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

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Probably there's nothing I can do about it.
I tried and old HDD with a volume of Marverick and got the same issue: Internal LCD got backlight kicked it, but will not display anything. External displayed worked well.
The iMac LCD was recognized, but no image....
Need to get some original GPU to ensure it was the K1100m that's not driving signals to the internal LCDs.

 

[KennyW]

AirPlay poll using Big Sur​

Please report back about the current AirPlay situation with Big Sur (and other macOS versions) on our iMac11,x and iMac12,x. I need the following information:

system, i.e. iMac11,1
gpu, i.e. NVIDIA K2100M or AMD WX4130
wifi, i.e. stock Atheros ur upgrade BCM94260CD
patcher, i.e. OCLP or @dosdude1 patcher including version and spoofing (light or moderate)
macOS version, i.e. Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur 11.2.3
AirPlay is working, i.e. yes or no or which problems

I can provide these data in advance:

iMac12,2, WX4130, Atheros, OLCP latest, moderate, Mojave, yes
iMac12,2, WX4130, Atheros, OLCP latest, moderate, Catalina, yes
iMac12,2, WX4130, Atheros, OLCP latest, moderate, Big Sur, no (cannot see any AirPlay capable devices on my network)
iMac12,2, WX4170, BCM943602CDP, OCLP latest, moderate, Big Sur, partly (systems finds my AirPlay AppleTV but cannot connect properly)
iMac11,3, RX480, BCM943602CDP, OCLP latest, moderate, Big Sur, partly (systems finds my AirPlay AppleTV but cannot connect properly)

Thanks in advance and have a nice weekend!

iMac 11,3, RX480, BCM943602CDP BT4.2, OLCP 0.1.2 on SD only, minimal, Big Sur 11.2.3 (20D91)

Yes on AppleTV 4th

Yes on Apple TV app on Samsung Q90 TV

Can't upgrade to 11.3.1 due to hanging on final stage of install, and thus can't test AirPlay in latest BS.

 

[internetzel]

This weekend I bought an iMac 27" late 2009 and tried some combination:
1) WX4150 with Dell RX560 rom
Booted from OCLP SD card, then to OS
High Sierra: Only external display worked. Internal LCD recognized (mirror mode) but stay black (backlight kicked on)

2) K1100m
Booted from OCLP installed to EFI folder
High Sierra: Only external display work
Big Sur: (a lot of strugglings, but Big Sur 11.3 was finally installed) Only external display worked
When connect internal display, the boot screen lost, too.

I tried to installed the old patcher to the High Sierra volume, but this resulted in losing access to that volume. I could select High Sierra on OCLP boot picker screen, but then the screen stopped Apple logo and stay there forever. (single external display mode)

In all case, the internal LCD could not display anything, although it's backlight was up.

There maybe some parameters of the OCLP need to be changed/added to make it work, but I don't know which to try.
I already modified the NVRAM section of config.plist to add agdpmod=vit9696

I attach 2 screenshot of the Configurator. Much appreciate if you can help pointing out what errors I made.
Thank you.

agdpmod=vit9696 will break the internal screen with AMD cards on my late 2009.
But the K1100M should definitely show the Apple boot picker on the internal screen when booting with option key pressed. If not there's probably something wrong with the display connector and/or cable in your specific machine.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

agdpmod=vit9696 will break the internal screen with AMD cards on my late 2009.
But the K1100M should definitely show the Apple boot picker on the internal screen when booting with option key pressed. If not there's probably something wrong with the display connector and/or cable in your specific machine.

Thank you, I will try some more options to see what's really the issue.
It's hard to think about broken cable or LCD. It still displayed image with the half-dead HD4850, before I removed the HD4850 for a bake.

 

[internetzel]

Thank you, I will try some more options to see what's really the issue.
It's hard to think about broken cable or LCD. It still displayed image with the half-dead HD4850, before I removed the HD4850 for a bake.

Your issue sounds like the typical Nvidia black screen issue unique to the late 2009 models. You should study what @Ausdauersportler's describes as steps to cure it (OCLP using agdpmod=vit9696 should do it now, but in the past to some temporary framework patch was needed).
It should however not affect the AMD cards. But maybe you installed the K1100M before the WX4150, and the machine was already "infected" by the black screen disease when you tried the WX4150?

