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The Golden Guide to Flashing Graphic Cards

solution-- missing file from mapp.zip

Hi Cindori,
I found my problem, and I think I may have found a glitch in the Kext installer in mapp.zip. I noticed that all seven of the existing extensions were moved to the backup folder, but only six of the replacements made it into /System/Library/Extensions. I'm 90% certain that the missing file was ATIRadeonX200GLDriver.bundle. Replacing the missing file gave me my two monitors and QE at full speed, after applying dualdvi.

To test this, I reinstalled the 10.6.4 graphics update to replace the entire set of seven. I then reran the Kext installer with the mapp set, and this time ATIRadeonX2000VADriver was missing (100% certain, since I was paying attention by now...). I repeated this test, reinstalling the graphics update, and rerun kext with the mapp set, and strangely enough all seven files made it into /System/Library/Extensions. It's odd. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary on the console, except for a malloc error on startup and I have to force-quit kext installer (it hangs on quit).


Cheers
 
Help the village idiot...please.

I promise that if I get this figured out I will write the guide to Flashing Cards for Poets (not that the Golden Guide isn't great, I've read it three times, but I'm clearly missing a gene).

So...I bought what I believe is an ATI 4870 1GB reference card: it was made for Dell but looks just like the reference card and has all the ATI logos and such plus it's part number includes "REF".

I have a new (to me) Mac Pro 1,1 2.66 Quad with the original Nvidia card in the bottom (doublewide) PCI slot. Works fine but I use FCS and need more power.

I downloaded Zeus (which found the Nvidia card just fine). Shut off the machine (I'm not THAT dumb), attached the ATI power cables to the motherboard and ATI card (okay, I forgot to attach them the first time, so you see my problem) and inserted the ATI card in slot 3 (counting up from the bottom since there's no connection in slot 2). Fan is on the top, but Radeon logo on side is upside down, no way around this without a hacksaw.

Went to boot the system, I know the new card was running 'cause the fan sounds like a hurricane, it takes a while to get to the Apple boot logo, then goes to a screen that says (in five languages): "You need to reboot, hold down the power button...blah, blah..." Tried that, tried reseating everything, still same message. What am I doing wrong and if I get past that can anyone give me step by step instructions in how to make this card work? I will return the flavor.
 
Update

So I re-read this thread and learned some more, but I think I still need help.

1) sounds like I need to take the Nvidia card out of the bottom slot, put ATI in there and then put Nvidia in slot 3 (is this correct? FWIW I don't intend to leave the Nvidia card in once I have ATI working, I'm told Color doesn't like 2 cards).

2) Then, it sounds like I need to boot into Windows in order to copy the existing Bios from my new card. I don't have Windows so will have to borrow a copy but it sounds like this is important in case I fry the bios on my card, without the copy I might never get it back, correct? Not sure how I copy the bios but will re-read again with that in mind unless someone has a quick answer.

3) Then I reboot in Mac OS X and run Zeus, correct?

Thanks in advance. I don't want to fry my new card.
 
I installed the Sapphire 4890 on my 1,1 and seems to be working fine after flashing. But now my airport card cannot seem to recognize any networks. I have tried to manually find my airport express with no success. Anyone else have similar issues?
 
Cindori said:
guide for flashing bootcd:
Click to expand...


well, i did every step in your guide... burned the cd and everything..

but now when i try to boot from it, the computer tells me it has an invalid checksum... :mad:

i am getting closer and closer to giving up on this card, unplugging the monitor cable from the 7300GT and plugging it into the 4890 for Windows gaming purposes is way easier... too bad really, it did seem really straight forward from reading the forums regarding flashing :-/


still a lot of thanks Cindori et al. for helping, it's really appreciated
 
Need help with XFX HD489x ZSFC v3.1 flash....

Hello, All...

I've spent the last 2 days reading hundreds of posts (all with slightly different instructions) in an attempt to get my new XFX HD4890 card working on my Mac Pro 1,1 machine. The Windows 7 (BootCamp) side works perfectly with ATI's latest drivers, but the Mac does not boot up with the HD4890 in the number 1 slot. Only with the original Mac card, the ATI x1900 (in the 1st slot) will it boot into OSX.

