I picked up one of those PC-flashed-to-Mac 64mb Radeon 7000 PCI video cards last year and it's been working great in my B&W. I was using it with an old Radius monitor that didn't have sleep mode, so I never used sleep mode with the Radeon until I just now moved the computer to a newer monitor. After I awoke it from sleep with the new monitor, there would be massive video corruption which required restart. I had heard of sleep problems with the Radeons before, so I wondered if a ROM update would help. I suspected I might be taking a big chance with the ROM update, but not being able to sleep wasn't acceptable, so I went ahead and ran the "October 2004 ATI RADEON Universal ROM Update for ATI Retail Mac Cards" found here:
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27
After updating the ROM and restarting, now there's a multitude of vertical corruption lines and dots, not massive, but very much there and all over the screen. I think I may have ruined the card. Anyone with ideas?
Watch out for that link to the ATI page above. I should have tested it before I posted it. It'll take you to the general ATI support page, not the exact page, and might take awhile to get there.
Head over to strangedogs.com they deal with Mac card flashing. THey should have the links to the correct firmware so you can flash it back.
My nephew's 64MB R7K (Sapphire?) in his B & W had all the usual problems like display corruption after sleep and difficulties playing DVDs. The ROM update cured all those issues and it now appears to work flawlessly. Not sure how this helps you but I figured I'd report our experience.
Maybe the ROM update didn't 'take' properly, try running it again. What brand card have you got BTW?
dan k
It's an ATI Sapphire also. It was working great before I flashed it, played DVD's wonderfully, just had the sleep problem. I ran the update three times, no difference. I'll check out the strangedogs site. Thanks for the input.
Thank-you for the strangedogs website suggestion! Lots of good stuff there. Now I get to learn all about video cards. For anyone else who's interested, they've got a great primer page to flashing video ROMs here:
http://strangedogs.proboards40.com/index.cgi?board=experiments&action=display&thread=1111556315
I replaced the Radeon with an old Rage 128 Nexus I have. Now I've got to find the time to read through all that new info and put the card back in and attempt to resusitate. I'll post my results.
bought one from a less than clear eBayer, but he's fixing it for me if I can't do it myself. One site I saw said you need a PC to flash it once with a generic ROM, then a Mac to put a Mac ROM on there. sounds fishy. The Mac ROM is larger than the PC-varient of the card, ergo the problems with "updating" hacked cards. I don't know. I've been looking for solutions all day.
It's rather late to be pointing this out for HC, but one must always back up the ROM on the card before flashing it. Figured I'd add this to the thread as a warning to others.
dan k
You have to flash it with a generic rom because the ATI rom updater wont flash pc rom cards.. Atll the generic rom you flash is a mostly blank rom withe enough stuff to look like a mac rom. plus the pc flashers only flash part of the rom.
What does it mean to "backup" a ROM?
Backing-up a rom means making an exact binary copy of the rom and saving it to a file.. You doo ned a specalised program for this tho..
What program do you use to backup ROM? What kind of a file is it?
Here is an excellent artical on Flashing the rom of a card plus it has the proper software...
http://www.appletalk.com.au/articles/index.php?article=352
Well, I've downloaded the files and applications I think I need to flash the card, but the flashing utility doesn't seem to want to work. In OS X I open Graphiccelerator. I uncheck "check ROM size" in the Misc pulldown menu. I select the ROM: smallrom7000.rom. I'm supposing that is the reduced ROM version for the 7000. The ROM appears in the Graphiccelerator window. I click on the Open ATI Flasher button. I select the ATI Multi Flasher (without confirmation) 8.7 in the ATI tools folder. There is a blink like the application is opening, but then it doesn't and the Graphiccelerator window just sits there and nothing else comes up or seems to happen.
Well, it's been a year now since I last posted on this thread, and a year since I gave up on my attempts to rescue my Radeon 7000, and it's been sitting in a box for all that time unfixed, but I found a need for my Radeon card again, so I made another attempt to fix the ROM, and this time I was successful, and in the end, the ROM version probably wasn't the main problem all along!
Here's how I finally accomplished flashing the ROM to v.226 in the Radeon:
1) I accomplished this in my B&W G3. The monitor was hooked up to the Rage 128 OEM card in the B&W, and the Radeon 7000 was installed in one of the other PCI slots in the B&W.
2) I downloaded the ROM v.226 here:
http://strangedogs.sytes.net/
and placed it on my desktop.
3) Also downloaded Graphiccelerator:
http://mapage.noos.fr/campahunta/graphiccelerator.html
4) Mounted Graphiccelerator as diskimage on my desktop.
5) Opened the Graphiccelerator folder and then opened the ATI Tools folder. Then holding down the option key I dragged the ATI Multiflasher (with confirmation) to the desktop (this option key procedure is crucial--it makes an independent copy of the application on the desktop which is not locked).
6) Ran the "Run Me First" in the ATI Tools folder. Entered my password.
