8800gt EFI64 ROM

[MacVidCards]

ok, only reason for that card not to work is that you have buggered up system files

do you have a Macbook, or something else with working, un-buggered system on it?

You could also try downloading and re-installing 10.5.8 update (combo)

Problem is, there might be some small extension from your "experiments" remaining somewhere.

You installed a bunch of nonsense for Hackintoshes...shouldn't be surprised that you have messed up system

 

[jamengual]

I will install 10.6 on Monday in a new HD to see what happen.

Thank you for all your help.

ok, only reason for that card not to work is that you have buggered up system files

do you have a Macbook, or something else with working, un-buggered system on it?

You could also try downloading and re-installing 10.5.8 update (combo)

Problem is, there might be some small extension from your "experiments" remaining somewhere.

You installed a bunch of nonsense for Hackintoshes...shouldn't be surprised that you have messed up system

 

[jamengual]

I will install 10.6 on Monday in a new HD to see what happen.

Thank you for all your help.

So finally today I installed 10.6 in a brand new HD and no problems at all, dual screen works, detects all the DVI adapters everything is ok.

it is possible to run a Quadro rom on a gt9800 ? ( I'm asking this because I have a co-worker than needs one ).

 

[MacVidCards]

Now Possible to flash 8800GT in OSX !!!

Wonderful news, no longer any need to futz around with DOS or Windows to flash an 8800GT !!!

You still have to find an 8800GT card with a 128K EEPROM chip, but being able to check this out in OSX as well makes life easier.

Some EFI64 Mac Pros will have an even easier time, as many came with an ATI 2600XT.

Basically, you need to either have a working ATI EFI card, or another Mac running SL with "Screen Sharing" enabled on Pro.

Would be great if somebody out there has an 8800GT they have been waiting to flash but were afraid of DOS.

1. Install Netkas "ATY_Init" extension. Natit may also work, I haven't tried it. But the ATY_INIT that he created for the "GTX285, etc working in any Mac Pro" thread is one I am referring to. Install via Kexthelper or some terminal commands.

2. Download Cindori's app "Zeus"

3. Find the 8800GT ROM you need, either in this thread or the EFI32 thread.

4. Put 8800GT in slot one. If you have an EFI ATI card, place that in slot 3. If you don't have an ATI Mac card, you will need another Mac that can connect to the Pro via Screen Sharing. Probably best if you work this out before you start yanking cards.

5. Restart Mac Pro. If you have an ATI EFI card, proceed via connected display. If you don't have ATI card, log in via Screen Sharing. In system profiler you should see the 8800GT under Graphics & DIsplays. If Extension is working, it will appear as what it is, with 512 Megs of VRAM and Netkas.org mentioned. If it just shows up as Nvidia card with little other info, ATY_Init didn't load properly and card won't be addressable.

6. Fire up Zeus. Click on Nvidia section and hit "Get Info". If Zeus can id the 8800GT, you are nearly done.There is a bug is Zeus that will not allow you to flash the card, so for now you need to use terminal. But by running Zeus, you have loaded the kext that terminal needs to flash. And MOST importantly, you will now know which EEPROM is on the 8800GT. You need it to have a part number with "1024" in it, or just "10" in it. If it has a part number with "512" or "05" in it it is a 64K chip and card won't hold ROM. Any attempt to cram the 128K Mac ROM on it will leave you semi useless card. Google the part number if you are in doubt.

7. If you have a 128K chip, proceed. Open a terminal window. Place the ROM you wish to flash with in your home user folder. Drag Nvflash into terminal window, it will display path. After this leave a space and then type in the name of the ROM you want to use. After this leave a space and follow it with "-4 -5 -6" and hit return, as in example.

8. You will be prompted for some mismatches, hit "y" as in example. You should see screen similar to example. If you have choosen appropriate ROM for your machine and card, you should be done.

I am going to attach some of the little files you need, if anyone doesn't like that, I will remove them.

This may seem a little scary, but it is pretty painless. I will be happy to hold hand of firs couple people to try. If Zeus ever gets fixed, it will be even easier as you will be able to do the entire process in Zeus, with no need for terminal.

BTW, this will also work for 8800GTS and many other Nvidia cards. Unfortunaley, most Nvidia cards don't have large enough EEPROM, only 8800GT have a 50/50 chance of having 128K. I would suggest you try looking for an EVGA 8800GT, those seem VERY likely to have 128K.

Who's gonna be first?

 

[haveagoal]

Well, I thought I would start by seeing if the card was compatible with the apple firmware.

CARD: PNY 9800 GT 1GB.

