[Note: There are no guarantees this will work for you and is not something that novices should attempt. I'm posting this as a FYI on reader's experiences, not a recommendation you try this. Also remember there are still reported problems in some Rave games and openGL issues in Lightwave 3D with the current 1.1.1 drivers (see Video articles page for details). All legal disclaimers apply, blah, blah, blah...]

Reader's Guide to Flashing PC GeForce2MX AGP Card w/Mac Firmware: The reader that reported in yesterday's news he'd flashed a PC AGP GeForce2MX card for use in his Mac sent more details:

"Ok Mike, here are the detailed instructions on how I flashed my PC GeForce2 MX card for my Mac.

The card I used is an Elsa (www.elsa.com) Gladiac MX - GeForce2MX, 32 MB SDR Ram, AGP board. This is a standard/classic reference board design, nothing fancy. It looked exactly like the Apple board except it did not have the extra video connector and was missing a chip which I assume is used for the other connector. I had learned previously that the EEPROM on my Elsa board was the same as the Apple board, a SST 39VF512 (NVFLASH shows it as: EEPROM man.ID,devcode (BF, D4) : SST 39VF512 2.7-3.6V 64Kx8, byte mode). Since the EEPROMs were the same, I was pretty sure I could get it to work without any hitches.

Extracting the Rom file:

1. Use TomeViewer to extract all the files from the Apple Updater.
[direct download link to Tomeviewer is here-Mike]

2. Use Resedit and open the GeForce2MX AE Flasher-1027.

3. Extract the NVRM resource from the flasher, this is actually the 64k rom image. I had a heck of a time doing this (and I imagine someone else can provide a much easier method) since Resedit would only copy in small blocks, not the entire 64k. So I simply saved the NVRM in a text file as a resource. Then I copied it to my PC using Doubletalk (from Connectix). This creates a resource.frk directory and inside that directory on the PC was the file which contained the 64k rom image. I then used UltraEdit on the PC to remove the extra bytes from the beginning and end of the file. The starting bytes are: 55AA 4000 and it should go all the way down to address 00FFF8 (You can see this using Resedit on the Mac and editing the NVRM resource). Once I had the exact rom file your ready to flash!

Backup your PC bios file:

In order to flash or do anything with the card you'll need the Nvidia factory flash util. The version I used was 3.15. Its quite easy to find, simply go to nearly any GeForce card maker and download a bios update, most of them come with the flash util in the zip file. [Tip: - you can get NVFlash at this site-Mike]

4. I used my ASUS P2B motherboard to setup the PCI video card as the primary, installed a spare ATI 1024 PCI video card I had kicking around and stuffed the GeForce 2MX Elsa card in my AGP slot on the PC. If you don't have a PC handy you surely must know someone who does...put those people to use for once.

5. Boot into Dos or a Windows command line (Don't run windows), hit F8 when booting to select command prompt only. 6. Then I used the Nvidia factory flash program (NVFLASH.EXE) to make a backup of the existing PC bios that was in the card (just type NVFLASH by itself to get a list of command line parameters). Just for kicks I did a check on the downloaded bios file (Elsa) using NVFLASH. This is what it said:

ROM BIOS Version is: 03.11.00.18.33
ROM BIOS ~CRC32 is : FAB004A7h
ROM BIOS Chip Name : GeForce2 MX
ROM BIOS VendorID, DeviceID : 10DEh 0110h
ROM BIOS SubSystemID, SubvendorID : 0C60h, 1048h

Here is what NVFLASH said about the new 1.1.1 Apple Rom:

ROM BIOS Version is : 03.11.00.15.04
ROM BIOS ~CRC32 is : 6EB9119Dh
ROM BIOS Chip Name : GeForce2 MX
ROM BIOS VendorID, DeviceID : 10DEh, 0110h
ROM BIOS SubSystemID, SubvendorID : A5B8h, 0208h

And here is what an original non-1.1.1 rom shows as (I had a copy of this from a previous attempt):

ROM BIOS Version is : 03.11.00.15.02
ROM BIOS ~CRC32 is : 224948C9h
ROM BIOS Chip Name : GeForce2 MX
ROM BIOS VendorID, DeviceID : 10DEh, 0110h
ROM BIOS SubSystemID, SubvendorID : A5B8h, 0208h

Installing the new bios:

7. Using the file I created earlier from the resource fork, I flashed the Apple bios into the card using NVFLASH (I also used the -M parameter just to be sure, its the -Macintosh option, force Mac compatible P-Code). So my command line looked like this: NVFLASH -m -fAPPLE111ROM. The keyboard lights will flash on the PC to show you its doing something. Now since my primary video card was PCI I had no problems during or after the flash since the AGP card was simply along for the ride.

