GFX Strings - How To

[simania]

@aqua mac: I'm trying to get mirroring to work with GFX strings, but the moment I select the mirror option, my screen connected to DVI-1 is black, although I can see my mouse pointer, and the screen connected to DVI-2 is working as it should.
Without mirroring both my screens are working as they should, ie. QE/CI are working on both screens.
Do you have any idea how to fix this problem and are there other users with the same problem? Thanks in advance

[sacan]

Hallo aqua-mac,

My 9800GT is goob.

I install the gfxstring and nvidia driver serie 9x. Dual screen good.
But i have a problem for divx because with vlc when i pass in full screen mode the movie is not good because i have mage by image but whith normal screen i have no pb.

sorry for my english

[vjdave]

AquaMac,

First of all thank you for working with me to get my two video cards (9600 GT and 8400 GS) working. Unfortunately, I think you are right that my motherboard/bios will not support two video cards in MacOS. My BIOS does not let me choose to boot using the 2nd PCI Express slot video card which I am pretty sure is causing the problem. I will be fine using dual monitors on the main video card for now.

Thank you again for all your hard work and support and creating the boot plist and GFX string files for my cards!!

[aquamac]

VJdave,

Sorry it didn't work, thats the thing with OSX 86 though, it depends on your hardware at the end of the day.

Sacan,

Can you post a grab of Graphics/Displays in your System Profiler.

[megaprimal]

Hey all.... this is a great guide and relatively easy to follow, but I am still having some issues with my 9800m GTS 1 GB card. It is showing QE: Not supported, and CI: Software. Call me crazy but I'd imagine this card should be capable of running hardware acceleration

I installed the 9000 series drivers, then updated the GFX strings following Aquamac's instructions on the other thread, but still no love. I have tried to read through most of both of these threads but there is a ton of info and I am afraid I may have missed something. Any thoughts on how to get QE/CI up and running?

When I first install the 9000 series driver, I get all kinds of artifacting (where windows will kind of freeze up when you drag them across the screen, and the contents of the window will remain invisible until another window is dragged in front of it, then removed). Updating the GFXstrings fixes that problem, and the system reboots and automatically updates the screen res to 1920x1200 which is native for my display.

I read in one of the many posts that someone had followed these instructions, then installed NVDarwin to get QE/CI working, any thoughts on why I would or would not want to do this? I downloaded 1.2.5.m is this the current version as far as anyone knows?

[sweethome]

hi there

I recently changed my graphic card to
a Palit Geforce 9800GT 512 mb (as I thought everything would go fluently).
But as so often - nogo.

my system:
Asrock 775dual-vsta (Via PT880 Chipset9)
Intel Core2Duo
2 GB Ram DDR2 667
Palit Geforce 9800GT 512 mb
Netgear GA311
500GB HDD (2 Partitions 1. 482 (maininstall) 2. 12 GB (Backup-Install))
iPC v1.0 final
(Vodoo-Kernel + seatbelt, Via, ACx880 Audio, PS2-Keyboard fix, USB2.0fix, VodooPower.kext + tools)

-> System boots fine in 1024x768 with no kext or gfx strings etc. (but no other resolution possible)

What I tried so far:
1. Fresh install - NVIDIA 9 Series v2 + GFX string (by aqua-tutorial)->everything boots fine until it come to switching to gui - you can hear the heatsink rpm go down (as if driver were activated or something) but nothing more - sometimes screen goes black then.
2. Fresh install - NVIDIA 9 Series v2 + NVkush + GFX string - disk0s1: data underrum
3. Fresh install - NVIDIA 9 Series v2 + NVDarwin 512 + GFX string - some other stop shortly before entering gui.
4. all combinations of 1.-3. with a GFX string of 8800GT 512mb - same
5. all combinations of 1.-3. with a GFX string of 9800GTS 512 - same

Vendor: 0x10de
Device ID: 0x0614
Revision ID: 0x00a2

As I see from aquamac's post #22 9800 GT is supported - actually twice
{ 0x0605, "GeForce 9800 GT " }
{ 0x0614, "GeForce 9800 GT " }

@aqua-mac
Is the GFX-Strings of 9800 GT 512mb from here made for 0x0605 or 0x0614 ?

I always see NVDANV50HAL correctly recognized and loaded.
Methode 1 (drivers + gfx string) results now every time in a black screen.
Actually I think that the system fully loads (hdd is hearable) and when I move my mouse around clicking I can hear hdd loading. - only black screen (no matter which resolution I choose)

I get all kinds of artifacting (where windows will kind of freeze up when you drag them across the screen, and the contents of the window will remain invisible until another window is dragged in front of it, then removed).

-> when no drivers installed I have similar behaviour

would really need help/ideas! THx

[megaprimal]

sweethome... I am a complete newb when it comes to OSX, so take any advice I give lightly. From all the reading I have been doing trying to get my 9800m working it sounds like you could possibly have a problem with the NVCap value? If the system is indeed booting, but the screen is going black following the drivers and EFI strings loading, I would think there is a possiblitly that the video output is just not being sent to the monitor properly...

