Resolved RESOLVED - Updated title: Leopard Kernel Panic w/7800 GS? - Original title: Which ROM? - The GeForce 7800 GS Flashing Adventure

[MicroTecture]

Hello!

I am back at it again with the PowerMac G4 DA (Digital Audio), I got a compatible GPU upgrade coming in the mail soon. That GPU being the BFG Nvidia GeForce 7800 GS 256MB AGP GPU (BFGR78256GSOC). I looked around The Mac Elite Wiki and found that this very card is compatible and I saw someone on YouTube flash this exact same model of GPU as well. I've done research on NVFlash and everything else before I decided that I want to flash another graphics card (since the last two times were unsuccessful, mostly due to my lack of knowledge). This GPU is listed to be compatible with my PowerMac DA.

Now that I have the GPU that will work with a Mac ROM, things should be smooth. The thing is that I see 3 listed. Now, I looked around and I have zero clue on what ROM I should be using. I have zero clue on what ROM I should use for this GPU.

Help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all and I hope you all have a great day!

 

[eyoungren]

Hello!

I am back at it again with the PowerMac G4 DA (Digital Audio), I got a compatible CPU upgrade coming in the mail soon as well as GPU upgrade. That GPU being the BFG Nvidia GeForce 7800 GS 256MB AGP GPU (BFGR78256GSOC). I looked around The Mac Elite Wiki and found that this very card is compatible and I saw someone on YouTube flash this exact same model of GPU as well. I've done research on NVFlash and everything else before I decided that I want to flash another graphics card (since the last two times were unsuccessful, mostly due to my lack of knowledge). This GPU is listed to be compatible with my PowerMac DA.

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Now that I have the GPU that will work with a Mac ROM, things should be smooth. The thing is that I see 3 listed. Now, I looked around and I have zero clue on what ROM I should be using. I have zero clue on what ROM I should use for this GPU.

Help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all and I hope you all have a great day!

I can't help…but I will point out what I can see from that table.

First one - would be for the overclocked version of the card.
Second one - would be for a standard card.
Third one - would have a modified ROM that excludes the temperature sensor code for the card - for G4s that are running Leopard.

I mean I could be wrong, but unless you want the temp sensor gone or are running an overclocked card, the ROM you want is probably the second one.

 

[MicroTecture]

I can't help…but I will point out what I can see from that table.

First one - would be for the overclocked version of the card.
Second one - would be for a standard card.
Third one - would have a modified ROM that excludes the temperature sensor code for the card - for G4s that are running Leopard.

I mean I could be wrong, but unless you want the temp sensor gone or are running an overclocked card, the ROM you want is probably the second one.

Well, I've looked around and the card I bought is listed as 'overclocked' if you plug in the model number of the card into Google. I mean, I don't want to flash the incorrect ROM and burn out the GPU if it cannot handle a too high clock speed (assuming that assumes) or brick it either (assuming if this also happens).

 

[666sheep]

The one you got is clocked 400 for GPU and 1255 for memory.

 

[MicroTecture]

The one you got is clocked 400 for GPU and 1255 for memory.

Thank you. Based on knowing this, what ROM should I use then?

 

[DearthnVader]

Thank you. Based on knowing this, what ROM should I use then?

The 2nd or third ROM. It would be a little under clocked but the G4 can't feed this card anyway at data rates where you would notice the difference. The limited CPU, bus speed, and memory bandwidth of these old G4 systems just can't hit the fill rate of the 7800GS, the card will still work great, it just won't preform like it would in a G5.

If you plan to use Leopard you need the third ROM, there was an issue with kernel panics under Leopard with the temp sensor enabled on the GPU.

Also, don't forget you need to disable PINs 3 and 11 on the card as the G4 can't boot without these PINs disabled do to Apple's non-standard use of these Reserved PINs on x4 AGP Macs.

 

[MicroTecture]

The 2nd or third ROM. It would be a little under clocked but the G4 can't feed this card anyway at data rates where you would notice the difference. The limited CPU, bus speed, and memory bandwidth of these old G4 systems just can't hit the fill rate of the 7800GS, the card will still work great, it just won't preform like it would in a G5.

If you plan to use Leopard you need the third ROM, there was an issue with kernel panics under Leopard with the temp sensor enabled on the GPU.

Also, don't forget you need to disable PINs 3 and 11 on the card as the G4 can't boot without these PINs disabled do to Apple's non-standard use of these Reserved PINs on x4 AGP Macs.

I was a bit concerned about Leopard. I checked around and apparently someone experienced overheating from the third ROM? Third ROM it is then but how would I tackle this thermal issue now?

 

[DearthnVader]

I was a bit concerned about Leopard. I checked around and apparently someone experienced overheating from the third ROM? Third ROM it is then but how would I tackle this thermal issue now?

I wasn't aware the the overheating issue, it's been so long since we made these ROMs I've forgotten most of it. I'm not sure what would cause it it overheat, could have to do with the fan control and the Nvidia drivers for Leopard not being able to read the status of the temp sensor.

It could be the fan shutting down.

 

[MicroTecture]

I wasn't aware the the overheating issue, it's been so long since we made these ROMs I've forgotten most of it. I'm not sure what would cause it it overheat, could have to do with the fan control and the Nvidia drivers for Leopard not being able to read the status of the temp sensor.

It could be the fan shutting down.

Someone said they just plugged the 7800 GS into the PSU at 12v which sets it at max speed to deal with it. On an ActionRetro video I think he just simply put in some PCI? fan device kind of thing blowing at the GPU.

