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

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TheFalChris

macrumors newbie
Nov 8, 2019
9
2
I had a working WX7100 in my 2011 27” machine, briefly...

The system was up and running perfectly, and then I tried to switch partition before I considered flashing. However I was greeted by the “no bootable device error” and nothing has worked since.
Just a black screen and that’s it.

I’ve tried using an external display, safe booting, blindly navigating the startup menu holding alt, removing the partition that caused the error (the ssd boots on my MacBook), resetting NVRAM/PRAM, reseating the card.

I worry things have gotten worse as it was chiming and then starting up before eventually powering itself down. Now it chimes and the fans run on full.
It still beeps to register there’s no RAM if I take it out.

Any suggestions would be very welcome.
 
Last edited:
duvelhedz

duvelhedz

macrumors member
Sep 23, 2019
66
91
Ireland
Aubergiste said:
Thank you for your answer. 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]

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 ?
Click to expand...

The ODD SATA ports run at 300MBs
The HDD and empty slot run at 600MBs

You will not take full advantage of the SSD by replacing the DVD drive as its half the speed
 
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H

hijglander

macrumors member
Oct 20, 2019
43
32
Heemskerk (NL)
TheFalChris said:
I had a working WX7100 in my 2011 27” machine, briefly...

The system was up and running perfectly, and then I tried to switch partition before I considered flashing. However I was greeted by the “no bootable device error” and nothing has worked since.
Just a black screen and that’s it.

I’ve tried using an external display, safe booting, blindly navigating the startup menu holding alt, removing the partition that caused the error (the ssd boots on my MacBook), resetting NVRAM/PRAM, reseating the card.

I worry things have gotten worse as it was chiming and then starting up before eventually powering itself down. Now it chimes and the fans run on full.
It still beeps to register there’s no RAM if I take it out.

Any suggestions would be very welcome.
Click to expand...
If you still have it and it works, put back the old graphics card.
I had the same error “no bootable device error” and it turned out to be repairable via diskutility (use CMD+R at startup).


As some of you might recall I'm one of the guys that nearly destroyed his mainboard by trying to flash the Mac BIOS with the external programmer and accidentally removing two of the resistors next to the bioschip.. luckily @FlorisVN suggested to connect the dots with a pencil which worked.
Yesterday, after three weeks of running perfectly, the Mac suddenly stopped working. Same symptoms as before I drew the pencil lines. So I took the screen off, cleaned the area around the bioschip with some alcohol and started drawing the pencil lines again. It took awhile, about ten attempts and different pencils, but finally got it working again (didn't remember which pencil I used for the original lines).

Turns out that a HB pencil is the way to go here. Anything else just failes miserably.
But now the million dollar question. Can any of you suggest a more permanent solution for the pencil lines? A friend of mine is capable of soldering where the pencil lines are now so actually bridging the caps with real resistors is an option.. however, what value of resistor should he use? Any thoughts?
 
Last edited:
A

Aubergiste

macrumors newbie
Apr 14, 2018
5
0
duvelhedz said:
The ODD SATA ports run at 300MBs
The HDD and empty slot run at 600MBs

You will not take full advantage of the SSD by replacing the DVD drive as its half the speed
Click to expand...
Good to know. But as it is temporary, the speed doesn't matter so much to me.
 
Dilli

Dilli

macrumors 6502a
Oct 21, 2019
581
544
I know why my iMac keeps giving black screen and fans go full. I had to always try to press option key to bring the boot screen to get into the OS. After deep checking I removed the display cable and to my surprise it is damaged and pins broken. Lucky me I have already ordered a replacement cable. See image below.

20191206_140032.jpg


Last few pins are missing and damaged. So I have to wait for the cable to arrive to experience the new graphics card that I replaced. At least now its confirmed that the card with beta 3 vbios works great.
[automerge]1575622008[/automerge]
duvelhedz said:
The ODD SATA ports run at 300MBs
The HDD and empty slot run at 600MBs

You will not take full advantage of the SSD by replacing the DVD drive as its half the speed
Click to expand...
So If I have ssd 1tb with operating system installed in SATA 0 port Can I attach my mechanical drive in SATA 2 blank port and optical drive in SATA 1 port. Please correct me if I am wrong
 
Last edited:
P

passatgt

macrumors 6502a
Jun 16, 2011
538
429
Dilli said:
I know why my iMac keeps giving black screen and fans go full. I had to always try to press option key to bring the boot screen to get into the OS. After deep checking I removed the display cable and to my surprise it is damaged and pins broken. Lucky me I have already ordered a replacement cable. See image below.

View attachment 881045

Last few pins are missing and damaged. So I have to wait for the cable to arrive to experience the new graphics card that I replaced. At least now its confirmed that the card with beta 3 vbios works great.
[automerge]1575622008[/automerge]

So If I have ssd 1tb with operating system installed in SATA 0 port Can I attach my mechanical drive in SATA 2 blank port and optical drive in SATA 1 port. Please correct me if I am wrong
Click to expand...

Yes, that stupid display cable is disgusting... you just take a look at it and its already broken.
 
