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128K isn't necessarily the key here.

ZOTAC GeForce 8800GT AMP Edition

EEPROM ID (9D, 7C) PMC Pm25LV010 2.7-3.6V 128Kx8S


It looks like it wants to start right, but I got 3 messages when I used nvflash -4 -5 -6 MP8800.ROM command.

It asked me 3 questions, and because I saw the 128K and I'm a stupid girl I chose Y to all 3 and did not write them down. I think I should have chosen Y, N, N, maybe because I am getting some serious artifacs, and a freeze at startup. After I see the Apple. Right after the pinwheel starts is when it happens.

Another silly question - you do have the extra power cable hooked up? To the motherboard or via one or two molex connectors? Mine worked with only one molex, but if you haven't tried already give two a go.

The only other thing I see is the organization of your ROM. I believe every one of the working ROMs has been 1024Kx1, whereas yours is 128Kx8.
 
128K isn't necessarily the key here.

ZOTAC GeForce 8800GT AMP Edition

EEPROM ID (9D, 7C) PMC Pm25LV010 2.7-3.6V 128Kx8S


It looks like it wants to start right, but I got 3 messages when I used nvflash -4 -5 -6 MP8800.ROM command.

It asked me 3 questions, and because I saw the 128K and I'm a stupid girl I chose Y to all 3 and did not write them down. I think I should have chosen Y, N, N, maybe because I am getting some serious artifacs, and a freeze at startup. After I see the Apple. Right after the pinwheel starts is when it happens.

Strange. How many people are actually getting a 128Kx8S and its working? Vs. 1024Kx1S? Or is that the same thing? I'm kinda technically challenged in this area. What is the difference between the two?

Also I have hooked up both Molex connectors to the extra CD power molex cable with a splitter and mine is running like a dream. So I have two molex going into two molex on the PCI-E adaptor.
 
Another silly question - you do have the extra power cable hooked up? To the motherboard or via one or two molex connectors? Mine worked with only one molex, but if you haven't tried already give two a go.

The only other thing I see is the organization of your ROM. I believe every one of the working ROMs has been 1024Kx1, whereas yours is 128Kx8.


I took the Mac 8800GT out when I did mine. I used the full conection that came with the Mac GT.

128x8 = 1024x1

The card is OC'd but I had it running in windows before I did the ROM swap. I just think I didn't need to update everything (the 3 Y's I chopse) in that ROM swap. I did the Apple ROM over it again the second time, and it only asked me one question that time. The first one about the display. So I realy need to re-install the original ROM and start using a process of elimination like Y, N, N, - Y, N, Y - Y, Y, N - and so on. I think it will work in the end though.
 
One Thing I forgot to mention is that Apples Nvidia drivers from the boot Camp install disk are better than the Nvidia ones, or the ZOTAC Nvidia ones. Using all three with ZOTAC's card, and All three with the Apple 8800GT in windows you see a huge performance differance. You grab a window like a browser window and move it in a circle with the apple driver it moves like an OS X window. But with the other drivers there is this cascading window thing where the video is trying to catch up with your actions. It's really annoying.
 
Thanks Hadley and Smg for the Xbench Posts.

Very interesting about the ATI Cards.. Looks like the OS X Drivers from Nvidia need work.

Thanks

You're welcome. I'm impressed Smg was able to compare the three. I sold my X1900 with my 2007 Mac Pro 2.66. I still have the 2600XT lying around in case of an applecare issue. Don't know what they would think of a goofy PC graphic setup if you took it in. Sounds like a gamble with whatever card anyone purchases. Luckily my Wife had an older 8800GT or I would be out of luck.
 
I took the Mac 8800GT out when I did mine. I used the full conection that came with the Mac GT.

OK, that eliminates power.

128x8 = 1024x1

I know they are both 1Mbit in total size, but there are differences. Looking at the manufacturer's data sheets it would appear to mostly be in write protection, block or sector size, and some instructions. Given the card works as well as it does, it would seen that the erasing/programming is in general working.

The card is OC'd but I had it running in windows before I did the ROM swap. I just think I didn't need to update everything (the 3 Y's I chopse) in that ROM swap. I did the Apple ROM over it again the second time, and it only asked me one question that time. The first one about the display. So I realy need to re-install the original ROM and start using a process of elimination like Y, N, N, - Y, N, Y - Y, Y, N - and so on. I think it will work in the end though.

