iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

[amgff84]

the 09 core 2 duo imacs, do have an MXM slot.
i believe it's MXM 2.0 or 1.0 instead of version 3.0

Also the vbios of these nvidia/amd cards are not compatible with the layout of the core 2 duo models.
And therefore could perhaps also not give any video at all.

Some heavy vbios modding will be required I think, in order to make it work at all.
also as far as I know all 09 Mac's do indeed have full 64Bit EFI.

Thanks for the response. Thank you for pointing out the differences between the versions of MXM. It's starting to make sense now.
The late 09 C2D models are of a different chipset, maybe the same chipset as the early i3 and i5?
This would be why this testing stops at the late 09 C2D?

I am newer to macs, I sold my gaming rigs over the summer to purchase a few older macs... guess I needed something new. I live in a condo, so wrenching on cars isn't something I can do anymore. Once you go mac, you can't go back. In general, I just like older hardware. To me, it's not worth buying a brand new computer for the same reason it's not worth buying a brand new car... However, to each their own.

So I digress. I have experience flashing bios on GPU's, but AMD cards and through Windows. I've seen a few different kepler bios's floating around, but I don't know how to flash nvidia cards yet, or I'm not sure if it will be worth my time when I can simply replace it with it's original card, think I might give it a go and report my findings so others can have the results. That's the point of these forums, aint it?

Ohh, I want to apologize to all for hijacking the thread with earlier mac models, thanks for understanding. I needed some experienced input from all of you, so thanks.

 

[Underbeat88]

Hello everyone! I hope someone help me! I installed the Dell/Alienware GTX765m video card in my imac 27” model year 2011, but I got only black screen, no startup sound. I thought that with this card the system started up without the bootscreen, but I was wrong. Do you have any suggestions? the current system is High Sierra 10.13.6. please help me, thanks!

very strange. I turned on immediately. Are you sure that the video card is from Dell Alienware? Maybe the video card from another laptop and the BIOS does not fit.

 

[Deni_z]

Hi Everyone! I was a reader of this topic for couple of weeks and was really inspired by what you are doing here. I got so inspired that I wanted to try to upgrade my iMac 2011 27".
It had 6790m that was turning off occasionally.

So I bought Nvidia Quadro K2100M.
Inserted it into my iMac, tried to run it but only 2 of lights on the motherboard were green ••••.

I tried to flash VBIOS of the K2100M with one I got from here
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/149851/hp-quadrok2100m-2048-130612

but it didn't help.

Can anyone suggest what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks in advance!

 

[Vitya.A]

Друзі, хтось може пояснити, як перевстановити рідну біографію Imac в біос для відеокарти k1100m
Imac 21.5 2011 р

 

[NOTNlCE]

Hi Everyone! I was a reader of this topic for couple of weeks and was really inspired by what you are doing here. I got so inspired that I wanted to try to upgrade my iMac 2011 27".
It had 6790m that was turning off occasionally.

So I bought Nvidia Quadro K2100M.
Inserted it into my iMac, tried to run it but only 2 of lights on the motherboard were green ••••.

I tried to flash VBIOS of the K2100M with one I got from here
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/149851/hp-quadrok2100m-2048-130612

but it didn't help.

Can anyone suggest what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks in advance!

The two lights on the motherboard is expected as the motherboard only shows when a compatible EFI (Original Mac-based card) GPU is detected. If your system is booting into an OS like Windows 10 or macOS, you can use VNC, RDP, RemoteDesktop, etc. to see if the card is detected by the OS. If it is detected then the VBIOS you flashed is likely not compatible. I've not seen many others use the K2100M, but there should be a compatible VBIOS since the K1100M works so well.

 

[Taki N]

Hello, everyone,
Thanks to gentlemen including Mr. Nick, I was able to succeed in the card replacement.
Thank you!

 

[Deni_z]

The two lights on the motherboard is expected as the motherboard only shows when a compatible EFI (Original Mac-based card) GPU is detected. If your system is booting into an OS like Windows 10 or macOS, you can use VNC, RDP, RemoteDesktop, etc. to see if the card is detected by the OS. If it is detected then the VBIOS you flashed is likely not compatible. I've not seen many others use the K2100M, but there should be a compatible VBIOS since the K1100M works so well.

