Flashing ATI X850 Pro. to X850 XT in a Mac.

[dopemann]

Hello everyone. I see that AquaMac has Flashed a X850 pro to XT in a Mac. Now how do I flash this Card. With the X800 XT Rom or is there a X850 XT Rom for Mac?

And wich device ID schould I use?

If anyone can help.

Thanks.

[ritalin]

I believe it can be done with either ROM file, the X800 ROM is easier to obtain, I have a copy on my hard drive. The advantage of the X800 ROM is that it is easy to reduce down to 64KB to fit the ROM chip on a PC card. AFAIK nobody has successfully reduced the ROM from the X850, this means that to use this ROM you would need to replace the 64KB ROM chip on the card for a 128KB chip, a tricky soldering job.

I have never flashed this type of card myself, but as I understand it you must edit the DID within the ROM file to match the DID of the card you are flashing.

[aquamac]

Hi guys,

I replaced the rom chip with a 128kb chip. I did originally use the X800 rom file but struggled to get the thing functioning quite right (It functions OK but with the memory running at half speed). The proper mac X850 rom sorted out all the problems. I used the mac rom and originally hexed the rom to match the card - black screen at boot. Hmmm.. Rehexed the rom using the standard mac device id & the card sprung to life. I have the rom if you feel up to changing the chip.

Here are the instructions:

How to flash the Card

You are going to do this flash in a mac, it needs to be a MDD, my Digital Audio cannot see the card, even after it is flashed (However if you want to back up your PC rom you will need to do that in a pc). Also the computer must be running Panther, NOT TIGER AS THIS WILL NOT BOOT WITH A PC CARD THAT HAS NOT YET BEEN FLASHED.





1. Using Rorqual's Graphicellerator install the rom into the no confirmation flasher. It must be this one!

If you are installing in a G4 you must also tape pins 3 & 11. You don't need to do this with a G5.

2.Either use a PCI graphics card with your monitor connected to this and the X800 in the AGP slot or use VNC & another computer so you can see what you are doing.

If you use a PCI card bear in mind that if the card is also an ATI card it's going to get flashed as well, so this will need to be reflashed later!

3. Boot up Panther & hit the No Confirm flasher that is on your desktop. All ATI cards that are in the computer will be flashed.

4. If you are successfull, when you reboot you will see the grey Apple screen.



Reminder:This Card will only work with VGA MONITORS. DVI will not be functional!

[ritalin]

I wouldn't recommend attempting to change the ROM chip yourself unless you have experience in this type of work. It could be very depressing if you turn the card into a paper weight through bad soldering. I speak from experience

I have seen reports of the reduced x800 ROM working well for people with the x850 card. Just because the speeds are set lower in the x800 ROM for use on a x850 card doesn't mean the card is operating at a lower speed. I have no experience with this card myself, but this is what others that have used this method have found.

I think (pure speculation) it would be possible to reduce the x850 ROM to less than 64Kb by removing the NDRV, but you would need to find some way of installing the NDRV within a kext for OS X to load at boot time. How you would do this is beyond my knowledge.

[aquamac]

Yes Ritalin is right, learning to change the rom on such a card is not the place to start! If you want, I can do the job for you and get the card running. If you are interested, PM me.