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duvelhedz

macrumors member
Sep 23, 2019
66
91
Ireland
I am starting to believe that I do not have luck with these cards from eBay. Second card delivered different from the description.

Can someone please confirm if this is indeed WX7100 or some useless variation? @LegoNickD (I read you had similar problems)

a8b30dc2e6687c52228ce689cf57b4a4.jpg
The link is to a card on eBay. there are some differences with the GPU die and some of the components on the board in the photo. Your best bet is to try getting it recognised in Windows and getting the device ID from it to work out what it is.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.ie/ulk/itm/183896013803
 
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jborko

macrumors regular
Jan 17, 2011
188
114
LegoNickD already tried before. It is useless card. Will attempt 3rd order then give up if not success
 

jborko

macrumors regular
Jan 17, 2011
188
114
I bought it from that guy. He sends fakes. My case is a second. I found one on Ali, verifying things with the seller now.
 

overshoot

macrumors regular
Oct 11, 2018
106
22
Hey,

To all involved in this VBios hack, you're genius!
Thanks a lot!
We are going to save a lot of these 2011 iMacs from the grave. Awesome!
 

crizzly

macrumors member
Mar 11, 2014
37
35
Thanks for the recommendations guys. Once I get some time I'll reinstall the Radeon card and replace Mojave with High Sierra for better testing.
 

Aubergiste

macrumors newbie
Apr 14, 2018
5
0
Hi There,
yes the programmer clip wont work with your eeprom chip.
But tools like nvflash should work fine, I think..

Of course always backup your original vbios, multiple times.. ;)

you can use my premade win7 winclone image, i posted here above.
you can restore this using winclone, you only must have a working MacOS on your iMac to start restoring the winclone image.
Within bootcamp, you can use nvflash..
Hello FlorisVN
Thank you and every body else participating this huge work, for giving so much valuable informations and material.
I tryed your win 7 winclone image in order to boot windows on my Imac 27 2011 i5 ( nvidia 765 Mac 10.14) so I can flash my videocard with the boot screen compliance.
I installed a second ssd in my optical drive caddy, restored the winclone image on it, and choose this volume on the startup utility. But after I restarted. Nothing happened. Then I putted my old stock graphic card (hd6970) so I can see what was happening. The computer displays "error loading operating system" when I try to boot your winclone image. Is there something special to do when restoring your winclone image or may be it would a missing driver for my computer...
 

jmilan0302

macrumors regular
Feb 8, 2019
158
47
Hello FlorisVN
Thank you and every body else participating this huge work, for giving so much valuable informations and material.
I tryed your win 7 winclone image in order to boot windows on my Imac 27 2011 i5 ( nvidia 765 Mac 10.14) so I can flash my videocard with the boot screen compliance.
I installed a second ssd in my optical drive caddy, restored the winclone image on it, and choose this volume on the startup utility. But after I restarted. Nothing happened. Then I putted my old stock graphic card (hd6970) so I can see what was happening. The computer displays "error loading operating system" when I try to boot your winclone image. Is there something special to do when restoring your winclone image or may be it would a missing driver for my computer...
Why waste the DVD drive? iMac already has 2nd SATA port for SSD
 

Dilli

macrumors 6502a
Oct 21, 2019
581
544
Special Thanks to all dear friends in this community which has made it possible to get my iMac alive from the dead Graveyard.
I finally got success and my iMac 27 inch mid 2011 is perfectly working now. Wow! I just cannot keep up with the emotion I am going through.

My special thanks to @Nick [D]vB , @FlorisVN , @jborko , DosDude1 and many good people who gave their excellent inputs and work around to make it happen. In fact I followed last step of attaching my SSD with High Sierra to Sata 0 instead of Sata 02 earlier and the machine booted.

I have had my fans still full Blast so I got the app Macs Fan Control and custom set the fan presets to ODD-1500, CPU-1163 & left HDD as it is since it is a ssd . Please correct me if the Presets are Okay.

I downloaded the Brightness slider and so far it works to control the brightness.

I shall now have a extra display cable which is in transit (Its always welcome as spare parts)

Now I shall partition my drive and Install Mojave with Dosdude1's patch without Legacy Graphics.

Here are some pictures of the Dell Alienware 765M Card flashed with Nick's vbios Beta 3 working perfectly.

It is a real moment of celebration for Me.:):):):)

20191205_123431.jpg






20191205_124435.jpg
 
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jborko

macrumors regular
Jan 17, 2011
188
114
Great achievement, after all the troubles, congratulations. Good to know that sata0 did the trick!
 
