Before installing it is just recognized as a basic display adapter. Which bootcamp do I use? The iMac 2011 bootcamp (5.0.5xxx) says it cannot find a compatable device. Do I need the iMac 2013 bootcamp? I installed windows without bootcamp.
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iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade
- Thread starter MichaelDT
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I just tried to let Windows 10 install the driver automatically and same thing, black screen.
Try to boot windows, and wait like 30 or 40 seconds on the black screen, maybe you end up getting a login screen. I got a 780M with _BR3 bios and it's just a question of waiting, it seems like the windows driver scans card outputs until it finds the internal screen (I see windows boot screen, but when it loads display driver it goes black, then like 30 seconds later I get the login screen)...
There's a typo in the first post that has been bugging me -- the last updated date is supposed to be June 4, but right now it reads September 4, which hasn't happened yet.
Any idea what I could be doing wrong? I have tried Windows 10 EFI boot with and without open core on both Nick's bios and Nikey22s bios. Both work until the Nvidia driver is installed (whether I let Windows do the automatic install or Nvidia web driver install), then the screen goes black but the iMac seems to still be running. If I boot in safe mode and uninstall the driver at works fine again.
Everything I am attempting to do is on a system with a dead video card that I have to allow hours to cool down or takes many reboots sometimes to get it to work, so anything I can have prepared ahead of getting on the system is very helpful. Alternatively, I have a windows system I can prep everything on to implement on the system.
I am attempting to upgrade on a 21.5 Late 2009 (device info in signature), but I am not clear if I need to upgrade the BIOS (which is a whole other learning curve) or if this will natively boot. I would appreciate any guidance towards my model and can test and confirm anything needed for this model as well (since it looks to be an unconfirmed model).
Currently we have no BIOS for your iMac model - check the first post of this thread and start reading on the top. It is not that far…
I did, and I also saw no BIOS for it. Which is why I am asking for any other direction other than read it again (which I have done a handful of times). I have read through that it has native support and brightness control and the legacy OC is needed, but my model is not listed anywhere I could find. So any model specific help would be appreciated.
Probably my englisch is not good enough:
There is currently no solution for your system available. All our BIOS versions are compatible with iMac11,x and iMac12,x, only. No iMac10,1!
Since I assume you cannot edit a BIOS yourself you can either follow the there on the first post linked experimental solutions. We tried and failed or succeeded using a special solution. Please check it out.
I cannot, but I could possibly work with or provide a means to be a proxy if you are interested? I am not seeing an experimental solutions. Can you provide the exact link and where on the page you are referring to please?
Do you happen to have the same model as I do? If so, what process did you follow?
The answer is:
There is no hope for your iMac late 2009 (core 2 duo CPU) to use a different GPU.
You'd better give-up that idea.
So everything is good in MacOS? Big Sur is ok and only windows 10 is an issue?
I have the same model as you. This is what I did:
1. Sold my iMac 2009 with duo-core.
2. Bought an iMac 2011 with I7.
3. Consulted the first post.
Good luck!
Correct. It sounds like somewhat of a common issue searching through this thread. It either works or it just doesn't for some unknown reason. I am going to try to reinstall windows in EFI, install TeamViewer and then the graphics driver
Another oddity on this one. The system has been running fine since I just turned off "sleep" and it doesn't bother me. The display goes to sleep, the hard disk is an SSD so who cares.
yesterday, I was working on some stuff and the power went off. When the power came back on the machine wouldn't start. press the power button and nothing. I had noticed this once when the machine went to sleep, I couldn't turn it back on and just figured it was in some odd state so unplugged it, waited a minute, and then pressed the power button and held it for a while, then presed it a couple of dozen times and then the system came back on.
Same thing yesterday, there seems to be no pattern to what make it tick, but it took a few dozen presses of the power button to get the machine back on.
Could this be related to my sleep issue?
Please check the (on the first post linked in) Apple Technician Guide for your system. Power outages may need an SMC reset as well as one, three or five PRAM resets depending on the system you own and the nature of your problem. There you can learn how to do a proper SMC reset and PRAM reset on you iMac12,2.
Unless proven other I still assume you have a (half) working GPU and all your problems are related to this. We cannot find out the root cause of your hardware problem. You have to do this, the best thing you can do is changing components unless the problem disappears. The K3100M works reliable in the iMac12,x - there is no reason to believe it is the vBIOS software provided here. You are using an Apple supported macOS version, no OpenCore, no patching. You can rule out a lot of things others have to deal with after they patched and upgraded the macOS.
So my advice is:
Get another (metal) GPU or change the cards between your two systems and observe if the problem migrates over, too.
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The best thing you can do is this:
- update to High Sierra latest and check if you have the latest firmware
- get a fitting small MXM-A NVIDIA (K610M, K1100M) or AMD (WX4130) card.
- get an external display!!!
- if you picked an AMD card install OCLP on your system (needed to activate the radeon4000 driver)
- now install the card into your machine
- stay with High Sierra and fire up your system, it will have an black internal screen unless the system has booted completely, now only the external display will work (but you have a metal enabled system)
- work with the external display
- check back here and publish your current installation and status
- the NVIDIA vBIOS or the AMD vBIOS developer may chime in and provide you with test versions
This would be my personal test plan.
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Hi m0bil, I did see your suggestion but I had already tried to go the BIOS route and then couldn't find it with OpenCore. Once I reinstall as EFI and get TeamViewer running I will install the driver and let it sit as you suggested, that way I should be able to see what's going on and if it is sending the signal somewhere other than the internal display. Does it have to sit ~30 seconds on every boot? I know my last build with m4000m took over a minute (with SSD) to show anything since it didn't have a boot screen. Maybe it was also looking for the internal display.
Hi @G3llings
Your signature graphics card is a McVeys graphics card M4000M it can be used, analyze the VBiOS I have M3000M M4000M graphics card internal screen can not be displayed boot to Windows remote installation of the driver can work, only receive the internal screen with the external monitor are not any display.
Hi jay508,
I'm a little confused on your comment. I have forgotten to update my signature with the new iMac specs. I was able to get the m4000m to display on the internal monitor with a modified driver, but no boot screen. The card was stuck at a low clock, P0 state if I remember correctly, so I modified my own BIOS to run P0 at the maximum rated clock speed. I can go back and find them and post if it will help you out.
I just reinstalled EFI Windows 10 but when I went to reboot the volume couldn't be found (almost like it installed as BIOS) so I pulled my other drive and reinstalled again. Then I booted TeamViewer (TV) and then let Windows do it's thing. Screen went black like it has been so I opened up device manager from TV and it showed GTX 780m error 43. I ran windows updates and rebooted. Still nothing at first, then another reboot happened (blue updating popped up), and another. Finally after 3 or 4 restarts the image showed on screen! Seems to be working now, just installed the cirrus driver and have that working as well. Very strange. I think it was just a matter of waiting, overall took about 5 minutes for the installer to do it's thing updating after the driver install. Very strange. Now it does take around 30 seconds on each boot for video to show up as @m0bil said.