Does the card have multiple outputs (dual monitor)? One thing you could try real quick is switching which output you have the monitor connected to. Also you could try a VGA to DVI (or vice versa) Adapter just to try to narrow things down. If that does in fact correct your issue chances are it is that NVCap setting, which I would have no idea how to fix, but I would start by trying to hunt down an NVCap value that works correctly, add it to the in.plist supplied for your card, before compiling the hex for the GFXString.

Do some trial and error, and let us know if nothing else it could give you a starting point.

[aquamac]

Guys, I have not been around the forum this weekend, have been working on Snow Kitty and trying to OSX 86 it. I get to the desktop with 2 9800 GTX's fine with full QE & CI but something causes locking up after a couple of mins - not graphics related, anyway thats another story.

Sweethome,

The strings at the beggining of this post do not tie your card to a device id, that is detected by osx. It is possible that the strings do have the wrong NVCAP for your card.

Download this and download the specific rom for your card from MVKTech to your desktop. NVCAP maker will tell you the NVCAP from the rom.

Download plist editor pro and open up my sting in.plist from this site and check it.

Also try this:

Disconnect your monitor and boot your computer. Wait a while till you know you are at the desktop. Then plug in your monitor. Try that on both DVI outputs - you will need to reboot for each one. Report back.

megaprimal,

Hi, the problem you have has been reported by a number of people, you could try NVDarwin (you can always delete it again - it overwrites the strings so you can leave those in position. I think the cause of this (usually Kalyway distro) maybe has some file/kext somewhere that interferes with CI & QE. Some people had success when they did a full re-install. If you don't have 10.5.6 then you can try that - you should not need my drivers if you have 10.5.6 as it has the mods built in. You will still need GFX strings or an injector though.

Good Luck.

[sweethome]

Sweethome,

The strings at the beggining of this post do not tie your card to a device id, that is detected by osx. It is possible that the strings do have the wrong NVCAP for your card.

Download this and download the specific rom for your card from MVKTech to your desktop. NVCAP maker will tell you the NVCAP from the rom.

Download plist editor pro and open up my sting in.plist from this site and check it.

1. edited new NVCAP which I go from MVKTech ROM and put it in com.apple.boot.plist
-> boot with -v -> stops at "localhost fseventsd[28]: log dir: getting new UUID ..."
-> boot with -x -v one time black screen, the next time -> stops at "Apple RTL8169 Ethernet Extra txn journal replay done
localhost fseventsd eventlog is out of sync with volume"
so no success
2. booting and then plug in monitor cable in first DVI (as usual - black screen or one of the last eventlogs) - in second DVI (nothing)
tested with 2 different monitor cables (one DVI -> DVI, two DVI to VGA with adapter)

again running out of ideas

[aquamac]

To get the res of your screen put it in your com.apple.boot.plist as say:

1680x1050x32

This won't give you QE or CI but it will mean that you will get a decent looking screen.

[sweethome]

To get the res of your screen put it in your com.apple.boot.plist as say:

1680x1050x32

This won't give you QE or CI but it will mean that you will get a decent looking screen.

that's what I did all the time
when booting - I can see the messages in higher resolution, but it would not boot into leopard in 1650x1080
Strangly even booting logo is high res, but nothing else

[megaprimal]

Thanks to Onj88 for finding this solution....

Finally got QE/CI working ...here`s the steps...

1) delete efi string from your com.apple.boot.plist

2) download nvinstaller v.52 from scottdangel.com/blog/?page_id=20

3) install nvinstaller and during installation choose 512mb ram option do not choose go/mobile option, it gives black screen.

4) Reboot using -v -f flags and

The nvidia 9series v2 drivers are still required in 10.5.5, but qe/ci is working and I am getting 55 fps in openGL 2.1 so I am pretty content

Downloading quake 3 demo now to give it a test run.

Thanks again Aqua for all your help (I applied your transparent 'about this mac' mod today too...)

[srini]

Hi aquamac thanks again for providing me with Geforce 9600m GS in the first page. but i have a little problem, shall i have to replace total size in <key>VRAM,totalsize</key>
to 1024 mb or leave it and compile the in.plist file

please clarify me since i am very new to this field.

thanks again

srini

[aquamac]

Nope, I did that for you already. However you will have to find the PCI address as described in this thread in the first post.
Then make your out.plist.

Good Luck.

[badpete]

Aquamac,

I hate asking for help, but I've spent a tonne of time at this.

Followed your method with your files to install GFX strings for my XFX 9800 GT (512MB) and installed the series 9 drivers you posted www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=132089 on a clean install (iPC 10.5.6 PPF5).

Worked great, like magic.

Then I broke it somehow the next day and have not been able to duplicate it again!! I even helped someone do it on their 9800 GT by directing them your way, but now it no longer works for me.

On boot, the screen is not completely drawn and my mouse is impossible. It does not track with me. I resorted to using the keyboard. I have all the resolutions available with full functionality, but mouse is baked and the screen is just not all there.

If I only install the GFX strings and not the 9 series drivers its the same thing. Tried your method with gfxutil and used OSX86 tools to get a string and I even dumped my bios and pasted in the NVCAP string from it. no difference. NVCAP was different, but I don't understand it and even more so since the one in your file looked way different from NVCAPmaker but still made no impact when I pasted it in.

About to resort to NVdarwin or something.

With no drivers installed, I get artifacts on the screen, but the mouse works.

Any help? have you thoughts that may help?