Flashing a PC GeForce (2, 3 and NOT 4) or Radeon 8500 card with a Mac ROM Image.

***This project voids your warranty (DUH!) and might fuck your system up, I assume no responsibility**

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• Seems that the new G4 Firmware 4.1.8 lets some GeForce 2 MX cards work WITH OUT flashing them, BUT only a few low resolutions in OS X
• Does not work in pre-B&W G3s (to my knowledge)
• All links on this page are direct downloads off my site, they wont go away unless lawyers get involved.
• Geforce 4 cards require a hardware modification, which I know nothing about,. So good luck.
• TwinView does not work! If you get it to, e-mail me
• If PCI card doesn't work, try another slot
• Different Flashers need different command line options, so just type "nvflash" to get a list.
• I have NO idea what the difference between the ROMs are

The following cards are known to work with this method(Get Retail Cards, OEM and bulk cards have slow RAM [>5.5 ns], and might not work, possibly causing artifacts. See utility in D/L section for a fix):

*=No flashing required to get video on the Mac
DH=DualHead

Sample Pics:

Pic 1

How To Flash:

(you may need different ROMs or Flashers, see Download section. All instructions are for GeForce 2 MX, adjust for Radeon or GF 3.)

Requirements: (You don't NEED a second card, but they are very helpful for solving problems/issues)

• Any Mac (B&W G3 or Better) with a PCI Slot or any AGP Mac for the GeForce card
• An AGP or PCI nVidia GeForce 2 MX card (Regular MX, 400, and in some cases a 200) or GF3 (might need a different ROM, see download list) or ATI Radeon 8500

AND

• A PC with a PCI video card and an AGP slot. (You don't need an extra card if you never want to convert it back to a PC card.)

OR

• A PCI Mac video card (You don't need a second card if you are willing to do this blind by putting the flasher in the startup)

PC:

Read EVERY THING before you try!

Directions for a PC have (PC) in front of them, and Mac has (Mac).

1. (PC) Download this Compressed Floppy image. Use whatever to put it onto a floppy, I used Winimage.
(You may extract the contents of the NVFLASH Utilities OVER the files in the disk image, if so desired. If you find that one of these new versions are required for this process to work, please e-mail me. If you use 3.16, you will need to remove the "-m" in the command line of the batch files)
2. (Mac) Download nVidia 2.1.1 Drivers and extract them to the system DIR (MacOS 9, X drivers are built in)
3. (Mac) Shutdown, and pull out all the video card in that puppy.
4. (PC) Put a PCI video card in the PC and the GeForce Card in AGP slot.
5. (PC) Restart, Use the BIOS to set the primary video card to PCI and boot off the floppy.
6. (PC) The rest should be self explanatory. (Its just a bunch of batch files)
7. (PC) When the screen flashes and you get to a "Selection" prompt, now's the time to: (next step)
8. (PC) Turn off the computer, and take out the GeForce.
9. (Mac) Put the GeForce card in the AGP slot and restart
*

If it does not work try:

• Use another Flasher
• Use -u switch on the flasher to force it not to make the subsystem ID match, especially for "blind" flashing
• Use -p switch on the flasher to force it not to make the VenID/DevID match, especially for "blind" flashing
• There might be an error about an invalid command line, in which case, you need to edit the "1.bat" and take out the "-m".

*If you get an error about an EPROM miscompare, you probably used the wrong ROM file, make sure you use one appropriate to your card. Mac ROMS are larger than PC ROMS so the EPROM needs to be larger than it would need to be on a PC, so if your EPROM is too small, you may get an error. You may also wish to try . Some cards have Flash-Once so once they were flashed at the factory, it's permanent*

 

Mac:

1. Download Mac Flash Kit Stuffit file and extract
2. Do it in OS 9. (self-explanitory) (To do it blind, put the AppleScript in the startup folder and wait a while after it starts up and then restart)

There is a MacOS X Flasher available in the misc download section.

That's it! It should work with out a problem.
If you have any problems, I'm sorry, but I can't help you. Try a forum.
PLEASE do not e-mail me with problems. GO TO A FORUM!!! If it's not on this page, I don't know the answer, don't even bother trying.

If you can not download the files (errors), use an FTP client to get them. You may need to specify Binary Download.

Misc. Downloads:

All downloads are for Mac except where stated.