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FlorisVN

macrumors 6502a
Nov 8, 2013
973
378
Hello FlorisVN
Thank you and every body else participating this huge work, for giving so much valuable informations and material.
I tryed your win 7 winclone image in order to boot windows on my Imac 27 2011 i5 ( nvidia 765 Mac 10.14) so I can flash my videocard with the boot screen compliance.
I installed a second ssd in my optical drive caddy, restored the winclone image on it, and choose this volume on the startup utility. But after I restarted. Nothing happened. Then I putted my old stock graphic card (hd6970) so I can see what was happening. The computer displays "error loading operating system" when I try to boot your winclone image. Is there something special to do when restoring your winclone image or may be it would a missing driver for my computer...

hmm strange, I have used it multiple times now and so does other users here.
I however only have tested in on the default internal HDD/SSD.
make your bootcamp partition FAT name it bootcamp or something, and just resture the winclone image to it.

Sometimes it needed a reboot twice, for me in order to show up.
remember only external monitor works by default when windows is started..

perhaps try again on the internal drive, hook up external monitor aswell. ;)
this winclone image should work on multiple macs I think, since it has bootcamp drivers installed for multiple older Mac's..
 

Dilli

macrumors 6502a
Oct 21, 2019
581
544
I have a question. Every time I shut off the iMac it does not boot by itself and gives only black screen. But If I hold option key and then I need to select my drive for booting and I get the display. What could be the possible issue and if there is any solution
 
Last edited:

FlorisVN

macrumors 6502a
Nov 8, 2013
973
378
I have a question. Every time I shut off the iMac it does not bot by itself and gives only black screen. But If I hold option key and then I need to select my drive for booting and I get the display. What could be the possible issue and if there is any solution

I have experienced something simillar like this, on one of our 2011 27" iMacs with GTX765M and bootrom patch from Nick with vbios Beta 2.

Yesterday, I the iMac started, but no display output at all, I know MacOS was booted but just no display at all.
perhaps this is fixed somehow now with vbios beta 3, and leaving the bootrom stock.. ?

Perhaps @Nick [D]vB has some answers on this one.. ?

This is an anoying problem, it happend now a few times over the last few months..
perhaps a bug somewhere or something, I dont know.

I'm also wondering if others here have experienced the same problem.. ?

The problem was fixed for my by doing an compleet shutdown and reboot.
I think I needed to do an Nvram reset also once, in order to get the display to work again..
 
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Dilli

macrumors 6502a
Oct 21, 2019
581
544
Well I will try to reset nvram again. I feel its some bug. Perhaps Nick should look into this issue and come out with some solution.
Another issue I am facing is every time the computer starts the fans blow full till the mac fans control app takes over during system launch
[automerge]1575547049[/automerge]
Also during boot with option key pressed I don't see any recovery drive though its installed. Any terminal command to get it back. I see some EFI boot drive which happened while I had installed bootcamp but I don't have it and this EFi boot drive still shows.
 

jborko

macrumors regular
Jan 17, 2011
188
114
So far I didn’t see this and I have been doing a lot of restarts/shut downs. But I flashed with Beta3 yesterday (bootrom is still modded, will open the computer again when the wifi card arrive). Seems ok for the moment.

Inthe meantime I was going through ifixit on the GPU and it seems there is a person suggesting that he flashed the 765 with the original 6990 rom. While I understand this might be a problem with Mojave/Catalina, he is suggesting all works well. Can someone comment if that makes sense or its absurd to mix and match vbios from 2 different manufacturers?
 
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jborko

macrumors regular
Jan 17, 2011
188
114
Well I will try to reset nvram again. I feel its some bug. Perhaps Nick should look into this issue and come out with some solution.
Another issue I am facing is every time the computer starts the fans blow full till the mac fans control app takes over during system launch
[automerge]1575547049[/automerge]
Also during boot with option key pressed I don't see any recovery drive though its installed. Any terminal command to get it back. I see some EFI boot drive which happened while I had installed bootcamp but I don't have it and this EFi boot drive still shows.

I have Efi drive indication on the Linux partition. But I am able to see the 4 bootable OSes in boot screen. Check for Connected USB drive. Last resort is to install High Sierra from scratch (format/partition if needed/install)
 
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quarkysg

macrumors 65816
Oct 12, 2019
1,227
813
Another issue I am facing is every time the computer starts the fans blow full till the mac fans control app takes over during system launch

I guess it’s due to not connecting the HDD thermal sensor? You said you’ve changed the internal HDD to a SSD correct? You will need to connect your iMac’s logic board HDD thermal sensor to a suitable replacement sensor or your iMac’s HDD fan will run at full speed. These can be bought ready made (will be expensive) or you can make one yourself with a NPN transistor.

