thx so far, I'll try it out tomorrow.
edit: hmm, have you got a .ROM image, too? I want to flash it with your great flash soft.
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Race to dump the 4870 ROM, Who's first?
- Thread starter MacVidCards
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thx so far, I'll try it out tomorrow.
edit: hmm, have you got a .ROM image, too? I want to flash it with your great flash soft.
Thank you for responding!! I tried doing the drag and drop thing but the commands still gave errors.
Once again, I tried it by changing the directory in Terminal and got this result:
This time it appears it actually wrote something to the pc4870.rom file because, before I started, it had a last modified date of last nite. Now the last modified date is just a few minutes ago.
But, given the errors, I still have my doubts the ROM is OK.
I'll have to go back through the thread and find the information about looking at the ROM with hexedit. But I don't really understand what I'm supposed to be looking for.
Anyway, THANK YOU for responding Rominator!! Despite the fact that I don't think I've achieved the goal just yet, I very much appreciate the response!
Mark
The Rominator
Hi Rominator,
I posted earlier about having a ZWFK card that I bought in Australia.
I have not been able to get it working on the mac. I have read many of your posts and would like to know if I have wasted my money or if there is a chance that a Rom could be written for this specific model?
it looks just like the ZWFL model that you said you were working on, only that the K stands for Korea.
I have spent hours looking elsewhere for answers but it seems I am alone here.
Many Thanks
Hi Rominator,
I posted earlier about having a ZWFK card that I bought in Australia.
I have not been able to get it working on the mac. I have read many of your posts and would like to know if I have wasted my money or if there is a chance that a Rom could be written for this specific model?
it looks just like the ZWFL model that you said you were working on, only that the K stands for Korea.
I have spent hours looking elsewhere for answers but it seems I am alone here.
Many Thanks
I have flashed the ZWFK with your m2xfx487.rom using Dos.
It does not show up in OS X 10.8,
It did show up with the first Rom I used (macxfx.rom) but it had the power Msg and the computer would crash. I am running a Mac Pro early 2008.
Mark Booth's ROM All Done!
Hi Mark,
I've been reading this thread for a few days now and my 4870 card arrived today. I'm currently just waiting for my power cables to arrive before I can go through the process of ripping my ROM image, patching it with the EFI info and flashing the card. My card is an XFX HD 487A-YDFC 512MB. I thought that while I was waiting to be able to plug it into my Mac Pro I would try patching a ROM as a kind of dry run. So I downloaded the ROM image that you posted, renamed it pc4870.rom, download the other stuff (including the 4870.rom for the mac card) and gave it a go. The bit that stopped all the errors for me was logining in as root. Once I did that it all went pretty straight forward. I have also checked the finished ROM in a HEX editor, something I'm no stranger to, and it is looking good. Oddly I could not find the mcuc entries the Rominator mentions in either the before or after ROM images, but the EFI code is not conflicting with any thing and like I said it looks good.
So without further adoo here is the finished ROM.......
Hi Mark,
I've been reading this thread for a few days now and my 4870 card arrived today. I'm currently just waiting for my power cables to arrive before I can go through the process of ripping my ROM image, patching it with the EFI info and flashing the card. My card is an XFX HD 487A-YDFC 512MB. I thought that while I was waiting to be able to plug it into my Mac Pro I would try patching a ROM as a kind of dry run. So I downloaded the ROM image that you posted, renamed it pc4870.rom, download the other stuff (including the 4870.rom for the mac card) and gave it a go. The bit that stopped all the errors for me was logining in as root. Once I did that it all went pretty straight forward. I have also checked the finished ROM in a HEX editor, something I'm no stranger to, and it is looking good. Oddly I could not find the mcuc entries the Rominator mentions in either the before or after ROM images, but the EFI code is not conflicting with any thing and like I said it looks good.
So without further adoo here is the finished ROM.......