 

[traser]

AirPlay poll using Big Sur​

Please report back about the current AirPlay situation with Big Sur (and other macOS versions) on our iMac11,x and iMac12,x. I need the following information:

system, i.e. iMac11,1
gpu, i.e. NVIDIA K2100M or AMD WX4130
wifi, i.e. stock Atheros ur upgrade BCM94260CD
patcher, i.e. OCLP or @dosdude1 patcher including version and spoofing (light or moderate)
macOS version, i.e. Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur 11.2.3
AirPlay is working, i.e. yes or no or which problems

I can provide these data in advance:

iMac12,2, WX4130, Atheros, OLCP latest, moderate, Mojave, yes
iMac12,2, WX4130, Atheros, OLCP latest, moderate, Catalina, yes
iMac12,2, WX4130, Atheros, OLCP latest, moderate, Big Sur, no (cannot see any AirPlay capable devices on my network)
iMac12,2, WX4170, BCM943602CDP, OCLP latest, moderate, Big Sur, partly (systems finds my AirPlay AppleTV but cannot connect properly)
iMac11,3, RX480, BCM943602CDP, OCLP latest, moderate, Big Sur, partly (systems finds my AirPlay AppleTV but cannot connect properly)

Thanks in advance and have a nice weekend!

iMac 11,1, AMD RX480, BCM943602 BT4.2, OLCP 0.1.2, minimal, Big Sur 11.3.1 (20E241)

Yes on AppleTV

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Your issue sounds like the typical Nvidia black screen issue unique to the late 2009 models. You should study what @Ausdauersportler's describes as steps to cure it (OCLP using agdpmod=vit9696 should do it now, but in the past to some temporary framework patch was needed).
It should however not affect the AMD cards. But maybe you installed the K1100M before the WX4150, and the machine was already "infected" by the black screen disease when you tried the WX4150?

Yes, and now the black screen disease "ïnfects" my iMac 2010, too.
iMac 27" 2010; WX4150, Dell RX560 ROM.
OCLP boot first, then OS.
Internal LCD: black. I could see the LED glowing underneath, but it stay black.
I could boot blindly to Windows 10 or High Sierra.
When I connect the second display, the image shows. But the internal screen doesn't show anything.
When I turn off the screen, the backlight does turn-off (not glowing anymore).

Last known working configuration: (OSs remain the same)
WX4150 GOP ROM. (I reflashed the ROM to Dell RX560)
Catalina Loader SD card.
Dual monitor (Internal monitor will stay black after the CL boot picker ended if it is the only display)

It isn't very likely that I got terrible bad luck and damage both of my LCDs.
Maybe I will try to turn the set-up back to last known working configuration to see if it was the ROM that changed things.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Yes, and now the black screen disease "ïnfects" my iMac 2010, too.
iMac 27" 2010; WX4150, Dell RX560 ROM.
OCLP boot first, then OS.
Internal LCD: black. I could see the LED glowing underneath, but it stay black.
I could boot blindly to Windows 10 or High Sierra.
When I connect the second display, the image shows. But the internal screen doesn't show anything.
When I turn off the screen, the backlight does turn-off (not glowing anymore).

Last known working configuration: (OSs remain the same)
WX4150 GOP ROM. (I reflashed the ROM to Dell RX560)
Catalina Loader SD card.
Dual monitor (Internal monitor will stay black after the CL boot picker ended if it is the only display)

It isn't very likely that I got terrible bad luck and damage both of my LCDs.
Maybe I will try to turn the set-up back to last known working configuration to see if it was the ROM that changed things.

This not the classical NVIDIA black screen issue. You have possibly am system board defect. I own for more than a year such a system not willing to use the internal display. Tried to exchange the display, did not work. Meanwhile the display is used a standalone 27 inch display using the iMac 2009 housing and a cheap controller board and power supply from far east. So the LCD was fine all the time.

If you search for this problem on ifixit you will find a way to repair it. The black screen issue does not happen with the AMD GPU in use.

