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crazyivan · Jul 14, 2002, 02:41 PM

Chalk up another success. The card I ordered from ncix.com works. Now I only need to upgrade the processor in my aging Sawtooth 350 to make it a reasonably modern machine.

There is one problem, though. None of my games that use OpenGL work. Q3A, UT, and RtCW all quit with errors. I zapped the PRAM three times, no dice. Any ideas?

tonywong · Jul 14, 2002, 03:38 PM

What clockspeed did you flash it at? It could be overclocked and crashing...

Also what OS are you using? There is a known issue with installing the ATI 8500 drivers under 10.1.5.

tonywong · Jul 14, 2002, 03:49 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by AssmanPhD:
hey guys, i got it to work by putting the restore file in the startup items and it just worked on the next start up, but now I have another problem, my tv out isn't working. I can't seem to find the 2nd display when i connect it on the display preferences. I've connected a tv to it through a s-video to component adapter i got from a powerbook, but my computer doesn't seem to recognize the connection. I'm thinking maybe i'm missing some software. Does anyone have any ideas on what might be the problem. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

-Ray<hr /></blockquote>I think you might be one of the few people who has even tried the TV out. I haven't got any S-video devices to try to output to, but everything else has been OK and I don't need that functionality either. Sorry.

tonywong · Jul 14, 2002, 03:53 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Chuck3d:
Well, coffeehaus' link to the firmware updater for the 250/270 really only gets you to ATI's website, where I could not find that. For kicks I installed the June update and of course it does nothing.

I think the only way to get this card in gear is to edit something within it from the PC side, and Im not at all studied in DOS, just the basic Win2K thing.

Back to The Turtle (Rage 128) for now. I'll be interested to see what you guys think.<hr /></blockquote>email me at tonywong at canada dot com. I've got two flashers one 230/230 and the other 250/250, both known to work OK.

You might want to try resetting via open firmware. I'm not sure if this will reset the PRAM though, but there's probably a command to do it too.

command-option-O-F till you get a white screen.
then type this:
reset-nvram [hit the return key]
reset-all [return again]

SirCastor · Jul 14, 2002, 04:10 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by AssmanPhD:
hey guys, i got it to work by putting the restore file in the startup items and it just worked on the next start up, but now I have another problem, my tv out isn't working. I can't seem to find the 2nd display when i connect it on the display preferences. I've connected a tv to it through a s-video to component adapter i got from a powerbook, but my computer doesn't seem to recognize the connection. I'm thinking maybe i'm missing some software. Does anyone have any ideas on what might be the problem. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

-Ray<hr /></blockquote>I haven't been able to get TV out to work with mine either. I however flashed mine with the updater, and not with the restore. I have gotten a second monitor to work however. I've zapped the PRAM quite a bit too. I don't think you're missing software (if you look at the install log you'll see a f TV out kext file and a Mac2TV file as well.) I've been considering restoring the 123 firmware, and bringing it back to 126 after that.. I'm scared to mess with something that works though.
-A

Chuck3d · Jul 14, 2002, 05:01 PM

Tony,

I appreciate you helping me so ... all my emails to your address came back with fatal errors. Could you email me at [email protected] ?

I am hoping to finally nail this card down. God!

As far as the PRAM issue, it would not reset as long as the Radeon was in
there. I tried resetting with my old Rage and so that checks out. If I
could just get the firmare updated, argh! ...

Anyway, thanks for offering to personally send me your updaters. I'll try
them on right away.

Best, Chuck

wlescall · Jul 14, 2002, 09:23 PM

Chuck3d,
I just held down the command-option-p-r keys on startup until my mac had chimed 5 or 6 times ... I actually had lost count.
I can send you the firmware package as a .sit file (276K). This includes the restore firmware file.
Good luck.

tonywong · Jul 14, 2002, 10:21 PM

chuck3d...you've got mail...

Chuck3d · Jul 15, 2002, 01:23 AM

... and now I have video!!!!

A huge thanks goes out to Big Tony for sending me those other mods. I also suspected that my old ix micro 3d pci card might have been crashing the mac at the flashpoint so i removed it, put an asterisk on the Restore updater so it would run first, then run the 126 firmware updater right after...so i did it blind....works great.

Im getting some green pixels and noise sometimes. Do we step down to 230/230 if that happens?

tonywong · Jul 15, 2002, 03:00 AM

Hey Chuck3d,

I just sent you mail regarding the green noise, but I might as well post it here for posterity. Yeah, it's overclocked so you'll get the noise...another way of telling too is if it gives you noise on wake as well.