I also ment to add that if the ROM works then the real thanks has to go to pipomolo42 as he is the guy that provided the magic that I entered into terminal.
Also please let me know how it works out for you Mark as once my power cables arrive then I will be doing this same method for my own card.
My next problem will be my monitors as I only have VGA Samsung SyncMasters and I don't really have the bucks to go buy a DVI montior, so fingers crossed about the VGA thing.
Also please let me know how it works out for you Mark as once my power cables arrive then I will be doing this same method for my own card.
My next problem will be my monitors as I only have VGA Samsung SyncMasters and I don't really have the bucks to go buy a DVI montior, so fingers crossed about the VGA thing.
VGA Problem?
Is the VGA problem just and Apple Driver thing?
Does anyone know if the VGA output works on the official Apple Radeon 4870 card and if it does it may be worth having a closer look at it's ROM image in a HEX Editor compared with the Windoze ROM images to see what is different.
If VGA is working under Windows then I would lean towards it being a problem with the Apple driver. If anyone reading this thread has an official Apple 4870 card and a VGA monitor could they let me know if it gets a picture?
Thanks.
Is the VGA problem just and Apple Driver thing?
Does anyone know if the VGA output works on the official Apple Radeon 4870 card and if it does it may be worth having a closer look at it's ROM image in a HEX Editor compared with the Windoze ROM images to see what is different.
If VGA is working under Windows then I would lean towards it being a problem with the Apple driver. If anyone reading this thread has an official Apple 4870 card and a VGA monitor could they let me know if it gets a picture?
Thanks.
Yes, it is odd.
In fact it is there twice, as it should be.
Note that the GDDR5 table opens with it...and look at the address.
Then see the other occurence buried deep in PC BIOS? Notice the address of the GDDR5 table at the begining of the line it appears in? In ROMs where the PC BIOS is too long, the GDDR5 table needs to be moved down or it gets squashed and overwritten. When you do this, you also need to change that little bit of addressing buried in PC BIOS.
ROM looks OK. Good luck !!!
Attachments
SUCCESS!!!!!!!!
After repeated frustration trying to build my own hybrid ROM, I decided to throw caution to the wind and flash my XFX Radeon 4870 512MB Dual-DVI (model HD487AYHFC) with the straight Apple 4870 ROM (4870.ROM). I used the BootDOS CD method described at Jacob Croft's site (except, of course, I substituted the 4870.ROM instead of using the rhildinger's ROM). Per Jacob's tutorial, I built the DOS CD within Boot Camp (Windows XP) while both my original Radeon x1900 (slot #2) and the XFX Radeon 4870 (slot #1) were in the computer (display attached to the x1900). I put several ROM images on the DOS CD: Apple 4870 ROM (4870.ROM), rhildinger's ROM (macxfx.rom), and the original ROM I dumped from the XFX card last night (just in case I had to flash back to it). After the DOS CD was burned, I quit Windows XP and powered down the Mac Pro (leaving the DOS CD in the drive). I then opened up the Mac Pro and removed the factory Radeon x1900 card and connected a single display (Cinema 23") to the right-most (as viewed from the back) DVI connector on the XFX 4870. (Since I was about to flash an ATI card, I didn't want to flash BOTH cards so the x1900 had to come out.) Then I powered up the Mac Pro again, holding down the "C" key immediately after the startup bong. It took awhile to load, but eventually I started seeing the DOS CD loading. Then I followed Jacob's tutorial very carefully, checking and double-checking each keystroke (again, substituting the Apple 4870.ROM). This is the final screen after the flash was complete (took a photo of the screen, sorry for the slight blur!):
I find it interesting that the New Product Name and New BIOS are higher numbers than the Old (original). That would seem to indicate this particular XFX card has been sitting around since before Apple's BIOS was released. But you ROM experts would know more about that then me.
Anyway, then it was time for the big test! Restart the Mac Pro in Mac OS X and see what happens! Happily, it booted completely normally! No error screens or warnings about power. No other weirdness of any kind. Frankly, it looked no different than had I been booting from the original x1900 that was installed in the Mac Pro when I bought it.