Thank you for quick answer. I also have k1000m so I probably will try to use it instead to ensure K2100m is working. Is there any reliable place to search vbios other than techpowerup?

or maybe the problem is that I tried to flash vbios with programator?

 

[NOTNlCE]

Thank you for quick answer. I also have k1000m so I probably will try to use it instead to ensure K2100m is working. Is there any reliable place to search vbios other than techpowerup?

or maybe the problem is that I tried to flash vbios with programator?

TechPowerUp is a great place to get the VBIOS you need, but finding the correct one is the tricky part. Many here (myself included) have tested some other Quadro cards and have found that typically a Dell VBIOS works to get the internal display active. Your K2100M and K1000M will likely work, you may just need to find the correct VBIOS to get the internal display functional. The best way to test your card is set up remote access to a system and boot the iMac up with the card you're testing installed. In macOS, if the card is detected and functional, but cannot display, you will get something like "0MB" showing in system profiler rather than the full VRAM. This was the case with my K1100M and K2000M, indicating I needed to flash a different VBIOS. Once I flashed the right VBIOS (the first post, a wiki page, has lists of known good VBIOS for various cards) the internal display worked just fine.

EDIT: If you can boot into macOS and access via screen sharing, the "System Profiler" application will actually show you what VBIOS is installed. I'd also recommend flashing using nvflash in Windows, if you have a spare disk handy. I installed Windows 10 in UEFI mode to a spare 64GB SSD, enabled RDP access to the system, and disabled automatic driver installation on the system. (This was critical, or the system would BSoD when plugged into my iMac...) This let me boot my 2011 iMac up via USB into Windows 10 then I could RDP into the system and use nvflash from there.

Hope this helps, if you're American, Happy Thanksgiving! Otherwise, best of luck with your exploits. I'll try to check back into the thread throughout the day.

 

[Deni_z]

"

TechPowerUp is a great place to get the VBIOS you need, but finding the correct one is the tricky part. Many here (myself included) have tested some other Quadro cards and have found that typically a Dell VBIOS works to get the internal display active. Your K2100M and K1000M will likely work, you may just need to find the correct VBIOS to get the internal display functional. The best way to test your card is set up remote access to a system and boot the iMac up with the card you're testing installed. In macOS, if the card is detected and functional, but cannot display, you will get something like "0MB" showing in system profiler rather than the full VRAM. This was the case with my K1100M and K2000M, indicating I needed to flash a different VBIOS. Once I flashed the right VBIOS (the first post, a wiki page, has lists of known good VBIOS for various cards) the internal display worked just fine.

EDIT: If you can boot into macOS and access via screen sharing, the "System Profiler" application will actually show you what VBIOS is installed. I'd also recommend flashing using nvflash in Windows, if you have a spare disk handy. I installed Windows 10 in UEFI mode to a spare 64GB SSD, enabled RDP access to the system, and disabled automatic driver installation on the system. (This was critical, or the system would BSoD when plugged into my iMac...) This let me boot my 2011 iMac up via USB into Windows 10 then I could RDP into the system and use nvflash from there.

Hope this helps, if you're American, Happy Thanksgiving! Otherwise, best of luck with your exploits. I'll try to check back into the thread throughout the day.

Many thanks, NOTNlCE! I will try to flash with another version of bios and do a remote check as you suggested.
I'll update here for everyone who struggling the same problem!

 

[Vitya.A]

Hi,
I installed the K1100M (HP) with Dell Bios on an 2010 21.5" iMac and work perfectly. Does the fix for bootscreen also work on these Macs with K1100 M card?

Hi
You can explain step by step how to reinstall Imac bios to bios for K1100M video cards

 

[rere64]

great ! ?
Happy flashing ?

I have now flashed the vbios on my GTX765M, done with the ch341prg in windows10
on a windows laptop.
The program did not detect the chip, so I went for the settings in the picture.
Renamed rom file to bin, and it seems to read,erase, and program well.
Says all OK. The size etc seems right. I have not swaped the card yet.
Next is to mount the card in the imac and boot up, then the
bootrom......thanks everyone for all work and help. To be continued.....

