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

[langking]

Hi everyone, I have a question about updating my 2010mid 27’ imac.

At first i have high sierra installed in. and my original graphic card dead somehow. Then I bought a AMD firepro M5100. After I finished the flash work and the hardware installation. I reset pram. then my external screen working well, and I install opencore1.1 in high sierra. Reboot and still only external display showed up. Did i do something wrong or what should I do to make internal screen working? It remains black no matter how many times I tear it apart and reinstall the screen. Please help. Thank you!

edit: The iMac just recognized one display. Only the external one.

So I checked the display cable after @xleo77 remained me. I do find out the cable was broken at the motherboard end(first picture I attached)! Thank you again!
Then I ordered another cable and received it this morning. I replaced it at once.

But something strange happened. Both internal and external screen black at first. Then with out the picker shown(which it should be). I just got a screen with out account name(the second picture I attached). Just a picture. And no other reaction. I sought I broke the cable again? Then I dissembled it. Turn on the power without internal screen attached. And Catalina works fine.

Even if the cable or the internal screen has hardware problem(but the new cable I got is a brand new one). Why the oc picker won't show up? and just show a picture?

The big iMac now is like a Mac mini to me. only works with out the internal screen. what should I do now?

 

[langking]

I figured it out. The internal screen is working but no backlight. I can see faint image with bright light. So how can I turn it on? I add -igfxblr or igfxcflbklt=1 to the boot-args. But still no backlight.My oc is v1.1.0
I examined the cable between backlight board and screen. I also examined Vertical sync cable and DC power cable. They all seems right. According to Apple suggest, I should replace the led driver board? But I'm still not sure if its a hardware or a software problem. As I'm very confused why this happend.
Any one know this? Please help me. Thank you very much!

 

[The_Croupier]

I figured it out. The internal screen is working but no backlight. I can see faint image with bright light. So how can I turn it on? I add -igfxblr or igfxcflbklt=1 to the boot-args. But still no backlight.My oc is v1.1.0
I examined the cable between backlight board and screen. I also examined Vertical sync cable and DC power cable. They all seems right. According to Apple suggest, I should replace the led driver board? But I'm still not sure if its a hardware or a software problem. As I'm very confused why this happend.
Any one know this? Please help me. Thank you very much!

Could be your backlight driver power board died or you broke some components during the hardware modification.
Change your backlight power board with a known working one first. If still no backlight then examine the board for missing components.
Also your damaged lids cable was damaged so maybe you have damaged pins related to backlight signal in the LVDS connector.

 

[langking]

Could be your backlight driver power board died or you broke some components during the hardware modification.
Change your backlight power board with a known working one first. If still no backlight then examine the board for missing components.
Also your damaged lids cable was damaged so maybe you have damaged pins related to backlight signal in the LVDS connector.

So a hardware problem it is. Thank you! Then It's either the driver board or the screen itself, right? I think I'm gonna take some rest. How could I be so reckless 😂

 

[The_Croupier]

So a hardware problem it is. Thank you! I'm gonna give up and take some rest. How could I be so reckless 😂

Don’t worry it happens a lot. I have broken many components tinkering with these iMacs, luckily they are dirt cheap and readily available.
What was your original symptoms of the dying gpu? Was the backlight know to be working before you tried the modification?

 

[langking]

Don’t worry it happens a lot. I have broken many components tinkering with these iMacs, luckily they are dirt cheap and readily available.
What was your original symptoms of the dying gpu? Was the backlight know to be working before you tried the modification?

Thank you I fill better now! At first it show Vertical lines and white snowy dots. And restart automaticlly in a few seconds. Then getting more serious after several reboot. It stopped with apple logo. and finally almost all black with a few white dots.

 

[The_Croupier]

Thank you I fill better now! At first it show Vertical lines and white snowy dots. And restart automaticlly in a few seconds. Then getting more serious after several reboot. It stopped with apple logo. and finally almost all black with a few white dots.

Also check you installed Open Core correctly, could still be software related.

 

[langking]

Also check you installed Open Core correctly, could still be software related.

OK! I'll look into it. Although don't know where to start. Maybe choose a lower version.
You also mentioned the broken lvds cable may damage the backlight signal. But I already changed a new lvds cable. May the last broken one can cause a unrepairable damage?