I have tried MANY suggested methods of flashing the card to add the EFI, but none have worked so far. I tried Zeus and ATI WinFlash, but they have all "stated" that the card's ROM was the same as the modded ROM and would go no further, or state the the card could not be flashed for it was either not compatible or the ROM was "locked". I haven't been able to boot the Mac from a CD, so I haven't yet been able to try ATIFlash in DOS.

I have tried numerous ways to get the Mac Pro to boot off of a bootcd, but to no avail. UBCD method doesn't work (12 coasters so far...). WinME bootcd method doesn't work either. Of course, I tried the USB method which I now read will not work. I really do not understand why/how the Mac Pro cannot boot up with the bootcds that I made for I was VERY careful to follow the steps that were given by so many people....but without a BIOS to specify a boot order, how does the Mac know to boot from the optical drive first?

I wish there was one definitive tutorial that worked for this particular card/vers.

I have been successful in backing up the original ROM to the BootCamp Win7 side and creating the EFIMOD.rom in the Mac using Zeus, but nothing can flash the card with my new EDIMOD.rom. (I also tried the posted 13.rom that should have worked for my card, but no go.)

Sorry to babble on, but I'd really like to get this HD4890 card working without spending more long hours with no results,...for what should be a "simple" flashing task. I'd appreciate a concise step through on getting the mac pro to boot from a bootcd using only the HD4890 in slot 1. I followed Cindori's tutorials word for word multiple times, but apparently somethings still missing from the puzzle.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Bassix

P.S. Some specs... XFX HD489x-ZSFC v3.1 (RV790) made in China. BIOS version... 011.022.007.005.032494 to be installed into a Mac Pro 1,1 (2006)
OS: Mac OSX 10.6.4 (not working w/ card) and Windows 7 (via BootCamp...working with card)
 
OK, FINALLY... I'm able to boot the Mac Pro 1,1 from UBCD and get to the ATIFlash.exe, but the HD4890 is not recognized. The only card the program recognizes is the R580, which is the x1900 card that is used to see the display at this time. If I use only the HD4890 card then I can't see a display and get to the ATIFlash.exe!

I've tried changing the slot order of the cards and tried using each card's right side DVI port to see the display, and only the x1900 card is successful at showing info on the display. (Note: The HD4890 DOES work fine when booting into Win7 via BootCamp)

Any suggestions as to how I can get the HD4890 recognized by ATIFlash.exe so that I can flash my card?
 
Still having trouble flashing 4870, can someone help?

I have a Reference Design (made by ATI) 4870 1 GB card I desperately want to get in to replace an ailing Nvidia 7300GT. I was hoping to flash it with Zeus as I don't have Windows and had no luck booting Freedos from a USB stick. Is there a trick?

I would happily try Zeus, but I can't get the Mac to boot in OSX with the Card in either slot 1 or slot 2. It tries to load the ATIx2000 drivers each time and aborts the boot when that won't work. I have my Nvidia card in the other slot (at either 8x or 16x) and the ATI card plugged in with both cables (fan running). I have a Mac Pro 1.1 running the latest update of OS10.6. Is there a way to instruct it not to load the ATI drivers so that it doesn't abort the boot? Have others had this problem?

Thanks.
 
OK, in an act of desperation, I installed Natit thinking that it wouldn't work with my card...and lo and behold, it DID work! I used the ATI Flash (Mac app) that Cindori had replaced with Zeus (the ATI Flash utility can install Natit), then I used Zeus to add the latest drivers for 10.6.4 with the Graphic Update.

When I rebooted for the first time, I was shocked that it really worked...but I am still not able to flash my card's rom using any Mac or PC utilities. Natit works OK, but the card is working through an extension rather than the Mac booting it directly recognizing the EFI rom.

Any ideas as to flashing my XFX HD4890 ZSFC v3.1...anyone?

@ ArtistType....try using the method that I described above with Natit to at least boot up with your display working, then see if you can flash your card directly from the Zeus app. BUT it would be wise to have a backup of your original ROM prior to flashing your card...and I've only seen ways of doing that via a PC using a utility like GPU-Z, which worked for me to backup my original ROM.