 

[NOTNlCE]

Hi
You can explain step by step how to reinstall Imac bios to bios for K1100M video cards

Hi,
I installed the K1100M (HP) with Dell Bios on an 2010 21.5" iMac and work perfectly. Does the fix for bootscreen also work on these Macs with K1100 M card?

At present, there is no boot screen modification for any of the Quadro cards, but there may be in the future. If your system is working with internal display, then you are all set for now.

 

[Deni_z]

TechPowerUp is a great place to get the VBIOS you need, but finding the correct one is the tricky part. Many here (myself included) have tested some other Quadro cards and have found that typically a Dell VBIOS works to get the internal display active. Your K2100M and K1000M will likely work, you may just need to find the correct VBIOS to get the internal display functional. The best way to test your card is set up remote access to a system and boot the iMac up with the card you're testing installed. In macOS, if the card is detected and functional, but cannot display, you will get something like "0MB" showing in system profiler rather than the full VRAM. This was the case with my K1100M and K2000M, indicating I needed to flash a different VBIOS. Once I flashed the right VBIOS (the first post, a wiki page, has lists of known good VBIOS for various cards) the internal display worked just fine.

EDIT: If you can boot into macOS and access via screen sharing, the "System Profiler" application will actually show you what VBIOS is installed. I'd also recommend flashing using nvflash in Windows, if you have a spare disk handy. I installed Windows 10 in UEFI mode to a spare 64GB SSD, enabled RDP access to the system, and disabled automatic driver installation on the system. (This was critical, or the system would BSoD when plugged into my iMac...) This let me boot my 2011 iMac up via USB into Windows 10 then I could RDP into the system and use nvflash from there.

Hope this helps, if you're American, Happy Thanksgiving! Otherwise, best of luck with your exploits. I'll try to check back into the thread throughout the day.

Happy Thanksgiving you too!

 

[Rem1969]

Hi,
I also use a GTX860......... with which did you flash the GTX860? Do you have a boot screen?

Unfortunately not! At the moment, after installing the katalin, I only have a black screen! I am looking for a working full-time graphics card to reinstall the system.

 

[Vovan]

This was the case with my K1100M and K2000M, indicating I needed to flash a different VBIOS. Once I flashed the right VBIOS (the first post, a wiki page, has lists of known good VBIOS for various cards) the internal display worked just fine.

Which VBIOS have you used for K2000M?

 

[NOTNlCE]

Which VBIOS have you used for K2000M?

The K2000M works with this VBIOS:

Quadro K2000M - 80.07.52.00.18

 

[Vovan]

Thanks! Is there a boot screen with this VBIOS?

 

[NOTNlCE]

Thanks! Is there a boot screen with this VBIOS?

No, at present there is no boot screen with any Quadro cards, though there may be in the future.

 

[jborko]

A bit of digression going back to the previous posts...

@liquidtwitch
...Because on Linux (i testet Mint and Ubuntu) the brightness control is working. So it is some how a software issue.

@Roman78 I was reading some of the success you had with the backlight control on Linux Mint, and then I noticed that you made it work on Ubuntu as well. I just installed Ubuntu partition and with GTX-765M it does not seem to run straight away. As a matter of fact, I had flickering with the display on the right side until I installed the nvidia-driver-390. Unfortunately to my disappointment no backlight control yet (I do not even see it in the power panel). I was checking for available drivers and will test some more today, but I was wondering which driver did you use to be able to control backlight? Was it nouveau?
After installing PPA I have the following drivers available:

model : GK106M [GeForce GTX 765M]
driver : nvidia-340 - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-410 - third-party free
driver : nvidia-driver-415 - third-party free recommended
driver : nvidia-driver-390 - third-party free
driver : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin

 

[jmilan0302]

Thanks for the response. Thank you for pointing out the differences between the versions of MXM. It's starting to make sense now.
The late 09 C2D models are of a different chipset, maybe the same chipset as the early i3 and i5?
This would be why this testing stops at the late 09 C2D?