 

[babloos2023]

so guys, I have a little gift for you to give back after such an incredible thread
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

(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)

Could you please help me with grml? From my macbook pro I am trying to ssh to my imac late 2009 in order to flash the GPU that I have changed. An error appears in my macbook pro: ssh: connect to host 192.XXX..X.XX port 22: Connection refused. What could be the cause. As you have suggested I am connecting directly both the imac to be upgraded and macbook pro to the same router with LAN cable. Your help will be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[StefanAM]

Could you please help me with grml? From my macbook pro I am trying to ssh to my imac late 2009 in order to flash the GPU that I have changed. An error appears in my macbook pro: ssh: connect to host 192.XXX..X.XX port 22: Connection refused. What could be the cause. As you have suggested I am connecting directly both the imac to be upgraded and macbook pro to the same router with LAN cable. Your help will be much appreciated. Thanks.

"Default password of user root is flash."

 

[babloos2023]

Thanks for the reply. Password is not the problem, I know it. When the connection itself is refused, how can you provide the password. Moreover, I would like to inform that I am able to establish ssh connection from MacBook Pro to my iMac when the iMac is running macOS High Sierra. The problem lies with grml that I have in my usb stick and when I boot from it to flash the GPU in my iMac, then the ssh connection to port 22 is refused.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Thanks for the reply. Password is not the problem, I know it. When the connection itself is refused, how can you provide the password. Moreover, I would like to inform that I am able to establish ssh connection from MacBook Pro to my iMac when the iMac is running macOS High Sierra. The problem lies with grml that I have in my usb stick and when I boot from it to flash the GPU in my iMac, then the ssh connection to port 22 is refused.

Are you sure that you SSH to the correct IP address of you iMac?
Have you opened the home page of your router and check that your iMac is online?
I'm sorry for the seemingly idiotic question, but I encountered the similar issue quite a few time and it turned out I was wrong about the iP address.

 

[babloos2023]

Yes, physically there are only two LAN IP addresses, one from my macbookpro and the other from the imac that is not connecting. All other IP Adresses are from my wifi equipments. So, I did not go wrong with the IP address. As I mentioned, I am able to connect to my iMac when the macOS High Sierra is running and although the IP address was different. But ssh was possible. Not with grml system.
Thanks for your reply.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Yes, physically there are only two LAN IP addresses, one from my macbookpro and the other from the imac that is not connecting. All other IP Adresses are from my wifi equipments. So, I did not go wrong with the IP address. As I mentioned, I am able to connect to my iMac when the macOS High Sierra is running and although the IP address was different. But ssh was possible. Not with grml system.
Thanks for your reply.

Then I ran out of idea. You can check the below articles for some suggestions.

How To Fix Port 22: Connection Refused Error

Port 22: Connection Refused is a common SSH error that generally happens because users try to connect to the wrong port.

www.technewstoday.com

5 ways to fix ssh: connect to host port 22: Connection refused - howtouselinux

The error message “ssh: connect to host <host> port 22: Connection refused” typically indicates that your SSH client is unable to establish a connection with the SSH server. It can occur due to various reasons. The SSH server may not be running on the remote host, the host or IP address provided...

www.howtouselinux.com

 

[babloos2023]

Once again thanks for your efforts. I just scanned through the two interesting articles. I am currently working from macbookpro to imac with High Sierra. ssh works. However, the second article has three commands which I already tried, e.g., sudo ufw status or sudo iptables -L or sudo firewall-cmd --state. The response comes as sudo: ufw: command not found, sudo: iptables: command not found, sudo: firewall-cmd: command not found, etc.
Anyway, I will try all the possibilities and give a report.

 

[internetzel]

Once again thanks for your efforts. I just scanned through the two interesting articles. I am currently working from macbookpro to imac with High Sierra. ssh works. However, the second article has three commands which I already tried, e.g., sudo ufw status or sudo iptables -L or sudo firewall-cmd --state. The response comes as sudo: ufw: command not found, sudo: iptables: command not found, sudo: firewall-cmd: command not found, etc.
Anyway, I will try all the possibilities and give a report.

A few people have had problems with GRML not being able to correctly configure the network stack, see this post about a possible solution.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Once again thanks for your efforts. I just scanned through the two interesting articles. I am currently working from macbookpro to imac with High Sierra. ssh works. However, the second article has three commands which I already tried, e.g., sudo ufw status or sudo iptables -L or sudo firewall-cmd --state. The response comes as sudo: ufw: command not found, sudo: iptables: command not found, sudo: firewall-cmd: command not found, etc.
Anyway, I will try all the possibilities and give a report.