The next step is to change the voltage on the card in order to get 230+ speeds. The LE cards are lower voltage compared to the retail cards which is one reason they don't clock up easily. For the brave one can try the pencil trick to up the voltage on the GPU and memory and then clock it up.

Chuck3d · Jul 15, 2002, 10:39 AM

I've asked Tony and I might ask everyone here if there are step-by-step instructions for a newbie to follow to increase the voltage. What is it we're looking for and where and WHAT kind of pencil are we using to scrawl along the circuit board?

The other peculiar thing is that I installed the June update (I'll have to backread this thread to extract some of March's drivers and eye-drop them in) along with my 10.1.5 OS and my ATI control panel is not the full and robust number of choices down the left. In fact I only get two!! I get the Info button and I get the DVD interlacing choice button.... in addition to that, my VRAM size says it's only 32mb. Did my other 32mb go away?

tonywong · Jul 15, 2002, 01:52 PM

excerpted from email I sent to Chuck:

I haven't tried it myself yet, because from what I heard there isn't much performance gain on the overclock, and I don't play any games on my Mac (3D anyway), but I read it in this article (http://www.transmetazone.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=953)

In french
(http://membres.lycos.fr/coolpc/r8500.html)

A more detail and professional hack
(http://www.xbitlabs.com/video/radeon8500-overclocking/)

Apparently this is supposed to be the original article
(http://www.xcl-clan.com/articles.php3?id=29)

CIA · Jul 15, 2002, 09:17 PM

Hey, I just installed the ATI Juliy retail update, below is the install logs, those of you with flashed 8500 may want to look out.

----------
Monday, July 15, 2002 9:11 PM Beginning installation.
Radeon Mac Update 0207
Type of Install: Easy Install
Installed Homer:System Folder:Extensions:ATI 8500 3D Accelerator
Created the Folder: Homer

ocuments:ATI Manuals:
Installed ATI Manuals:Icon

Installed ATI Manuals:RADEON-0207.html
Monday, July 15, 2002 9:11 PM
The installation is complete.
------------

Seems like that's all it puts in, I have a Rage128, so no improvement for me.

I'm the Slime · Jul 21, 2002, 08:54 PM

Those new ATI Radeon 9000 series cards look nice but I know the mac versions are going to be way too pricey for me. And the 9000 model isn't even going to have TV out! They also say that the performance of the 8500 and the 9000 mac models are similiar. Newegg still has that OEM card that someone in this thread said they flashed with no problems. It is only $109. It is actually a Sapphire ATI card, but if someone successfully flashed it I'l give it a go. Newegg has really great customer service. aka they will take back broken equipment. I've read just about every message here and at xlr8yourmac on this topic so I'll let you all know how things go for me.
Thanks for the great thread.

LtKernelPanic · Jul 22, 2002, 03:53 PM

With all the successful reports of flashing the 64MB 8500 I decided to take the plunge and order one from newegg. What I'm wondering is it possible to backup the PC ROM file just in case something goes wrong? I figure if nothing else my PC could use an upgrade or two.

-LtK

edit: typo

[ 07-22-2002, 03:56 PM: Message edited by: LtKernelPanic ]

stuffedmonkey · Jul 22, 2002, 05:24 PM

Heh. My card arrived! It took the firmware Restore to get it working. I edited the firmware to run at the same speed the card was designed to (275/275), and so far not one artifact yet! Makes me very happy.

LtKernelPanic · Jul 23, 2002, 04:42 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by stuffedmonkey:
Heh. My card arrived! It took the firmware Restore to get it working. I edited the firmware to run at the same speed the card was designed to (275/275), and so far not one artifact yet! Makes me very happy.<hr /></blockquote>Nice! My card will be here Wednesday. Did you use use the firmware update first or just use the restore? I can't wait to try this now.

LtKernelPanic · Jul 24, 2002, 02:16 PM

Woot! Card arrived, ran the firmware restore, installed the july drivers for OS X and it works perfectly.

monkeybrain · Jul 24, 2002, 03:21 PM

I just successfully flashed a radeon 8500 in my G4 400 and overall it seems to work fine - except i was looking in the monitors preference pane (and monitors control panel in os9) and found that the g4 thinks i have dual monitors, when i don't. There is only one monitor plugged into the radeon, yet the g4 thinks there is another, what gives?

i'm using the june drivers, i heard there were july ones as well; how good are these and would upgrading solve this weird problem?

cheers

I'm the Slime · Jul 25, 2002, 07:59 PM

The card I ordered from newegg arrived today. I followed the instructions from these posts and successfully updated the card. DVD playback works great so I am assuming that everything else is working too. I have a Voodoo 3 card in there as well .... for $100 they dont give you the DVI->VGA adaptor. I had to disable the 3dfx drivers to get the games to work at all... I dont have many 3d games installed but THPS2 works fine.

