Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Flashing R9 280X for boot screens/PCI System Information
- Thread starter Mr. Zarniwoop
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
MVC cards still have a UEFI bootrom to boot from. Your AMD card is booting from an EFI bootrom then failing when the drivers load.
I'm new to flashing graphics cards. - I'm trying to do it for the sapphire 280x toxic, and read quite a lot and I've gotten nowhere. Doesn't cutting and pasting in a hex editor require you to know where the efi is located on a card like the 7950? And Don't you also need to know exactly where to paste it onto the next card? How would I do that?
So how would I go about flashing it if can't change the efi?
[doublepost=1542575479][/doublepost]
[doublepost=1542575479][/doublepost]
So how would I go about flashing it if I can't change the efi? I saw the same card on Ebay flashed for apple. Somebody out there did it so it is possible. I just have no idea on how to approach.
I mean the address never change, of course you can put in whatever you want in a hex editor.
If you can't understand what it means, don't do it.
I'm a COMPLETE NOOB. Even new to the whole hexedit thing. So, what would I have to do from the 7950 card to get the efi part? And once I copied the efi from from the apple 7950, do I just paste it anywhere in my card bios? I mean, what's the full on process from a beginner's point of view?
My recommendation is "don't do it", if you can't follow the netkas forum / all the relevant post in this forum. Very high chance you will brick the card. And it will be very hard for us to teach you how to unbrick it.
Well, I tried the netkas forum, but the script does not work since the file size is too big. Right now I'm using someone else's rom and with that rom I cannot get the mini dp to work with the hdmi. once the minidisplay port is connected, nothing gets displayed. But once I reboot, the minidisplay port works, but the hdmi doesn't.( I should mention they didn't test it and I was okay with that.) My guess is they did it wrong so I wanted to do the whole hex thing myself.( attach the efi to the bios myself). I've been reading articles, forums, and just about everything else. problem is, most of them talk about the script, but none of them teaches how to do it using a hex editor. I know that's what the netkas script does - I just need to be able to do it myself since the file for the script is too big.
PM me an dump of your cards videobios, i will create a rom for you if you want.
Also please tell me first if you have a switch for bios-switching on the card.
hello can you do it for me too? i've sapphire 280X vapor x with three fans, and after the netkas script, it did work normally on mac pro, except one dvi is dead, and the hdmi has probleme, i can see second monitor (it's a 4K tv via hdmi) from the preference, but nothing appear on the second monitor, could you solve that probleme please? thank you so much.
Don't waste your time asking this guy. He first offered to help me then he said I was trying to scam him instead of saying something like he couldn't or giving me instructions on how to do it myself. My card has been hard to work with because the files are too big, but I've seen forums about your card and some files as well(I'll have to retrace my steps). I'll give you the information or files I've found by Thursday if you'd like. Maybe what I find might help. I'd like to do it by tomorrow, but I'm extremely busy, so I wont be able to keep my word if I said that. But expect information and/or the file by Thursday. Friday the latest. Understand that your card is a lot more common than my card on the forums so I'll see if I can help. Hopefully someone helps me out after.
i've flashed almost all type of sapphire 280/280x 7950/7970, one fan, two fans, three fans, oc or not, vapor x or not, even your toxic version, i personnaly garantee your the netkas script did worked for your card, they all worked with netkas script, although only two fans version are almost perfect except the second dvi is dead in mac, the other version may have hdmi dead too after flash. my toxic card now works in my clients mac pro, and he is happy with it, if you send me your original rom, i will try to make a efi for you, you can just post below with upload file option, i'll be waiting for next two hours, then i will go to sleep. see you.
@R_gui, you know that i only denied your request because someone told me that you are possibly a scammer and i decided for me not to give any help. Not because you are scamming me, but because i cannot guarantee that you are not selling the flashed card on ebay or somewhere else and scam people there. I am always eager to help people out if i can, but in this case i rely on the info of a forum user which has a pretty good reliability and plausibility to me.