I think the commands in those articles are supposed to be executed from the Linux machine (the iMac booted by GRML USB)... as you couldn't SSH to the iMac, "sudo" them from your MacBook would not work.

 

[gemg83]

Hello everyone, I hope someone can help me understand what procedure I should perform, I have an imac11.1- A1312 with Radeon HD4850 working correctly and I bought a DELL WX4130 https://www.ebay.com/itm/166076524480 , I change the card and do a clean installation with OCLP, now I only have video through an external monitor, I understand that I must install the GOP bios to the wx4130 but I don't know how to do it, I thought that OCLP did it, but I see that I am wrong, Could someone please explain to me what I should do?.

I know the forum has a lot of information but I'm already lost, thank you and I hope someone can guide me.

 

[langking]

Once again thanks for your efforts. I just scanned through the two interesting articles. I am currently working from macbookpro to imac with High Sierra. ssh works. However, the second article has three commands which I already tried, e.g., sudo ufw status or sudo iptables -L or sudo firewall-cmd --state. The response comes as sudo: ufw: command not found, sudo: iptables: command not found, sudo: firewall-cmd: command not found, etc.
Anyway, I will try all the possibilities and give a report.

Maybe the router? Sometimes the router might acting weird. Change one if you have an alternative. Won't hurt anyway.

 

[babloos2023]

A few people have had problems with GRML not being able to correctly configure the network stack, see this post about a possible solution.

You are right! GRML gives only the MAC address and not the ipaddress. In the terminal I gave on imac the following command sudo ifconfig and it returns only the MAC address and not the IP address. In my macbookpro the same command gives the IP Address.
Basically, what I am trying to do is flash my GPU on imac through ssh from macbookpro. The post that you have mentioned is on the same imac. This is not possible because you only have a blank screen.
Thanks for your reply.

 

[babloos2023]

I think the commands in those articles are supposed to be executed from the Linux machine (the iMac booted by GRML USB)... as you couldn't SSH to the iMac, "sudo" them from your MacBook would not work.

You are right. But how do I flash the GPU with a blank screen on the imac? See this post: https://forums.macrumors.com/members/the_croupier.1149487/

 

[babloos2023]

Sorry, here is the link I mentioned: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/post-29723850

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hello everyone, I hope someone can help me understand what procedure I should perform, I have an imac11.1- A1312 with Radeon HD4850 working correctly and I bought a DELL WX4130 https://www.ebay.com/itm/166076524480 , I change the card and do a clean installation with OCLP, now I only have video through an external monitor, I understand that I must install the GOP bios to the wx4130 but I don't know how to do it, I thought that OCLP did it, but I see that I am wrong, Could someone please explain to me what I should do?.

I know the forum has a lot of information but I'm already lost, thank you and I hope someone can guide me.

Rebuild and rewrite OpenCore with OCLP app after changing the GPU. Your iMac already recognizes the internal display, and nevertheless it remains black. You have either a software or hardware problem.

And please check the docs on the first post for all recent and updated flashing options. You could also have noticed the ongoing discussion about flashing within the last ten posts.

 

[babloos2023]

Rebuild and rewrite OpenCore with OCLP app after changing the GPU. Your iMac already recognizes the internal display, and nevertheless it remains black. You have either a software or hardware problem.

And please check the docs on the first post for all recent and updated flashing options. You could also have noticed the ongoing discussion about flashing within the last ten posts.

May be you can help me with my problem of ssh. It is you who made this possible: https://github.com/Ausdauersportler/GRML-FLASH#readme. You explain there about ssh. But I am unable to ssh from macbookpro to imac. Neither can I see an ipaddress for the GRML-booted imac on the router. Vielen Dank im Voraus.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

May be you can help me with my problem of ssh. It is you who made this possible: https://github.com/Ausdauersportler/GRML-FLASH#readme. You explain there about ssh. But I am unable to ssh from macbookpro to imac. Neither can I see an ipaddress for the GRML-booted imac on the router. Vielen Dank im Voraus.

No, I cannot resolve your router problems remotely. The most simple idea would be booting the USB from your MacBook with a working screen. You would see how Linux and your router would negotiate, or not.