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Race to dump the 4870 ROM, Who's first?

strings NVDAResman | less
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@(#)PROGRAM:NVDAResman PROJECT:GraphicsDrivers DEVELOPER:x BUILT:Dec 4 2008 18:49:03
NVDA
com.nvidia.NVDA
....

strings GeForce | less
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@(#)PROGRAM:GeForce PROJECT:GraphicsDrivers DEVELOPER:nvidia BUILT:Dec 4 2008 18:48:46
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NVDAResman & NVDANV50Hal kexts - framebuffer and low level stuff

Geforce kext - kernel layer for acceleration (gl/qe/ci)


strings ATIRadeonX2000 | less
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@(#)PROGRAM:ATIRadeonX2000 PROJECT:GraphicsDrivers DEVELOPER:ATI BUILT:Feb 4 2009 21:55:58
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wanna argue with facts ?
 
Asus 1gb 4870

Okay, I usually hold my own with technical stuff like flashing a card for the first time, however I'm stumped on a road block...

Followed the steps on page 14 — dumped my card's ROM, naming it pc4870.rom as instructed. Downloaded the 4870 ROM here, got the "fix" script too. Fired up Terminal, rechecked all file names, entered their correct paths in the script (thus the / before the file names), however I repeatedly get an error:

dd if=/4870.rom of=efi.part bs=1 skip=63488 count=49152
49152+0 records in
49152+0 records out
49152 bytes transferred in 0.319648 secs (153769 bytes/sec)
=blocknum=`printf %d "'\`dd if=/pc4870.rom bs=1 skip=2 count=1 2>/dev/null\`"`
size=$(($blocknum * 512))
dd if=efi.part of=/pc4870.rom bs=$size seek=1 conv=notrunc
dd: bs must be between 1 and 2147483647
python /fixrom.py /pc4870.rom /pc4870.rom

The "bs must be..." line is there every time, so I haven't applied the modified ROM that results. Here's the data afterward:

Before:
OpRom (size=65536, indicator_offset=0x275, indicator=0x80, checksum=0x9e)
RawData (size=65536)

After:
OpRom (size=65536, indicator_offset=0x275, indicator=0x80, checksum=0x9e)
RawData (size=65536)

Doesn't look like it did anything, so I know I'm doing something wrong here...


Could one of you highly skilled vets take a look at my ROM and the above data and enlighten me?

Aside from this, the card is kicking a$$ on the Windows side. Fired up some games and the framerates are insane on high settings!

BTW, attached pix of the card for anyone who cares to view.
 

Attachments

  • a.jpg
    a.jpg
    461.6 KB · Views: 155
  • b.jpg
    b.jpg
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  • asus1GBrom.zip
    45.9 KB · Views: 152
skyhand said:
The "bs must be..." line is there every time, so I haven't applied the modified ROM that results. Here's the data afterward:
Click to expand...

I guess you did not name & save your extrated org. ROM as /pc4870.rom (following you post) - so blocknum will be 0, wich causes dd to fail.

Bye, jaberwocky
 
so ... ok.. finally.. call me dumb haha.. but i couldn t get the gainward to work. even with the hdmi terminator etc. fixes.. no chance.

today i got a sapphire 4870 1gb and flashed it with the toxic rom posted here and this card runs flawless on my 09er mac pro.

IMPORTANT: the screws on the bottom side that are holding the cooler are to long so the card won´t fit into the lowest pci-e slot.
so remember to get some replacement screws eventually.

nasa
 
netkas said:
strings NVDAResman | less
....
@(#)PROGRAM:NVDAResman PROJECT:GraphicsDrivers DEVELOPER:x BUILT:Dec 4 2008 18:49:03
NVDA
com.nvidia.NVDA
....

strings GeForce | less
...
@(#)PROGRAM:GeForce PROJECT:GraphicsDrivers DEVELOPER:nvidia BUILT:Dec 4 2008 18:48:46
...


NVDAResman & NVDANV50Hal kexts - framebuffer and low level stuff

Geforce kext - kernel layer for acceleration (gl/qe/ci)


strings ATIRadeonX2000 | less
...
@(#)PROGRAM:ATIRadeonX2000 PROJECT:GraphicsDrivers DEVELOPER:ATI BUILT:Feb 4 2009 21:55:58
...


wanna argue with facts ?
Click to expand...

lol. Just because a law has the word Republican on it, doesn't mean it's not written by Exxon. That's not a fact. You're the only guy around asserting this so you're going to need to come up with something better than that.
 
alright - I just got off the horn with someone at Nvidia and they confirmed that Apple writes the drivers for all Nvidia products. Call them for yourself if you don't believe me: Tel: 408-486-2000.