 

[globetribe]

Hello Everybody
Just want to report time to time crashes I get since moving to OCLP BS 11.3 ( now on 11.4 beta 1) I was previsouly on 11.2.3 micropatcher and there was no issue. Now I am experiencing once in a while kernel panic with no clear pattern. Yesterday I happened while connecting to my phone wifi, previsouly iMac crashed while surfing Safari, another time while navigating folders.
The frequency of crashes is not that problematic And can’t figure out if this is BS driven or OCLP driven.
Is anyone facing the same situation ? Also do you have approach to recommend ?
Tks

 

[BadBiscuit]

AirPlay poll using Big Sur​

Please report back about the current AirPlay situation with Big Sur (and other macOS versions) on our iMac11,x and iMac12,x. I need the following information:

system, i.e. iMac11,1
gpu, i.e. NVIDIA K2100M or AMD WX4130
wifi, i.e. stock Atheros ur upgrade BCM94260CD
patcher, i.e. OCLP or @dosdude1 patcher including version and spoofing (light or moderate)
macOS version, i.e. Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur 11.2.3
AirPlay is working, i.e. yes or no or which problems
...

I'm not positive I know what is meant by "spoofing", though I found it stated the default is "light", so suspect that is me. I use OCLP patcher's options: #4 "force metal" and pick type, #5 "assume upgraded WiFi", and #8 "SIP" set to disable both. Then build and install, incase that helps clarify.
--------------------------------------------------------
iMac12,2, WX7100, BCM943602CDP, OCLP v0.1.1, light, Big Sur, partly (systems finds all AppleTVs, but cannot connect properly with 4K unit; only shows a black screen. Works fine on non-4K models).
-"SCOOBY"
--------------------------------------------------------
iMac12,2, WX7100, BCM943602CDP, OCLP v0.6.8 from @Ausdauersportler zip on SSD EFI, ?, Big Sur, partly (systems finds all AppleTVs, but cannot connect properly with 4K unit; only shows a black screen. Works fine on non-4K models).

Note: Then upgraded it to OCLP v0.1.2, light, Big Sur, and got same results: partly (systems finds all AppleTVs, but cannot connect properly with 4K unit; only shows a black screen. Works fine on non-4K models).
-"SCOOBERT"
--------------------------------------------------------
iMac12,1, K2100M, BCM94360CD, OCLP v0.1.1, light, Big Sur, no.
-"SCRAPPY"
--------------------------------------------------------
iMac12,1, K2100M, BCM943602CDP, OCLP v0.1.2, light, Big Sur, no.
-"DAPHNE"
--------------------------------------------------------
iMac11,3, K2100M, BCM943602CDP, OC v0.6.6 DRM, light, Mojave, no.
-"SHAGGY"
--------------------------------------------------------
iMac11,1, K3000M, BCM943602CDP, OCLP v0.1.2, light, Big Sur, no.
-"VELMA"
--------------------------------------------------------

 

[BadBiscuit]

Hello Everybody
Just want to report time to time crashes I get since moving to OCLP BS 11.3 ( now on 11.4 beta 1) I was previsouly on 11.2.3 micropatcher and there was no issue. Now I am experiencing once in a while kernel panic with no clear pattern. Yesterday I happened while connecting to my phone wifi, previsouly iMac crashed while surfing Safari, another time while navigating folders.
The frequency of crashes is not that problematic And can’t figure out if this is BS driven or OCLP driven.
Is anyone facing the same situation ? Also do you have approach to recommend ?
Tks

I'm not seeing this behaviour. I also have systems which ran fine under micropatcher, and they still run well (better) with OCLP v0.1.1 and v0.1.2 without any panics. You can see my setups in post above and signature. All run & sleep without crashing.

Could it be heat related? ... Check your Mac Fan Control settings. If that looks good, check the crash report to see if crash is tied to a common component. Lastly install a second instance of BS without migrating anything and see if crashes persist. Good luck.

 

[herrdude]

I'm not seeing this behaviour. I also have systems which ran fine under micropatcher, and they still run well (better) with OCLP v0.1.1 and v0.1.2 without any panics. You can see my setups in post above and signature. All run & sleep without crashing.