I am newer to macs, I sold my gaming rigs over the summer to purchase a few older macs... guess I needed something new. I live in a condo, so wrenching on cars isn't something I can do anymore. Once you go mac, you can't go back. In general, I just like older hardware. To me, it's not worth buying a brand new computer for the same reason it's not worth buying a brand new car... However, to each their own.

So I digress. I have experience flashing bios on GPU's, but AMD cards and through Windows. I've seen a few different kepler bios's floating around, but I don't know how to flash nvidia cards yet, or I'm not sure if it will be worth my time when I can simply replace it with it's original card, think I might give it a go and report my findings so others can have the results. That's the point of these forums, aint it?

Ohh, I want to apologize to all for hijacking the thread with earlier mac models, thanks for understanding. I needed some experienced input from all of you, so thanks.

Afaik the Late 09 C2D share the same Nvidia chipset as the Early and Mid 09 but they use desktop CPUs and CPU support is very limited, probably just E7600 and E8400. The Late 09 i5/i7 and Mid 2010 have an Intel chipset though and all the 09 iMacs use MXM3. Also I think people here have even talked about upgrading the old white plastic iMacs, the 24" had an MXM2 slot and someone mentioned a long time ago back in the day someone did upgrade the GPU in one of those can't remember which one though.

 

[NOTNlCE]

According to the iFixit teardown, it looks like the 27" 2009 iMac with Core2Duo CPUs still uses a proper MXM3 GPU, just an A form factor. The CPU can likely be upgraded as well, since it seems to be a socketed LGA775. I'm afraid I don't have one personally to test, but I own a few of the 20" 2009 models and can confirm they do NOT have a removable GPU. The older iMacs (2008 and older) don't apply here since they use the MXM2 standard. I have a 2007 24" model here and was unsuccessful at upgrading the GPU to a PC GeForce 9600M.

See photos: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2309+and+2374+Teardown/1236

 

[jmilan0302]

According to the iFixit teardown, it looks like the 27" 2009 iMac with Core2Duo CPUs still uses a proper MXM3 GPU, just an A form factor. The CPU can likely be upgraded as well, since it seems to be a socketed LGA775. I'm afraid I don't have one personally to test, but I own a few of the 20" 2009 models and can confirm they do NOT have a removable GPU. The older iMacs (2008 and older) don't apply here since they use the MXM2 standard. I have a 2007 24" model here and was unsuccessful at upgrading the GPU to a PC GeForce 9600M.

See photos: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2309+and+2374+Teardown/1236

Some 20" 2009 models do have MXM3. Also all the Late 09 ones with the Geforce 9400M (mostly 21.5") DO NOT have a MXM slot! Only the ones with the Radeon HD 4670 have a MXM slot. Not sure about CPU upgradeability but these imacs had 2 options, Core 2 Duo E7600 and Core 2 Duo E8400. I've heard of people trying other CPUs in them and it didn't work.

 

[crizzly]

To install I use "Hackintool" to unlock the Catalina System partition to install, then drag all the files on top of Kext Utility to install. Alternatively you can open terminal and type

Will these files still work on latest 10.15.1 Catalina update?

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Will these files still work on latest 10.15.1 Catalina update?

Yes

 

[kmare]

A bit of digression going back to the previous posts...



@Roman78 I was reading some of the success you had with the backlight control on Linux Mint, and then I noticed that you made it work on Ubuntu as well. I just installed Ubuntu partition and with GTX-765M it does not seem to run straight away. As a matter of fact, I had flickering with the display on the right side until I installed the nvidia-driver-390. Unfortunately to my disappointment no backlight control yet (I do not even see it in the power panel). I was checking for available drivers and will test some more today, but I was wondering which driver did you use to be able to control backlight? Was it nouveau?
After installing PPA I have the following drivers available:

model : GK106M [GeForce GTX 765M]
driver : nvidia-340 - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-410 - third-party free
driver : nvidia-driver-415 - third-party free recommended
driver : nvidia-driver-390 - third-party free
driver : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin

jborko, Nick [D]vB said opencore might hold the solution.. haven't got around to installing