After fiddling around within Finder for awhile, I shut down the Mac Pro and connected my second monitor (Samsung Syncmaster 153T that I rotate to portrait mode) to the other DVI port on the XFX 4870. I restarted and, HOORAY, the second port works just fine! I had to go into the Display Preference Pane to reset the proper rotation and also re-select my calibrated monitor settings, but all of that went like normal!
Now, I did have one bit of weirdness while fiddling with Display Preference Pane. I noticed that a horizontal black band (a couple dozen pixels tall, and about the same width as the Display settings panel) appeared below the Display settings panel that wasn't active. If I clicked on the Display settings panel for the 23" Cinema Display, the black band was present below the Display settings panel on the Samsung. If I made the Samsung Display settings panel active, the black band appeared under the settings panel for the 23" Cinema Display.
That weirdness happened just that first time I was adjusting Display settings after installing and flashing the 4870. I've opened up the Display settings panels several times since and I can't get it to reproduce the problem. And, frankly, I seem to remember having seen this type of weirdness before with the x1900. So, I'm not going to worry about it for now.
Anyway, here's a look at my System Profiler information:
I ran some graphics tests. I was a little disappointed with the XBench 1.3 results because I think my x1900 was just about the same speed for these tests:
Here are the results using OpenGL Extensions Viewer:
Those OpenGL results are slightly slower than some results I've seen for the Apple 4870 but I think those other tests were in a faster Mac Pro (or one with more cores).
FWIW, my Mac Pro is the Classic (1,1) with two 2.66GHz dual-cores (four cores).
I also spent a bit of time in Aperture and, it could just be my imagination, but things seem a bit snappier when scanning through a large number of large RAW photos. Of course, when the next version of Aperture comes along with OpenCL support, that should help too. We'll see.
At any rate, other than that one bit of weirdness while using the Display Preference Pane, there really isn't any way to tell that I didn't simply spend $350 for Apple's 4870 and stick it in my Mac Pro!! The fact that it cost me $134.99 (XFX 4870)) + $20 (extra x1900 power cable) makes me very happy! The same net result but with $200 still left in my wallet!
My thanks to Rominator and all of the other folks that came before me!! That's why I made this message so long.... so, hopefully, my experience can help someone else down the road!!
Mark
After repeated frustration trying to build my own hybrid ROM, I decided to throw caution to the wind and flash my XFX Radeon 4870 512MB Dual-DVI (model HD487AYHFC) with the straight Apple 4870 ROM (4870.ROM). I used the BootDOS CD method described at Jacob Croft's site (except, of course, I substituted the 4870.ROM instead of using the rhildinger's ROM). Per Jacob's tutorial, I built the DOS CD within Boot Camp (Windows XP) while both my original Radeon x1900 (slot #2) and the XFX Radeon 4870 (slot #1) were in the computer (display attached to the x1900). I put several ROM images on the DOS CD: Apple 4870 ROM (4870.ROM), rhildinger's ROM (macxfx.rom), and the original ROM I dumped from the XFX card last night (just in case I had to flash back to it). After the DOS CD was burned, I quit Windows XP and powered down the Mac Pro (leaving the DOS CD in the drive). I then opened up the Mac Pro and removed the factory Radeon x1900 card and connected a single display (Cinema 23") to the right-most (as viewed from the back) DVI connector on the XFX 4870. (Since I was about to flash an ATI card, I didn't want to flash BOTH cards so the x1900 had to come out.) Then I powered up the Mac Pro again, holding down the "C" key immediately after the startup bong. It took awhile to load, but eventually I started seeing the DOS CD loading. Then I followed Jacob's tutorial very carefully, checking and double-checking each keystroke (again, substituting the Apple 4870.ROM). This is the final screen after the flash was complete (took a photo of the screen, sorry for the slight blur!):
I find it interesting that the New Product Name and New BIOS are higher numbers than the Old (original). That would seem to indicate this particular XFX card has been sitting around since before Apple's BIOS was released. But you ROM experts would know more about that then me.