The iMac’s original HDD has a built-in thermal sensor while SSDs do not.
 
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Dilli

macrumors 6502a
Oct 21, 2019
581
544
I guess it’s due to not connecting the HDD thermal sensor? You said you’ve changed the internal HDD to a SSD correct? You will need to connect your iMac’s logic board HDD thermal sensor to a suitable replacement sensor or your iMac’s HDD fan will run at full speed. These can be bought ready made (will be expensive) or you can make one yourself with a NPN transistor.

The iMac’s original HDD has a built-in thermal sensor while SSDs do not.
But I have the QWC sensor cable attached ever since I installed SSD.


I also got ERROR :NO Output Device found" in Mojave after I installed in 2nd partition
 
Last edited:

Aubergiste

macrumors newbie
Apr 14, 2018
5
0
Why waste the DVD drive? iMac already has 2nd SATA port for SSD
Thank you for the information. Yes I know for the other sata port . It was quicker for me to put the drive in the caddy than to unscrew the logic board and connect the cable. And it is just temporary so I can boot Windows and flashed the card.
[automerge]1575566597[/automerge]
hmm strange, I have used it multiple times now and so does other users here.
I however only have tested in on the default internal HDD/SSD.
make your bootcamp partition FAT name it bootcamp or something, and just resture the winclone image to it.

Sometimes it needed a reboot twice, for me in order to show up.
remember only external monitor works by default when windows is started..

perhaps try again on the internal drive, hook up external monitor aswell. ;)
this winclone image should work on multiple macs I think, since it has bootcamp drivers installed for multiple older Mac's..
Thank you for your quick answer.
I will try later with the settings you told me.
For my information, do you know if I can boot Bootcamp with a USB external drive ?
 
Last edited:

Dilli

macrumors 6502a
Oct 21, 2019
581
544
I have another issue. After i swiped ssd from sata 2 to sata 0 to get my imac working again with new 765m card, the hybrid drive which was attached to sata 0 now is connected in sata2 port but is not visibke anymore in my partition table. It was mainly used for backup. Now i dont see it. Any possible reason.

My ssd has theOS High Sierra and Mojave in two partitions. The hybrid drive was only for time machine and backup
 

MacGero

macrumors newbie
Nov 10, 2019
21
7
I have another issue. After i swiped ssd from sata 2 to sata 0 to get my imac working again with new 765m card, the hybrid drive which was attached to sata 0 now is connected in sata2 port but is not visibke anymore in my partition table. It was mainly used for backup. Now i dont see it. Any possible reason.

My ssd has theOS High Sierra and Mojave in two partitions. The hybrid drive was only for time machine and backup

What do you mean by "hybrid" drive? is it just a HDD or the fusion drive? (mixed HDD with SSD)
If it is the fusion drive then u have to delete the fusion see:
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT207584
 
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Underbeat88

macrumors member
Sep 22, 2019
62
5
Special Thanks to all dear friends in this community which has made it possible to get my iMac alive from the dead Graveyard.
I finally got success and my iMac 27 inch mid 2011 is perfectly working now. Wow! I just cannot keep up with the emotion I am going through.

My special thanks to @Nick [D]vB , @FlorisVN , @jborko , DosDude1 and many good people who gave their excellent inputs and work around to make it happen. In fact I followed last step of attaching my SSD with High Sierra to Sata 0 instead of Sata 02 earlier and the machine booted.

I have had my fans still full Blast so I got the app Macs Fan Control and custom set the fan presets to ODD-1500, CPU-1163 & left HDD as it is since it is a ssd . Please correct me if the Presets are Okay.

I downloaded the Brightness slider and so far it works to control the brightness.

I shall now have a extra display cable which is in transit (Its always welcome as spare parts)

Now I shall partition my drive and Install Mojave with Dosdude1's patch without Legacy Graphics.

Here are some pictures of the Dell Alienware 765M Card flashed with Nick's vbios Beta 3 working perfectly.

It is a real moment of celebration for Me.:):):):)

View attachment 880864





View attachment 880866
Congratulations! We still have to do a little work with a delayed boot screen and auto brightness. Apple herself will envy us?
 
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