Test it out:

8. Now your ready to go, simply put all the new extensions that came with the 1.1.1 updating into the extension folder, shutdown your Mac, plugin the PC AGP card and watch the smoke! ... umm, well, ok you shouldn't get any smoke... Mine worked first time and flawlessly. You might need to give it a little time to boot.

Something interesting has been happening though, the Mac seems to take a while to boot now after a "Restart". I noticed the 533mhz G4 in the store had the same problem, it would sit at a white screen before it would detect the harddrive and boot. Now mine has the same symptom which it never had with the ATI rage 128 Pro. I'm not worrying about it since the machine that is meant to ship with the GeForce does the same thing, its just weird.

I've ran Oni at full 1600 resolution without any problems and plan to install Quake 3 and take some benchmarks next. I didn't have any problems with icons like the other reader did but then again, I used a true MX AGP board and I think he used a PCI non-mx model. [Note: see original report below - he used a PCI Creative Labs GeForce2MX card w/DDR RAM-Mike]

I'll keep everyone posted on the benchmarks I find and other notes.
Cheers
Tim "

(from the 3/21/2001 wwww.xlr8yourmac.com daily news page)
I was offline most of the afternoon and night with other work and my cable modem ISP had problems last night, but in the email flood this morning there are some reports from readers on flashing PC GeForce2MX cards with the Mac firmware included with the 1.1.1 Nvidia driver released noted in yesterday's news (and at this Apple download page). One reader used an Elsa Gladac card (AGP?) and another a Creative Labs PCI version. (Creative has a DDR SDRAM version, but DDR is 64bit bus where the std. SDRAM models are 128bit bus I think.)

" Well what do you know, I got it to work!!!
With the new updater released by Apple I was able to hack the rom out of it, use my PC with two video cards to flash my Elsa Gladac GForce2MX PC card (AGP) and VOILA!!!! I'm now running the Elsa card in my G4 Tower!

You'll remember a while back I emailed you that I was working on it...but I didn't have much luck with the rom I extracted from the Apple card. This new 1027 rom worked first try.
I'll email better instructions and details when I get a chance later today.
Now I need some benchmarks etc.
Take Care
Tim the Crazy Canadian!"

Another reader wrote regarding a PCI version of the card:

" Mike...I extracted the rom from the new nvidia drivers (it is in the resource fork of the flasher). I flashed the rom onto my creative geforce 2 mx (PCI).

It boots and I get video, but the text and icons are "scrambled"
Good sign I think. Hopefully I can get this thing to work.
-- Charles "

The Creative card is a DDR version (64bit wide DDR SDRAM vs 128Bit SDRAM on the most GeForce2MX cards). Not sure if this is why the images are scrambled or if it's due to the AGP firmware.

What's odd is that all reports I've gotten so far from early G4/GeForce2MX owners with the earlier 1.09 drivers and firmware noted the updater would not apply. (See this 3/22/2001 news story for a workaround.)

Update on PCI GeForce2MX DDR Card: Charles sent an update on his progress with a Creative Labs 32MB DDR PCI GeForce2MX card (his original report above noted problems):

" Ok...This isn't the end all solution, but it works and I guess beggars can't be choosers.

The Geforce PCI definitely works in my g4 [2x AGP G4/500]. It is, however, a pain to get working.

(NOTE: Remember you're messing with the novram settings and if you make a mistake you may get an unusable machine - Don't try this if you're inexperienced or not willing to accept the potential for problems. There may later prove to be a different workaround that doesn't involve these steps. You assume all risk from attempting this procedure.)

Step 1. Flash the bios per instructions posted (above - using a PC).

Step 2. Remove other video cards. I just put this step in because I am doing this solo and have not tested it with the Radeon in. So for now, lets just pretend this is the only vid card you have:)

Step 3: Boot into open firmware by using cmd-option-o-f. This will bring you to a command prompt, however, you may not be able to read it because of the screwed up GeForce. However, you can type blind and it will still work.

Step 4: type the following commands at the open firmware prompt:

> dev pci
> dev NVDA,NVMac
> ddc2-set-start
> setup-clut
> boot

The system will start, but it will probably still be scrambled. If it is, push reset and zap the PRAM with cmd-option-p-r. After it is zapped, you should have a beautiful mac smiley face and some fast quake 3 action!