Ken_F2 · Jul 25, 2002, 10:27 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />The card I ordered from newegg arrived today. I followed the instructions from these posts and successfully updated the card. DVD playback works great so I am assuming that everything else is working too. I have a Voodoo 3 card in there as well ....<hr /></blockquote>Just to be clear...you ordered the $109 card from Newegg?

Ken_F2 · Jul 25, 2002, 11:10 PM

[Nevermind]

[ 07-26-2002, 02:32 PM: Message edited by: Ken_F2 ]

LtKernelPanic · Jul 26, 2002, 01:38 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Ken_F2:
Just to be clear...you ordered the $109 card from Newegg?<hr /></blockquote>yes. I bought the $109 card from them. I DLed the ATI firmware update from page one or two of this thread and ran the Firmware Restore application. Since I also have a Radeon 7000 I just used it as my main video card while flashing it. It seems that putting the update in your OS 9 startup items folder works fine as well.Once I installed the July 2002 drivers I got full acceleration and DVD playback.

-LtK

bvrettski · Jul 27, 2002, 02:36 PM

This may have been covered somewhere else already and I just haven't seen it.

Has anyone had any success flashing a Radeon 8500 128mb card?

I tried and was able to install the flash rom but the card then had alot of display prolems.

I am installing it in G4 dual 450. It often locks up on startup but will boot fine if I disable the Resource manager and Rom extender...then however the card is painfully slow and almost worthless.

As for the display problems...it seems to be trying to compress the dual display into one monitor. When I choose "identify" in the monitors control panel I get the number 1 monitor dead center and the number tweo monito in both the upper right and upper left corners. This conceals the menu bar and knocks out part of the desktop picture.

[ 07-27-2002, 03:36 PM: Message edited by: bvrettski ]

Jim Paradise · Jul 28, 2002, 05:36 PM

Does anyone know if this card works? The Radeon 64MB SDR?

<a href="http://www.ati.com/products/pc/radeon64sdr/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.ati.com/products/pc/radeon64sdr/index.html</a>

It's only $99 Canadian which makes it *really* tempting to try and flash!

*edit* Well, apparently that card has been EOL'd. Has this card <a href="http://www.ati.com/products/pc/radeon7500/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.ati.com/products/pc/radeon7500/index.html</a> been flashed with any success?

[ 07-28-2002, 07:09 PM: Message edited by: Jim Paradise ]

bartman00 · Jul 28, 2002, 10:37 PM

Well you guys drove me to it.. I ordered the $109 card from newegg.com. It should be here soon. They have free shipping. Man I hope it works! BTW.. anyone want to buy a mac flashed Asus GeForce2MX?

Bart

Jim Paradise · Jul 29, 2002, 05:51 AM

*edit* Deleted. o.o

[ 07-29-2002, 05:56 AM: Message edited by: Jim Paradise ]

tomtom · Jul 29, 2002, 08:31 AM

// Paranoid mode on //

What's the chance that the next rom/driver update makes these flashed cards inoperable? Is there anything about these PC cards (beside the rom) that makes them identifiable as not being mac versions?

// Paranoid mode off //

SirCastor · Jul 30, 2002, 12:38 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by tomtom:
// Paranoid mode on //

What's the chance that the next rom/driver update makes these flashed cards inoperable? Is there anything about these PC cards (beside the rom) that makes them identifiable as not being mac versions?

// Paranoid mode off //<hr /></blockquote>This may be a useless reply, but here's my take on it..
The most business beneficial way of producing one product for two computer systems is to simply produce one product and have the software on the product do most of the work.. This happens a lot more than most people think. Print servers, video cards, printers, scanners, all kinds of things.

So it doesn't make sense that the PC card would be any different than the mac card. It would mean that they would have to make a separate card. Ultimately meaning that they would be spending more money. I doubt they consider that ROM flashing is a big enough problem to make a hardware identifier. The only potential I can think of is if the PC and Mac serial numbers are identifiers, and that a new ROM updater could check for that. But again... it kind of sounds like wasted money. There are only a handful of folks who have done this, a few hundred at best..

