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Links and Info — Apple Macintosh

Our collection of Mac info

Most links here are more specifically related to Apple Macintosh issues.

We've left a lot of older stuff in the list, since Macs tend to get used a long time and certain info can take a bit of finding.

Northlight no longer supplies Apple Mac support and consultancy services in Leicester and the UK East Midlands

See our Apple Mac Services section for more info.

We have usability and design page which has info relevant to any platform.

A <404?> next to any link means we think it may be dead but it will be kept in the list for a while.

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Using a cheap PC Geforce MX2 / Radeon 7000 card on your Mac

OS X 10.3 and non Apple video cards - problems with Panther?

- one of our modified MX2 cards works fine in 10.2, but not in 10.3 It would seem that Apple have dropped support in OS X 10.3 for some older 'non Apple' cards. A possible fix is at http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031101233045375 - unfortunately not for our card...

However 10.3.2 restored it to life and all is well again!

Flashing a new BIOS for the card is relatively simple -IF- the chip on the card is reprogrammable (by the flash software) We've successfully done this for a couple of cards (MX2), but make sure you get one that can be flashed! Check the type of chip first before you buy a card. A list of supported EEPROMs (from the PC Flasher s/w) is:

SST 29EE512 64Kx8 5.0V, 128B page,
SST 29LE/VE512 64Kx8 2.9,2.7V, 128B page,
SST 29EE010 128Kx8 5.0V, 128B page,
SST 29LE/VE010 128Kx8 2.9,2.7V, 128B page,
SST 39VF512 64Kx8 2.7-3.6V, 1B page,
SST 39VF010 128Kx8 2.7-3.6V, 1B page,
SST 39SF010 128Kx8 5.0V, 1B page,
Atmel 29C512 64Kx8 5.0V, 128B page,
Atmel 29C010A 128Kx8 5.0V, 128B page,
Atmel 29LV512 64Kx8 3.0V, 128B page,
Atmel 29LV/BV010A 128Kx8 3.0V, 128B page,
Atmel 49F512 64Kx8 5.0,3.0,2.7V, 1B page,
Atmel 49F001 128Kx8 5.0V, 1B page,
Atmel 49F001T 128Kx8 5.0V, 1B page,
Atmel 49F010 128Kx8 5.0V, 1B page,
Atmel 49(H)BV/LV01 128Kx8 2.7-3.6V, 1B page,
AMD 29LV010 128Kx8 2.7vV, 1B page,
AMD 29LV001T 128Kx8 2.7vV, 1B page,
AMD 29LV001B 128Kx8 2.7vV, 1B page,
MX 29F001T 128Kx8 5.0V, 1B page,
MX 29F001B 128Kx8 5.0V, 1B page,
ST M29W512B 64Kx8 2.7-3.6V, 1B page,
WBond W29EE512 64Kx8 5.0V, 128B page,

The important bit is the type number (eg 29EE512) This info may be hidden under a sticky label on the chip. The chips are often about 1cm square and may have several other codes on them.

The following info was posted by Jeff Walther on the unsupported OSX forum

"The flash RAM is actually a Serial EEPROM chip. It is the little eight pin chip near the upper left-hand corner of the card. The small ones are marked 25P05. The big-enough ones are marked 25P10. In each case the number may be preceded with an 'M' and/or followed by an 'AV'.

To complicated matters, some of the early cards from Sapphire shipped with a chip marked 25P05 which was actually one of the 25P10 chips. Go figure.

Also, I've seen cards shipped with an Atmel chip (the 25Pxx are STMicro chips). The Atmel chip had sufficient capacity, but the Mac flasher does not know what to do with the Atmel chip.

If you are a little bit skilled at soldering, you can replace the 25P05 chip with a 25P10 chip. They're available from DigiKey for a couple of bucks plus shipping and surcharge for orders under $25. I think Mouser may also have them.

If you have the Mac based flasher that ATI released to fix cards with corrupted EEPROMs (October release of 2.08 ?, I think) it will flash a card with a blank 25P10 installed. So one can just solder in the new/blank 25P10, and then flash the card on a Mac."

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