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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.
wlagarde said:
This is fantastic. Thanks for your efforts and for posting your work on flashing the iMac bootrom and WX7100 vbios. I downloaded all of the software and my programmer and WX7100 card will be here this week.
Click to expand...
Does the Wx7100 card work and is there a lot to do to get it going and where do I get one from
 
ElCani said:
I've just discovered that since doing my upgrade I've lost my SD card reader and my outermost USB port provides power but seemingly no data. The USB device tree in System Report is missing the Internal Memory Card Reader and the IR Receiver, as seen in the attached screenshots comparing the upgraded 27" with a stock 21.5" 2011. I've opened up the Mac and reseated the relevant connectors but the the problem remains. I'm running Big Sur, but it's also still present when booting into High Sierra.

Has anybody seen anything like this? Did I damage the logic board during the upgrade?

View attachment 1869372
21.5"

View attachment 1869374

27"
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Check inside the SD card connector socket, I once bent a pin in there and until I took a close look under a magnifying glass I had no idea it was bent.

Using tweezers I managed to bend the pin back into position and get the SD card reader back online.

Other than that you could try another SD card reader.

I have had several macs with faulty USB ports, sometimes 1 or more, occasionally it can be caused by poor contact and by squeezing or biting gently on the on the end of the usb device it can make proper contact.

Other than that they are known to die.
 
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Hey guys, I have some good news regarding Target Display Mode (TDM) on newer version of MacOS.

I have successfully triggered TDM manually under newer MacOS (tested in Big Sur). This is only for iMac 27" 2010 (iMac 11,3) and perhaps 2009(untested) [2011 wont work. Please read note 7 below].

This is made possible because of prior work done by:

In summary, these are my findings:
  1. under High Sierra(or older), TDM is handled by Display Port Daemon (dpd) which listen to Cmd F2 key pressing to trigger TDM. It is unclear what dpd completely does but at the minimum it listens to the plugging of dp port and also writes 2 keys to SMC which triggers the TDM switching, as well as launching dpaudiothru which handle the audio routing.
    www.unix.com

    dpd(8) [osx man page]

    The dpd executable is a daemon intended to listen for Command + F2 on the iMac to switch to external display input mode upon display port hot-plug. This feature is known as Target Display Mode. It disables display and idle sleep w
    www.unix.com www.unix.com
  2. Florian figured out, in order to trigger TDM manually:
    • To turn on, all we need is to write 2 SMC keys: 1 to MVHR, sleep for 1 second, then write 2 to MVMR.
    • To turn off, all we need is to write 2 SMC keys: 0 to MVHR, sleep for 1 second, then write 2 to MVMR.
  3. Triggering TDM requires no additional software after these keys are written into the SMC as Florian did this under linux and as soon as the keys are written, the switching will occur.
  4. However Florian's util in his github only works for linux but luckily I've found out the smc util from Hendrik can do the same job under Mac OS[download the smcFanControl package and go inside the resource folders]
  5. so this is what I did(tested on both High Sierra and Big Sur, must run smc util as root or else it wont work):
    • To turn on TDM:
      1. sudo ./smc -k MVHR -w 01
      2. wait 1 second
      3. sudo ./smc -k MVMR -w 02
    • To turn off TDM:
      1. sudo ./smc -k MVHR -w 00
      2. wait 1 second
      3. sudo ./smc -k MVMR -w 02
    • But this only handled the display, audio routing didn't work as dpaudiothru was not loaded as dpd was completely bypassed here.
  6. Now, I think I have only solved part of the puzzle from this research and testing. We all know CMD-F2 doesnt work in newer OS to trigger TDM. In order to complete this exercise, I am going to need all the possible help from you guys, it would be great if you guys can help looked at the below:
    • dpd and dpaudiothru actually exist in all the Mac OS version (e.g. Catalina, Big Sur etc etc). I checked that dpd is actually active under Big Sur but for some reason it doesnt respond to CMD-F2. Someone mentioned on the OCLP discord channel that dpd might respond to CMD-F2 intermittently upon retrying, but I cannot reproduce this. What I found instead was if I press CMD-F2 the screen sometime would blink and then if I write to MVMR by "sudo ./smc -k MVMR -w 02" then somehow TDM will be triggered. However, subsequent CMD-F2 will not disable TDM.
    • I tried to run dpd manually but it would just quit and exit without doing the switching under Big Sur. I also tried to run dpaudiothru but it thrown errors:
      % ./dpaudiothru CAPlayThrough Error: -66748 -> /System/Volumes/Data/SWE/macOS/BuildRoots/38cf1d983f/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/AppleDDP/AppleDDP-209/CAPlayThrough.cpp: 458 CAPlayThrough Error: -66748 -> /System/Volumes/Data/SWE/macOS/BuildRoots/38cf1d983f/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/AppleDDP/AppleDDP-209/CAPlayThrough.cpp: 172 CAPlayThrough ERROR: Cannot Init CAPlayThrough%

