ATI AGP on Powermacs

[kickstart]

Hi.

Im trying to install an ATI Radeon 9200 AGP on a powermac G4 400mhz without success, anyone knows how to install agp cards no "mac edition" on a mac?

thx.

[adolescent]

You need to put it in a PC and flash it with the Mac firmware (if compatible/available).

[kickstart]

What i need to know for a compatible FW? Im lost with this.

[Bazzaq]

Some cards need flashing, and also some need pins covering on the card, Its probably a sawtooth g4, sites like xlr8yourmac.com should have some info on it.

If the card is 4x or 8x agp then it will need the pins covering i recall. 2x  should be ok.

I kept meaning to flash a radeon for my g4 to get the graphic enhancements on tiger, but i rarely use it now.

Go here for some good info if memory serves me.
strangedogs

[kickstart]

This link seems interesting, thanks.

My objetive is install my ATI card instead the original nvidia for a possible use with MorphOS (at least for a try).

[da9000]

@Kickstart:

here are some good links that will be very useful in your experimenting:

http://forums.mactalk.com.au/33/28635-flashing-geforce-video-card-mac.html

http://thomas.perrier.name/otherStuff/ati9800convertEN.html

http://www.i-hacked.com/content/view/153/42/

http://themacelite.wikidot.com/pins-3-and-11

Good luck!

[adolescent]

@Kickstart

What I meant about compatible was whether the Mac card is the same as the PC version (besides the flash).  My Radeon 7000 had to be a specific type to flash, otherwise you had to re-solder a different chip on it to flash.  

Strangedogs used to be a great resource, but it seems like they've gotten rid of all the information.  Check the other links provided.  If you can find a Mac firmware file and PC flash tool you're most of the way there.

[kickstart]

Thanks for the replyes.

Seems a little effort change chip for flash just for a radeon 9200, maybe when morphos for mac mini become reality.

[LawlessPPC]

thing is the flash on that card is not ppc compatible thats why

[bloodline]

Can't MorphOS just use the NVidia VESA 3.0 mode?



Where's Piru when you need him?

[StormLord]

actually I have flashed many PC cards with mac firmware 2 of them was ati radeon 9250 with 256mb.
after the flash card could only count 128mb because there weren't 256mb 9200 cards on mac, and also the card is recognized as 9200 and not 9250.
on AGP mac's that came with cards with ADC plug you need to cover pins 3 and 11 on the card thats the 8x setting. Apple used that pins to provide 24volts to cards to power ADC ( there wasn't 8x protocol at that time), so card will work at 4x.
there are 2 ways of doing it
1) put the card on a pc have a DOS bootdisk with atiflash utility and mac rom and flash it from there, then cover pins 3&11 and you are ready to roll.
2) setup a vnc server to your mac, cover pins 3&11 put the card on your mac and  boot it (monitor will show nothing because incompatible firmware but mac will boot normally), go to another machine networked on your mac and open a vnc client, use atiflash from aticcelerator package to flash the card, reboot and voila!
Detail instructions for both ways can be found on the above mentioned link at strangedogs.

hint:
mac cards were using 128kb flash rom and most pc cards are using 64kb, so most probable you will need the reduced mac roms that you can find on strangedogs wiki.
the effect of using mac roms is that you will be limited to 1024x768 resolution till driver(kext) loads. (you will need the ati driver from ati site, intergraded drivers from OSX will not work except the fixed 1024x768 resolution)