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KraziKid · Apr 21, 2005, 12:05 AM

Has anyone else had problems with the new ROM? I keep getting kernel panics on boot, and nothing I do will fix it. I have tried resetting the PRAM/NVRAM, reinstalling OS X, etc... I saw on xlr8yourmac.com that they have had reports of issues, but the guy there has had none. I really am pissed right now, because I have a 500 dollars paperweight (3500 dollar paperweight if you include the G5 itself).

sideus · Apr 21, 2005, 12:29 AM

Is this a PC card flashed with a Mac ROM?

EDIT: Nevermind.

Cadaver · Apr 21, 2005, 12:34 AM

Originally Posted by KraziKid

Has anyone else had problems with the new ROM? I keep getting kernel panics on boot, and nothing I do will fix it. I have tried resetting the PRAM/NVRAM, reinstalling OS X, etc... I saw on xlr8yourmac.com that they have had reports of issues, but the guy there has had none. I really am pissed right now, because I have a 500 dollars paperweight (3500 dollar paperweight if you include the G5 itself).

I've had problems, too. Same as you.
I finally had to reinstall the original card, clear the NVRAM about 10 times, boot repeatedly from a different HD (w/ various versions of 10.3.5-10.3.9), and repeatedly re-flash the ROM Update... anyway, long story short is that I might have fixed it. I've been able to boot about 3-4 times now w/out a KP. Not sure if its totally fixed though. Its late and I finally got tired. Will try more tomorrow.

Cadaver · Apr 21, 2005, 09:17 AM

Well, I managed to fix my card and/or my software install. Not sure what exactly did the trick, but it involved lots of card swapping, rebooting, Open Firmware resets and repeated re-flashes of the new ROM from a clean install of 10.3.5 on a different HD. But something definitely isn't right with either the new X800XT ROM or the new ATI Displays 4.5 software.

My advice if you have an X800XT - Don't update if you haven't already. Wait until this gets sorted out. There have been enough reports to suggest something is buggy with these new versions.

KraziKid · Apr 21, 2005, 01:13 PM

Well, I decided to take the easy way out. After performing 50-70 hard reboots I called up my retailer, and am RMAing the card. The only thing I can hope for is that my G5 is not damaged from all those hard reboots.

larry k. · Apr 21, 2005, 01:24 PM

After reading all the negative results here and elsewhere I guess I'm really lucky that I didn't have any problems updating the ROM or ATI Displays. Especially considering I just sold my 9600 XT that came with my Power Mac so I would have had no extra card if the ROM failed to update correctly.

Ganesha · 09:25 PM

Edit: Not ADC related. Ignore previous comment.

Big Mac · Apr 21, 2005, 11:31 PM

Originally Posted by KraziKid

Well, I decided to take the easy way out. After performing 50-70 hard reboots I called up my retailer, and am RMAing the card. The only thing I can hope for is that my G5 is not damaged from all those hard reboots.

Literally 50-70 hard resets? I would have thrown in the towel at four, max. . .

KraziKid · Apr 22, 2005, 12:23 AM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

Literally 50-70 hard resets? I would have thrown in the towel at four, max. . .

I may have exaggerated by like 20, but I know I did at least 30 resets. I am very persistant, and uually fix what is broken, but I tried everything I could, and it didn't work. So I just reinstalled my 9600XT, and it works fine, so I am fairly certain G5 = still healthy.

Cadaver · Apr 22, 2005, 06:56 AM

According to xlr8yourmac, virtually all reports of X800 failure come from dual 2.5GHz owners.
Hmmm.... there's definitely a pattern here (me=dual 2.5, too).

Ganesha · 10:03 PM

It effects (affects?) the 2.0 Ghz systems as well. However, since cleaning out my system caches (/System/Library/Caches/), I've made 4 reboots (edit 6) in a row without a KP.

I don't have posting access to xlr8yourmac so someone may want to suggest this there too.

Frank Hansen · 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by KraziKid

Has anyone else had problems with the new ROM? I keep getting kernel panics on boot, and nothing I do will fix it. I have tried resetting the PRAM/NVRAM, reinstalling OS X, etc... I saw on xlr8yourmac.com that they have had reports of issues, but the guy there has had none. I really am pissed right now, because I have a 500 dollars paperweight (3500 dollar paperweight if you include the G5 itself).

