On Feb 9, 2012, at 10:40 AM, Jesse wrote:
I've run the August 2005 ROM update while booted up in Safe Mode (OS X
10.4.11) and STILL am not having any luck.
And the ROM is identified as what? (should now be v.2.26 I believe).
If this is a PC card, there's the possibility that the ROM chip is too
small for the OEM Mac ROM, and you'll need a reduced half-size ROM for
this Radeon card. Normally the PC Radeon 7000 cards had to be flashed
PRIOR to insertion in a Mac with a false starter ROM that changes the
ID so that it's recognized in the Mac, but I don't think this is
absolutely necessary, so if your card is shown in System Profiler it
"may" flash in the Mac. There should be two individual steps that
happen when you run the August 2005 ROM Updater, one is the
installation of ATI extensions and the other is the actual flashing of
the ROM itself. You probably should deselect all cards EXCEPT the
Radeon 7000 so as to not load your System with excess baggage kexts.
Also, most of these kexts are outdated compared to the kexts supplied
in newer versions of OS X such as Tiger, so after you've run the
August 2005 ROM Updater to flash the ROM you need to reinstall the
latest Combo Update (probably 10.4.11 PPC Combo Update) so that these
old kexts are overwritten by the most recent versions.
The card itself is listed
as Part Number 109-85500-01 which matches up as the Radeon 7000 Mac
version and as far as I can tell there is no reason (outside of card
malfunction) that this shouldn't work.
This can't be a real Mac card because all the real Mac cards were
identical and came with three ports, a DVI, a VGA, and an S-video.
Since this card has only one port it's absolutely a PC card. If it has
a PC ROM, you may need a PC to force-flash the initial starter Mac
ROM. (Note, on PCs they call the card's firmware a "BIOS" instead of a
ROM).
Also, if this PC card doesn't have 50ns VRAM chips (look at the VRAM
chips, there should be a # on each chip that ends with hopefully a
"50" or perhaps something else? If the # the chips end with is 50
you're fine. If it lower than 50, say 40 or 35 you're better than fine
and can safely overclock the card. But if the number is GREATER than
50, say 60, or 70, or heaven forbid 75; you've got a slower card and
will need to customize the ROM to UNDERCLOCK it because the standard
Mac ROM assumes 50ns VRAM chips and will run this slow card too fast
causing video artifacts and possible damage to the card itself.
Flashing a Radeon 7000 to Mac can be simple, or a real pain in the
ass. If you're lucky and your card has the full size ROM chip and 50ns
or faster VRAM chips it SHOULD be as easy as inserting into your Mac
and running the ROM Updater program (perhaps try in OS 9 if you can
get OS X working and you have OS 9?).
On the other hand, if the card has the half-size ROM, and has 60ns or
slower VRAM, you're doubly screwed and need not only a special reduced
ROM, you need a CUSTOMIZED reduced ROM. You should be able to get a
reduced ROM, and even a slower customized ROM, at the old MacElite ROM
downloads or StrangeDogs archives I think?
--
You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for
those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs.
The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette
guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml
To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