1. looks like EFI32 and EFI64 contain the same legacy PC firmware.
2. flashing the apple legacy PC firmware doesn't give video until ATY_Init has loaded.
3. reports only 256MB of memory when 1GB exists.
4. the default state is VGA 800x600x32 @ 60 on all ports with no display attached due to lack of initialization.

I guess it's not very compatible.

1. hex-edited EFI64 firmware to use init addresses of PNY 9800 GT legacy PC firmware but still need to patch for EDID extraction address.
2. card initializes under EFI but EDID is NULL until display detect (needs address patched).
3. apple drivers are expecting specific ID's and these ID's do not match so changing cards ID's for further testing.
4. changing PCI ID's in 9800 GT firmware to 8800 GT ID's does not change ID of card, card still seen as 9800 GT but firmware has ID's of 8800 GT so drivers still don't work correctly.
5. NiBiTor does not like to edit the PNY 9800 GT firmware (new rom type maybe???) and I haven't been able to locate anything else that works.

Trying to load using an external EFI module.

1. flash custom firmware with new ID's.
2. use EFI shell to load module.
3. module recognizes card.
4. module initializes card.
5. module extracts EDID.
6. module calculates correct amount of memory.
7. module extracts NVCAP.
8. module builds string.
9. module injects string.
10. card fully functional.

I believe that if you get the EFI rom properly patched for the legacy firmware it should function properly as shown by the following test which yielded positive results.

The Rominator, you turned off PM's again and I am unable to respond to your questions, please send me your e-mail for further communication.

 

[davxmess]

I have the EFI64 ROM loaded and working on OSX, and up until this evening with no boot camp the black screen everyone has.

I've spent the past 4 days hitting my head on my desk because I couldn't get my flashed 8800 working with bootcamp and my early '08 mac pro. The black screen problem had me totally foxed and no end of googling seemed to find the answers I needed.

I've just now installed the FACTORY firmware from your post and after a brief moment of dispair (I forgot to power the system down and pull the chord after flashing) I can report it's solved my bootcamp black screen issue.

A question popped into my mind last night. I'm assuming that it's been perfectly possible to rip the firmware from genuine Apple 8800's for a while now. So what's the special sauce that makes their cards work in bootcamp and the flashed one I had just fail with the black screen issue?

Anyhow, right now I just can't say "thank you" enough times!

-dxm

 

[davxmess]

I've just now installed the FACTORY firmware from your post and after a brief moment of dispair (I forgot to power the system down and pull the chord after flashing) I can report it's solved my bootcamp black screen issue.

Argh. Scratch that. After a reboot to install windows updates it no longer boots past the "starting windows" splash screen and the system wouldn't start in safe mode. So yet another reinstall. The win7 64bit installer still gives me a black screen on "completing install". I had to revert back to my ATI card to get win7 reinstalled. After running drive sweeper and installing the nvidia drivers I had working earlier, no dice.

Looks like I'm back where I started. The card still works great in OSX but bootcamp just isn't going to happen. Really strange.

-dxm

 

[thepiecesfit]

This rom is great ive been using it for a while. But there are problems in snow leopard. I am getting the infamous vertical pinstriping on certain shades of solid colors. Happens both on my apple cinema 20" and Dell u2311h. I flashed my bios back to original and it doesnt happen. Worked fine in 10.5.8. Something about this bios snow leopard doesnt like.

 

[Forbidden Era]

As I mentioned above, XFX 8800GT XXX alpha dog PV-T88P-YHD4 is 64k ... however, I just found out that the same shop I bought this card in has an older model in stock (exactly one piece) which is exactly the part number mentioned by antsh (PV-T88P-YDD4). I will go for it and check the chip on it ... if it is 128, too, everything is fine, if not we all know that cards with same number can still use different chips and I will go and sell both cards on ebay ...

For any future readers...

I have an XFX 8800GT XXX AlphaDog Edition (only gfx card I ever bought new) ..

Because of early posts in this thread, I had assumed I had only 64k VBIOS EEPROM.

I just checked, for ***** and giggles (because I am ****ing desparate for boot screens) and I do indeed have a 128k (1024x1s) eeprom.

Perhaps last time I went into this with the 8800 was when i had an efi32 machine but..man..I feel dumb, I could have flashed this ages ago..like years of bootscreens and tearing hair out could have been avoided.

SO CHECK YOUR VBIOS PERSONALLY, DO NOT RELY ON SOMEONE ELSES INFO FOR THISM- MANUFACTURERS WILL OFTEN USE WHATEVER REEL OF COMPATIBLE CHIPS ARE AVAILABLE/ON HAND/ETC.. they will of course use the least common denominator wherever possible for cost savings (in this case, 64k chips) but ifnthey run out, they aren't shutting down production until a new batch arrives.