      Observation:
      1. while running dpaudiothru under Big Sur would have this error, running dpaudiothru under High Sierra would not
      2. I tried to copy dpaudiothru from High Sierra into Big Sur and run it, there is no error. If I trigger the TDM manually using the above method after running dpaudiothru, I can actually get some audio route through the DP momentarily but the audio will die after a few seconds.
    • even tho dpd/dpaudiothru existed in the newer MacOS version but we dont know if these binary are doing the same thing as those found under High Sierra (or older). These binaries from High Sierra are much smaller in size compare to those found in Big Sur.
    • maybe there is an alternative way that can intercept Cmd-F2 and then run some script to call smc util? We still need to figure out how to do the audio routing though but this could be another direction to achieve the same end result.
  7. This only works for 2010 (and possibly 2009) as it supports display port only and finding from this post suggests TDM is handled by Thunderbolt on the 2011 so additional and separate stream of research required because 2011 will not respond to the 2 smc keys:
    github.com

    Will it work on post High Sierra macOS? · Issue #8 · floe/smc_util

    This work on my 2011 iMac 27" under Linux environment. I was wondering if I am able to install a post High Sierra macOS (using OpenCore Patcher) to my 2011 iMac, would this bring back the TDM funct...
    github.com github.com
​

​
 
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protocold said:
7) This only works for 2010 (and possibly 2009) as it supports display port only and finding from this post suggests TDM is handled by Thunderbolt on the 2011 so additional and separate stream of research required because 2011 will not respond to the 2 smc keys:
github.com

Will it work on post High Sierra macOS? · Issue #8 · floe/smc_util

This work on my 2011 iMac 27" under Linux environment. I was wondering if I am able to install a post High Sierra macOS (using OpenCore Patcher) to my 2011 iMac, would this bring back the TDM funct...
github.com github.com
Click to expand...
I have some Thunderbolt Target Display Mode notes at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/displaylink-luna-display-2011-imac.2294250/post-30474454
 
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exFictitiouZ said:
Modding AppleBacklight.kext is deprecated as of now. Use OCLP to inject kexts instead. With OCLP, you don't need to modify kexts.
Click to expand...
Aha, that would explain it.
Thanks!
Pleasae forgive my ignorance, but what's OCLP and where do I get it?
Sorry, I've fixed up heaps of Macs, but am new to modding. o_O
 
Gorditcho said:
Aha, that would explain it.
Thanks!
Pleasae forgive my ignorance, but what's OCLP and where do I get it?
Sorry, I've fixed up heaps of Macs, but am new to modding. o_O
Click to expand...
It's short for Open Core Legacy Patcher.
More info/walkthrough/Q&A is found in the first post, under "Upgrade your (mac)OS on the metal capable iMac -> Installing macOS Mojave/Catalina/Big Sur/Monterey"
 
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xanderon said:
so guys, I have a little gift for you to give back after such an incredible thread :D
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

latest updated Version by @The_Croupier (thnx!) Post: #13,624 > ---- Download here ---- <


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 (!), I repeat again and this is not a drill: use Network CABLE only not WIFI « big Nono!

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 (in MY release, other or newer releases of GRML use different directories, you have to find out by yourself)
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 :D :D :)

(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)
Click to expand...
Hi @xanderon

I have flashed many cards using your usb drive and never had an issue, smooth as silk.

I'm trying to flash a card now and have run into an issue.

I boot the imac and can connect to it using ssh root@IP address however when i add "flash" as the password i get permission denied.