I suspect if you answer N to any question nvflash quits. Would still be a good idea to flash back to original ROM and test again in Windows to be sure card is still fully functional.

Any chance the image you downloaded is corrupted?

What method are you using to run nvflash and access the boot rom image?
 
Any chance the image you downloaded is corrupted?

What method are you using to run nvflash and access the boot rom image?

No it's not corrupted. It's the image from my own 8800GT. No downloading involved. I used the FreeDOS Boot CD to do it all.
 
No it's not corrupted. It's the image from my own 8800GT. No downloading involved. I used the FreeDOS Boot CD to do it all.

Are you able to tell if the clocks have changed? I swear your symptoms sound just like a bad overclock.
 
I suspect if you answer N to any question nvflash quits.

What it did was say "do you want to replace xxx driver with the one you have" more or less, If you press Y it does it, and then moves to the next question, and you get the same situation, and it does it again. Maybe I didn't need to replace everything. Just the one that said something about display.
 
No it's not corrupted. It's the image from my own 8800GT. No downloading involved. I used the FreeDOS Boot CD to do it all.

So your MP originally came with an Apple 8800GT?

Does that mean you were using the PC 8800GT for video output at the same time you did the flash update? Or did you have your monitor hooked to the Apple 8800GT - but in that case how does nvflash know which card to update?

Do you have any way of re-trying the flash on the PC 8800 with no monitor attached to it when you boot FreeDOS and run nvflash.

I suspect most people attempting this, and myself for sure, have the 2600XT as the video output device at the time the 8800GT was flashed.
 
No I had one card in at a time.

If I understand correctly that means you had your monitor attached to the same card that you were flashing. I'm not sure that flashing an active card is considered valid. Do you have any way of trying to re-flash while the card has nothing connected to either DVI port (including during boot of FreeDOS)?

This would require a second video card, which you have, but it's another 8800GT and I don't know how nvflash would decide which one to use. If you have access to an ATI card that would be better. You could try with both 8800GT's installed and see what nvflash does with something like a --check command. Does it report both, ask which one, default to slot 1. From there decide if to try the flash command - I believe it always asks for at least one confirmation so you should get the chance to back out if necessary.
 
If I understand correctly that means you had your monitor attached to the same card that you were flashing. I'm not sure that flashing an active card is considered valid. Do you have any way of trying to re-flash while the card has nothing connected to either DVI port (including during boot of FreeDOS)?

This would require a second video card, which you have, but it's another 8800GT and I don't know how nvflash would decide which one to use. If you have access to an ATI card that would be better. You could try with both 8800GT's installed and see what nvflash does with something like a --check command. Does it report both, ask which one, default to slot 1. From there decide if to try the flash command - I believe it always asks for at least one confirmation so you should get the chance to back out if necessary.

I wont be able to do any of that until next week. But no I don't have an ATI card.
I don't have a second 6 plug connector for the card ether. Just the split one.
And how would I connect up the second card?
 
I wont be able to do any of that until next week. But no I don't have an ATI card.
I don't have a second 6 plug connector for the card ether. Just the split one.
And how would I connect up the second card?

1) Put the Apple 8800GT in slot #2 and use the power cable provided by Apple.

2) Put the PC 8800GT in slot #1. It should have come with a power cable that splits into two 4 pin molex connectors. Slide the optical drive bay about half way out and you should see a spare molex connector for the second optical drive. Connect one of the video card power cable molex to that spare connector and push the optical bay back in place. You will need to thread the cable through one of the slots in the optical bay in order to get it to slide back. You may need an extension for the 4pin molex cable to make it long enough to reach the video card. You cannot move the video card to slot 3 or 4 to shorten the distance since they are only 4x slots. I'm suggesting slot 1 for the PC card since it's possible nvflash may have a preference for that slot, otherwise putting the cards in the reverse order should work as well.

3) Connect your monitor to the Apple 8800GT and leave both DVI ports on the PC card empty. Boot FreeDOS and try nvflash per previous post.

Good luck!
 
I couldn't see the CD drive or USB key either.

Create a partition using BootCamp. Format it as FAT32, not NTFS. A small partition will be enough. Copy your nfvlash and your rom file to this partition.

I was able to boot from the FreeDOS CD, and run the nvflash program from this FAT partition. Just say c: to switch to this partition.
Thanks, it work :).

Last thing, what's the image you all used ? This one ?
 