7) Opened the Graphiccelerator application.
8 ) Clicked on the "Open ATI Flasher" button. The "choose" window opens at this point and is already offering items in the Graphiccelerator folder. Don't choose from the Graphiccelerator folder. Instead, click on "desktop" in the window and choose the ATI Multiflasher (with confirmation) on the desktop (the one dragged onto the desktop with the option key). After clicking choose, wait for a window that pops up and says the flasher does not have a ROM chosen and asks if you want to choose a ROM for the flasher. Click yes, and then again, click "desktop" in the "choose" window that opens and choose the ATI ROM v.226 placed on the desktop. Wait a moment as the Graphiccelerator acquires the ROM. At this point, I clicked "save" and got the "done" window. The ATI Multiflasher on the desktop is now loaded with the correct ROM for the Radeon card.
Evidently, normally the Graphiccelerator program is supposed to ask you which video card in the machine you want to copy the ROM to. This step never occurs for me for reasons unbeknownst. The Graphiccelerator just sits there doing nothing, and I can find no command to initiate the process.
9) So here's the important twist: I opened my Classic system folder and copied the ATI Multiflasher (now with ROM v.226 as its flash component) from my desktop into the Startup Items folder in the Classic system by simply dragging it (no "option" needed). I then changed the startup disk in my OS X system preferences to the Classic system and restarted the computer into the Classic system.
10) When the Classic system finished booting, a window popped up and asked me if I wanted to flash the ATY Parent card in PCI slot J10 (where the Radeon card is) with the v.226 Rom? I clicked yes (see important caution in next paragraph first), and the flasher went to work and copied the ROM into my Radeon. Yeah!!!
When it finished that flashing, it then asked me if I wanted to flash the Rage128 card in slot J12. I clicked "no." THIS IS IMPORTANT. DO NOT ACCIDENTALLY FLASH YOUR PRIMARY VIDEO CARD. That will kill it if it's not a Radeon 7000 in this case.
11) Then go back to the Classic system Startup Items folder and remove the ATI Multiflasher.
Et Voila! Flashing is complete. I returned the computer startup disk to my OS X and shut down the computer, removed the Rage 128, moved the Radeon to the 66mhz video PCI slot (J12) where the Rage 128 was, and started up the computer.
REMEMBER, this is not how to flash a PC Radeon card that still has the PC Bios on it. In order to do that, check out this page:
Video Card Flashing FAQ
What I accomplished was a new install of a correct Mac ROM into a card that had already been flashed from PC to Mac, and which I had carelessly corrupted using the ATI updater.
--So I INSTALLED V.226 AND EVERYTHING SHOULD BE PEACHY KEEN, RIGHT? WRONG!!!--
Upon restarting the computer into OS X, the video corruption was still there.
So I took the advice on the strangedogs FAQ page about how video corruption was probably caused by too fast core and memory speeds on the Radeon and first downloaded ATI-celerator II, installed it, opened it, and tried to change the speed settings. It did not work. I could change the memory settings--which had no effect on the corruption when I lowered it, but increased the corruption when I increased the memory speed--but there was no effect at all on the Radeon when I changed the core settings (just as the read-me file for the program states is a known issue for some Radeon cards).
So instead, I opened up Graphiccelerator again, selected the same ATI Multiflasher with the v.226 ROM designated and changed the speeds in the Graphiccelerator window for the core and memory to 166mhz for both and clicked on "save." I then copied the flasher over to the Classic Startup Items folders and restarted into Classic and flashed the Radeon ROM again.
**Restarting into OS X I found the video corruption gone!** Hallelujah. I had chosen 166mhz just by intuition, and now I don't really know how fast I can actually increase the speed without the corruption recurring. I suppose I would have to go through the tedious process of changing the speeds and doing the whole restart into OS 9 over and over again to find the optimal settings. Not worth it. It works, so I'm happy so far.
One thing of note: Do not open the ATI-celerator II program after changing the speeds. Just opening the program will return the card to factory settings. I learned that the hard way. The video corruption immediately returned when I opened the program, and I had to go back and do the Graphiccelerator/Classic process all over again. I immediately trashed the ATI-celerator II. It looks like an excellent program, but it doesn't work for my particular card.
Case closed? I'm crossing my fingers.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSAA:US:11&Item=300006866393 and saved the hastle. I ordered mine a few days ago NIB for $27USD with shipping
Yep, I know. I kept telling myself, stop spending time on this and just buy another one, but you know, the challenge to fix it was there, and I guess I learned some things along the way--if only that I really should listen to that little voice that says stop now. That unfortunately, is a hard-learned lesson with the pesky computers for me.
That card you link to on eBay is one of the older version Radeon 7000. Mine is a Sapphire. I see the Sapphirre flashed models still sell for more--@$42. Is the Sapphire any better than the older ones? And what about the models with the fan on the video chip?