Anyway, then it was time for the big test! Restart the Mac Pro in Mac OS X and see what happens! Happily, it booted completely normally! No error screens or warnings about power. No other weirdness of any kind. Frankly, it looked no different than had I been booting from the original x1900 that was installed in the Mac Pro when I bought it.
After fiddling around within Finder for awhile, I shut down the Mac Pro and connected my second monitor (Samsung Syncmaster 153T that I rotate to portrait mode) to the other DVI port on the XFX 4870. I restarted and, HOORAY, the second port works just fine! I had to go into the Display Preference Pane to reset the proper rotation and also re-select my calibrated monitor settings, but all of that went like normal!
Now, I did have one bit of weirdness while fiddling with Display Preference Pane. I noticed that a horizontal black band (a couple dozen pixels tall, and about the same width as the Display settings panel) appeared below the Display settings panel that wasn't active. If I clicked on the Display settings panel for the 23" Cinema Display, the black band was present below the Display settings panel on the Samsung. If I made the Samsung Display settings panel active, the black band appeared under the settings panel for the 23" Cinema Display.
That weirdness happened just that first time I was adjusting Display settings after installing and flashing the 4870. I've opened up the Display settings panels several times since and I can't get it to reproduce the problem. And, frankly, I seem to remember having seen this type of weirdness before with the x1900. So, I'm not going to worry about it for now.
Anyway, here's a look at my System Profiler information:
I ran some graphics tests. I was a little disappointed with the XBench 1.3 results because I think my x1900 was just about the same speed for these tests:
Here are the results using OpenGL Extensions Viewer:
Those OpenGL results are slightly slower than some results I've seen for the Apple 4870 but I think those other tests were in a faster Mac Pro (or one with more cores).
FWIW, my Mac Pro is the Classic (1,1) with two 2.66GHz dual-cores (four cores).
I also spent a bit of time in Aperture and, it could just be my imagination, but things seem a bit snappier when scanning through a large number of large RAW photos. Of course, when the next version of Aperture comes along with OpenCL support, that should help too. We'll see.
At any rate, other than that one bit of weirdness while using the Display Preference Pane, there really isn't any way to tell that I didn't simply spend $350 for Apple's 4870 and stick it in my Mac Pro!! The fact that it cost me $134.99 (XFX 4870)) + $20 (extra x1900 power cable) makes me very happy! The same net result but with $200 still left in my wallet!
My thanks to Rominator and all of the other folks that came before me!! That's why I made this message so long.... so, hopefully, my experience can help someone else down the road!!
Mark
Chaos,
THANK YOU!!! I very much appreciate your efforts on my behalf!!
Now I have a decision to make... Please see the post I just made a few minutes ago. I successfully flashed my card with the straight Apple 4870 ROM. Other than that bit of weirdness (black band) when using the Display Preference Pane, the card seems to be working perfectly. And, again, I think I've seen that type of Display Preference Pane weirdness with my x1900 in the past too!
So.... should I reflash or should I stick with what I have? ARGH! I've gone from Famine to Feast!
BTW, I was flashing my 4870 with the Apple ROM while you were posting your message (and Rominator was posting his reply). Then I came here and posted my "Success" message above, before I ever read your messages. Sorry about that!
Mark
I have one other question for the video card gurus.... My original Radeon x1900 card has that extension on it that makes it a longer card. The x1900 also had a few small black rubber-like rectangles stuck to the bottom of it. The XFX 4870, on the other hand, has neither. And, frankly, the XFX 4870 appears that it might be able to short out against the tops of the memory and CPU shields (shrouds). Yes, those shields have some grey rubber-like material stuck to them as insulators. But those grey insulators are smaller than the card and there are areas where it appears the card might be able to touch and short out.