Could it be heat related? ... Check your Mac Fan Control settings. If that looks good, check the crash report to see if crash is tied to a common component. Lastly install a second instance of BS without migrating anything and see if crashes persist. Good luck.

Are there an advantages of upgrading OCLP to 0.1.2 for iMac 2011?

 

[BadBiscuit]

Are there an advantages of upgrading OCLP to 0.1.2 for iMac 2011?

None that I've noticed except perhaps sidecar work(didn't try that); though no issue at doing so either. I've been slowly upgrading systems to OCLP as I have time, and perhaps just a bit OCD in wanting all to be at same/latest version.

 

[ChrisCaro]

AirPlay poll using Big Sur​

Please report back about the current AirPlay situation with Big Sur (and other macOS versions) on our iMac11,x and iMac12,x. I need the following information:

system, i.e. iMac11,1
gpu, i.e. NVIDIA K2100M or AMD WX4130
wifi, i.e. stock Atheros ur upgrade BCM94260CD
patcher, i.e. OCLP or @dosdude1 patcher including version and spoofing (light or moderate)
macOS version, i.e. Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur 11.2.3
AirPlay is working, i.e. yes or no or which problems

I can provide these data in advance:

iMac12,2, WX4130, Atheros, OLCP latest, moderate, Mojave, yes
iMac12,2, WX4130, Atheros, OLCP latest, moderate, Catalina, yes
iMac12,2, WX4130, Atheros, OLCP latest, moderate, Big Sur, no (cannot see any AirPlay capable devices on my network)
iMac12,2, WX4170, BCM943602CDP, OCLP latest, moderate, Big Sur, partly (systems finds my AirPlay AppleTV but cannot connect properly)
iMac11,3, RX480, BCM943602CDP, OCLP latest, moderate, Big Sur, partly (systems finds my AirPlay AppleTV but cannot connect properly)

Thanks in advance and have a nice weekend!

iMac12,2, k4100m, non overclock, Atheros, dosdude1, Mojave, yes

 

[herrdude]

iMac12,2, k4100m, non overclock, Atheros, dosdude1, Mojave, yes

I believe he is interested in Big Sur as the title says: Airplay poll using Big Sur.

 

[ChrisCaro]

I believe he is interested in Big Sur as the title says: Airplay poll using Big Sur.

Please report back about the current AirPlay situation with Big Sur (and other macOS versions) on our iMac11,x and iMac12,x. I need the following information:

....... OCLP or @dosdude1 patcher including version and spoofing (light or moderate)
macOS version, i.e. Mojave, Catalina, .....

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

This not the classical NVIDIA black screen issue. You have possibly am system board defect. I own for more than a year such a system not willing to use the internal display. Tried to exchange the display, did not work. Meanwhile the display is used a standalone 27 inch display using the iMac 2009 housing and a cheap controller board and power supply from far east. So the LCD was fine all the time.

If you search for this problem on ifixit you will find a way to repair it. The black screen issue does not happen with the AMD GPU in use.

Thank you, I'll take the machine to a repair shop and let them investigate the issue.
(Instead of buying a stock GPU like HD5670m and testing myself)

 

[Ausdauersportler]

This weekend I bought an iMac 27" late 2009 and tried some combination:
1) WX4150 with Dell RX560 rom
Booted from OCLP SD card, then to OS
High Sierra: Only external display worked. Internal LCD recognized (mirror mode) but stay black (backlight kicked on)

2) K1100m
Booted from OCLP installed to EFI folder
High Sierra: Only external display work
Big Sur: (a lot of strugglings, but Big Sur 11.3 was finally installed) Only external display worked
When connect internal display, the boot screen lost, too.

I tried to installed the old patcher to the High Sierra volume, but this resulted in losing access to that volume. I could select High Sierra on OCLP boot picker screen, but then the screen stopped Apple logo and stay there forever. (single external display mode)

In all case, the internal LCD could not display anything, although it's backlight was up.

