Fully Working (finally!) ATI Radeon HD 4650 on SL 10.6.6

[roosterboy]

Ok. Well, after hours, days if not weeks of searching various forums with no success, I have today managed to get my Sapphire HD4650 1Gb card working, with full QE/CI/OpenGL. My method may or may not work for you, but by all means, if you have become as frustrated as I had become, feel free to try. I haven't tested dual display, I only use the VGA output of my card, as my monitor is quite old!!

 

Firstly, my machine specs. I have an Intel Core2Duo processor @2.8Ghz, on an ASRock G31M-VS2 Motherboard, running 2 Gb RAM, and on-board LAN & Audio. I have used both USB and PS/2 mouses (mice?), and use a PS/2 keyboard. I have successfully installed both Windows & and Snow Leopard, (using either SATA or IDE), and am able to dual boot into either OS.

 

Here's how I did it, and what you'll need. I should stress that I specifically used a bootloader for my motherboard, however, other booters may still work.

 

You will need:

 

Pre-install:

The G31-M bootloader (which I believe is Chameleon, and attached to this post)

a retail copy of Snow Leopard (mine is 10.6.3)

 

Post Install:

 

a copy of the post-install tools attached to this post

an optional copy of the 10.6.6 combo update.

 

Firstly, start with a clean slate. Download the attached files and store them on a USB memory stick, extenal hard-drive, or another partition you can access from Snow Leopard). Burn a copy of the bootloader (attached) to CD, or feel free to use whichever one you think may work. At the prompt. eject the disk, insert the Snow Leopard retail disk, wait for a few seconds then hit F5. You should see the 'Mac OS X retail DVD' install icon. You may or may not wish to boot verbose, it's not necessary, but after highlighting the installation disk, type '-v' and hit enter. Wait for the 'Language Selection' screen to appear, then navigate to 'Disk Utilities' in the drop down menu. Re-partition your drive to HFS+ (the number of partitions is up to you, but if you use more than one, I suggest you name the first partition 'Snow Leopard', for ease of remembering!). Close the disk utility and continue with the installation process, until your copy of Snow has finished installing, including the reboot.

 

Replace the installation disk with the bootloader in the drive, wait for the prompt and select whichever drive you installed Snow onto. Again, verbose or not is up to you.

 

When the installation guide appears, follow the instructions on screen until you get to the Mac OS desktop.

 

From the attached files, double click the 'Chameleon 2 RC3' icon, and follow the instructions.

Then, double click the 'PCEFI 10.5 Installer G31M' icon, and follow the instructions. Next, double click the 'Kext Helper'. In the window that appears you'll need to drag two kexts from the 'SLE' folder, and install them. When you receive the message 'Install looks ok - cross fingers and reboot' - DON'T REBOOT!! Close the kext helper (you may need to 'force quit')

 

Next, in the 'SLE' folder is a sub-folder labelled 'Voodoo HDA panel + VoodooKiller'. Open this folder, and double click the 'Voodoo HDA.prefPane' icon. It should install that to your System Preferences window. After installing, you can close System Preferences. (you may or may not receive a registry error - ignore it if you do). Next, you'll want to copy the 'Voodoo Killer' folder to your /applications/utilities folder. Then re-open System Preferences, and click 'accounts'. The right hand button at the top of the screen is 'Login Items' - click it. Click the '+' icon near the bottom of the right pane, and navigate to where you just copied the 'Voodoo Killer' folder, and add the 'Voodoo Killer' application to your start-up items.

 

Now, reboot. You can use the CD booter, or use the one you just installed to your HD - it matters not. Select the hard drive installation location. Once again, you may wish to boot verbose - I didn't, and it installed just fine. Upon re-entering Mac OS, you'll again want to open System Preferences, and click the 'Network' icon. After a few seconds your ip address etc should load itself, and you'll have internet connectivity.

 

At the top of the screen, click the Apple icon, and from the drop down menu, select 'Software Update' (if you have the 10.6.6 combo update already, you can obviously skip this step!)

 

Allow your machine to download the update (or mount the .dmg combo update file), install and reboot.

 

Now, from the attached file(s), you'll need the three kexts from the kexts folder, PLUS YOUR AtiRadeonX2000 kext from your /System/Library/Extensions folder. Copy the 3 from my attachment, plus your kext to your desktop. You shouldn't need to modify the 3 of mine, but you will need to modify yours, so your DevId and VendorID match your card's. Now, my card being a HD4650, my DevId plus Vendor Id is 0x94981002. Remove all the other Id's from the ATIRadeonX2000 kext info.plist, and add your own Id. Install all four kexts with any kext helper of your choosing, or use the attached one.

 

Reboot.

 

When you re-enter the OS, your screen should be slightly darker than it was before. If it is, take it as good sign!!! Navigate to System Preferences, Displays, and you should have a plethora of resolutions to choose from. In the Desktop/Screensaver section ,you should also now be able to use ALL screen savers (if you can select any screensaver you choose - again, it's a good sign!)

 

Use the QuartzExtreme checker (attached) - and voila!! Full QE/CI, plus OpenGL.

 

I would like to add that I did not modify any of the kexts attached, nor provide any of the installers and/or utilities. These are things I have collected from my many fruitless attempts to get this ATI card to work. If I could remember where I got them, I would gladly credit them here, as I could not have done it otherwise.

 

I know this seems like a long-winded way of getting this to work, but so far it is the ONLY way I've got it to work. A clean install of 10.6.3, followed by the 10.6.6 update, and THEN modify/add the kexts. I have done this procedure BEFORE updating to 10.6.6, and reverted right back to square one, with either basic resolution and no QE/CI, or garbled screens, or plain blue or black screens. It may also work with the 'mobility' version of the card, and it may work with other HD4xxx series cards too. I don't possess those cards, so I am unable to test or confirm that this procedure will work. BUT - IT WORKED FOR ME!!!!!!!!

G31_M.zip

G31_M.iso.zip

[junior_desampa]

OI, sou Brasileiro, fiz tudo conforme sua explicação, mais infelizmente não funcionou, ele esta com a resolução maxima mas não esta acelerada, quartz extreme of.... o que eu fiz de errado???

 

Obrigado Junior