The sad part about this is that you can reboot fine and the settings will stick. If you shutdown, you'll have to do all this over. It is second nature for me, since I've done it so many times, but it is a pain nonetheless.

Some open-firmware wizard should write in and tell us how to make a script that does this automatically everytime at boot, or use this to find a better solution. It works as an ok temporary solution.

This has only been tested on a agp 2x 500 mhz G4 and not on the beige g3. That is my next stop.

Oh...make sure you install the geforce drivers or you will only get 640X480.

I posted this to your forum, too.
-Charles "

Creative PCI GeForce2MX DDR Has Mac ROM??: Charles (from above posts) sent an amazing story as a follow-up:

"Mike....
I would just like to give you a little recap of what's been going on in your forums lately on the PCI GeForce 2 MX's. The AGP ones seem to work fine with no problems reported.

PCI is a different story. I flashed my Creative Annihilator 2 DDR with the Apple rom and had a lot of problems. It seems that it took the same address space as the AGP Radeon, and as such, would crash at boot unless the radeon was not present. I decided to manually change some functions in the ROM (a stupid idea, really) and ended up with an un-mac-flashable card. I reflashed the original stock Creative ROM using a PC at my school.

I thought I would give it one more try, and I installed the card in the mac, and lo and behold, it ALREADY HAD A MAC ROM. In fact, the rom version was 1028F, higher than Apple's. So the stock creative card already has a mac rom flashed on it! And it works with the Radeon. After a while of playing, it seems to be stable and works fine (I still haven't tested GL or DVD) with this new ROM, but at least I can have both the geforce and radeon present at the same time with full 2d acceleration.

With the apple rom, I got the following benchmarks

So it is slower, but remember that DDR is really no faster than SDR because of latency and the 64-bit path on DDR.

Also, I tried the stock-rom flashed geforce in my Beige g3. Open firmware fails to load the driver (it loads fine on the g4). The beige has OF version 2.something while the g4 has version 3. Therefore it does not work at all in the beige g3.

I have had bad luck, too with osx. OSX always defaults to the AGP slot, so if I have both cards in (even with the new rom), it will load fine, but only the radeon will get video. If I have only the geforce in, it will freeze right before aqua loads. I've looked at the bootlogs, but it doesn't really indicated where the hang is (using -v)

If you have a g4 and really love os9, then this card is probably a good cheap investment, and it actually works. Maybe after a couple more weekends, we'll have this figured out:)
Charles Archer

Update: - he later wrote:

Mike...here is a picture of my desktop profiler.
Also, all isn't perfect. DVD playback works well, but with both cards, I get no sound:( Also, it seems I have conflicts with the nvidia extension "Nvidia Engine" With it on, it will lock up randomly at startup.

The machine has no sound if BOTH cards are in. If just the radeon is in, fine. If just the Geforce is in fine. If both are in nope. There is an extension conflict between quicktime and the extension "NVIDIA Engine". If I disable all quicktime extensions or disable the nvidia engine, I get no lockups.

Of course if I disable either of those, quicktime I get no sound, nvidia engine I get no opengl acceleration.

I've tried the card in different slots, but it just doesn't work.

Just thought I'd let you know.
-Charles

(he later noted in the forums here)

The current status on the pci version is this:

A standard Creative *DDR* GeForce 2 MX PCI has a mac rom [Wrong- see later article on the G4/AGP firmware update ( 4.1.8) having some sort of stub Nvidia firmware apparently. No PC Nvidia card has Mac firmware. Mike] and will work in a g4 provided that the AGP card is not in OR you disable the "NVIDIA Engine" extension or quicktime.

I have personally tested beige G3 Rev C's with open firmware 2.0f1, but I have heard there is a version of the rom with version 2.4.

Yikes! (G4/PCI model) and B&W G3's are not tested that I know of, nor are earlier machines such as 7/8/9600 or power computing and umax equivalents. "

** Note ** Charles Archer, the reader that first reported a retail PC Creative Labs GeForce2MX DDR card worked in a Mac with the original card's firmware, wrote in reply to this post saying that he had flashed his G4 with the 4.1.8 firmware update. This, not the card's firmware, is now believed to be why it worked. See this story for more details.

Related Links:
There's a related forum thread here also. (Update - now there are separate threads for AGP Cards and PCI cards in the forums here.)

For test/reviews of Mac graphics cards and related articles, see the Video Topics page.