If Card had been introduced last week, that would be someting to worry about I think.. but the 8500's getting 'old'

czern0b0g · Jul 30, 2002, 02:47 PM

i'm not sure how many people are still checking this thread, but...

TV OUT WORKS.

like a few others here i had no luck with getting it to work. i recently had to reinstall 10.1.5 on my G4/500, and i was hoping that would do the trick. no such luck. even with the new july ati update, nothing. just the same error i was getting before ("mac2tv cannot be found" or some such).

so i got mad. i installed the 8500 specific(?) drivers, the june ati update, and then the july ati update again all w/o restarting between installs (not sure if they even write over the old .kext files or not, but i wanted to be sure everything was in there). restarted, tried again, different error (progress!

) as i was reading one of the readme (rtfrm, i know...) i saw some note about the 7500's tv out not working if 2 analog monitors were plugged in. WHA? so i was inspired.

if you're having trouble with tv out, try this:
1)maybe try all those stoopid installs i did. dunno if that helped.
2)shut down the g4.
3)KEY STEP: unplug the monitor (if any) plugged into the dvi/vga adapter, leaving only the s-video cable and one vga monitor plugged in.
4)turn on the tv (obviously making sure it's set to s-video source)
5)fire up the g4.
6)raise your fists in the air in defiant victory pose.

now this may have been because i was previously running 2 monitors, but the tv just fired right up, displaying the default aqua background. i thought the 8500 was capable of switching to tv out with all 3 outputs in use (just shutting off the analog/vga output, i guess). btw, all the options in the ati "control panel" work correctly, afaik.

i hope this inspires others who were having issues, 'cause this is the only thing that has inspired me to actually register and post!

big thanks to all the people who gambled on the flashing in the first place.

tomtom · Jul 31, 2002, 08:24 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by stuffedmonkey:
Heh. My card arrived! It took the firmware Restore to get it working. I edited the firmware to run at the same speed the card was designed to (275/275), and so far not one artifact yet! Makes me very happy.<hr /></blockquote>A question for those who upclocked from 250/275 to 275/275 or higher. Is there a noticeable difference? How much processor speed do you need to see a difference? I assume that I won't see a difference with my G4 400.

Tom

Dan Szwarc · Jul 31, 2002, 12:10 PM

How does one know if the firmware update is a 230/230, 250,250 or 275/275 version?

Can anyone post links to these or offer to email them to me?
I will be doing this soon.

barney ntd · Jul 31, 2002, 04:42 PM

FAILURE.

I bought a 64MB 8500LE DH branded "Super" and followed all the instructions. By clocking it down to 200/200 I got recognisable video, but the colour was completely wrong (everything was a sort of greenish yellow), there were vertical black stripes all across the screen, it would only sync properly at 640x480, it thought I had two monitors connected when I only had one (a real problem if the menubar is on the wrong one!) and there were flickers all over the place. After a lot of struggling, I have given up. Anyone got any ideas before I try to get my money back?

Barney.

Jim Paradise · Jul 31, 2002, 05:01 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Dan Szwarc:
How does one know if the firmware update is a 230/230, 250,250 or 275/275 version?

Can anyone post links to these or offer to email them to me?
I will be doing this soon.<hr /></blockquote>If you get the 230/230 firmware update, could you pass it along to me?

Chuck3d · Jul 31, 2002, 06:52 PM

<<<A question for those who upclocked from 250/275 to 275/275 or higher. Is there a noticeable difference?>>

250 to 275 is so marginal that you have to be really looking. but i went from 230 to 275 and KNEW it had worked. next question was whether i should pump it to 295 and try my luck....but first to try the pencil trick, heh heh heh.

peterthorn · Aug 1, 2002, 03:04 AM

Two questions:
- the cards I can find on the web all states "RAMDAC: 300MHz" - or even higher. Could it be a problem using such? should I clock it down to 250? or am I looking at a wrong place?
- has anyone succeded in doing it on non-NTSC cards (european - can't remember if it's PAL)?

TIA,
Peter

LtKernelPanic · Aug 1, 2002, 03:55 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by barney ntd:
FAILURE.

I bought a 64MB 8500LE DH branded "Super" and followed all the instructions. By clocking it down to 200/200 I got recognisable video, but the colour was completely wrong (everything was a sort of greenish yellow), there were vertical black stripes all across the screen, it would only sync properly at 640x480, it thought I had two monitors connected when I only had one (a real problem if the menubar is on the wrong one!) and there were flickers all over the place. After a lot of struggling, I have given up. Anyone got any ideas before I try to get my money back?