The secretary forwarded me to a pretty bad connection in what was likely India but he confirmed it. Free advice: never challenge a journalist about "the facts" without some good **** to back it up

if I seem a bit pissy about this, it's because I'm currently selling a Quadro FX 5600 on eBay at a great loss because the drivers absolutely suck, thanks to Apple.
 
zoppa said:
I tried jaberwockys rom (thanks mate!), he has the same card, but the mouse hiccups persist.
This rom binary differed from the rom I flashed first (sapphire.rom). Strange as both were made for the same card.

@medsource does your new card work?
Click to expand...

In a word... no.

So the new card flashes fine (tried elvisizer rom, my own frankenrom and a modded 'faster' frankenrom with the fan fix); but, all attempts resulted in the mouse jump/jerk/hiccup (whatever we're calling it) persisting.

I then did a clean install of 10.5.1 (default settings) from my 08' 2x2.8gHz 4GB MP DVD's and low and behold no mouse jump. I updated to 10.5.6 only... still no mouse jump. I then installed the beta drivers and blamo! mouse jump happens.

So... dunno if it's my machine, ram, the card (granted it's the second one) or something else. I'm officially stumped! All I know is that the drivers hate something or because they are beta, they aren't mature yet.

I'm tempted to return everything and plug away with my paltry 8800gt for a while longer; but, I'll probably keep at it for the weekend.

Anyone with any other ideas???
 
jaberwocky said:
I guess you did not name & save your extrated org. ROM as /pc4870.rom (following you post) - so blocknum will be 0, wich causes dd to fail.

Bye, jaberwocky
Click to expand...

I'm not following you. The ZIP i uploaded is not the name of my dumped ROM, if that's what you're saying. Also, when I run the script as-is, without adjusting the paths (i.e. leaving pc4870 as is with no paths prior), Terminal cannot find the ROMs. So I enter the full paths and all works fine until that one command line. My dumped ROM is named pc4870.rom and the other is 4870.rom.

Sorry to be such a noob at this :eek: Any further help is appreciated...
 
I just got word that the ATI cards on eBay are 2.5 GT/s so obviously they haven't got it all right.
 
Well, that out put definetely says it isn't finding the file it wants where it should be.

I asked some questions like this and nobody answered so I figured it out myself.

I ended up placing the cursor where a file need to be in the commands and then dragging the files to the window. Gives it the proper path no matter what.
 
The Rominator said:
Well, that out put definetely says it isn't finding the file it wants where it should be.

I asked some questions like this and nobody answered so I figured it out myself.

I ended up placing the cursor where a file need to be in the commands and then dragging the files to the window. Gives it the proper path no matter what.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip! However, I tried that very same thing and have been repeating the process to no avail. It's kinda frustrating actually. :) Here's exactly what's in the terminal window (dragging and dropping the files to the window to avoid any path typos):

Last login: Fri Apr 3 12:43:24 on ttys000
kts-mac-pro:~ kt$ dd if=/Users/kt/Desktop/4870.rom of=efi.part bs=1 skip=63488 count=49152
49152+0 records in
49152+0 records out
49152 bytes transferred in 0.341438 secs (143956 bytes/sec)
kts-mac-pro:~ kt$ blocknum=`printf %d "'\`dd if=/Users/kt/Desktop/pc4870.rom bs=1 skip=2 count=1 2>/dev/null\`"`
kts-mac-pro:~ kt$ size=$(($blocknum * 512))
ks-mac-pro:~ kt$ dd if=efi.part of=/Users/kt/Desktop/pc4870.rom bs=$size seek=1 conv=notrunc
dd: bs must be between 1 and 2147483647
kts-mac-pro:~ kt$ python /Users/kt/Desktop/fixrom.py /Users/kt/Desktop/pc4870.rom /Users/kt/Desktop/pc4870.rom
Before:
OpRom (size=65536, indicator_offset=0x275, indicator=0x80, checksum=0x9e)
RawData (size=65536)

After:
OpRom (size=65536, indicator_offset=0x275, indicator=0x80, checksum=0x9e)
RawData (size=65536)

I cannot see where I'm going wrong, but then that's with my layman's eyes. :)
 
When I made my frankenrom I had all the files (backups actually) in the same directory (I made an arbitrary one for this purpose... actually called it frankenrom). I then launched terminal and navigated to that directory. Once there, THEN I ran the script in total (just did a copy paste of the whole thing) and it runs fine. I made NO modifications to the script.

