Need to Get my 8400 GS Working
 

I am able to install Kalyway 10.5.2 and I'm very happy with it, but I am missing one thing. I need to get my GeForce 8400 GS 256 Mb video card working so I can use both monitors. I have tried a few different methods and each time I must reinstall b/c I lose all video. I want to try to add the EFI string myself but I can't actually find the string for this particular card anywhere.

My PC is an HP Pavilion with Intel dual core CPU.

Any suggestions how I can get this card to work?

Thanks!

Hi !

This should be a quick howto. But first of all i would suggest all the new guys to do a quick search over the net as there are plenty of 'howtos', here at our forum, over at insanelymac or other related forums.

-Go find your device and vendor id, in case you'd have to add it to driver plist.

Tips for finding dev and ven id:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=36764

More information on adding dev/ven id, NVCAP and VRAM here:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=111072

Download GFXUTIL. Here i have attached edited plist for 8400 with 256MB (or any nvidia). You have to edit it for use with different ram amount, nvcap, etc. Before using this attached plist, in this particular case 8400GS, make sure your PciRoot matches the plist. If they do match no need for editing, if not then edit this plist file.

You can obtain device path with

it will return something like this
Edit the plist and replace this string with your output value.

Efi strings are added to file com.apple.Boot.plist located in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/
You have to add new key name <device-properties> and string with hex data. It looks like this:
its also done with gfxutil. Once you have your plist edited you convert it to hex data with gfxutil. Go to folder with gfxutil and type:
Command gfxutil:
./gfxutil -i xml -o hex inputfile.plist outputfile.hex

You can also convert hex file back to plist by setting -i (input file) -o (output file)
./gfxutil -i hex -o xml outputfilename.hex inputfilename.plist

Now you are done, add new key and string in com.apple.Boot.plist. Paste the hex data (SINGLE LINE) and SAVE.

Thank you. This did not work for me. I'm not 100% sure why, but I have now found two other how-tos about this:

http://forum.netkas.org/index.php?topic=222.0
http://aquamac.proboards106.com/inde...ck1&thread=509

and so I will try those.

After I did as you said, it boots up OK but it says quartz extreme not supported and I only have one monitor still.

Thank you for writing.

All these methods are similar, actually the process of making efi strings is the same always. You can go and compare. Did you add your device id properly? Flush extensions also, and rebuild them.

Take care.

** One of the friends recently told me that he can't get QE/CI with 8400GS on Vaio. He gets quartz but only on external monitor while internal laptop screen remains unsupported. You can go also do some research on this.

I am thinking now to get a new card. Seems that even those who can get the EFI right have a hard time getting two monitors to work with this card. Seems that other geforce cards are 'natively' supported by osx and so it's easier with them.

My 8400gs gives me headeaches from day 1. I have full QE/CI but the system is sooooo slow. I'm too considering on changing it.

YOu think it's slow due to the 8400GS?

Do you know if you can get 2 monitors on there, however? :)

i had a 8400gs too, got it to work with adding the 060610de id in the following three kexts (info.plist)

GeForce.kext
NVDANV50Hal.kext
NVDAResman.kext

if this isn't working for you guys then remove all nvidia related kexts via terminal:

Gef*
NV*

and try the zephyroth universal Nvidia installer!

clear the caches and reboot

after the Nvidia Universal installation and putting the right ids (060610de) in the info.plists again u should have full QE/CI

for dual monitor support u have to edit the nvcaps of you nvinject!

i have the right values @ home i will post them later!


i hope i can help you guys a little bit out :)

grtx ^fire^

Mine is 06e410de. What could be the difference between them?

I've tried putting the id into thoes kexts but same result. I've tried zephyroth's package and 10.5.4 included into leo4all. I haven't tried DVI output cause I only have a VGA monitor.

@FredJones: I think it's due to the 8400 cause before that I had a 7300gs with a superior performance.

If you could post those, and also tell me what file to edit for this, that will be great. I will try it.

Thanks!