Barney.<hr /></blockquote>I hate to say it, but if you'd read the whole thread it's been noted at least a half dozen or more times that the LE cards aren't flashable. If the company you bought the card from sells the non-LE card maybe you could exchange it otherwise you might have to eat a restocking fee. Good luck. I hope you can make it work out in the end.

edit: You may be in luck. I just read in another thread (about flashing a 7500) that the LE cards need the 230/230 firmware. I'd try that if you can find it. Check that other thread out as someone already asked where to find it.

[ 08-01-2002, 04:17 AM: Message edited by: LtKernelPanic ]

bartman00 · Aug 1, 2002, 04:04 AM

get your money back.. well I'm sure the poor guy who runs the place you got the card from can't wait to take a dive on a perfictly working card that you've now messed up trying to hack it so it'll work in your mac...

villalobos · Aug 1, 2002, 07:01 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by LtKernelPanic:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by barney ntd:
FAILURE.

I bought a 64MB 8500LE DH branded "Super" and followed all the instructions. By clocking it down to 200/200 I got recognisable video, but the colour was completely wrong (everything was a sort of greenish yellow), there were vertical black stripes all across the screen, it would only sync properly at 640x480, it thought I had two monitors connected when I only had one (a real problem if the menubar is on the wrong one!) and there were flickers all over the place. After a lot of struggling, I have given up. Anyone got any ideas before I try to get my money back?

Barney.<hr /></blockquote>I hate to say it, but if you'd read the whole thread it's been noted at least a half dozen or more times that the LE cards aren't flashable. If the company you bought the card from sells the non-LE card maybe you could exchange it otherwise you might have to eat a restocking fee. Good luck. I hope you can make it work out in the end.

edit: You may be in luck. I just read in another thread (about flashing a 7500) that the LE cards need the 230/230 firmware. I'd try that if you can find it. Check that other thread out as someone already asked where to find it.<hr /></blockquote>8500LE cards are perfectly flashable as well. The one I got is from FIC first graphics, from Ubid.com, for $90 with S&H. I flashed the card using the 230/230 firmware. I did have issues (black screen) initially, but after zapping the PRam everything was fine.

The card is recognized as a radeon 8500 under OSX (ATI R200), but not under 9.2.2. Consequently, I can't use the ATI Display software under 9. On the other hand, the S-video TV-output works like a charm under X.8500. Nice boost compared to the stock Rage 128 of my DA G4 533.

For more information about the firmware updates check xlr8yourmac.com forums about videa cards. There is a lenghty thread there.

Hope this helps.

villalobos

[ 08-01-2002, 07:09 AM: Message edited by: villalobos ]

D'Espice · 09:16 AM

That Flashing-issue sounds quite interesting to me, especially since the ATI Radeon 8500 MAC-Edition is extremely expensive here in Europe.
I�m facing another problem though: It�s kinda impossible to find a Radeon 8500 card here in Europe which is not �Powered by ATI� like the ones that are made by PowerColor or Jetway. HIS/Emnic sells a lot of cards here and they also are quite affordable (the 275/275 Radeon 8500 is around $140), so my question would be if anybody succeeded in flashing one of those cards so far.
Or let me ask this way: Which Radeon 8500 available in Europe could I buy and flash?

Update:
I may have found one which seems quite affordable. Is there something new on this issue? Is it still possible to flash the card the way mentioned above (Place ROM-File and Flasher in StartUp-Folder, put in Radeon 8500 without screen attached, wait for about 5 Mins, attach screen, zap PRAM at least 3x and then smile?)

Ken_F2 · Aug 6, 2002, 05:24 AM

Well you guys drove me to it.. I ordered the $109 card from newegg.com. It should be here soon. They have free shipping. Man I hope it works!

Just an update...

I ordered the $109 board from Newegg early last week, and finally got around to flashing it this past weekend. Success! I just used the instructions posted in this thread to flash at the standard speed. After I did that, I used the utility mentioned earlier in this thread to modify my ROM for 275/275 (as supported by $109 card from Newegg), placed it in my startup OS9 startup folder, unplugged my monitor...and just like that, it's now running at 275/275.

Man, what an improvement under 10.2!

I'm the Slime · Aug 6, 2002, 09:12 PM

That site with the overclocking program is down. Does anyone still have it? I'd be happy to host it off my website for people to download. I want to clock my OEM card from Newegg to 275/275 which is what it is rated for.

