Geforce 210
I have had 10.5.7 running perfectly for a while but then my video card decided to say goodbye so I replaced it (Gefroce 7600) with a Geforce 210. This has been fine in Windows but when I try to boot into Mac OS half way through booting my…
- Primary Author
- @dnyboy Published 2010-02-24
- Collection
- OSx86 Core & 10.X
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- 14,624 historical reads · 1 curated field notes (from 5 dispatches) · 2010-02-24 – 2010-03-17
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- @dnyboy (4)@rogabean
I have had 10.5.7 running perfectly for a while but then my video card decided to say goodbye so I replaced it (Gefroce 7600) with a Geforce 210. This has been fine in Windows but when I try to boot into Mac OS half way through booting my screens would freeze. So I have now decide to reinstall everything to see if I can get it working but im not having much luck, can anyone tell me what string/enabler/driver I am might use for this card to get it working?
Thanks Danny
My system is:
Tyan s2676
2 x Xeon 3GHz CPUs
Gainward Geforce 210 512mb
Author Updates & Technical Revisions
Follow-up dispatches by @dnyboy
Well I gave it a shot but it just hung when I rebooted. I haven't done this before so it's a new process to me, I was pretty confident I did everything right it just didn't work.
I dumped the BIOS using NiBiTor, ran NVCAP and gave it the .rom file from NiBiTor and it gave me the string "0400000000000300080000000000000700000000". Then using OSX86Tools I created a custom string using the settings 512mb and DVI/VGA (is that correct? I wasn't sure). I saved that so I could edit in the NVCAP, checked the com.boot.plist to make sure there were no graphic enablers (which there wern't) then reimported the edited .plist into OSX86Tools and told it to add to com.boot.plist and I got no love.
This is what it looked like, can anyone see anything wrong here?
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x4,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
<dict>
<key>@0,compatible</key>
<string>NVDA,NVMac</string>
<key>@0,device_type</key>
<string>display</string>
<key>@0,name</key>
<string>NVDA,Display-A</string>
<key>@1,compatible</key>
<string>NVDA,NVMac</string>
<key>@1,device_type</key>
<string>display</string>
<key>@1,name</key>
<string>NVDA,Display-B</string>
<key>NVCAP</key>
<data>
0400000000000300080000000000000700000000
</data>
<key>NVPM</key>
<data>
AQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==
</data>
<key>VRAM,totalsize</key>
<string>0x20000000</string>
<key>device_type</key>
<string>NVDA,Parent</string>
<key>model</key>
<string>NVIDIA GeForce 210</string>
<key>name</key>
<string>display</string>
<key>rom-revision</key>
<string>NVIDIA GeForce 210 OpenGL Engine [EFI]</string>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>Just had a thought, Im trying to get this working on 10.5.7
Rogabean has is going on 10.6.2, does that mean by following the same method it will definitely work on other (or older) version? Can anyone give advice?
I have checked the wiki os86Project site and there is no mention of this card till 10.6.2
Synthesized Community Field Notes
1 technical responses curated from 5 original dispatches
I had some luck with this card and Graphics Enabler, but truthfully never got it to work acceptably. (I'm using 10.6.2)
I dumped my own BIOS using NiBiTor
ran NVCAP on that to get the needed string
OSx86Tools - Created an EFI string using custom generic 512 setting with the nvcap from above
Removed Graphics Enabler from the com.apple.Boot.plist completely
Added to EFI string created in OSx86Tools myself into my Boot.plist
Booted up and card works great.
*note I tried using BIOS files online first for this card with varied levels of success, I don't recommend it.