See if that works for you.
 
skyhand said:
I cannot see where I'm going wrong, but then that's with my layman's eyes. :)
Click to expand...

insert "echo $size" and "echo $blocknum". I guess both are 0, so there
is some problem while calculating blocknum

>kts-mac-pro:~ kt$ blocknum=`printf %d "'\`dd if=/Users/kt/Desktop/pc4870.rom bs=1 skip=2 count=1 2>/dev/null\`"`
>kts-mac-pro:~ kt$ size=$(($blocknum * 512))

echo $blocknum
echo $size

P.S. I expect your MacPro will be getting hot with your choosen card, cause it's not a dual-slot card (exhausting all/most of heat on the top slot). It will heat up your mac and drives! Keep watching you internal drive heat !

Bye, jaberwocky
 
jaberwocky said:
insert "echo $size" and "echo $blocknum". I guess both are 0, so there
is some problem while calculating blocknum

>kts-mac-pro:~ kt$ blocknum=`printf %d "'\`dd if=/Users/kt/Desktop/pc4870.rom bs=1 skip=2 count=1 2>/dev/null\`"`
>kts-mac-pro:~ kt$ size=$(($blocknum * 512))

echo $blocknum
echo $size

P.S. I expect your MacPro will be getting hot with your choosen card, cause it's not a dual-slot card (exhausting all/most of heat on the top slot). It will heat up your mac and drives! Keep watching you internal drive heat !

Bye, jaberwocky
Click to expand...

Added those lines but still the same problem.

How do you mean it's not a dual slot card? It takes up two slots (one of them being a vent to suck in cool air). Regardless, I've been watching the temp and it hovers around 30˚ to 35˚ C.

Oh, and I tried running Terminal from a specific directory and not modifying the script at all, but I'm STILL getting that blasted "dd: bs must be between 1 and 2147483647" error. :mad:
 
OK I'm ready to get my Sapphire 512mb flashed, but I don't have a PC. I've been searching all afternoon for a method to flash my card via atiflash.exe, but I need to get into BIOS. Without a PC, is there anyway to do this?

I tried FreeDOS but it didn't recognize my USB drive which had the new ROM and atiflash. I couldnt get my USB to act as a boot device either. Any help will be much appreciated!
 
skyhand said:
Added those lines but still the same problem.

How do you mean it's not a dual slot card? It takes up two slots (one of them being a vent to suck in cool air). Regardless, I've been watching the temp and it hovers around 30˚ to 35˚ C.

Oh, and I tried running Terminal from a specific directory and not modifying the script at all, but I'm STILL getting that blasted "dd: bs must be between 1 and 2147483647" error. :mad:
Click to expand...

The echo command doesn't really do anything that would fix whatever the problems is. However, the comment to add it was to help diagnose where the error is. Echo will simply print what is being stored in each of those variables. One is based off of the value of the other, so if the first one is wrong, they both will be. Let's see what the values are for each and see if we can't help.

BTW - I was able to flash my 1GB Sapphire because of the help of this thread.

Thanks goes out to The Rominator, pipomolo, and netkas. :cool:

-Shrapnel
 
sboerup said:
I just installed it in BootCamp, but I don't see an option to "backup" the factory ROM. Can Winflash do this?
Click to expand...


Try GPU-Z...it works in conjunction, just make sure you end up with a 128K file BEFORE you flash new one or start the mod process.

Shrapnel said:
BTW - I was able to flash my 1GB Sapphire because of the help of this thread.

Thanks goes out to The Rominator, pipomolo, and netkas. :cool:

-Shrapnel
Click to expand...

A pleasure. Glad we pulled it off and helped so many people.
 
Ya, I just wish we could sort out the 5.0 GT/s problem. I'm back to my Apple 512 MB 4870, so I now have a Quadro and a 4870 that aren't used. what a mess
 
Has anyone tried booting from a system with Snow Leopard 10a314 or a 10a314 install disc with a flashed 4870? Does it work? I'm concerned that these flashed cards won't work properly with Snow Leopard.
 
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