What has everyone else done to help prevent any possible electrical shorts? Suggestions and recommendations are greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Mark
What has everyone else done to help prevent any possible electrical shorts? Suggestions and recommendations are greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Mark
I just tested for VGA capability on both ports of my flashed XFX 4870 (model HD487AYHFC). Like all of the other flashed cards, VGA doesn't work. Not a concern for me because both of my displays are DVI (the Samsung does both).
I have an HDTV in the same room too but I don't have a HDMI cable long enough to test. I'll eventually get around to trying the DVI to HDMI adapter.
Mark
I have an HDTV in the same room too but I don't have a HDMI cable long enough to test. I'll eventually get around to trying the DVI to HDMI adapter.
Mark
Won't Boot
OK guys, I've got a problem.
I've got my power cables and installed the card into my Mac Pro. It will boot into Windoze OK, but I can't get the XFX Drivers installed as it says that it can not dectect an XFX Product. After a while it did eventually turn up in GPU-Z so I have managed to grab the ROM image (all 128K). My big problem is that when I try to boot up in OSX I can't get past the grey and white apple screen. What instead happens is that the fans rev up like crazy and I get the dark grey screen overlay telling me to hold down the power button to power off.
Anyone got any ideas?
Please.
OK guys, I've got a problem.
I've got my power cables and installed the card into my Mac Pro. It will boot into Windoze OK, but I can't get the XFX Drivers installed as it says that it can not dectect an XFX Product. After a while it did eventually turn up in GPU-Z so I have managed to grab the ROM image (all 128K). My big problem is that when I try to boot up in OSX I can't get past the grey and white apple screen. What instead happens is that the fans rev up like crazy and I get the dark grey screen overlay telling me to hold down the power button to power off.
Anyone got any ideas?
Please.
Hd-487a-ydfc Va.1
I have not installed 'natit' as I thought that was only required for a Hackintosh.
The model is the XFX 4870 512MB DDR5 HD-487A-YDFC VA.1.
I have just flashed it using Ultimate Boot CD, but still the problem persists.
One development is that I now have it working in Windows using a driver I downloaded from the XFXForce website and It ran NeverWinter Nights 2 in Windoze perfectly at full everything.
What does 'Natit' do exactly, and do I need it even with a flashed card?
I flashed the card with a Hybrid ROM that I made.
I have not installed 'natit' as I thought that was only required for a Hackintosh.
The model is the XFX 4870 512MB DDR5 HD-487A-YDFC VA.1.
I have just flashed it using Ultimate Boot CD, but still the problem persists.
One development is that I now have it working in Windows using a driver I downloaded from the XFXForce website and It ran NeverWinter Nights 2 in Windoze perfectly at full everything.
What does 'Natit' do exactly, and do I need it even with a flashed card?
I flashed the card with a Hybrid ROM that I made.
Feeling Very Sad http://images.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/frown.gif
Well it is now 4:39am and still no luck.
If I flash it with the ROM I made myself it does not get any image on the attached monitor and the mac crashes before it even reaches the login screen....however if I hold down alt I can boot into windoze and everything works perfectly. If I boot using the OSX 10.5 install DVD the mac will boot into the osx installer, but there is no display on the center monitor. If I then run the system profiler and check what display cards are installed it is not listed, only my nVidia 7300 is there.
If I flash the card with the Apple 4870 rom it does not work in windoze anymore, but it does start getting a display when booting up in OSX. I get a white screen with some fuzzy lines in the middle and it looks like a screwed up version of the white with grey apple boot screen with the animated clock/dial thingy going round....it then goes to the blue screen with a white square for a pointer, although when I move the pointer to one of my other monitors, connected via the 7300 card, it goes back to being a proper pointer. The computer never then goes past this blue screen, but will just sit at this point forever. If I then disconnect the DVI monitor connected to the 4870 and reboot I am back to it crashing once more with the message to hold down the power button.
http://images.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/frown.gif
At this stage I am feeling like completely giving up.
