MP 1,1-5,1 Flashing a GPU on MacPro 1,1/3,1/4,1/5,1 without PC using Windows/DOS. Is it possible?

[sheapuppy]

Hey everyone,

I am wondering if someone could help me answer this question: I've trying for the life of me to flash an NVIDIA 8800GT to use on my Mac Pro 1,1. The problem is that I don't have a PC, so I'm trying to use either my Mac Pro 1,1 or 4,1>5,1 to do this. I know if I had an AMD/ATI card, I can do it through Windows, but NVFLASH requires you to boot into DOS/FreeDOS/Linux,etc and I'm not sure how to do this in a Mac Pro.

I tried creating a Windows 98 SE boot disk CD-ROM and it gets hung up trying to create a RAM disk or trying to load CD-ROM drivers. So while I get a prompt, I'm unable to get to my spinner, SSD, or USB thumb drive to get to the NVFLASH and .ROM file to complete the flashing process.

Any assistance / steps would be awesome! Thanks!

JP

 

[tsialex]

The nvflash for Windows runs perfectly with Windows 10/11 on my MacPro5,1.

NVIDIA NVFlash 5.867 Download

NVIDIA NVFlash is used to flash the graphics card BIOS on Blackwell, Ada, Ampere, Turing, Pascal and all older NVIDIA cards. NVFlash supports BIOS

www.techpowerup.com

 

[tsialex]

Btw, for older ancient GPUs, 5.134 works best and is the version that I use for Tesla/Fermi/Kepler GPUs.

https://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/nvflash_windows_5-134-0-1-zip.420315/

 

[sheapuppy]

@tsialex thanks! so as far as my original question as to which tool(s) can you use to go a DOS/Linux prompt and use the nvflash tool to flash the GPU using a Mac Pro x,1 as your PC? I'm assuming the answer is still none exist, but the nvflash 5.867 or 5.134 should work under Windows.

 

[sheapuppy]

@tsialex I was able to run nvflash 5.134 when I use the following command:

nvflash --index=0 -4 -5 -6 -j 8800GT.rom (where 0 is the NVIDIA 8800GT and 8800GT.rom is the Mac ROM file)

I get the following response:

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.134)

ERROR: Unsupported code type: 0x01. FCode support deprecated.

C:\Downloads\nvflash_windows_5.134.0.1>

Do you know what the error means? Thanks again! JP

 

[tsialex]

@tsialex I was able to run nvflash 5.134 when I use the following command:

nvflash --index=0 -4 -5 -6 -j 8800GT.rom (where 0 is the NVIDIA 8800GT and 8800GT.rom is the Mac ROM file)

I get the following response:

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.134)

ERROR: Unsupported code type: 0x01. FCode support deprecated.

C:\Downloads\nvflash_windows_5.134.0.1>

Do you know what the error means? Thanks again! JP

Probably been almost a decade that I last flashed a 8800GT, maybe you need an even older version of nvflash.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/trying-to-flash-6800gt-in-powermac-g4-digital-audio-nvflash-errors.2121853/

For Kepler GPUs 5.134 works perfectly, did several reversion to PC firmware + 0x10038 UEFI GOP module in the last few days to avoid issues of the macEdition with the DP port.

 

[sheapuppy]

Probably been almost a decade that I last flashed a 8800GT, maybe you need an even older version of nvflash.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/trying-to-flash-6800gt-in-powermac-g4-digital-audio-nvflash-errors.2121853/

For Kepler GPUs 5.134 works perfectly, did several reversion to PC firmware + 0x10038 UEFI GOP module in the last few days to avoid issues of the macEdition with the DP port.

View attachment 2488844

Thanks for your help! It looks like I'm going to need a standard PC with 2 PCIe ports so that I can put the 8800GT and a Quadro FX1400 GPU I have (PC version), either running Windows XP/7/10 to be able to flash the 8800GT. The nvflash version mentioned in the post is 5.13, which requires DOS. Unfortunately, the Mac Pro will not boot to DOS using a Windows 98 startup disk CD. The ramdrive cannot be created and I can never get to the thumb drive that contains the nvflash and rom files. I also tried adding the files to the ISO file and burning to the start up disk CD, but it does not see the files.

UPDATE: I stayed up late last night working on it. Eventually I was able to install FreeDOS 1.2 from an ISO CD onto one of my spinner HDDs. I had a secondary HDD also formatted FAT32 where I had copied the various versions of nvflash so I could access them. (SIDEBAR: I originally had the files on a USB thumb drive but I couldn't figure out how to enable USB under FreeDOS - so that's another project for another day )

After much trial and error, I found (as mentioned in the link you provided) that nvflash 5.13 worked great! It recognized the 8800GT when I used the nvflash --list command. I also saved the original PC ROM file in case I ever need it. Finally I performed the Mac ROM update using the nvflash -4 -5 -6 -j 8800gt.rom command.

I tested it this morning on my Mac Pro 1,1 under Lion 10.7 and it works great!

