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swamprock

macrumors 65816
Aug 2, 2015
1,204
1,759
Michigan
sadly you cant boot anything legacy PC from the USB ports on a MacPro2,1 which is why you cant boot from the DOS USB stick

you MIGHT be able to do something with plop burnt to a CD and then chain load the USB stick, but its very hit and miss

Yeah, that's what I thought. I had never tried this before, and the original post made it seem like you could. Oh well.

Off to Craigslist for a cheap PC...
 

swamprock

macrumors 65816
Aug 2, 2015
1,204
1,759
Michigan
Well, this didn't work for me. I followed the instructions exactly, answered Y to all of the prompts, and in the end, black screen. I'm going to attempt to flash it back to the original bios, but I'm not hopeful. Good thing it was ultra-cheap.

I did hook up the power to the card, and yes, it has the L shaped bracket.

EDIT: Nope. It's a brick. Back to waiting for another cheap one to pop up...
 
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LightBulbFun

macrumors 68030
Nov 17, 2013
2,808
3,125
London UK
when you say brick, even with another video card along side the FX 4500, the system does not see the video card, or do you get a No POST situation?

and you have remembered to plug in the PCIe Power cable right? :)
 

swamprock

macrumors 65816
Aug 2, 2015
1,204
1,759
Michigan
when you say brick, even with another video card along side the FX 4500, the system does not see the video card, or do you get a No POST situation?

and you have remembered to plug in the PCIe Power cable right? :)

I didn’t think to try putting the original card back in. I’ll try that next.

Yes, I did plug in the power cable.
 
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swamprock

macrumors 65816
Aug 2, 2015
1,204
1,759
Michigan
This damn thing has been nothing but bad luck from the beginning. In the process of reseating the card in the G5, I popped two capacitors off the board of the card itself. Into the trash it goes...
 

LightBulbFun

macrumors 68030
Nov 17, 2013
2,808
3,125
London UK
This damn thing has been nothing but bad luck from the beginning. In the process of reseating the card in the G5, I popped two capacitors off the board of the card itself. Into the trash it goes...

before making such brash moves if the card worked before hand perhaps you would consider donating the card to the likes of @dosdude1 or such, who very much have the means of repairing it :)

(and probably flashing it for you)
 
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swamprock

macrumors 65816
Aug 2, 2015
1,204
1,759
Michigan
before making such brash moves if the card worked before hand perhaps you would consider donating the card to the likes of @dosdude1 or such, who very much have the means of repairing it :)

(and probably flashing it for you)

Eh... I was having a bad day...

I repaired it and put it in as a second card into my G5, but it doesn't show up in the profiler. I then attempted a reflash, but to no avail. I'll keep it for parts. It seems that not all L-shaped bracketed Quadro 4500s are what they seem, as this particular card has more in common with the later revisions, architecturally, than it does with the original one. It even looks like a later, non-bracketed card. This could explain my issues, or not. I dunno... it didn't work is all I know.

That said, I picked up another one for the same price, and this time, everything went swimmingly.

quadro.png
 

AlejandroPeralta2019

macrumors newbie
Oct 31, 2019
9
3
Argentina
Prerequisites:
- Nvidia Quadro FX 4500
- PC or Mac Pro with a PCI Express slot
- USB flash drive
- Access to a Windows installation for Step 1

Download: https://goo.gl/Ow66FG
Note: Only the Quadro FX 4500 revision with a metal L-shaped piece on the back of the card can be flashed for compatibility with Late 2005 Power Mac G5s. This revision is known as having 'double-sided RAM'. The newer revision contains RAM on only the top side of the card and is incompatible.

1. Install and launch the 'HP USB Storage Format Tool' executable
- Specify your USB drive and select 'FAT32'
- Select 'Create a DOS startup disk'
- Select 'USB DOS Image' folder
- Click 'Start'
- DOS is now bootable on your USB drive.

(Your USB drive may appear to be empty. This is because Windows Explorer is set to hide system files by default.)

2. Copy 'quadro.rom', 'nvflash.exe' and 'cwsdpmi.exe' (in 'nvFlash 5.67' folder) to the root directory of the USB drive.

(The USB drive is now ready to use.)

3. Connect a display to the FX 4500. It must be the only PCIe card in your PC or Mac Pro.
- Restart your computer and boot to the USB drive (enter boot manager on startup)
- DOS should load with the prompt 'a:\>' or 'c:\>'
- To initiate the reprogramming, carefully type:

- Press the enter key, accept the onscreen confirmation prompts, and nvFlash will commence. Do not interrupt.

4. Turn off your PC or Mac Pro and replace the Quadro FX 4500 into the Power Mac G5.

Thanks for reading!