Now I just need to find a method to flash MY card!
 
Bassix said:
....try using the method that I described above with Natit to at least boot up with your display working, then see if you can flash your card directly from the Zeus app.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm reading up on Natit, thought it wasn't needed for 4870s and 10.6 but need to learn more.

Bassix said:
BUT it would be wise to have a backup of your original ROM prior to flashing your card...and I've only seen ways of doing that via a PC using a utility like GPU-Z, which worked for me to backup my original ROM.
Click to expand...

Makes sense but I haven't been able to find a Windows machine that will work (friend has one with the right PCIe slot but his heatsink interferes with the 4870 and it won't seat correctly). Can I copy ROM with ATIFlash? Is it really necessary if this is a Reference Card? I believe I have found the original PC Rom for ATI (made) 1GB 4870s here: http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/30302/ATI.HD4870.1024.080819.html

Thanks again.
 
@syrinxfilms... Just make sure that the ATI BIOS on the download file exactly matches your card's BIOS, which can only be seen with GPU-Z on a PC or System Info/More Info/GraphicDisplays on a Mac. There are MANY revisions of card versions and of BIOS versions which makes it more difficult to find the exact match for your card.
 
Good news! I was able to recreate the UBCD creation process and use a different CD brand (Imation) so the Mac Pro 1,1 could actually boot up into DOS.

Note: I did pull all of the hard drives out of their bays as a precautionary measure, and installed ONLY the HD4890 in Slot 1 with 2 power cables from the motherboard, thus leaving out the possibility of re-flashing my x1900XT by mistake. I also un-installed a previous install of Natit that I had used successfully to get my screen working prior to being able to "actually" re-flash the card.

From there, I followed the bootcd tutorials and used FreeDOS (UBCD 5.03 uses FreeDOS instead of OpenDOS) to access ATIFlash.exe. For the first time, ATIFlash was able to detect my XFX HD4890 ZSFC v3.1 card in Slot 1 (0 in ATIFlash.exe) and the re-flashing went smoothly.

When I rebooted to Mac OSX, the screen was black but I could hear that the OS was indeed loading up, so I used Remote Desktop from my MBP laptop to access Zeus that was installed already on the Mac Pro. (You can also achieve this via Screen Sharing or on an iPhone, using Jaadu VNC/iTeleport.) I then chose to install the SL 10.6.4 + Graphics Update driver. It downloaded and I then installed the package, rebooted and the screen was working off of the new HD4890 card!

It was a long learning process, but well worth the trouble. The HD4890 works and looks great in both Mac and Win 7 operating systems. I'm very happy with the results. Thank you Cindori, and all of the others here who have posted info, ROMs, and software here!
 
Sigh, no luck once again

Well, I figured I would give this process one more try. I started ages ago with an XFX card and gave up on that fast as many of them were not supported at the time. I ended up with a Sapphire New Edition with Hynix memory and at that point actually managed to flash the card with what was supposedly the proper rom. Unfortunately this resulted in kernel panics on my Mac nearly immediately at boot. Re-flashed card with PC rom file and it went back to working fine in Windows.

Unfortunately my ATI 3870 Mac/PC edition which was driving my 2 monitors (the Sapphire drives a 720p DLP projector in Window mode only) burned up. Not overclocked or anything, it just burned up like every ATI card I've ever owned (as of this time, I've had 2 x1900s and 1 x 3870 cook themselves with no overclocking. I sure hope we get some decent NVIDIA support in the Mac Pro soon).

So here I am again trying to get the card to work, and there are some great new tools, but Zeus 2.1 WILL NOT FLASH MY CARD! ARGH! I'm so frustrated! :)

What it does is abort with "Flash Aborted! Possible cause: ROM already identical to card firmware or card simply not compatible with Zeus." But AFAIK this card is one of the more supported models. I'm SO CONFUSED!

Should I try flashing with a different tool? That never worked before, so I can't see it working now...

Maybe it is just time to shell out for Apple's 5870. I really don't like that idea though, since the 4890 is still a fine card.