(http://www.cybercoment.com/ftp/pub/macgeforce/)

Apple Stuff

• Apple DVD Player 2.7 (OS9)
• Apple 1.1.1 Drivers and ROM image (OS9)
• nVidia 2.1.1 Extensions (OS9)
  

Flashers

• NVFLASH 3.12 (PC)
• NVFLASH 3.15 (PC) (For some reason, this version of NVFLASH needs "dos4gw.exe" to run, the others do not)
• NVFLASH 3.16 (PC)
• NVFLASH 4.13 (PC)
• NVFLASH 4.28 (PC)
• NVFLASH 4.46 (PC)
• Floppy Image with every thing you need!(PC)
• Mac Flashers includes 1045 and 1075-TwinView ROMs (OS9)
• MacOS X Flasher with instructions
• Radeon 8500 Flasher includes ROM (OS9)

ROMS

• nVidia 1027F ROM (GF2 MX)
• nVidia 1028F ROM (GF2 MX)
• nVidia 1055 ROM (GF2 MX)
• nVidia 1055 ROM (GF3)
• nVidia 1057 ROM (GF2 MX) -New ROM, works in Panther + Quartz Extreme
• nVidia 1075 TwinView ROM (GF2 MX)
• ASUSv7100 ROM (GF2 MX)
• ASUSv7100 ROM (GF2 MX PC)
• Hercules Prophet MX PCI Dual (Mac/PC) ROM Image (GF2 MX)
• Unknown ROM (GF3)
• Apple ROM (GF4, probably doesn't work)

Programs

• HexEdit (OS9)
• TomeViewer (OS9)
• Resurrection (OS9)
• Winimage (PC)
• Mac Flash Kit (OS9)
• GeForce and Radeon 8500 Memory and Core Clock speed adjuster for Mac Flashers
  

-cosmotic
Charlie Hayes
www.cybercoment.com

Revisions:
(1/21/2005 2:10 AM) Removed a link, added a link, removed an email link, removed Anon FTP info, after some trouble, Anon FTP is working normally, Added OS9 clarifications to files. Fixed a WHOLE BUNCH of spelling errors, I don't know how those lasted so long.
(5/10/2004 2:00 AM) Added new NVFlash, fixed a broken link, added new ROM and notes about it.
(4/22/2003 8:50 PM) More common problems added and converted to list, fixed V7100 ROM link. More updates to the table. Would you FOOLS stop e-mailing me with questions that are answered on this page! I will sell your e-mail address to spammers, I swear to god! (countermeasures for that are now in place). Added link to TwinView info.
(2/1/2003 5:00 PM) More common problems added, fixed NVFLASH 4.13 link, and one of the ROM links. More updates to the table. Added MacOSX flasher and NVFLASH 4.28
(10/7/2002 10:55 PM) Added note about GF4s needing a hardware modification. Rearranged requirements. Some other minor revisions.
(9/27/2002 6:20 PM) Added note about slow RAM and utility to fix, removed "first" it implied you COULD e-mail me with problems, not so. Added Note about small EPROMs. Added Radeon 8500 Files. Added Mac Flashers as separate download. Lots more cards, Lots more ROMs. I may update with the Flash stuff some time in the future, who knows.
(7/29/2002 10:23 PM) More warnings, and added note that OS X didn't need drivers. Big update to come shortly (a few days months)
(7/25/2002 9:25 PM) More cards, deleted GF4 MX ROMS, they were corrupted. Added GF3 ROM and Mac Flash Kit stuff
(7/8/2002 7:28 PM) Lot's more cards, notes, and stuff.
(5/7/2002 7:30 PM) Added more cards to table
(3/14/2002 6:08 PM) Added more cards to the table, added 2 GF4 ROMs and NVFLASH 4.13
(2/15/2002 9:19 PM) Added more cards to the table.
(1/20/2002 4:30 PM) BIG update. Added table, notes about bre-B&W G3, "1.bat" issue and other misc. things.
(4/09/2001 9:45 PM) I have been getting a lot of comments that the drivers weren't working, so I re-uploaded them, home that helps. I also uploaded the creative rom into ftp.cybercoment.com/ instead of ftp.cybercoment.com/pub. oops. It's fixed now. =) Oh, I also added a note that the image is for PCs on the file list. (some one didn't know and said I should)
(4/09/2001 9:45 PM) Added 5.5 ns RAM note, Creative ROM and 4.1.8 Firmware note.
(4/08/2001 2:22 PM) Added note about OEM cards, New Step 8, Hercules PCI card, and Prophet Dual ROM
(4/04/2001 8:10 PM) Removed eVGA card, I got a report that it did not work.
(3/31/2001 2:40 PM) Added ASUS card and a note about the AGP with PCI issue.
(3/27/2001 10:05 PM) Added Apple DVD Player 2.5 and Dell card note.
(3/26/2001 9:16 PM) Added the Leadtek card to the list of cards that work. Also added the NVFLASH 3.15 and 3.16
(3/26/2001 4:11 PM) Updated Floppy image so its smaller, and added all the extra downloads.
(3/26/2001 4:00 PM) Added the Creative and eVGA cards. Added new computers to the requirements.
(3/25/2001 10:48 PM) Added the elsa card, fixed spelling error, and added a the ibuyer.net and forum link.
(3/25/2001 3:35 PM) First release