There maybe some parameters of the OCLP need to be changed/added to make it work, but I don't know which to try.
I already modified the NVRAM section of config.plist to add agdpmod=vit9696

I attach 2 screenshot of the Configurator. Much appreciate if you can help pointing out what errors I made.
Thank you.

Why do you exactly need the amfi_get_out_of_my_way setting? I have not seen this necessary since we left the @dosdude1 patching. Your machine with OCLP and a metal GPU does not need this at least according to everything what I have seen in the near past.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I believe he is interested in Big Sur as the title says: Airplay poll using Big Sur.

Yes, we all know that this is working. I was never interested in AirPlay before so I miss some data points and would be happy to get some other infos on. Happy about every answer I can get without doing the tests on my own

1. Late 2009/Mid 2010 using NVIDIA and @dosdude1 patcher with Mojave/Catalina?
2. Late 2009/Mid 2010 using NVIDIA using OCLP or Micropatcher with Big Sur?

 

[dfranetic]

This is (essentially) my first post here. I am immensely grateful to all contributors for my new obsession - bringing new life to those iMacs. I have tested a few Nvidia cards from the first post, which always worked flawlessly. I am trying to move to AMD cards now. To be clear: Besides the iMac in my signature, I'm trying to upgrade 6 other 2009-2011 iMacs. I have HP WX4150s, Dell WX4150s and a Dell WX4130 cards to 'play' with. The Dell cards POST in 27' 2011 iMacs without a problem. (And once they POSTs, it's smooth sailing with OCLP.)

I have (expectedly) had very mixed experience with HP WX4150 cards, even in pre-2011 machines. Determined to put HP WX4150s to good use, I investigated further. Lacking the actual schematics of those revisions of WX4150 cards I relied on the good old multimeter. As it was already observed, the HP WX4150 has two additional power MOSFETs (FDMC6679AZ) - blue rectangles in the attached picture. I guessed that these somehow delay the 5V power supply to certain parts of the board. The source and drain of these MOSFETs are directly connected to pads in orange rectangles next to them. Luckily I had a Dell WX4150 to compare with and discovered (by trial and error) that these lacking MOSFETs are simply bypassed on those boards. So I did just that - I soldered two 0R 1206 resistors into two orange rectangles to bypass the MOSFETs on a HP WX4150 board. Mounted the GPU into a 27' 2011 iMac, pressed the power button and guess what - I heard a chime! Besides the successful POST, all looks good for now, but I cannot be sure if bypassing those MOSFETs can do some long term damage to the GPU.

N.b.: This is all very preliminary. I will have some more time to test this further on Thursday.

A similar modification was already suggested by Nick [D]vB for the VBIOS-less WX4170 boards - these boards also have those two MOSFETs (one next to the blank VBIOS pads on the top layer and another one on the bottom layer). He suggested to bypass just one of these MOSFETs. A wild guess would be that both MOSFETs need to be bypassed with a jumper / 0R resistor and an appropriate VBIOS chip soldered and programmed. (I have no WX4170s to test...)

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hello Everybody
Just want to report time to time crashes I get since moving to OCLP BS 11.3 ( now on 11.4 beta 1) I was previsouly on 11.2.3 micropatcher and there was no issue. Now I am experiencing once in a while kernel panic with no clear pattern. Yesterday I happened while connecting to my phone wifi, previsouly iMac crashed while surfing Safari, another time while navigating folders.
The frequency of crashes is not that problematic And can’t figure out if this is BS driven or OCLP driven.
Is anyone facing the same situation ? Also do you have approach to recommend ?
Tks

Hi!

1.
There are some news about co-existence of High Sierra and Big Sur on the same system. The former may change the preboot partition of the latter. I cannot say if this causes panics of crashes. I cannot say if having both on separate disks is a solution, but after some discussion avoiding the mount of Big Sur partitions when High Sierra is used should be sufficient.

2.
You can use OCLP with all macOS versions as a substitute for the older Catalina Loader OC configs. Following the guides linked in on the first post in enables AMD acceleration on High Sierra, too. It can also be used to run Mojave and Catalina unpatched, but you sacrifice the HD3000 iGPU and the H.264 acceleration needed on 2011 systems with NVIDIA dGPU (no way around, because no patch to enable the iGPU is available).