Hi friend (SuperKerem) how are you, I am sending you from Argentina, I know that this information has been written for a long time to write a quadro fx 4500 graphics card for Mac g5, I recently acquired a similiar graphic card, an nvidia quadro fx 4500 rev 2.0, I bought it very cheaply, I have several questions because in your post you say that you have to flash the graphics card, I have followed all the steps, however when I reached the point of turning on the computer and entering the bootable USB to flash the graphic card it appears as you say "microsoft corporation 1989-1999" and below the following "c: \>" I put the code said to execute the flashing and it stays an intermittent bar below "c: \>" and does not load anything, nor do I load ask for any kind of confirmation the bios .... I do not know what to do the truth I would like someone to give me a solution to not have bought a card that I will not be able to give the corresponding use thank you very much a hug and greetings from ARGENTINA haha.✌️?
 

AlejandroPeralta2019

macrumors newbie
Oct 31, 2019
9
3
Argentina
how lucky it worked for you, not me, I have revision 2.0 of the fx4500 and it is assumed that the flash is not compatible with that version ... hopefully some genius can create a flash for this version of the card. Greetings from Argentina.
 

Roryjxnes

macrumors newbie
Jul 14, 2018
10
3
how lucky it worked for you, not me, I have revision 2.0 of the fx4500 and it is assumed that the flash is not compatible with that version ... hopefully some genius can create a flash for this version of the card. Greetings from Argentina.
Might be worth just getting the one we know works because I doubt that is ever going to happen even if it’s possible which I doubt it’s not :(
 

netsrot39

macrumors 6502
Feb 7, 2018
357
486
Austria
Does anyone know if this particular card can be flashed? I know it doesn't have the L-shaped heatsink unfortunately but maybe somebody still got it to work in a G5?
 

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Roryjxnes

macrumors newbie
Jul 14, 2018
10
3
Does anyone know if this particular card can be flashed? I know it doesn't have the L-shaped heatsink unfortunately but maybe somebody still got it to work in a G5?
Unfortunately there is no way to flash this card to work with G5 as far as I know, no one has ever managed to have got one working from what I’ve read as it is a newer card that works with the Mac Pro 1.1 .
 
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ediflorianus

macrumors member
Apr 4, 2010
90
29
you can always reflash any card if you start a PC with a PCI card + PCIexpress in it , load windows and monitor with PCI card and flash the pcie one from there. Fixed a dozen of cards back in the day like that.

P.S. You can always flash a 7900GTX/GTO (or 7800GTX) into a Quadro FX5500-FX4500
 

Roryjxnes

macrumors newbie
Jul 14, 2018
10
3
you can always reflash any card if you start a PC with a PCI card + PCIexpress in it , load windows and monitor with PCI card and flash the pcie one from there. Fixed a dozen of cards back in the day like that.

P.S. You can always flash a 7900GTX/GTO (or 7800GTX) into a Quadro FX5500-FX4500
true but this card cant be flashed with the G5 ROM as it is a newer card
 

mastri1981

macrumors newbie
Sep 17, 2020
3
0
It was 6 months ago, and I have since parted with the G5, but I had success flashing an OEM HP Quadro 4500 (HP p/n 395814-001) I just had to take the bracket off.
I have the same card, is correctly?
 

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ediflorianus

macrumors member
Apr 4, 2010
90
29
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Melchieor

macrumors member
Jan 24, 2021
77
97
I bought one of those HP cards which @Bubalight mentioned with the L shaped bracket in the back and flashed it successfully on the PC. Brining it back to the quad G5 however caused a black screen and no chime . I put in the old video card and heard a chime but no video. I tried to reset the board by pressing the switch same response . I removed the battery and reinstalled and same . I left it overnight with the plug off and connected it this morning and now I get no chime . There are 2 red lights on. #2 and #7 . 2 I think means cpu overheat (not sure how since I didn’t touch anything there) and 7 is cpu halt. Yes the pcie cable is installed . I am not sure what happened. I can’t get my beloved G5 working again . Any ideas ?? I attached a photo of the red lights .
 

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PowerfulEra

macrumors member
Jul 20, 2017
97
49
h
you can always reflash any card if you start a PC with a PCI card + PCIexpress in it , load windows and monitor with PCI card and flash the pcie one from there. Fixed a dozen of cards back in the day like that.

P.S. You can always flash a 7900GTX/GTO (or 7800GTX) into a Quadro FX5500-FX4500
hey man can you explain how can you flash the 7900gtx into quadro fx 4500?
 

PowerfulEra

macrumors member
Jul 20, 2017
97
49
Lads just wondering single vram version of the FX 4500s and 7800 GTXs look similar. Since we do have an 7800 gtx rom do you guys think would it be possible to flash it? That would increase our options much more better
 
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