Any tips? If I don't get it working this weekend I think I'll just suck it up and order the Apple 5870.
 
Is this thread dead? Where did Natit go?

Still having no luck here. I even tried removing my ancient NVIDIA card and booting my Mac Pro (2006, 1,1) headless with only the Sapphire 4890 New Edition card installed (in slot 1 of course). Then I used VNC on my iPad to log into the machine and attempted to flash again using Zeus. Nada.

Tried to use Winflash in Bootcamp to flash the card, but unfortunately Winflash doesn't appear to do anything. Won't launch, just sits there... So, no joy there.

So I decided to give up on flashing altogether and see if I could just use the injectors. Not ideal, but I can live with it. But, I can't find a recent release of Natit anywhere. The current version of Zeus clearly references them, and provides the following well-written and concise instructions:

"Injectors
If you need to run a PC ATI 4xxx card in your Mac without modifying it, you need the graphics injector, Natit.

Natit is a Open-Source clone of Omni's Titan, which is a registry key setter kext. It has been further developed by Netkas to allow ATI GPU's to run in OSX even if they lack EFI.

To install Natit, go to ATI tab, choose your card from the list and then click Install Natit.
Note that Natit is not compatible with all card manufacturers."

OK, but unfortunately these instructions, concise as they are, can't be followed because THERE IS NO ATI TAB! Therefore there is also no way to "choose my card from the list" or to "click Install Natit".

?????????

I would just love for this process to work, but this is the fourth time I've attempted this and never has anything worked out.

I decided to go to the Apple store and purchase the 5870, which is reported to work fine in the 2006 1,1 Mac Pros, only to discover that the product is not available! It looks like I might be able to get a 5770, but I sure don't want to shell out cash for a card that is slower than my 4890...

Any help? If someone could just point me to a current release of the injectors for my card I would be happy enough for now.

Thanks!
 
@panjandrum

You will have to flash your card from DOS, just like I did. (See my post a few messages above...)

Follow this tutorial...

http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html

I used UBCD v5.03 and added my modded ROM (EFIMOD.rom + ATIFlash.exe in a folder) to the CD directory.
(I had backed up the original ROM in Windows (GPU-Z method), and then copied it to the Mac desktop. Used Zeus on the Mac side to modify the original ROM to the EFIMOD.rom. <--THIS was the ROM that I then flashed into my HD4890 via the DOS Boot CD method.)

Note that I used ONLY the HD4890 card in Slot 1 (PCIe) when I flashed the card.

I know it's frustrating to keep trying over and over, but it does work! It just takes a lot of reading of posts to sift out the right info for your card.

Good Luck
Bassix
 
Bassix said:
@panjandrum

You will have to flash your card from DOS, just like I did. (See my post a few messages above...)

Follow this tutorial...

http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html

I used UBCD v5.03 and added my modded ROM (EFIMOD.rom + ATIFlash.exe in a folder) to the CD directory.
(I had backed up the original ROM in Windows (GPU-Z method), and then copied it to the Mac desktop. Used Zeus on the Mac side to modify the original ROM to the EFIMOD.rom. <--THIS was the ROM that I then flashed into my HD4890 via the DOS Boot CD method.)

Note that I used ONLY the HD4890 card in Slot 1 (PCIe) when I flashed the card.

I know it's frustrating to keep trying over and over, but it does work! It just takes a lot of reading of posts to sift out the right info for your card.

Good Luck
Bassix
Click to expand...


I'm having a hell of time flashing an XFX 4870. I have tried following the Jacob Croft tutorial to the letter (even downloaded the same older version of UBCD used in those screenshots) but I can't get the atiflash.exe -i command to recognize the card in DOS.

Card works fine in Windows 7 Boot Camp partition, but I too am unable to get the ATIWinFlash program to do anything.

Nothing like having to tinker around on the Windows side of things to remind me of what a hobbyist pursuit the typical PC experience is!
 
apple_iBoy said:
I'm having a hell of time flashing an XFX 4870. I have tried following the Jacob Croft tutorial to the letter (even downloaded the same older version of UBCD used in those screenshots) but I can't get the atiflash.exe -i command to recognize the card in DOS.