1)
2) Put the PC 8800GT in slot #1. It should have come with a power cable that splits into two 4 pin molex connectors. Slide the optical drive bay about half way out and you should see a spare molex connector for the second optical drive. Connect one of the video card power cable molex to that spare connector and push the optical bay back in place. You will need to thread the cable through one of the slots in the optical bay in order to get it to slide back. You may need an extension for the 4pin molex cable to make it long enough to reach the video card. You cannot move the video card to slot 3 or 4 to shorten the distance since they are only 4x slots. I'm suggesting slot 1 for the PC card since it's possible nvflash may have a preference for that slot, otherwise putting the cards in the reverse order should work as well.
Good luck!

You don't need to give it full power? Thats why I didn't do it the first time. I pulled the DVD drive out and checked for two extra 4 pin molex connectors, but only found the one.
 
128K isn't necessarily the key here.

ZOTAC GeForce 8800GT AMP Edition

EEPROM ID (9D, 7C) PMC Pm25LV010 2.7-3.6V 128Kx8S


It looks like it wants to start right, but I got 3 messages when I used nvflash -4 -5 -6 MP8800.ROM command.

It asked me 3 questions, and because I saw the 128K and I'm a stupid girl I chose Y to all 3 and did not write them down. I think I should have chosen Y, N, N, maybe because I am getting some serious artifacs, and a freeze at startup. After I see the Apple. Right after the pinwheel starts is when it happens.


I have Bad News on ZOTAC ( they suck ) my friend just got his ZOTAC bought on eBAY, he came over with his card, and we did the Flash , looks like the the ROM size is 128k BUT it is from ( PMC -SIERRA ) not from MX , the card did Flash Correctly , but has Issues with PIXEL Engine, shaders and Artifacts on Bootup GREY SCREEN !

boy , my Friend was Pissed again ,first the PNY and now the ZOTAC, i think the Original MAC ROM we have is Designed for use with the ( MX 128k ROM CHIP not the PMC one )

the ZOTAC was Cheap anyway 157 , but i told him get a LEADTEK or EVGA.
 
I have Bad News on ZOTAC ( they suck ) my friend just got his ZOTAC bought on eBAY, he came over with his card, and we did the Flash , looks like the the ROM size is 128k BUT it is from ( PMC -SIERRA ) not from MX , the card did Flash Correctly , but has Issues with PIXEL Engine, shaders and Artifacts on Bootup GREY SCREEN !

boy , my Friend was Pissed again ,first the PNY and now the ZOTAC, i think the Original MAC ROM we have is Designed for use with the ( MX 128k ROM CHIP not the PMC one )

the ZOTAC was Cheap anyway 157 , but i told him get a LEADTEK or EVGA.

The user reviews on that card (the one I got) were great. PC users loved it. It was a good price for a dependable 100MHz over OC'd 8800GT.

I think your right about the EEPROM ID thing. It has to say MX, and be 128k. PMC isn't working out.

I did want an EVGA originally, but I said earlier the 4 EVGA's I wanted were all sold out. I couldn't get them anywhere.
 
I have the Mac Pro Model 1.1 2ghz.

What sort of options do I have for a custom flashed card? I'm quite interested in the ZOTAC GeForce 8800GT AMP Edition.

Would I need to flash the card with a EFI32 image?
 
If I understand correctly that means you had your monitor attached to the same card that you were flashing. I'm not sure that flashing an active card is considered valid. Do you have any way of trying to re-flash while the card has nothing connected to either DVI port (including during boot of FreeDOS)?

This would require a second video card, which you have, but it's another 8800GT and I don't know how nvflash would decide which one to use. If you have access to an ATI card that would be better. You could try with both 8800GT's installed and see what nvflash does with something like a --check command. Does it report both, ask which one, default to slot 1. From there decide if to try the flash command - I believe it always asks for at least one confirmation so you should get the chance to back out if necessary.
You only need one card in. It isn't recommended to have 2 Nvidia cards in on flashing. It will confuse the program and you may flash the wrong card.

I dunno why you are seeing artifacts. Usually that means one of two things. Either the cores/memory were clocked to high, or the firmware activated a broken quad and deactivated a good quad. I am not sure if the second one really is the case as I was told Nvidia cuts the dies so you can't activate messed up quads.
 
boy , my Friend was Pissed again ,first the PNY and now the ZOTAC, i think the Original MAC ROM we have is Designed for use with the ( MX 128k ROM CHIP not the PMC one )
.

Hey can you get your friend to send me his ROM? What card was it that he flashed exactly?
 
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