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iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade
- Thread starter MichaelDT
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There is no native Apple Boot Picker screen with those GOP vBIOS for AMD cards, The LCD screen will be on when the OS graphic drivers are loaded as the OS comes into play.
However, you can get an OC BootPicker screen from Opencore (OC) instead.
So, one tip is to keep a small High Sierra (HS) partition that is natively supported by your iMac in the primary SATA channel, the one that your iMac will boot in default when you do a PRAM reset. That will help in your troubleshooting. If anything goes wrong, by doing a PRAM reset, you can always go back to HS and launch Startup Disk in System Preferences to boot from OC on your SD card. In this way, you can have an OC BootPicker which can further direct you to boot from whatever disk with a valid OS.
I do have a High Sierra partition on my SSD
My issue is that this SSD does not start when plugged on SATA channel. It does when plugged on USB port with OC.
Previous owners of WX4150 card (davidg5678, iphone_se, vastunghia) were faced to similar issue and some reported they managed to get the SATA channel to work by covering GPU with Kapton tape (see post #12556). The conclusion was there might have an electric short that makes the primary SATA channel down.
Yesterday I went back to the previous k2100m so that my son can use the iMac again.
I don't give up as I have also ordered that Kapton tape and also an enclosure for SSD that can be plugged on the other SATA channel (ODD slimsata) to test that channel in case the first still does not work with covered GPU. I will report back.
Have you run AHT or ASD? A damaged or disconnected sensor will cause the system's CPU to throttle.
What @KennyW stated is dead on. With the HD connected internal it is booting first instead of the SD card, and the default item it is trying to load is not working with the card change. When you move the HD external to be USB, the boot order is changing to the SD. To prove that to yourself, install a HD with High Sierra only and install internal. You won't see an OC boot screen, but it should boot HS even after a PRAM reset (i.e. where the selected boot object is cleared). It is not that you don't have HS installed, but that it is not the first OS found on the SSD (i.e what @KennyW stated).
UPDATE: With that said, a damaged SATA port or cable is possible, but I would ask how you made that deduction? I had such a system which was maddening, and was eventually traced to a failing power supply. You might see if the SATA cable on the optical drive works with the SSD in troubleshooting that (in my case it did), but I think this scenario is less likely.
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Hello,
I succeeded thanks to ausdauersportler to install BigSur on my imac late 2009.
i used opencorelegacypatcher.
however the bluetooth works very badly (I only managed to connect my mouse once) and the sound also works badly (it looks like there is only the treble)
are these problems known?
thank you
edit:
the mouse seems to work
the sound always the same problem
I have a score of 728 in the benchmark valley when I should be over 2000
I succeeded thanks to ausdauersportler to install BigSur on my imac late 2009.
i used opencorelegacypatcher.
however the bluetooth works very badly (I only managed to connect my mouse once) and the sound also works badly (it looks like there is only the treble)
are these problems known?
thank you
edit:
the mouse seems to work
the sound always the same problem
I have a score of 728 in the benchmark valley when I should be over 2000
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Hello everyone. Installed gtx 780 in my iMac 27. Flashed the BIOS. Installed Catalina. The bootscreen and auto-brightness are working. There is one problem and I can't find a solution: on the desktop, when viewing videos, images, and so on. I see a clear separation of the gradient. For some reason, anti-aliasing doesn't work. Maybe someone was able to solve this problem? Thanks!
UPD: Problem solved. Thank you passatgt!
UPD: Problem solved. Thank you passatgt!
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imac 27 late 2009 black screen, with quadro or gtx
have the solution to fix this?
can someone help with this problem?
or can someone put here working dump from imac 27 late 2009
for flashing.
have the solution to fix this?
can someone help with this problem?
or can someone put here working dump from imac 27 late 2009
for flashing.
2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade
Sierra and High Sierra Package Installer ( iMac 2009-2011 AGC, FakeSCM, Lilu, WhateverGreen, AppleBacklightFixup installer) Attached you will find the a kernel extension package installer currently working on Sierra 10.12 and later. SIP needs to be disabled. Boot into recovery, start Terminal...
forums.macrumors.com
OCLP is the single option you could have picked with no sound or only lame quality via VoodooHDA.kext - which sounds terrible.
About the Valley Score I cannot help right now, have no 2009 system running right now. But my NVIDIA cards all work well with each Big Sur installer/patcher option.
I have some intresting information about Imac 27 late 2009 on intel i5 i7 cpu, and black screen question.
so i got to say for all owners who want put nvidia in their machine, its possible
if u can update smc firmware from similar model from imac 27 mid 2010.
firstly i confirm that the bootrom is needed to be updated from imac 27 mid 2010,
but after is updated, imac starting detecting new grapchics card and route image on internal displayport perfect
but without integrated soundcard (CirrusLogic)
soundcard just not present in system at all, by smc GPIO, (I think .... )
because is written in SMC.
in Imac 27 mid 2010 similar controller smc as is present in late 2009 , with just littlebit one diffirent
is SMC Firmware.
please someone put here screenshot with system information about this mac (Version SMC) and bootroom
from imac 27 late 2009 i5 cpu, and imac 27 mid 2010.
so i got to say for all owners who want put nvidia in their machine, its possible
if u can update smc firmware from similar model from imac 27 mid 2010.
firstly i confirm that the bootrom is needed to be updated from imac 27 mid 2010,
but after is updated, imac starting detecting new grapchics card and route image on internal displayport perfect
but without integrated soundcard (CirrusLogic)
soundcard just not present in system at all, by smc GPIO, (I think .... )
because is written in SMC.
in Imac 27 mid 2010 similar controller smc as is present in late 2009 , with just littlebit one diffirent
is SMC Firmware.
please someone put here screenshot with system information about this mac (Version SMC) and bootroom
from imac 27 late 2009 i5 cpu, and imac 27 mid 2010.