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D

Deni_z

macrumors newbie
Nov 28, 2019
6
6
Hi Everyone! With help of
highvoltage12v and NOTNlCE we were able to upgrade imac 2011 27" i5 to Quadro k2100m.
I've tried this vbios
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/205515/205515
Day of testing past - everything works smoothly.
Good luck with upgrades.

looking forward to upgrading imac 21" 2010 i3 to k1100m. If anyone has succeeded with this - please let me know what vbios did you used.

and is there any possibility to upgrade imac 2009 C2D with AMD 4670m 256.
thanks in advance
 
Last edited:
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NOTNlCE

NOTNlCE

macrumors 65816
Oct 11, 2013
1,087
476
Baltimore, MD
Deni_z said:
Hi Everyone! With help of
highvoltage12v and NOTNlCE we were able to upgrade imac 2011 27" i5 to upgrade to Quadro k2100m.
I've tried this vbios
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/205515/205515
Day of testing past - everything works smoothly.
Good luck with upgrades.

looking forward to upgrading imac 21" 2010 i3 to k1100m. If anyone has succeeded with this - please let me know what vbios did you used.

and is there any possibility to upgrade imac 2009 C2D with AMD 4670m 256.
thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Very cool, I will add the K2100 with the VBIOS link to the front page. Thanks for testing!
The K1100M should work great in the 21" with the VBIOS on the front page. I have 2 in my systems.
 
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D

Deni_z

macrumors newbie
Nov 28, 2019
6
6
Last edited:
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crizzly

crizzly

macrumors member
Mar 11, 2014
37
35
My issue does seem to be the old Mojave install as I can get a boot screen holding down option key. I had made a catalina install USB using dosdude patcher and edited the plist to remove video patch prior to installing the new card but it doesn't show in the boot screen only the internal drive does. Any ideas why the USB Catalina installer drive isn't showing in the list? Might have to borrow my brothers mac to install Catalina. Really trying to avoid swapping the video card again ?.
 
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J

jborko

macrumors regular
Jan 17, 2011
188
114
No need to swap cards if you see boot menu. Try some of this:
Does it show on another Mac? Check on your brothers. If it show there it will show on yours too. When you are in the boot screen menu, you can try to pull the usb out and put it back in. If you made it correctly you should be able to see it being added to the boot options almost instantly. If not check another port. Maybe some of the USB ports are damaged (I have one damaged USB port).
 
G

guest00x

macrumors newbie
Dec 30, 2018
9
0
Deni_z said:
Hi Everyone! With help of
highvoltage12v and NOTNlCE we were able to upgrade imac 2011 27" i5 to Quadro k2100m.
I've tried this vbios
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/205515/205515
Day of testing past - everything works smoothly.
Good luck with upgrades.

looking forward to upgrading imac 21" 2010 i3 to k1100m. If anyone has succeeded with this - please let me know what vbios did you used.

and is there any possibility to upgrade imac 2009 C2D with AMD 4670m 256.
thanks in advance
Click to expand...

How do I flash the bios 205515.rom from techpowerup. It say size does not match. I use flashrom in Linux.
thank you.
 
Last edited:
Dilli

Dilli

macrumors 6502a
Oct 21, 2019
581
544
crizzly said:
My issue does seem to be the old Mojave install as I can get a boot screen holding down option key. I had made a catalina install USB using dosdude patcher and edited the plist to remove video patch prior to installing the new card but it doesn't show in the boot screen only the internal drive does. Any ideas why the USB Catalina installer drive isn't showing in the list? Might have to borrow my brothers mac to install Catalina. Really trying to avoid swapping the video card again ?.
Click to expand...
I think for Catalina installation go into recovery and disable SIP. Then try. I finally got my imac running but I will stick to Mojave as Catalina needs new wifi and bluetooth compatible which I will not go through all that hassel.
 
trigger2k19

trigger2k19

macrumors newbie
Sep 17, 2019
3
1
Dilli said:
I know why my iMac keeps giving black screen and fans go full. I had to always try to press option key to bring the boot screen to get into the OS. After deep checking I removed the display cable and to my surprise it is damaged and pins broken. Lucky me I have already ordered a replacement cable. See image below.

View attachment 881045

Last few pins are missing and damaged. So I have to wait for the cable to arrive to experience the new graphics card that I replaced. At least now its confirmed that the card with beta 3 vbios works great.
[automerge]1575622008[/automerge]

So If I have ssd 1tb with operating system installed in SATA 0 port Can I attach my mechanical drive in SATA 2 blank port and optical drive in SATA 1 port. Please correct me if I am wrong
Click to expand...

Hi where did you order the cable ? I need that cable too... Cheers
 
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Dilli

Dilli

macrumors 6502a
Oct 21, 2019
581
544
Though I have just two partition of High Sierra & Mojave way am I seeing this Mac OS Installer icon in Boot screen. How do I get rid of it?. I checked my partition but I have only two volumes of two containers.
See Image.

20191207_125329.jpg
 
Dilli

Dilli

macrumors 6502a
Oct 21, 2019
581
544
hijglander said:
Not to be a wiseguy but did you remove the USB stick with Mojave on it from the iMac?
Click to expand...
Actually I did have an issue. When I was installing Mojave after install I did not get post install screen So I had to press option and then again go to press post install and select my model iMac 12.2 . Since then I see this installation Os icon in boot screen. I want to get rid of it.
 
P

passatgt

macrumors 6502a
Jun 16, 2011
538
429
I had some issues with my 2010 iMac + k1100m, i had a really slow performance, poor scores in Valley too. Turns out, you need to use the main screen. I only had an external screen plugged in and not the main screen. After i put back everything, its "super" fast :) Notice the CPU, i was looking for a 870S for ages, finally found one. I think this is the best CPU you can use in this one.

Screen Shot 2018-12-07 at 10.25.16.png


Screen Shot 2018-12-07 at 10.24.42.png
 
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