@parisinvest, this doesn't concern you because in your case I wouldn't have done anything else than what you've already tried. Please do not blame me for trying to help other people, i just decided not to do it given the reason above.
no probleme, we said there is always a teacher when we walk on three, and i will never blame anyone here, even someone doesn't like i post too many questions, but here is like a big family you have always someone like you and others dont, i was just tring too help here, but if i were you, i will ask the 'someone' what happened exactely, and even that's some bad guy, but when you post the reply or solutions, it might help others when they read this, what we say, more power comes more responsabilité, like i met already some friends here, they are really cool on mac, and they are very experienced guys, i beleive they met more than you and me the strangers here, but they still have heart to help others, even there were on very very very old topics, so you see, nothing is bad, nobody is bad, they people do things, always has both bad and good two infections, so try to thing on the bright side, it may infect you only, but it will make you happy.
@cococheaf It's completely understandable - I guess it caught me off guard and so I took it as an insult(especially when you're the one who offered)But like I said before, I am not trying to cheat anyone and I'm still looking to fix that problem. After you got my hopes up for noting, I went back on to read the thread I got the bios from and user said that the hdmi port wont work with 3 screens and that I have to get a mdp, and so I bought one(doesn't fix my problem, but hopefully get's me with 3 screens). I see those cards on ebay all the time and I always assumed they flashed them theirselves but that's not my business. I still have a problem, no help and looking for work arounds.
As for you, @parisinvest I spent the last hour retracing my steps and I saw vtx r9 280x, but sadly, you were on that for as well, so I'm useless to you, unfortunately. I'll still see if I can find something, but if @cococheaf couldn't, I doubt I will since I'm a COMPLETE BEGINNER in all of this. Now, I don't know if you're still willing to help me so I wont upload the file until I get your explicit say so since I don't want you to feel like I'm forcing you to do anything. Now, it would be completely understandable if you changed your mind because I failed to find you anything viable. I would like to say that in trying to look for your card, found the vtx r9 280x and decided to see what card it's for and long story short; I learned that my card it not the toxic. It's the tri-x. *mind blew*. Anyways, now that I know my card, maybe I have a better chance in fixing my issue. But still, expect a message from me by either thursday or friday. I don't really have any hope that I can help, but I can most certainly try. After all, two heads are better than one. Before I go back to work; tell me this: does your card have a base rom that works with the mac that you know of or should I find that out for you?
you still have my words, just post your original rom here, i believe that you were talking about the same card: toxic and tri-x, the long, black yellow, three fans version, right? it works with netkas script, there is no base rom for amd card, only base efi, and you can find in the forum, take your time, we can give you help, and even a short cut sometimes, but if everything is given, you will never learn for yourself, we are not in kidgarden here, don't need to explain, do well, learn and then help.
well here are your efi rom, you can use anyone to flash, but since I don't remember at all which video port doesn't work, could you report for us all please?
you will probably never get a rom from another card getting FULLY working on a different card.
the thing is like @R_gui mentioned, his original files were too big for netkas' script.
this can be the case, when the rom has both the legacy and the uefi part in the rom file, thus letting no space for the apple EFI in the rom.
i'm sure that this problem can be solved if you really want to try it yourself. for the reasons mentioned above i don't want to help any more, but i'll give you a tip:
always use the cards original rom.
there is a piece of software called VBE7, which is a tahiti bios editor (on which you cards are based).
the problem with the software is it can't handle uefi roms.
if the original rom is edited with vbe7, the tool only saves the legacy part of the rom, which we can use for our purposes to create space in the rom for the apple efi part.
if you then use the vbe7-saved original rom in the netkas script, it should all work fine.
please don't be mad on me but that will be my last tip for you guys.
the thing is like @R_gui mentioned, his original files were too big for netkas' script.
this can be the case, when the rom has both the legacy and the uefi part in the rom file, thus letting no space for the apple EFI in the rom.
