with the original 512mb apple rom after i replaced the bios chip(the apple bios size was larger than the original bios chip).

Also later i got a modified 1gb rom for this card(the apple rom was changed to address 1gb instead of 512mb) and that worked fine too. I'm not sure how to do this rom modification though.
Click to expand...
Let me know if you need a German translation for your iPhone App.... :)
 
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jujudjentleman said:
Hey guys
Do you think that the way this guys put thermal paste on a GPU is a good war for the iMac 2011 27
Click to expand...
After at checking least 10+ original Apple ATI cards and I can confirm the used paste looks like the K5 pro and has been applied in the very same way. You need to fill the gap to the sink without putting the paste all over the card.

Just in case you never came across the first post, there is a picture attached showing a really similar application of the paste and searching for K5 on this thread my find a dozen more similar pictures.
 
lfom said:
From what I have read and understood, ROM1 is for Samsung (most common) while ROM2 is for Elpida (rare). I am not sure if there is one for Hynix, or if either would also work with Hynix as well.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the replay. Got it installed yesterday and works! Lol. I ended up using the Quadro_beta1.2 that was in the Linux usb flasher.
how big of a deal is it that I forgot to put thermal pads on the memory chips 🙄
Should I really take it back out to do that?
Thanks again
 
Hi.. Does anyone know why Serial numbers are not stored after this upgrade (To Catalina) Nvidia Quadra K2000M ...... In particular ADOBE and BOOM AUDIO. If anyone knows anything, please DM. Many thanks.
 
Ausdauersportler said:
After at checking least 10+ original Apple ATI cards and I can confirm the used paste looks like the K5 pro and has been applied in the very same way. You need to fill the gap to the sink without putting the paste all over the card.

Just in case you never came across the first post, there is a picture attached showing a really similar application of the paste and searching for K5 on this thread my find a dozen more similar pictures.
Click to expand...
Can I use the same thermal paste for a GTX 780m 4gb , and use the thermal paste the same way?
 
Hi guys, I love the detailed explanation that you have done in this post. I explain my problem:
A month ago I bought an imac 27 late-2009 with the graphics card fried. After thinking about it a lot, I decided to buy an alternative graphic on aliexpress, since the original ones are at a prohibitive price, the ones that are supposed to be good. I decided on the K4100M without having read your post yet. When installing it surprise, the black screen. I take the hard drive and install it in another 21 imac that I have, a High Sierra and connect it to the 27 imac. After what I think is the boot message the screen turns on and everything works fine. I have tried to install Nick's bios and it doesn't work as the screen keeps black even after the post. I have reinstalled the original Bios and it works but without the boot message. I tried to install Opencore but having the black screen it turns off before the installation and I don't know why. I have tried installing Catalina and Big-Sur and I don't get out of the black screen either. I don't know what else to do, if some kind soul could tell me how to act I would appreciate it very much. I'm at the expense of rendering it useless and buying another chart to see if it works. Thanks and regards
 
Hello, just to confirm what i have found out

1. got iMac 27 mid 2010
2. I have intalled SSD and have HDD and DVD still functioning
2. swaped cpu from i5 750 to x3470 -> working well for three years now
3. amd 5750 fried and i got just colored vertical lines all over display
4. bought K1100m from aliexpress, chosen the easy way...... (month waiting to ship)
5. swaped GPUs, nothing happend (all fans full on, while LCD still disconnected)
6. got the GPU bios flashed with clip flashing tool
7. got it in Imac but still nothing, after that I discovered that there are Diag LEDs on logic board

But here it starts to be a little tricky, as I have already read there should be four LEDs on left bottom corner of logic board. But I can see only three of them, can not find any picture on web (real picture, I would rather not take out the logic board out of case.....). I am looking just from the bottom left vent on the chassis.

so I did complete install just to be sure everything is connected the way it should be.....

With new K1100m (actually I am sure it is not new...)
1. plug the cable into the wall outlet an first LED imidiatelly light
2. push the power button and nothing happens I centrainly hear fans and HDD I think, no more LEDs turn on

so I installed back the old GPU

With burned 5750m
1. plug the cable into the wall outlet an first LED imidiatelly light
2. push the power button second LED light just a second later
3. third LED light when LCD turns on (with colour vertical stripes)
4. I cant see if there is fourth LED.....


Trickiness continues... second diag LED turn on means that my power supply is OK and powering the whole logic board. So why would it run good when old card installed and not with the "new" one?

Only thing that came into my mind is that the K1100m is shortened somehow and dead
 
pbv1970 said:
Hi guys, I love the detailed explanation that you have done in this post. I explain my problem:
A month ago I bought an imac 27 late-2009 with the graphics card fried. After thinking about it a lot, I decided to buy an alternative graphic on aliexpress, since the original ones are at a prohibitive price, the ones that are supposed to be good. I decided on the K4100M without having read your post yet. When installing it surprise, the black screen. I take the hard drive and install it in another 21 imac that I have, a High Sierra and connect it to the 27 imac. After what I think is the boot message the screen turns on and everything works fine. I have tried to install Nick's bios and it doesn't work as the screen keeps black even after the post. I have reinstalled the original Bios and it works but without the boot message. I tried to install Opencore but having the black screen it turns off before the installation and I don't know why. I have tried installing Catalina and Big-Sur and I don't get out of the black screen either. I don't know what else to do, if some kind soul could tell me how to act I would appreciate it very much. I'm at the expense of rendering it useless and buying another chart to see if it works. Thanks and regards
Click to expand...
Have you checked the documentation on the first post of this thread? Without reading any documentation this will not work.
 
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