3.
My AMD systems run all rock solid. Only the update to 11.3 and later is somewhat like an off road trip. You have to force reboot once or twice because the kernel sticks in a trap caused presumably by an race condition.

4.
After experiencing some space oddities I reinstalled all my existing production and test Big Sur versions from the scratch making sure not to have a patcher changed/touched partition left over. The influences of such residues are not clearly described. So to avoid any trouble I went this way.

Hope this helps....

 

[ChrisCaro]

This is (essentially) my first post here. I am immensely grateful to all contributors for my new obsession - bringing new life to those iMacs. I have tested a few Nvidia cards from the first post, which always worked flawlessly. I am trying to move to AMD cards now. To be clear: Besides the iMac in my signature, I'm trying to upgrade 6 other 2009-2011 iMacs. I have HP WX4150s, Dell WX4150s and a Dell WX4130 cards to 'play' with. The Dell cards POST in 27' 2011 iMacs without a problem. (And once they POSTs, it's smooth sailing with OCLP.)

I have (expectedly) had very mixed experience with HP WX4150 cards, even in pre-2011 machines. Determined to put HP WX4150s to good use, I investigated further. Lacking the actual schematics of those revisions of WX4150 cards I relied on the good old multimeter. As it was already observed, the HP WX4150 has two additional power MOSFETs (FDMC6679AZ) - blue rectangles in the attached picture. I guessed that these somehow delay the 5V power supply to certain parts of the board. The source and drain of these MOSFETs are directly connected to pads in orange rectangles next to them. Luckily I had a Dell WX4150 to compare with and discovered (by trial and error) that these lacking MOSFETs are simply bypassed on those boards. So I did just that - I soldered two 0R 1206 resistors into two orange rectangles to bypass the MOSFETs on a HP WX4150 board. Mounted the GPU into a 27' 2011 iMac, pressed the power button and guess what - I heard a chime! Besides the successful POST, all looks good for now, but I cannot be sure if bypassing those MOSFETs can do some long term damage to the GPU.

N.b.: This is all very preliminary. I will have some more time to test this further on Thursday.

A similar modification was already suggested by Nick [D]vB for the VBIOS-less WX4170 boards - these boards also have those two MOSFETs (one next to the blank VBIOS pads on the top layer and another one on the bottom layer). He suggested to bypass just one of these MOSFETs. A wild guess would be that both MOSFETs need to be bypassed with a jumper / 0R resistor and an appropriate VBIOS chip soldered and programmed. (I have no WX4170s to test...)

Could be the start of a very good answer to one of the "open projects" on the first post ....
"
Here the most frustrating (hardware) problems:
why do so many AMD MXM cards not POST in the 2011 systems (only the fans spin up for a split second and the nothing happens)
"

 

[Dispetcher]

AirPlay poll using Big Sur​

Please report back about the current AirPlay situation with Big Sur (and other macOS versions) on our iMac11,x and iMac12,x. I need the following information:

system, i.e. iMac11,1
gpu, i.e. NVIDIA K2100M or AMD WX4130
wifi, i.e. stock Atheros ur upgrade BCM94260CD
patcher, i.e. OCLP or @dosdude1 patcher including version and spoofing (light or moderate)
macOS version, i.e. Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur 11.2.3
AirPlay is working, i.e. yes or no or which problems

iMac12,2, K2100m, BCM94360CD, OLCP 0.1.2 light, BigSur 11.3.1, Yes on Moode Audio

 

[Lady Titan]

In order for the brightness of the display to work as expected, just load it into safe mode with the shift key pressed) everything works! I had a problem in sierra. I didn't know how to solve it, but now there are no problems)

maybe this method is suitable for Catalina, and you do not need to install kexts, test)

 

[kwangsoo]

Hello


I am a Korean who can't speak English well.
please understand.
I am writing it with Google Translator.
2011 iMac 27-inch model installed gtx780m.
I installed catalina using dosdude1's catalina patcher.
It works without any problems, but the brightness cannot be adjusted.
I also installed applebacklightfixup.kext using hackintool, what else should I do?

Please help me