I'm lost why this would be. no drives are connected and its booted directly to the usb stick. Any suggestions?

PS: the usb definitely works as I have booted another mac with it and it clearly shows the password as "flash"

I'm really scratching my head here, please help.

###scratch that, I found the issue###
 
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Hi guys,

I need help please.

I'm using @xanderon vbios flash disk.

I connect to the iMac using root@myIP /password:flash

however there is no flash subdirectory

I can get as far as; cd /lib/live/mount/medium but then there is no flash

I confirm that flash folder is on the usb with all the ROM's

has something changed? am I doing something wrong?
 
358 said:
I can get as far as; cd /lib/live/mount/medium but then there is no flash

I confirm that flash folder is on the usb with all the ROM's

has something changed? am I doing something wrong?
Click to expand...
Just go back to the download page of the version you are currently using and read the brief description.
 
Ausdauersportler said:
No! Possibly one could see this on iMac13,x with Nvidia cards, too?

The SMC reacts only on temps above 50C - when using a low power GPU up to 40W like K610M, K1100M, K2100M, AMD WX4130/4150 you barely make it above the 50C. Tested this too days ago on my WX4130 system. Anyway this sensor replacement is a working safety belt when you are using an iMac outside the north of the Northern hemisphere with high (summer) ambient temps.

It would be nice if someone could confirm the normal behaviour using an original ATI Radeon card. I would assume ODD fans will ramp up on GPU die temps above 50C, too. But I am not sure of this.
Click to expand...
I had recently found a report here on macrumors, that indicated that with a 6790 the fans will start to ramp up at a GPU temperature somewhere around 80°C, if I remember correctly.
 
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Gatgat said:
Hello this 880m

Working on macos last version?
Click to expand...
Hello!

Monterey dropped NVIDIA Kepler support so the correctly answer will be yes if you are asking for Big Sur, only. I would not spend 250 EUR and more into such a card.

All new AMD cards have still full support with Monterey RC and one can assume that these cards will be supported when the final (public) release will be published.

And in general nobody will comment on these AliExpress offers. We had too many bad experiences especially with the 880M not working in a lot of 27 Mid 2011 iMacs. Search the thread for keyword 880M and read the posts made during the last six month, sometimes a real nightmare.
 
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Ciao Hi, I read the first post and searched on this thread.
I am interested in the simplest solution for my imac 27 2010 with i7-870 cpu
The K1100M MXM-A is great but there are HP and DELL versions on the net. Which Should I Buy?
Thank you very much
 
Got the new K3100M installed and working in my 12,2 (Mid 2011 27" i7) last night. I am pleased to announce all went smoothly. Swapped out the hardware and booted right back into my existing High Sierra OS. The only thing that was off was the brightness of the display. Brightness controls worked but the backlight on the main display was about half of what it should be. I searched this thread and found the Backlight kext fix and all was back to normal. I also have a second Cinema Display attached to my iMac which worked at full brightness with full dimming control.

This morning, I installed Catalina using the DosDude1 process. The whole process went smoothly and much like any other clean MacOS install. Up and writing this post from the new OS. Brightness Kext will need to be patched again however my second display is no longer functional. Has anyone come across this and is there a fix? Also, it seems the Mac won't wake up from sleep either.

Thank you to all that have contributed to this project.
 
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amd is the best said:
Got the new K3100M installed and working in my 12,2 (Mid 2011 27" i7) last night. I am pleased to announce all went smoothly. Swapped out the hardware and booted right back into my existing High Sierra OS. The only thing that was off was the brightness of the display. Brightness controls worked but the backlight on the main display was about half of what it should be. I searched this thread and found the Backlight kext fix and all was back to normal. I also have a second Cinema Display attached to my iMac which worked at full brightness with full dimming control.

This morning, I installed Catalina using the DosDude1 process. The whole process went smoothly and much like any other clean MacOS install. Up and writing this post from the new OS. Brightness Kext will need to be patched again however my second display is no longer functional. Has anyone come across this and is there a fix? Also, it seems the Mac won't wake up from sleep either.