Ok, thanks for the response
I thought OCLP was the best solution for my setup, so I'm going to attempt a forked install of the micropatcher, and hopefully that will solve my graphics performance problem.
here are my scores under HS and BS it's weird valley tells me that I only have 256mb of ram
I have an interesting find today, might be an useful info for mechanical users!
Back when I was trying to flash the patched Rom for the first time under black screen.
No matter what I tried, I couldn't trigger boot combo on my iMac 2011 27" to boot into Linux environment.
Turns out, old motherboards with legacy BIOS just don't communicate well with modern keyboards with complex chipset built-in.
In my case, mine is a Corsair K70 MK2 SE, I need to plugin another regular keyboard to perform boot combos until today I found this:
https://help.corsair.com/hc/en-us/a...-to-Use-a-CORSAIR-keyboard-to-enter-BIOS-mode
The keyboard can actually press and hold Winlock+F1 5secs to toggle between "BIOS mode" and "Gaming mode".
I believe similar keyboards from other manufacturers have that mode too.
Now I can finally free one of my precious USB ports for other device
Back when I was trying to flash the patched Rom for the first time under black screen.
No matter what I tried, I couldn't trigger boot combo on my iMac 2011 27" to boot into Linux environment.
Turns out, old motherboards with legacy BIOS just don't communicate well with modern keyboards with complex chipset built-in.
In my case, mine is a Corsair K70 MK2 SE, I need to plugin another regular keyboard to perform boot combos until today I found this:
https://help.corsair.com/hc/en-us/a...-to-Use-a-CORSAIR-keyboard-to-enter-BIOS-mode
The keyboard can actually press and hold Winlock+F1 5secs to toggle between "BIOS mode" and "Gaming mode".
I believe similar keyboards from other manufacturers have that mode too.
Now I can finally free one of my precious USB ports for other device
hey guys, quick question:
revived an 21.5" iMac from 2011, imac12,1 with a K2100M MXM a card. everything runs smooth and I check the Thunderbolt Port with my external Screen + HDMI + Adapter. I also got a picture.
but now my buddy wants to attach his iMac to an original Apple Thunderbolt screen directly with the built in Thunderbolt Cable and has no luck to get it running. It stays black.
Is there anything we can do or are we suddenly fckd by no-logic-present-thats-make-no-sense?
revived an 21.5" iMac from 2011, imac12,1 with a K2100M MXM a card. everything runs smooth and I check the Thunderbolt Port with my external Screen + HDMI + Adapter. I also got a picture.
but now my buddy wants to attach his iMac to an original Apple Thunderbolt screen directly with the built in Thunderbolt Cable and has no luck to get it running. It stays black.
Is there anything we can do or are we suddenly fckd by no-logic-present-thats-make-no-sense?
its helped me to create modded my personal bios,
i want to compare two bios to find difference.
and create clean bios without serial for help people who have their imac 27 late 2009 with black screen problem
we stuck for find working bios with supporting out of the box nvidia cards for imac 27 late 2009
u have working out of the box imac with support k4100
that will be helped us.
thank u.
Yes. I believe there are 4GB and 8GB of GTX880M. You should know the VRAM size before purchasing it.
256MB VRAM is just a Valley bug in HS. It will be shown correctly in Catalina or BS.
Ok, after testing my 780m over the weekend, I can confirm the new BR3 rom works like a charm
With previous overclocked BR2 rom I get (in Catalina) kernel panics after ~15 minutes of heavy stressing with Unigine Valley at high or ultra settings, but with the standard clocked BR3 rom I have been unable to make it panic, not even after 2 hours of running non stop at ultra settings: temp of GPU Die stabilizes at about 75º sometimes peaking at 80º, and odd fan runs at full speed, but no panics at all. Gpu heatsink stays below 70º.
For reference, my 780m card came with Hynix -BFR memory: H5GC2H24BFR
Thank you @nikey22 and @bielousov.com !!
Thanks for insight in temperatures!
FYI, you can get the GPU Die temp on macOS by installing the FakeSMC kext and using HWMonitor to display it.
Ok, after testing my 780m over the weekend, I can confirm the new BR3 rom works like a charm
With previous overclocked BR2 rom I get (in Catalina) kernel panics after ~15 minutes of heavy stressing with Unigine Valley at high or ultra settings, but with the standard clocked BR3 rom I have been unable to make it panic, not even after 2 hours of running non stop at ultra settings: temp of GPU Die stabilizes at about 75º sometimes peaking at 80º, and odd fan runs at full speed, but no panics at all. Gpu heatsink stays below 70º.
For reference, my 780m card came with Hynix -BFR memory: H5GC2H24BFR
View attachment 1736964
Thank you @nikey22 and @bielousov.com !!
I'm using BR2 rom in Big Sur and i don't have any kernel panics even after 30 minutes of Valley. Not sure whats the difference, but thought i mention it that it works fine for me.
Yep, it seems very few people is seeing problems with the BR2 rom on their 780M, most have been using them for months without any issues. Maybe it's because of type (die generation) or batch of ram chips used or some other components on card or even cooling problems... anyway, I think it's great to have an alternative with stock clocking that works for this rare cases