If anyone can help it would be very much appreciated as I am now broke and back to using a nVidia 7300 once more.
Here is the original ROM from my 4870 card..... time for me to go to bed and weep http://images.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/frown.gif
Well it is now 4:39am and still no luck.
If I flash it with the ROM I made myself it does not get any image on the attached monitor and the mac crashes before it even reaches the login screen....however if I hold down alt I can boot into windoze and everything works perfectly. If I boot using the OSX 10.5 install DVD the mac will boot into the osx installer, but there is no display on the center monitor. If I then run the system profiler and check what display cards are installed it is not listed, only my nVidia 7300 is there.
If I flash the card with the Apple 4870 rom it does not work in windoze anymore, but it does start getting a display when booting up in OSX. I get a white screen with some fuzzy lines in the middle and it looks like a screwed up version of the white with grey apple boot screen with the animated clock/dial thingy going round....it then goes to the blue screen with a white square for a pointer, although when I move the pointer to one of my other monitors, connected via the 7300 card, it goes back to being a proper pointer. The computer never then goes past this blue screen, but will just sit at this point forever. If I then disconnect the DVI monitor connected to the 4870 and reboot I am back to it crashing once more with the message to hold down the power button.
http://images.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/frown.gif
At this stage I am feeling like completely giving up.
If anyone can help it would be very much appreciated as I am now broke and back to using a nVidia 7300 once more.
Here is the original ROM from my 4870 card..... time for me to go to bed and weep http://images.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/frown.gif
very good info about natit in both ATI Flashing tool thread and the tool itself.
All right guys, with all the new stuff being posted about different cards, i am confussed as all get out!!
I have this card:
part # hd-487A-ZHFC
this one should work, and work well to flash correct? i believe it should but..
i have tried to keep up with this thread but with a ton of new posts each week it is almost impossible!!
will the new programs put up by cindori work with my card so i can get this done and move on!?
thanks
I have this card:
part # hd-487A-ZHFC
this one should work, and work well to flash correct? i believe it should but..
i have tried to keep up with this thread but with a ton of new posts each week it is almost impossible!!
will the new programs put up by cindori work with my card so i can get this done and move on!?
thanks
Eureka
OK people I have finally got this 4870 card working and discovered my problem.....it was the virgin 4870.rom file that I was working form. I went and downloaded another copy of the 4870.rom and just flashed it an it works.....although it states that Quartz Extreme is not supported. I've tried the part on the mac flash tool which is ment to fix the Quartz Extreme thing, but it is still not supported. I am no about to flash the card again using a new rom file I have made, this time getting the EFI part from a none corrupt 4870.rom file.
So the lesson of this little tale....if you are having a f**king nightmare of a time trying to get the flashed card to work check that you have a good 4870.rom file to start with....Oh, and Mark, don't use the rom I made for you as it will be corrupt....If you want me to I can make you another.
Any tips on how to fix the Quartz Extreme issue please let me know.
OK people I have finally got this 4870 card working and discovered my problem.....it was the virgin 4870.rom file that I was working form. I went and downloaded another copy of the 4870.rom and just flashed it an it works.....although it states that Quartz Extreme is not supported. I've tried the part on the mac flash tool which is ment to fix the Quartz Extreme thing, but it is still not supported. I am no about to flash the card again using a new rom file I have made, this time getting the EFI part from a none corrupt 4870.rom file.
So the lesson of this little tale....if you are having a f**king nightmare of a time trying to get the flashed card to work check that you have a good 4870.rom file to start with....Oh, and Mark, don't use the rom I made for you as it will be corrupt....If you want me to I can make you another.
Any tips on how to fix the Quartz Extreme issue please let me know.
Yes. ZHFC works fine for me. I flashed it with the ZDFC firmware many months ago (which was posted earlier in this thread) and it has been working great for me ever since.