Card works fine in Windows 7 Boot Camp partition, but I too am unable to get the ATIWinFlash program to do anything.

Nothing like having to tinker around on the Windows side of things to remind me of what a hobbyist pursuit the typical PC experience is!
Click to expand...

Make sure that you have pulled any other graphic cards out besides the 4870, and have the power connector(s) connected to the 4870.

I tried using the HD4890 and the x1900XT at the same time and ATIFlash.exe would only see the x1900XT...for I had only one of the power connectors hooked up on the HD4890 card (the other being hooked up to the x1900XT). When I hooked up both power connectors to the HD4890 AND removed the x1900XT and then rebooted into DOS, ATIFlash.exe did see the HD4890 card and I was able to flash it properly. And, yes, I could see the screen (Safe Boot resolution) via the HD4890 during the process...
 
Bassix said:
Make sure that you have pulled any other graphic cards out besides the 4870, and have the power connector(s) connected to the 4870.

I tried using the HD4890 and the x1900XT at the same time and ATIFlash.exe would only see the x1900XT...for I had only one of the power connectors hooked up on the HD4890 card (the other being hooked up to the x1900XT). When I hooked up both power connectors to the HD4890 AND removed the x1900XT and then rebooted into DOS, ATIFlash.exe did see the HD4890 card and I was able to flash it properly. And, yes, I could see the screen (Safe Boot resolution) via the HD4890 during the process...
Click to expand...

My system came with the NVIDIA 7300 GT (you now understand the desperate need for upgrade).

So I do have both power connectors on the new card (the 7200GT had none). I did move the 7200GT up a couple of slots and still had it connected. I can pull it and see if I can try booting into DOS (if it shows up on the screen).

Since the other card is NVIDIA, is there any other reason why ATIFlash might not detect an ATI card in DOS?
 
So after more hours than I care to count, I do have an XFX 4870 1GB card flashed and semi-functional in OS X. My Device ID is 0x00009440.

I still can't enable quartz extreme. I've tried the "Mapp" and "Ny Mapp" kext changes — they tend to give me a garbled, unusable display when I boot up with two displays attached (would a video of this behavior help diagnose a problem?). I always have to hold the Mac's power button to shut the machine off when this happens.

If I have only one display plugged in, I get a usuable screen but no Quartz Extreme acceleration. This at least seems to be a stable configuration (even though I thought one of the kext replacement packages was supposed to re=enable dual displays).

Anyone have any other helpful hints about how I can successfully get Quartz Driver Installed? I am willing to run a single screen only if it means I can finally have this video card fully functional.

By the way, right now I'm running 10.6.4 with Graphics Update. I have also tried setting this up in 10.6.3 and 10.6.4 without Graphics Update.


UPDATE: Got it! 4870 is now driving both screens, glitch-free, and Quartz Extreme is enabled. I honestly don't know what combination of things fixed it. My first Mac ROM may have been part of the problem, I tried re-flashing with another. The final thing I did was run the ATI10.6.4Patch.pkg file I downloaded on here somewhere and it all clicked into place.

Thanks to all the guys who put these tools together!!!
 
Bassix said:
@panjandrum

You will have to flash your card from DOS, just like I did. (See my post a few messages above...)

Follow this tutorial...

http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html

I used UBCD v5.03 and added my modded ROM (EFIMOD.rom + ATIFlash.exe in a folder) to the CD directory.
(I had backed up the original ROM in Windows (GPU-Z method), and then copied it to the Mac desktop. Used Zeus on the Mac side to modify the original ROM to the EFIMOD.rom. <--THIS was the ROM that I then flashed into my HD4890 via the DOS Boot CD method.)

Note that I used ONLY the HD4890 card in Slot 1 (PCIe) when I flashed the card.

I know it's frustrating to keep trying over and over, but it does work! It just takes a lot of reading of posts to sift out the right info for your card.

Good Luck
Bassix
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll give it a shot when I can find the time!

Is there a disk image available for download anywhere with all of this already setup? It seems crazy for everyone to rebuild this from scratch each time...
 
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