SAPPHIRE RADEON 9000 ATLANTIS PRO - Power Mac G4 firmware

[retrotechtive]

I've been attempting to get this old AGPx4 PC graphics card working in my PowerMac G4 (Digital Audio edition):

The ATI PPC firmware for the ATI Radeon 9000 Pro does not work. I've also tried the "reduced" version, no luck. The result in both cases is a corrupted screen like this:

(This is the boot disk selection screen, and it looks like the image of the disk and buttons are there, just jumbled... maybe).

It works just fine on PC with the original ROM.

Does anyone know if it's possible to modify the graphics card board / ROM to work on the G4?

Failing that, any thoughts as to how I could go about making changes to the ROM myself (if that's the only thing that needs changing)?

 

[François]

Maybe this is a solution:

Radeon 9000np Conversion - The Mac Elite

themacelite.wikidot.com

 

[retrotechtive]

Maybe this is a solution:

Radeon 9000np Conversion - The Mac Elite

themacelite.wikidot.com

Fantastic find, I don't know how I missed that, I was on that main site too!

I will try this for sure, looks very promising - thank you!

EDIT: on second glance, it looks like the layout is quite different, but I'm sure there must be a correlating resistor on my own board. I just need to find it

 

[retrotechtive]

Fantastic find, I don't know how I missed that, I was on that main site too!

I will try this for sure, looks very promising - thank you!

EDIT: on second glance, it looks like the layout is quite different, but I'm sure there must be a correlating resistor on my own board. I just need to find it

So not had any luck identifying which resistor(s) might be a "Mac switch" on my card yet. So if anyone out there knows more about these cards and can suggest more info, I'd welcome it!

 

[V.Yakob]

So not had any luck identifying which resistor(s) might be a "Mac switch" on my card yet. So if anyone out there knows more about these cards and can suggest more info, I'd welcome it!

If it's exactly Radeon 9000 Pro, I've always believed that for boards with this design, where there is no toggle switch, it's enough to remove the resistor.

No?

I want to try this trick, but I haven't found 128 MB 9000 Pro in this design yet.

I have one 128 MB 9000 Pro, but there is a toggle switch in this place that I switched, and this board works perfectly in my Quicksilver.

 

[retrotechtive]

If it's exactly Radeon 9000 Pro, I've always believed that for boards with this design, where there is no toggle switch, it's enough to remove the resistor.
View attachment 14027

No?

I want to try this trick, but I haven't found 128 MB 9000 Pro in this design yet.

I have one 128 MB 9000 Pro, but there is a toggle switch in this place that I switched, and this board works perfectly in my Quicksilver.

This is great, I will check this as soon as I get a chance - I'll report back if it works. Thanks!

 

[retrotechtive]

If it's exactly Radeon 9000 Pro, I've always believed that for boards with this design, where there is no toggle switch, it's enough to remove the resistor.
View attachment 14027

No?

I want to try this trick, but I haven't found 128 MB 9000 Pro in this design yet.

I have one 128 MB 9000 Pro, but there is a toggle switch in this place that I switched, and this board works perfectly in my Quicksilver.

So I tried this, and it didn't work sadly.

I don't actually see how it could though, given those two links are both connected together (so removing one would not break the connection) and they appear to be ferrite beads, not resistors - they certainly have zero resistance so at the very least are jumpers.

Any thoughts on this? (Btw the machine did boot, just scrambled video as before).

EDIT: I may try removing the other link as well, just in case.

EDIT2: I haven't removed the other one yet, but looking at the non-Pro mod, those two beads/links seem intact, so I'm not sure it is a good idea..?

 

[V.Yakob]

So I tried this, and it didn't work sadly.

I don't actually see how it could though, given those two links are both connected together (so removing one would not break the connection) and they appear to be ferrite beads, not resistors - they certainly have zero resistance so at the very least are jumpers.

Any thoughts on this? (Btw the machine did boot, just scrambled video as before).

EDIT: I may try removing the other link as well, just in case.

EDIT2: I haven't removed the other one yet, but looking at the non-Pro mod, those two beads/links seem intact, so I'm not sure it is a good idea..?

Too bad, I was hoping it would work. Thank you for checking it out.
But, you can find Radeon 9200/9250 128 MB and also flash it. I've had experience with 9250 - it works. Just pay attention to the design of these boards, also not all are suitable for Resistor mode.
Drivers for Mac OS 9 also exist and work fine in 9.2.2.
The only inconvenience is that you need to seal 3 & 11 pins on the board, but this is not a problem, especially if you do not plug the board constantly.

 

[retrotechtive]

I will try and get some of those 9200 cards too for sure

I still think this card is probably able to be reconfigured though, this area looks like a feature config section, similar to the others mentioned in the linked page above:

But without schematics for either (or both) types of card, I have no idea which maps to similar features.

I'm hoping someone who used to fix cards like these will stumble upon my post