Thanks again! JP

 

[joevt]

I use nvflash.v5.95.0.1-win in Windows 10 to flash my Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT (64K FCode) for Power Mac G5, B&W G3, or Power Mac 8600.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.4412]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>cd F:\ROM Nvidia\Flashing Utilities\nvflash\nvflash.v5.95.0.1-win

C:\WINDOWS\system32>F:

F:\ROM Nvidia\Flashing Utilities\nvflash\nvflash.v5.95.0.1-win>nvflash 7800GT_compressed.rom

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.95)

Checking for matches between display adapter(s) and image(s)...

Adapter: GeForce 7800 GT      (10DE,0092,10DE,0052) H:--:NRM B:04,PCI,D:00,F:00

NOTE: EEPROM does not contain board ID, skipping board ID check.
Current      - Version:Unknown version ID:10DE:0092:10DE:0052

Replace with - Version:Unknown version ID:10DE:0092:10DE:0052

Update display adapter firmware?
Press 'y' to confirm (any other key to abort):  y
The display may go *BLANK* on and off for up to 10 seconds or more during the update process depending on your display adapter and output device.

Identifying EEPROM...
EEPROM ID (1F,0060) : Atmel AT25F1024 2.7-3.6V 1024Kx1S, page
Clearing original firmware image...
.
Storing updated firmware image...
..
Verifying update...
Update successful.


F:\ROM Nvidia\Flashing Utilities\nvflash\nvflash.v5.95.0.1-win>nvflash --save 7800_after.rom

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.95)

Adapter: GeForce 7800 GT      (10DE,0092,10DE,0052) H:--:NRM B:04,PCI,D:00,F:00

The display may go *BLANK* on and off for up to 10 seconds during access to the EEPROM depending on your display adapter and output device.

Identifying EEPROM...
EEPROM ID (1F,0060) : Atmel AT25F1024 2.7-3.6V 1024Kx1S, page
Reading adapter firmware image...
Image Size            : 41984 bytes
Version               : Unknown version
~CRC32                : BD17538E
Subsystem ID          : 10DE-0052
Hierarchy ID          : None
Chip SKU              : N/A
Project               : N/A
CDP                   : N/A
Modification Date     :
Saving of image completed.

F:\ROM Nvidia\Flashing Utilities\nvflash\nvflash.v5.95.0.1-win>

 

[sheapuppy]

I use nvflash.v5.95.0.1-win in Windows 10 to flash my Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT (64K FCode) for Power Mac G5, B&W G3, or Power Mac 8600.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.4412]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>cd F:\ROM Nvidia\Flashing Utilities\nvflash\nvflash.v5.95.0.1-win

C:\WINDOWS\system32>F:

F:\ROM Nvidia\Flashing Utilities\nvflash\nvflash.v5.95.0.1-win>nvflash 7800GT_compressed.rom

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.95)

Checking for matches between display adapter(s) and image(s)...

Adapter: GeForce 7800 GT      (10DE,0092,10DE,0052) H:--:NRM B:04,PCI,D:00,F:00

NOTE: EEPROM does not contain board ID, skipping board ID check.
Current      - Version:Unknown version ID:10DE:0092:10DE:0052

Replace with - Version:Unknown version ID:10DE:0092:10DE:0052

Update display adapter firmware?
Press 'y' to confirm (any other key to abort):  y
The display may go *BLANK* on and off for up to 10 seconds or more during the update process depending on your display adapter and output device.

Identifying EEPROM...
EEPROM ID (1F,0060) : Atmel AT25F1024 2.7-3.6V 1024Kx1S, page
Clearing original firmware image...
.
Storing updated firmware image...
..
Verifying update...
Update successful.


F:\ROM Nvidia\Flashing Utilities\nvflash\nvflash.v5.95.0.1-win>nvflash --save 7800_after.rom

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.95)

Adapter: GeForce 7800 GT      (10DE,0092,10DE,0052) H:--:NRM B:04,PCI,D:00,F:00

The display may go *BLANK* on and off for up to 10 seconds during access to the EEPROM depending on your display adapter and output device.

Identifying EEPROM...
EEPROM ID (1F,0060) : Atmel AT25F1024 2.7-3.6V 1024Kx1S, page
Reading adapter firmware image...
Image Size            : 41984 bytes
Version               : Unknown version
~CRC32                : BD17538E
Subsystem ID          : 10DE-0052
Hierarchy ID          : None
Chip SKU              : N/A
Project               : N/A
CDP                   : N/A
Modification Date     :
Saving of image completed.

F:\ROM Nvidia\Flashing Utilities\nvflash\nvflash.v5.95.0.1-win>

That is good to know! I have a Late 2005 Power Mac G5 where I'd like to install a 7800 GT. I think with NVIDIA cards, it's a matter of finding just the right nvflash version to update the Mac ROM. It's pretty much a trial and error.

Hey, there's an idea for a wiki - the correct nvflash version to use with which NVIDIA card to flash under which OS environment (Windows/DOS/FreeDOS)!