Thank you to all that have contributed to this project.
Click to expand...
On the first post there is a special short section covering the installation of @dosdude1 Catalina patcher and has links to the special installer packages needed to get sleep, airplay, brightness etc back.
 
AMD M5100 2GB support (AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2GB)

This card has been produced in many variants, currently I know of at least three different types and ident strings:

TypeidentBIOS versiondevice-idworking
Green AMD PCB109-C93157-00A_03W5170M6820yes
Blue AMD PCB109-C42271-01_02M5100-Dell6821yes
Red DELL PCB109-C42241-01_02M5100-DELL6821yes

This GPU will be identified by the macOS as AMD FirePro M5100 and by MetalBench and GeekBench5 as AMD Radeon R9 M370X. The current vBIOS supports Elpida video memory.

Warning:
This card is easy to install but complex to manage during the initial software installation.
You need to install OpenCore in advance and add the changes posted before booting into macOS.

The card will not boot into macOS without the adjusted CAIL values in the config.plist.

Use the M5100-DELL vBIOS for the red Dell card, only!

After installing the card it will not simply boot directly into any macOS version (WindowServer crash) unless you install and use OpenCore and apply the so called CAIL settings within the DeviceProperties section (implemented in OCLP 0.3.2 and later).

So you need to install OpenCore onto your boot disk before booting in your current installation in normal multi user mode.

In case you have a working system before changing the card just run OLCP, select the proper MXM GPU type to AMD (GCN) and build and install OpenCore to your system and reboot. Otherwise use another Mac to create the OC config or create a OpenCore BootCD.

The settings needed and created by any OCLP from 0.3.2 onwards automatically are equivalent with adding radpg=15 -wegtree apdpmod=pikera to the boot-args in the config.plist of OpenCore. In particular the first entry radpg=15 is important to boot into macOS, the following two are more cosmetic.

This GPU type has been used in 2015 15" MacBookPro models.

Tested systems:
- iMac12,2: sleep/wake broken - black screen on cold boot needs PRAM reset each time
- iMac12,1: sleep/wake broken - black screen on cold boot needs PRAM reset each time
- iMac11,1: no problems
- iMac11,2: no problems
- iMac11,3: no problems

Memory support:
1. Elpida/Samsung, 2. Hynix BFR and 3. Hynix AFR memory.

Known issues:
- external display sync is difficult on all systems and needs the main LCD or the system to go to display sleep once after connecting the external display

Known features:
- Airplay is working until Catalina as with any other AMD metal card on iMac11,x and iMac12,2 (without using QuickSync)
- high metal scores
- boot screen with OpenCore
- brightness control working
- GPU power management working
- needs macOS 10.8.3 or better (HD7000 support)
- still full Monterey support (no root patching needed unlike Kepler)

Performance:
- GeekBench Metal and OpenCL: > 10.000
- Valley DELL: 23.46 FPS, 981 Score
- MetalBench: 31 MRays/s
- CoreClock: 300 MHz idle - 850 MHz max
- MemoryClock: 150 MHz idle - 1125 MHz max
- PowerDraw: 5W idle - 35W max

Warnings:
- do not flash the vBIOS from the DELL card onto the other two cards, it will cause a bad flash and will make the card unusable
- a bad flash prevents the iMac from booting and running the Linux flash utility, again!
- bad flashes can only be cured by using a CH341A clip or some other nasty tricks

News:
- OCLP 0.3.2 and later support this card. So you can update OC using OCLP in future. Nevertheless the boot strap process is complex since you cannot boot the normal macOS unless OC has been installed in advance! After booting successfully macOS OCLP will auto-detect this graphics card and no manual intervention is required.
- As pointed out many times on the thread, the first post and here these GCN1-3 cards will not work properly in iMac12,x (Mid 2011) models. There is no solution and very likely there will be none. Consider those cards as simply unsupported!

Download:
- please use the site to download GOP and EFI vBIOS versions. Please check the readme file there!
 

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Ausdauersportler said:
On the first post there is a special short section covering the installation of @dosdude1 Catalina patcher and has links to the special installer packages needed to get sleep, airplay, brightness etc back.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your rapid reply. I will apply these fixes asap, though my biggest concern of them all is the second display. I didn't see anything mentioned in the first post regarding this specific issue and searching this thread is tricky.
 
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