This is a total nightmare I have had nothing but KP after KP since I did that uodate, I contacted ATI and talked to someone in tech support after submitting this ticket.

I just did the April 18, 2005 update to my X800XT graphics card the other day, I followed all the onscreen instructions I booted up in safe mode and when I finished I went to restart my machine and all I seem to be getting is a Kernel Panic every-time I boot up, the only way I can log in is in safe mode and that don't always work sometimes I have to log in several times I even get a kernel panic in safe boot, more often then not, I went to your site to find the older version of the Rom and found something from october, 04 when I finished installing it the same thing happened as with the april, 05 update that caused all the trouble in the first place where can I get a older version of the Rom for my machine that will fix this mess. Please advise. Also when I start my ATI Displays I get a message that has the title Error and a message that says this? A startup problem has occurred. ! you have an old version of ATI TVout Kernel Extension. Some features are not available.

This was there response.
We plan on making the previous BIOS version available online to help address this issue. Please check the ati.com website tomorrow, throughout the day, for updates. The previous BIOS will return the card to it's operational state. We apologize for the inconvenience the update may have caused you. Regards, Anthony Prowell ATI Customer Care. I hope this helps some, I have been checking ATI for the previous BIOS nothing so far.

Good luck to everyone who is having this problem

Amacapart · Apr 26, 2005, 03:55 PM

If you go to XLR8 an ATI employee is offering a chance at being a Beta tester for the fix.

Really makes ATI look stupid though. Perhaps the new ROM will shut the fan off and let it burn up.

Frank Hansen · Apr 27, 2005, 09:16 AM

Originally Posted by Amacapart

If you go to XLR8 an ATI employee is offering a chance at being a Beta tester for the fix.

Really makes ATI look stupid though. Perhaps the new ROM will shut the fan off and let it burn up.

I have seen it and as far as things burning up that's not an option.

a2daj · May 13, 2005, 12:04 AM

A new X800 ROM is up

Click this first to set a cookie.

Then this

ROM Version 108 (this release) corrects a kernel panic at startup experienced by some users. There are no other changes from the previous April 2005 release (ROM Version 107).

Added built-in Firmware Fan control
Fan control has been implemented within the card's firmware to maintain full fan control with or without the presence of the ATI ROM Xtender file. This update is recommended for all RADEON X800 XT MAC EDITION cards.

Skypat · May 13, 2005, 02:46 PM

Ouch doesn't make me want to buy a X800 to put in my future G5 2*2,3 ...

jasonsRX7 · May 13, 2005, 03:02 PM

Originally Posted by Skypat

Ouch doesn't make me want to buy a X800 to put in my future G5 2*2,3 ...

Yeah, but dude, you can like, totally save 50 bucks!!! I mean really, that's worth a few weeks of downtime, isn't it?

Sorry, I couldn't resist... Ca$h and Lateralus are going to hate me.

a2daj · May 13, 2005, 04:05 PM

Originally Posted by Skypat

Ouch doesn't make me want to buy a X800 to put in my future G5 2*2,3 ...

Why? The 104 ROM works fine. The 107 ROM is the one that had problems and those are fixed with the 108 ROM. If you're scared of anything that has ever had a problem with it, I'd suggest staying away from computers

Skypat · May 13, 2005, 05:25 PM

Hehe ... I have no experience with video cards that is why

Lateralus · 07:17 PM

Originally Posted by jasonsRX7

Yeah, but dude, you can like, totally save 50 bucks!!! I mean really, that's worth a few weeks of downtime, isn't it?

Sorry, I couldn't resist... Ca$h and Lateralus are going to hate me.

I just think you're taking things way out of proportion on a subject you don't seem to know a whole lot about. ATI's cards and drivers have always been more solid on the Mac. And up until 2001, all you could get on the Mac was ATI. Their driver history is superb. They've never missed an OS release. And in my four years of being a Mac user, this is the only time I have seen something like this happen. And it is an optional ROM update. Yes, it is causing a problem, but it isn't wide spread and the company is doing as much as they can to rectify the situation.