i'm sure that this problem can be solved if you really want to try it yourself. for the reasons mentioned above i don't want to help any more, but i'll give you a tip:
always use the cards original rom.
there is a piece of software called VBE7, which is a tahiti bios editor (on which you cards are based).
the problem with the software is it can't handle uefi roms.
if the original rom is edited with vbe7, the tool only saves the legacy part of the rom, which we can use for our purposes to create space in the rom for the apple efi part.
if you then use the vbe7-saved original rom in the netkas script, it should all work fine.
please don't be mad on me but that will be my last tip for you guys.
in case you need a hint, first rename my files as ".rom" and you may want a short name like 28xtrixefi.rom for exemple, so you will not confused with the other roms later.
the atiflash command:
open cmd with admin authrisation
cd xxxx (xxxx is your downloaded atiflash document path)
atiflash -i (always do this first to check two things, 1, your card is present, 2, the order of your card want flashed)
atiflash -f -p 0 28xtrixefi.rom (the 0 is the number of your card in the result of last commande, you can change it when you have other position)
when it finished in 2 or 3 seconds, shutdown your pc, pull out and insert your card to Mac Pro, you may want to do at least once pram reset (alt+cmd+p+r at start tone, then release after second or third tone), enjoy;
[doublepost=1542758871][/doublepost]
thank you so much for our help, that's remind me something when I was reading pages on netkas, but never paid attention, I will try it, thank you again, this remind me "knock the door will be opened, search and you will find..." have a good day!
the atiflash command:
open cmd with admin authrisation
cd xxxx (xxxx is your downloaded atiflash document path)
atiflash -i (always do this first to check two things, 1, your card is present, 2, the order of your card want flashed)
atiflash -f -p 0 28xtrixefi.rom (the 0 is the number of your card in the result of last commande, you can change it when you have other position)
when it finished in 2 or 3 seconds, shutdown your pc, pull out and insert your card to Mac Pro, you may want to do at least once pram reset (alt+cmd+p+r at start tone, then release after second or third tone), enjoy;
[doublepost=1542758871][/doublepost]
thank you so much for our help, that's remind me something when I was reading pages on netkas, but never paid attention, I will try it, thank you again, this remind me "knock the door will be opened, search and you will find..." have a good day!
i dont know if i've done right, i open my 280x original rom with vbe7, it did find the uefi and disactivated, then i save the rom, make a new rom with netkas script, flashed back, but nothing changed, the dvi and hdmi are still dead, did i do anything wrong please?
From what I'm gathering(I could be wrong, but feel free to try it if you haven't), first you open the rom with the software, save it to a location, then use that same file to make something using the script(or hex edit). If that's what you did and it's still not working, it's either we're not understanding, or the instructions aren't explained well. I'll message someone with those instructions and see what they come up with. I'll pm you their username since they have the same card as you and is more experienced than I am. maybe you guys can work something out and let me know. I know they've tried and failed before, but I know know how good they really are. They just sound good.
I have no AMD card so far... but i have flashed a few since they showed up when i was not at the forums.
the mac flashing does bring you bootscreen support, its known that some ports are not working.
why not leaving the unused ports alone? you have what you wanted to have -> a bootscreen -> thats all why we flash our cards.
hi coco, thank you for your reply, yeah you are right and your hatitude for this thing is right for 99% people on this world, like 99% the members on this forum, but i'm not a person easy to give up or let it go, of course i'm not a fool to do a thing without raison, specially when one said it worked and mine doesn't, i'd like to know why, and i know there is always a solution out there, since i believe my case is not the only case on this probleme, amont the millions of user on this and other mac forums, and i did not YET find the topic related, so i wonder how others solve the problem? that's raison why i'm still searching the answers. but thank you for your kind advice, but if people always easy to give up or change the directly, we will not able to take advance, and people will say well we still gain something anyway, i would say we will never get what we want in that way. i wish there are more people to discuss to help, then we will solve the problem quicker i believe. thank you for your comprehension. daniel
Last edited: