flashing + mods for various cards for os9 (9250, 9000, 7000)

[macStuff]

I flashed the card with the reduced R127 ROM from the macelite downloads.
Device ID 5961 is a 9200SE, which is very similar to the 9250. This is why I chose to replace that one. Plenty of other choices but this seemed to be the closest match from a hardware point of view.

In the meanwhile I put up the whole set of extensions I have installed to get accelerated video here if someone wants to play with it: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/ati-radeon-9250-mac-os-9-drivers

perhaps if user Bolle would be so kind to share which exact make/model of 9200SE he used when creating these drivers?
a picture would be great ?? Bolle?
was this an AGP card? or a PCI?

[trag]

This may already be well known, but just in case...

On the R7000, most of the PC cards have a Flash chip which is half the capacity of the Flash chips on Mac cards.   One can flash with a reduced installer, but I found it was easiest (for me) to just get a new M25P10 and replace the M25P05 on the board.

Because I have a chip programmer, I would pre-program the new chip with the Mac firmware, but there was also one Mac installer released by ATI which will flash a blank chip.   I can't remember which one it was any more.  I think it had '08' in it's version number.

I was also able to get the drivers to work in 8.6 with some fiddling and hand moving of extensions.   I have a write-up on that I could upload if anyone is interested.   It was basically a CDROM of drivers in folders I sent along with the R7000 when I sold them on Ebay and instructions on how to get the drivers to work for the different OSs.   I don't remember many of the details now, but at the time I put some effort into getting the detials right.

I haven't done a 9250 yet, but from the information I've read at themacelite and Strange Dogs, I think replacing the Flash would also be the easiest route, although those resistors must be moved too, apparently.

Unfortunately, the ST M25P10 is out of production.   None available at Mouser nor Digi-Key.   Grrr.   Time marches by too quickly for lovers of old equipment....

[SDG]

The firmware revision I flashed on my 7000 cards was 226. I understand 208 and 1xx are also floating around the internet. My understanding was that 208 couldn't be flashed. You had to use an earlier revision then update within Mac OS 9.

As for the M25P10V chips, I found a seller from Poland on eBay last year. 10 chips cost me about £6.50 shipped.

[trag]

My ancient and creaky memory says that the 208 flasher would actually flash a blank M25P10 installed on the R7000 and then one could update from there.    So, desolder original, PC, Flash (probably a M25P05), solder in blank M25P10, flash on Mac with ATI's on flasher for version 2.08 firmware -- I think.    The digits 08 are firmly in my memory as the sweet updater.  Can't remember the surrounding details too well, adn I may just be delusional with time.

I have a nice chip programmer, so I usually went ahead and pre-programmed the chips anyway, out of some kind of OCD need to have an extra step, or maybe as an excuse to use my chip programmer.

[SDG]

I haven't done a 9250 yet, but from the information I've read at themacelite and Strange Dogs, I think replacing the Flash would also be the easiest route, although those resistors must be moved too, apparently.

I have done a 9250 a couple of weeks ago. I bought a 9200 PCI that turned out to be a Sapphire 9250 and looked very similar to the common Sapphire 7000 that is easily converted to a Mac version. The 9250 required replacing the eeprom chip with an M25P10 and moving a couple of resistors across on the back. All in all, not really any more work than a 7000 needs.

One thing to watch for. The Sapphire 9250 card I had only had a couple of the VRAM positions filled with 2 remaining blank. The card was 128MB on paper but after flashing the Mac only saw 64MB of VRAM. Turns out it is a high density RAM issue similar to that with the G3 PowerBooks. Macs only like low density RAM and only recognise half the quantity if high density is used.

As for the Mac 2.08 updater for the Radeon 7000, my info came from the text that accompanied the PC flasher (ATIflash or flashrom). That required you to overwrite the PC firmware with a dummy Mac firmware otherwise the Mac updater would not see the card as updatable. This was before the full 2.08 firmware was located that could be flashed straight onto the card using above DOS utilities.

Excerpt from README as follows:

NOTE: This Mac ROM won't actually make the card usable in a Mac yet. It will, however, allow you to use the Mac ATI 208 ROM UPDATER 2000 on the Mac to update the ROM to one which will let the card work. This Mac updater won't run on the PC card right out of the box, I've tried it and it doesn't work. Flashing it in a PC is necessary to change the ROM to a certain extent so that the Mac flasher will allow the ROM to be flashed...

...NEW:
You may use the M208FULL.BIN ROM for flashing ALL in one step. No need to flash on MAC with ATI 208 ROM UPDATER !!!!
FLASHROM -pm x m208full.bin -f

Perhaps it blanks the eeprom, which is all the Mac updater wants. I have no idea. I was just surprised to find that my cards ended up with firmware revision 226, which seems to be the last one I can find.

[macStuff]

does anyone know how to unlock the rom ?
im trying to flash a mac pci graphics card back to a pc rom to go inside an old pentium 75 vintage machine i built
but i cant get it to let me unlock the rom using flashrom (DOS)
it says the rom is locked!
is there some type of hardware lock that has to be performed? shorting of pins?

the thing is its a radeon 7000 that i know was a pc sapphire card thats been flashed to mac.. so it must be flashable..
unless they somehow burned + swapped actual chip via resolder? but i dont think so

all this because my ATI mach 64 has a broken inductor missing one of the RGB channels so the graphics all come out yellow
maybe i should just worry about soldering on a new inductor to repair this card
i read that a radeon 7k or 9200 is not really an ideal card for win9x anyway but they are the only conventional pci graphics cards i have
i wish i could flash one of my rage 128 oem B+W g3 cards.. but havent cracked that nut yet either;  rage 128 graphics would be alot better to use
than mach 64 probably
http://web.archive.org/web/20160605061237/http://lowendmac.com/1999/ati-rage-128-mac-edition/
does anyone know of anyone ever flashing this oem card for the B+W g3 to work in a pc?

[macStuff]

wow i actually got it to work by downloading a million different versions of ATIFLASH program untill after 10 different versions i found the version that lets you use atiflash -unlockrom and it worked great!

got the radeon 7000 64mb card reflashed back to PC and its inside my pentium 75 vintage machine now..working perfectly!
 

[DieHard]

Awesome !

Can you attach the set of files that worked for future reference...

[goodfidelity]

I am about to pull the trigger on the AGP Sapphire 9250 256Mb, will this be flashable for my cube?

I would be very happy for any advice on this, no problem for me to move around a few resistors on the board and stuff like that.

Did anyone manage to get all the 256Mb recognized?

This is my first post on this forum!

Thanks!

//GF

[dosdude1]

I know this is a pretty old thread, but I figured I'd post this anyways, just in case someone else ever runs into one of these cards. I've had this weird, non-reference board PCI Radeon 9250 card for a long time (the only label on which is a sticker on the heatsink that reads "Mad Dog Multimedia"), and was never able to get it working on a Mac, due to not being able to find the necessary resistor positions to modify. Well, after a lot of trial and error, and a bit of guesswork, I finally managed to get it figured out, and working perfectly on a Mac. Below are some pictures of the card, and the resistors in question, set to the positions necessary to work as intended on a Mac.

[zefrenchtoon]

Wow! Another magic from you   

I will have to check mine even if I got an official Mac Radeon 9200. If my 9250 is the same, I will be able to compare them (and sell one of them so)

 

[V.Yakob]

Has anyone met Radeon 128 Mb 9000 (non-pro) cards with a similar design?
If there is information resistor mode for this map, please share it.

[Sphere478]

hey all,

I'm super new to mac stuff so kinda hoping someone can help me through this.

I have a g3 blue and white g3 tower with a 66mhz 32-bit slot. and 64-bit 33 mhz slots
I also happen to have a 256mb radeon 9250 pci that looks like it is reference design or very similar. I want to mod it to work in the mac. it is of course a PC version and needs the bios. but I wonder, will the 256mb be an issue? seems others are 128mb?

I see many of the links in this thread are dead.

what files should I use? what procedure should I use for my situation?

[Sphere478]

Here is my card I just took the liberty of moving the resistors to match the picture in OP hopefully that is correct.

[Jacques]

Did this work and can you see the full 256mb? I bought a ATI 9200 256mb card and hoping it will work.

[Sphere478]

I’m not sure. I am ready to try but dono what file to use?

[Jacques]

I just carried out the resistor swap and pin 3 + 11 cut on my card, flashed the 127 full rom and it seems to have worked...I think. I only see the maximum resolution my panel will display in the display preferences for some reason. VGA output is limited to 640x480?

Quartz Extreme is supported but not core image, is this correct? System Profiler does report the full 256mb of vram on my card though.

I believe my ROM chip is the full 128k version - 25P05AV.

Edit - After installing the ATI driver package I only see 64mb vram, but I di get all my resolutions back. Strange

[Sphere478]

I just carried out the resistor swap and pin 3 + 11 cut on my card, flashed the 127 full rom and it seems to have worked...I think. I only see the maximum resolution my panel will display in the display preferences for some reason. VGA output is limited to 640x480?

Quartz Extreme is supported but not core image, is this correct? System Profiler does report the full 256mb of vram on my card though.

I believe my ROM chip is the full 128k version - 25P05AV.

Edit - After installing the ATI driver package I only see 64mb vram, but I di get all my resolutions back. Strange

try flashing 128k version?

can you upload the software you used and instructions?

[Jacques]

I flashed the full 128k ROM version, not reduced.

As reported a few posts above, high density RAM is not recognised and you’ll only see a portion of the vRAM.

All the software and instructions are in this post.

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,6499.msg48620.html#msg48620

[Sphere478]

I flashed the full 128k ROM version, not reduced.

As reported a few posts above, high density RAM is not recognised and you’ll only see a portion of the vRAM.

All the software and instructions are in this post.

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,6499.msg48620.html#msg48620

Maybe this would be a better card to try? What do you think? I also have this one.