What more can you ask? Be glad ATI even releases driver and ROM updates for the Macintosh. nVidia refused to do it and pretty much gave Apple the option of doing it themself or having no nVidia Mac support.

I know where my money is going...

But, to each their own. I just can't see supporting a company that essentially is refusing to offer Mac support and really doesn't care about their flagship products on the Mac. The size and noise comparison between the X800 and the 6800 is enough to illustrate that.

But if you wanna shy away from installing a software control panel because you're afraid of it cluttering up your system, thats your choice. But for the rest of us who realize that just about everything you install on your system does more cluttering than that Radeon control panel does, it is a very small and welcomed price to pay to be able to unlock the features of our graphics cards rather than having no option at all to do it with nVidia cards.

jasonsRX7 · May 13, 2005, 07:45 PM

I'm just teasing, and I admittedly don't know much about Mac video cards and that I was basing my opinion off their PC counterparts. I also don't know anything about the politics between nVidia and Apple, but I'd be disappointed to know that nVidia is giving Apple poor support, especially since I've been an extremely happy nVidia customer since the NV1 (Diamond Edge 3D). If they are, it's certainly transparent to me as the end user. I don't dislike ATI though, my laptop is ATI based, and there's a 9600 in my parts drawer that I'd be using if I didn't need dual link DVI.

rcg · May 15, 2005, 10:39 AM

So... Has anyone used the 108 ROM update? Are the KP's truly resolved? I have held off updateing till the problems are resolved.

NY152 · May 15, 2005, 06:16 PM

I installed the 108 update yesterday. No issues what so ever.

rcg · May 15, 2005, 07:04 PM

Thanks. I got brave enough to try it myself. No issues either, thank goodness.

BrunoBruin · May 16, 2005, 10:18 AM

I have what is probably an extremely stupid question about the update, which I was about to install before the hundreds of mentions of "safe boot" in the instructions. I only need to safe boot the first time after installing the update, in order to flash the card, right? Not EVERY TIME I boot?!

BZ · May 16, 2005, 10:31 AM

Originally Posted by BrunoBruin

I have what is probably an extremely stupid question about the update, which I was about to install before the hundreds of mentions of "safe boot" in the instructions. I only need to safe boot the first time after installing the update, in order to flash the card, right? Not EVERY TIME I boot?!

Just to install.

I installed this weekend. No biggy.

BZ

BrunoBruin · May 16, 2005, 11:12 AM

Originally Posted by BZ

Just to install.

Thanks. That's what I figured, but ATI's instructions were not very clear on this! And since I'm not actually having any PROBLEMS with my card, I was hesistant to give it a try!

Cadaver · May 17, 2005, 07:44 AM

The new version 108 ROM works fine for me... nothin' but kernel panics with the previous 107 ROM (had to revert to the original 104).

The only major difference AFAIK is fan control in-firmware, versus strictly with the ATI ROM Xtender kernel extension. If you were to loose this file (say, from an OS update), then your X800's fan wont run full blast when you boot.

powertrippin · May 17, 2005, 09:00 AM

Originally Posted by jasonsRX7

Yeah, but dude, you can like, totally save 50 bucks!!! I mean really, that's worth a few weeks of downtime, isn't it?

Sorry, I couldn't resist... Ca$h and Lateralus are going to hate me.

I don't hate you, I just think you're an idiot in the way you justified buying a slower, louder, more expensive card.

jasonsRX7 · May 17, 2005, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by powertrippin

I don't hate you, I just think you're an idiot in the way you justified buying a slower, louder, more expensive card.

It's easy. Slower, louder and more expensive I can live with, flakiness I can not. I bought a sure bet over something I had no experience with, and it's a decision that's caused me no grief. While I feel bad for those people who had to RMA their cards after a rom update, it certainly makes me feel relieved about my purchase.

powertrippin · May 17, 2005, 11:44 AM

X800s aren't flakey.

viper0066 · 08:45 PM

The card may or may not be, powertrippin, but ATI is a bit after releasing such a buggy ROM updater. This thing panics-out the system during start-up - tough to do ANYTHING on the system when it quits at start-up. Now they have another ROM updater to fix their April blunder.