There’s Leopard drivers? The Mac Elite Wiki currently shows drivers for 10.4.9 at the moment. Someone claimed it “borked” their Leopard install. If there’s Nvidia drivers for this GPU for Leopard, I’d sure like to know where.

 

[DearthnVader]

Someone said they just plugged the 7800 GS into the PSU at 12v which sets it at max speed to deal with it. On an ActionRetro video I think he just simply put in some PCI? fan device kind of thing blowing at the GPU.

There’s Leopard drivers? The Mac Elite Wiki currently shows drivers for 10.4.9 at the moment. Someone claimed it “borked” their Leopard install. If there’s Nvidia drivers for this GPU for Leopard, I’d sure like to know where.

The driver comes with Leopard, there is not a separate install for nVidia PowerPC drivers.

I didn't work on the temp sensor issue with Leopard, or I would have just fixed the issue rather than disabling the sensor.

There are 3rd party coolers for these graphics cards with molex connectors for the fan that just run the fan at full speed all the time or you could just splice into the existing fan's wires to add a molex connector to the stock fan.

 

[MicroTecture]

The driver comes with Leopard, there is not a separate install for nVidia PowerPC drivers.

I didn't work on the temp sensor issue with Leopard, or I would have just fixed the issue rather than disabling the sensor.

There are 3rd party coolers for these graphics cards with molex connectors for the fan that just run the fan at full speed all the time or you could just splice into the existing fan's wires to add a molex connector to the stock fan.

Thanks!

I could just have a custom cooler on there or set the existing cooler to full blast. I'm more than likely going to replace the thermal paste in the GPU with some good quality thermal paste.

I wonder if it's possible to create or place some kind of custom temperature sensor that is close enough to the GPU that could gather the GPU temps and adjust the fan speed based on the temperature on its own automatically. I wonder if something like that is possible.

 

[MicroTecture]

Thanks!

I could just have a custom cooler on there or set the existing cooler to full blast. I'm more than likely going to replace the thermal paste in the GPU with some good quality thermal paste.

I wonder if it's possible to create or place some kind of custom temperature sensor that is close enough to the GPU that could gather the GPU temps and adjust the fan speed based on the temperature on its own automatically. I wonder if something like that is possible.

UPDATE: My existing install of macOS X 10.4.11 Server works fine with the 7800 GS. I don't think I wanna break it by installing that patch since it lists 10.4.9 and I don't have much of a failsafe at the moment.
Whatever Nvidia drivers the macOS install has, it works and QE/CI works just fine. Graphical performance is great on this machine. It's really incredible.

I used the 3rd ROM listed so I could get Leopard working on here (the one with removed temp sensor).


I have a new issue though:

I tried to boot a single layer Mac OS X Leopard USB drive I made and it just kernel panics when I attempt to boot it. I have absolutely no idea why either. It won't boot to the installer but rather will just kernel panic. Anyone figure out why that is? I don't see this as a normal reoccurring issue so I might be the only one with this issue at the moment.

The kernel panic does not come with any logs or anything on the left side of the screen. It's strange.

 

[eyoungren]

UPDATE: My existing install of macOS X 10.4.11 Server works fine with the 7800 GS. I don't think I wanna break it by installing that patch since it lists 10.4.9 and I don't have much of a failsafe at the moment.
Whatever Nvidia drivers the macOS install has, it works and QE/CI works just fine. Graphical performance is great on this machine. It's really incredible.

I used the 3rd ROM listed so I could get Leopard working on here (the one with removed temp sensor).


I have a new issue though:

I tried to boot a single layer Mac OS X Leopard USB drive I made and it just kernel panics when I attempt to boot it. I have absolutely no idea why either. It won't boot to the installer but rather will just kernel panic. Anyone figure out why that is? I don't see this as a normal reoccurring issue so I might be the only one with this issue at the moment.

The kernel panic does not come with any logs or anything on the left side of the screen. It's strange.

You can still boot in verbose mode off the optical drive. After you turn the Mac on, hold down OPTN and choose the boot drive. Immediately after, hold down 'V' on the keyboard.

That should tell you approximately where things are hanging up before the KP happens.

 

[MicroTecture]

You can still boot in verbose mode off the optical drive. After you turn the Mac on, hold down OPTN and choose the boot drive. Immediately after, hold down 'V' on the keyboard.

That should tell you approximately where things are hanging up before the KP happens.

Oh what I ended up doing was going into my Tiger partition and used Disk Utility to write the mounted Sorbet Leopard image onto a new partition I made using the iPartition “boot disc” (I used a flash drive).

After it wrote to the partition, I just simply booted into Leopard and everything worked just fine out of the box including GPU acceleration (QE/CI). I’m surprised on how well it runs on it. I know the GPU is a huge factor.

I might revisit that Leopard USB installer and figure out why it kernel panic’ed just out of curiosity later on. So far, Sorbet Leopard seems to work just fine.

It doesn’t run half bad with such a slow 466 MHZ G4 and 256MB of RAM. The RAM, PSU, CPU, and even storage drive situation is all about to change in a moment. Definitely considering more PCI expansion stuff atm. Going to do what ActionRetro did as well and put in a PCI fan controller in there. I might try to set the GPU fans to run at max speed if possible because I don’t want the thing to overheat.

Somewhere on a YT comment section I read someone replaced the internal fan on their PMG4 with a Noctua fan and even its PSU fan with a Noctua fan and reported a dramatic change in terms of fan noise.

 

[pc297]

Would any GF 7800 GS AGP work with one of these roms? What about the first one (overclocked), would it work on a G5 with the card from the OP?

Cheers,