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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Install Nvidia GeForce2 MX-400

krbmedia - Aug 23, 2007 - 10:04 pm

I am a Windows guy and Mac newbie trying to figure out how to install this video card in my mac. In Windows you install the drivers first, shut down and then install. How would I do it with this card? Its supposed to be mac friendly but when I put it in and booted, I got a blank screen.

Also, does this have the Quartz Extreme needed for Final Cut Express?

DeltaMac - Aug 23, 2007 - 11:30 pm

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301347

some PowerMac models shipped with the Geforce MX, but not the 400 model, which was sold for use in PCs.
Your GF MX-400 can be flashed for use on the Mac.
Look at this thread for some possible links. You have to flash the card while installed in a PC.
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=3208

Yours seems to not be flashed for the Mac, as a PC-rom vid card does what you have (which is nothing) Mac friendly does not mean Mac compatible.
A Mac-flashed card (originally sold for PCs) is often unstable. The reason is that the PC rom is just barely large enough to hold the Mac-flashed rom. (The original Mac version of these cards has a larger ROM chip.) The result of flashing a PC card to use in a Mac, is an unstable video card. Not something I would use with Final Cut Express.

krbmedia - Aug 24, 2007 - 7:18 am

OK. Can you recommend a cheap card that will work?

krbmedia - Aug 24, 2007 - 10:34 am

Also, something else happened that's very weird. I have a portable drive, formatted in NFTS, that both my eMac and my iMac could read/write to. Now my Powermac cannot write to it. Any ideas why.

DeltaMac - Aug 24, 2007 - 7:11 pm

You can't write or modify files on an NTFS volume from a Mac (and most other OSes other than Windows). NTFS volumes will generally remain read-only until Microsoft provides the tools to modify. So far, MS does not allow that. There is some open-source software that does allow writes, but not by default through the system. Perhaps you have used this -
http://www.ntfs-3g.org/index.html
Or, you must have another drive which is in fat32 format, which any Mac can write to. NTFS is the bane of MS, I think....

The Radeon 9200 AGP card for the Mac would be a good one, if you can find the AGP version (and if you want the AGP version)
http://daystar-store.com/index.asp?P...ROD&ProdID=507

- Dale

krbmedia - Aug 25, 2007 - 10:43 am

I could have sworn I was able to before.

krbmedia - Sep 21, 2007 - 12:45 am

OK, I just purchased an ATI Radeon 9600Pro Pc & Mac Edition AGP Card, without the software or installations instructions. The ATI website is no help.

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/m...3x-radeon.html

Which of these do I install first? Do I need to reset the PRAM when I boot up. Can you give me a step by step guide?

DeltaMac - Sep 21, 2007 - 7:56 am

There's just one to install. The 'retail update' is not required (as stated on your link). You could try the card without installing any software, then install the ATI displays panel if you can't get it to work properly at first. the panel provides a way to change some of the optional settings on the card.
The card should work without any installs. Resetting the PRAM will probably be necessary, with a major hardware change, the reset is a good choice.
- Dale

krbmedia - Sep 21, 2007 - 8:27 am

I will try it today and let you know.

krbmedia - Sep 21, 2007 - 10:40 am

It works without installing the drivers however system profiler shows the old card (yet it does show it supports Quartz Extreme). Its not showing the ATI with the 256 MB of memory.

krbmedia - Sep 21, 2007 - 11:14 am

Forget it. I bought the card used and forgot which model it was supposed to be and he shipped it in the ATI box (but he sold me the GeForce - so no rip off)