I have a question at this point, and that is how does one apply it (seriously)? See, the unit with the x800 in it (sort of a prerequisite to have the x800 in the Mac to update its ROM), panics every time at start-up. I tried to get it started even in Safe Boot mode (what execution of the 108 updater requires), and it paniced 4 consecutive times. So far, the only idea I had was to put the x800-equipped Mac in Target Disk Mode, and try to run the updater from another Mac onto which the x800-equippoed Mac is mounted - but I don't know if the 108 updater would successfully apply that way (and have not yet tried it).

Given the start-up issues with the 107 ROM x800, how have you all been successfully applying this update?

Thanks.

powertrippin · May 17, 2005, 09:24 PM

Why update if it's buggy?

viper0066 · May 17, 2005, 09:41 PM

I need to update the ROM 107 x800 card because it's buggy. It is the 107 April ROM Updater to which I referred as buggy - because it has been royally-so for me.

So, how have you all been updating a card that crashes the system at start-up? Help...

Skypat · May 18, 2005, 04:13 AM

Hello Viper
What G5 do you have ? (2 x 2.5 ?)

Thanks

Originally Posted by viper0066

I need to update the ROM 107 x800 card because it's buggy. It is the 107 April ROM Updater to which I referred as buggy - because it has been royally-so for me.

So, how have you all been updating a card that crashes the system at start-up? Help...

viper0066 · 10:39 AM

Nope, the Rev B Dual 2.0. One of the more-recent or later-released Rev B units too, as it has the HL SD (instead of the Pioneer).

Anyways, I didn't know the type of PM had any relevance to the 108 ROM update procedure. Anyone at all, how does one successfully apply this ROM update, when the bug in the 107 crashes the system at start-up?

a2daj · May 19, 2005, 11:23 AM

Did your system crash for you with 10.3.x and the X800/107 ROM in?

viper0066 · May 20, 2005, 06:36 PM

I was already on Tiger. Anyways, I have secured a replacement card (came with 104 ROM), and will send the 107 ROM card back to ATI for $ back.

I'm now wondering how necessary it is to install anything further (software or ROM updates) since it's working now, and the last update crippled the Mac.

Just how necessary are the 108 ROM update, and the 4.5.1 ATI Displays software?

Frank Hansen · May 22, 2005, 05:01 PM

Thats exactly how I feel, until someone can show me a real good reason to do this 108 update I'm staying right on 104 it works and I don't see any reason to hurry up and jump right back into the frying pan, that last escapade with ATI shook my trust in there reliability.
You know what they say if it ant broke don't try and fix it.

a2daj · May 23, 2005, 12:01 AM

The only difference listed between the 104 ROM and the 108 ROM are in the release notes. The fan controls from the ATI ROM Xtender are in the ROM now so the fan won't go crazy when the ROM Xtender isn't installed. If one bug shakes your trust in someone, be very wary of Apple's Mac OS X. I hear it has a bug or two.

Frank Hansen · 09:29 AM

Perhaps I phrased that the wrong way all I was trying to say was that after that last fiasco I prefer do things like firmware updates with lots of caution, I don't want to go through the mess I went through when I did the 107 update.

And one question as long as I'm hear, dose ATI give you a way out with the 108 update to revert back to the 104 if it don't take ?

a2daj · May 23, 2005, 03:58 PM

From the release notes:

"Added ability to downgrade to original ROM version 104
The May 2005 ROM installer provides the ability to revert to the original ROM for the RADEON X800 XT MAC EDITION. The ROM Update installer provides this downgrade option at setup (necessary to perform a Safe Boot)."

Frank Hansen · May 28, 2005, 09:04 AM

Originally Posted by a2daj

From the release notes:

"Added ability to downgrade to original ROM version 104
The May 2005 ROM installer provides the ability to revert to the original ROM for the RADEON X800 XT MAC EDITION. The ROM Update installer provides this downgrade option at setup (necessary to perform a Safe Boot)."

Thenks very much for the info.