Thanks!

email it to me if you have it please

D'Espice · 01:24 PM

Update:

I do have the possibility to buy an ATI Radeon 8500 "Built by ATI" with 275/275.
AFAIK it would definitely work with this card, right?

Also, I can't find the ATI Update, following the links all I find is a description and a further link to www.ati.com but I can't find no MAC-ROM Update there...

peterthorn · Aug 7, 2002, 09:22 AM

Have just send it to you - hope it's the one you had in mind.

:-)
Peter

Originally posted by I'm the Slime:
[B]That site with the overclocking program is down. Does anyone still have it? I'd be happy to host it off my website for people to download. I want to clock my OEM card from Newegg to 275/275 which is what it is rated for.

Thanks!

I'm the Slime · Aug 7, 2002, 07:54 PM

Ok, I put it up on my site for whoever wants it.

http://www.clabough.com/R8500FlashEditor.sit

Thanks for the help!

I'm the Slime · Aug 7, 2002, 08:21 PM

The place to download the firmware is still there even though you can't find it through links on their pages.

http://ati.com/support/drivers/mac/a...c-rom-126.html

I'm the Slime · Aug 7, 2002, 11:18 PM

You can also download the flash editor at that French fella's other site:

http://macmagna.free.fr/

This address was listed along with the one that doesnt work in the programs "About" box

pdot · Aug 8, 2002, 02:22 PM

Originally posted by Ken_F2:
Just an update...

I ordered the $109 board from Newegg early last week, and finally got around to flashing it this past weekend. Success! I just used the instructions posted in this thread to flash at the standard speed. After I did that, I used the utility mentioned earlier in this thread to modify my ROM for 275/275 (as supported by $109 card from Newegg), placed it in my startup OS9 startup folder, unplugged my monitor...and just like that, it's now running at 275/275.

Man, what an improvement under 10.2!

Ken_F2, what system do you have? I want to know b/c the only reason I want a new graphics card is b/c of Jaguare.

I'm the Slime · Aug 8, 2002, 03:32 PM

Originally posted by pdot:

Ken_F2, what system do you have? I want to know b/c the only reason I want a new graphics card is b/c of Jaguare.

I have a G4 400Mhz AGP graphics with 320 MB of RAM.

Ken_F2 · 07:33 PM

pdot,

I flashed it in a dual 500 and moved it over to my 733 w/ 512Mb RAM. It should flash in any modern PowerPC though. Other posters have had no trouble flashing Radeon 8500 boards on G4 400 systems like yours. For $109 (Newegg), it's definitely a worthwhile upgrade for the improvement you get. I don't play games and could care less about games.

Just a refresher of the instructions so people don't have to sort through earlier postings...

1) In OSX, open Startup Disk in System Preferences and set OS9 as the boot volume. Reboot to OS9.

2) In OS9, drop The RADEON 8500 Firmware UPDATE in your "Startup item" folder, in the system folder. Then Shutdown Your G4.

3) Unplug power cable and monitor cable.

4) Open Mac and put PC-Radeon8500 in the AGP slot.

5) Close Mac, re-insert power cable, but do NOT, I repeat, do NOT, plug in the monitor cable (it may not flash correctly if monitor cable is connected).

6) Press power button to turn on Mac (booting into OS9).

7) Wait at least 3 minutes (for OS9 to finish loading and for card to be flashed with new firmware). If you have all sorts of extra OS9 extensions, you might want to wait 5 minutes.

8) Press and hold down the power button on your Mac to shutdown. Then unplug the power cable from the back of your Mac.

9) Connect the monitor cable to your Radeon 8500 (which should now be flashed), and reconnect the power cable to the back of your Mac.

10) Turn on your machine, holding down the shift button to prevent extensions from loading (otherwise it will flash again cause firmware is still in startup items folder)

11) Once in OS9, remove flasher from OS9 Startup Items folder.

12) You are done.

You should install the latest drivers from ATI under 9.x, but no need to install the drivers on OSX if you are or will be using 10.2. If you install the ATI drivers under OSX, you will get an error message under 10.2 (final) that says there is some incompatibility with the ATI TVOut driver.

Note I've heard conflicting reports as to whether ATI had modified the current firmware on their web site to prevent flashing PC cards, so I had someone from the thread send me the firmware that was known to work--the same firmware that was on ATI's site two months ago. It's this firmware that I used successfully.