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iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade
- Thread starter MichaelDT
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My understanding is self booting Linux USB boot stick with nv/amd flash program is the way to go for end users. These are already pre-made ( video nvlink amdlink ). A clip-on ROM flashing tool is probably great for devs flashing cards all the time but not really necessary for end users doing a couple of cards.
I've not done K1100M ( only flashed 1 AMD card so far using this same method in post #21491 ) Consult post #1 on which card version, which vBIOS etc (I don't have experience with K1100M but quite a few cards have working and non working versions so need to find this info) post #1 table for K1100M shows ROM and Elpida links. Sounds like Elpida cards require a bit more effort? Another good trick is search the thread for K1100M related posts and read through all of it. You are likely to find people with success and failure. As software is always improving, I also tend to weigh later posts likely closer to what I will encounter. Also keep in mind a lot of dev effort exchanges here so kind of need to find "when" was the last changes and productized. Made a search link for you.
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Then ditch it and buy another, pre-flashed.
That's the simplest way I can think of, for you.
Good job and niceNvidia GTX 860M installation on 27" iMac 2011
Part 2/2
11. Flashing BIOS in Linux on this iMac without SSH.
- Opened Terminal in Ubuntu and swithed to home directory to my flash files.
- Made nvflash_linux executable:sudo chmod +x nvflash_linux, or it will not run.
- Saved original ROM from GTX 860M:sudo nvflash_linux --save Original.rom
- Flashed 860M BIOS:sudo nvflash_linux -6 860M_2GB_UGA.rom
- (Only in case the display would have gone black or something wrong i would SSH to the Ubuntu-System with my second machine and run the commands from there to repair the failed flash).
- Pressed y and let the process finish. Poweroff the iMac.
View attachment 1664080
Switched back MacOS SSD and removed Ubuntu SSD. Completely reassebled my iMac. and
12. First boot with Apple bootscreen / brightness control:
DO A PRAM RESET ON FIRST BOOT (with Key-Combo)
View attachment 1664083
View attachment 1664084
Brightness control works, but maximum brightness is ~75% of original brighness. This can be fixed in next step easily.
View attachment 1664085
Fans are quiet again with nikey22 BIOS, but i wanted control of fan speed.
Installed Macs Fan Control (optional). It shows all temperature sensors and lets me enable fan speed at certain temperatur levels.
View attachment 1664093
My center HDD fan is not attached to the mainboard with the fan cable, because i use SSD and no HDD. So there is less noise and the SSD needs no extra cooling. HDD fan rpm value = 0 when disconnecting the HDD fan.
View attachment 1664094
I set the ODD fan (=GPU-side fan) to "GPU Heatsink" and 58/68°C. Will set it higher after test period, maybe to 68/80°C, so it will be at minimum fan rpm until 68°C and start max rpm at 80°C.
I set the CPU fan (=CPU-side fan) to "CPU Heatsink" and 70/90°C.
13. To get 100% display brighness:
Follow nikey22 guide (where the ROM download is linked). Done in 10 minutes.
You need to disable System Integrity Protection first!
Can be enabled again after brightness mod applied.
Thanks nikey22 and all who have made this possible.
DONE
pappl
Hello Friends,
I have a problem: I upgraded a 12,2 iMac with WX7100 card, 1 TB SSd and 12GB RAM and Monterey. Everything works fine. I updated to Sonoma 14.2. Still everything works fine. Recently I tried to update to 14.3 but failed. It loads the OS but during the preparation for the update a message pops up "failure occured, try again later". Of course I updated OCLP to 1.3.0 before update of OS. I treid a lot of things to overcome the problem, no luck.
On my other iMac 12,2 the update worked without a problem.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Konrad
I have a problem: I upgraded a 12,2 iMac with WX7100 card, 1 TB SSd and 12GB RAM and Monterey. Everything works fine. I updated to Sonoma 14.2. Still everything works fine. Recently I tried to update to 14.3 but failed. It loads the OS but during the preparation for the update a message pops up "failure occured, try again later". Of course I updated OCLP to 1.3.0 before update of OS. I treid a lot of things to overcome the problem, no luck.
On my other iMac 12,2 the update worked without a problem.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Konrad
Thanks for the reply, I am not sure what you mean. I tried to re-install the system via OCLP USB stick but the same error occured...
Ok Guys, since I was a newbie. I thought I make a newbie guide which provides a top level end user view but link up all the key posts + infos. Have done for other projects and often becomes a good newbie goto source. Just work in progress for now on M5100, will do a M4000 soon and hopefully some more cheap cards to keep these iMacs alive and functional haha. If anyone wants to add, just reach out for editor rights 
Link in my signature
Link in my signature
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Sounds like yes and probably Elpida.
12/7/19 first vBIOS post #3780 by Nick [D]vb
3/12/21 Elpida vBIOS post #13281 by nikey22
Probably not running OC? which macOS? post #1 table on K1100M Elpida shows OC, issue #7. nikey22 post specifically says need OC for brightness control. #7 discusses blackscreen and specific solutions depending on macOS version.
Link in my sig goes over some acronyms. eg OC etc.
Again, I've never done a K1100M, just have learned a little on how to find info on specific card + macOS + issues.
Added a diagram in the overview section that might help understanding OC. Devs did incredible work, all working remotely and put this complex stuff together. Amazing!
Without having done a K1100M install, I don't know if OC is as simple as install latest OCLP and click "Build and Install Open Core" button (probably? haha)
Sounds like your experience maybe common for nVidia efforts, easy to install HW and get something up and running but need to dive in and learn OC/OCLP more to get more perfect/newer macOS.
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Which version of Mac OS would you recommend for mid-2011, according to your website the latest OS requires expensive AMD cards for mid-2011. Anyway I don't need to latest OS, oldest one that still get security updates more than OK for me.
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$$$ is relative I guess. Post #21506 is a 12,2 with WX7100 : $300/ebay. Didn't research any details on card variants/heat sink mods etc. Looks like Dell green card WX5130 gets to Monterey (1 more than Big Sur from your K1100M) with fairly easy install.
Since you already have K1100M installed, maybe worth just getting up to Big Sur for now (post #1 Spoiler: 3 -> Spoiler: Nvidia Kepler GPU (2013-2014)) Current OCLP 1.3.0 does Big Sur so might be pretty easy with a already vBIOS flashed K1100M. Maybe everything just works with devs rapidly integrating things together.
link to my website's OCLP guide source info
You also never mentioned the currently running macOS. If < High Sierra, its customary to do that first. Just added this to my Overview. Forgot some people might be on really old macOS
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Can you clarify exactly where failed? OCLP macOS installation reboots the Mac multiple times. Which one of these "loads the OS" are you referring to? I think one of the last reboot runs shows a % progress counting towards 100. After that reboot, I believe it boots towards setting up Mac (if virgin install) or existing accounts (if update macOS only)
I encountered an install error and stop towards the end of installation phase like this 2x ( bottom of this post including the solution ) Happened with stock GPU also so OCLP related. Once installing 14.2.1 + stock GPU, 2nd time installing 14.3 + metal GPU.
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The installation image is taken from where? With OCLP or the installation original?
Show errors when installing OCLP
By the way, I bought a 05x15x15mm copper plate. I tested the X550XT 8 Gb graphics card. The results are decent.
Could you provide me with a link to download the EFI V0.5.3 from your Google Drive, many thanks.
I downloaded the 14.3 image from some other website, maybe that was the problem. But I don't understand why the regular update process which worked on all my other iMacs doesn't work on this one?
But I will try again with OCLP USB stick (with download from OCLP).
Thaks all
