ZOTAC nVidia GeForce 8400GS 512MB DDR3 VGA/DVI/HDMI PCI-Express Low Profile Video Card

[arikstress]

Hi All,

 

I'm so glad finally my Zotac finally working properly... too bad i only has 1 GB memory so i can't testing it on macosx Lion. At the first time i try this card only has native resolution properly but no Acceleration.

 

I was trying to use many tutorial from insanelymac, tonymac, etc and find a way how to enable this card, but no one has this zotac with DDR3 succeed with fully 3d Hardware Acceleration.

 

 

I want to share this to you all who have this you has this low budget card to build your own Mackintosh

If you'd like to find more info about this card and price on ebay, you can see at this link

 

My Hardware that i tested :

 

MB: Asus P5GC mx/1333

VGA : ZOTAC NVIDIA 8400GS 512MB DDR3 PCIE

methode :

1. using iatkos s3 v2 then 10.6.6 combo updater

2. using [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] , Retail DVD v. 10.6.0 then 10.6.6 combo updater

 

lspci :

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ/P/PL Memory Controller Hub (rev 02)
  00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ/P/PL PCI Express Root Port (rev 02)
  00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
  00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
  00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 01)
  00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
  00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
  00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
  00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)
  00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
  00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev e1)
  00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
  00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 01)
  00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 01)
  00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
  02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Attansic Technology Corp. L2 100 Mbit Ethernet Adapter (rev a0)
  04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 10c3 (rev a2)
  04:00.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0be3 (rev a1)

 

box and device preview

 

 

step :

 

1. As usual, install your mac osx. You can install ur mac with your onboard vga first, or you can install using iatkos s3v2 first which is SL 10.6.3 without using [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]. If you were using retail dvd , I recommend you using onboard vga because mac will denied booting with this card and never going inside installation process :banghead:

 

2. After Installation success and you can go into your SL using default safe vga, make sure you have [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] installed, so it will make you faster processing bootup.

(on tutorial , usually installing [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] after updating to 10.6.6 but i prefer do that earlier just in case. for example, i always install [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] after i install retail version 10.6 ) :roll:

*note* if you were upgrading from iatkos s3v2 make sure disabler.kext on /Extra/Extensions removed before you reboot. after updating to 10.6.6

if you wanna know why, it's because making kernel panic and i can't repair it. but thank God i can boot into installer and using Terminal to remove from there.

 

3. Install pfix *must be

 

4. Now, the tricky part is almost like the same way as ddr2 tutorial, you have to edit following files on your system.

1. /System/Library/Extensions/GeForce.kext
  2. /System/Library/Extensions/NVDANV50Hal.kext
  3. /System/Library/Extensions/NVDANV40Hal.kext
  4. /System/Library/Extensions/NVDAResman.kext

example :

in my case, my hardware id for vga is 10c3 and for sound 0be3

so , i input this line into each kexts

0x010c310de&xxxxxx
0x0be310de&xxxxxx

 

x= follow the template on each kext

 

input in each file following the template on each file. i notice there is a different 00xfffxxxxx in each files, so becareful do not just copy paste without seeing the differences.

 

after you edited all kexts, make sure you also have that kexts in /Extra/Extensions too. i also included my kext which i put on /Extra/Extensions ExtraEx.zip

 

If you wondering why i have to put this to E/E also , i don't even know , because if i dont have it in E/E, it's not working for me. i just had trial and error and not sleeping in one night until it's success .

 

4. Run pfix on terminal (this step is also useful after you modify kext also when sometimes it's going to be blue screen without seeing any desktop but system is running)

 

5. reboot , and choose verbose to see how it is going.

 

In my case, i saw in verbose message that NVEnabler didn't recognize this card, even i change my id on INFO.PLISTS on it's kext.

 

note: do not erase this NVEnabler because it has dependencies with all NV**.kexts

 

i already tried it and my pc don't start at all .. hihihihi

 

Be calm, it's not real mac, so just wait until you going into your desktop. at the first time if it's working, you may see that your resolution going to be 800x600 , not 1024x768 at first.

 

But hey, it's working. you can directly change resolution depends on your monitor / TV , 3d is working, HDMI working except for the sound feature on HDMI connection *even i input my sounds id on kexts

And if you can see top taskbar is transculent, finger crossed, let's pray it's working now.

 

In my mac, my vga recognized as "Unknown Nvidia" , but it's working perfectly with 3d

 

details:

 

Unknown nVidia card:

 

Chipset Model: Unknown nVidia card

Type: GPU

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 512 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x10c3

Revision ID: 0x00a2

Displays:

Display Connector:

Status: No Display Connected

BenQ T51W:

Resolution: 1280 x 800 @ 60 Hz

Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Rotation: Supported

 

ps: sorry for bad english

[Badruzeus]

Hello arikstress, a very nice post.

A have the same VGA as yours; (ZOTAC with nVIDIA GeForce 8400GS @ 512 MB DDR3 64-bit PCI-e)

 

I've using it on my Acer ASPIRE M1800 PC (nForce 630i Chipset with DualCore CPU E5200 @ 2.5 GHz, 2 GB RAM DDR2, 2 x 320 GB SATA HDD, DVD-R/W Dual Layer) and everything work fine with iATKOS L2 (Mac OSX Lion 10.7.2 - Upgraded to 10.7.3). With just adding my Device ID to NVDANV50Hal.kext on S/L/E and boot with "arch=i386 Graphics Enabler=Yes" ... all accellerations and resolutions work OOB fully Q/E & CI.

 

But now, I found some problems when using it on my new PC with this specs:

Vendor : Lenovo H310 Desktop PC

Chipset : Intel 82801G SounthBridge

Processor : Intel DualCore CPU E6700 @ 3.2 GHz

VGA : OnBoard Intel G41 (detected as unknown 64 MB on Snow Leo 10.6.2 & Lion 10.7.2)

HDD : Western Digital @ 500 GB, SATA-7200 RPM

Memory : Samsung 2 GB DDR3 Single RAM

Others : Lenovo 18" LCD Monitor, DVD-R/W, Realtek OnBoard Ethernet, Card Reader, PS/2 Keyboard & USB Mouse.

Misc : No AHCI Mode on BIOS (but just IDE), VT Tech, Video Mode Switch (between Onboard & PCI-e)

 

The installation succeeded; iATKOS L2 DVD using the OnBoard VGA.

Some problems occur when I decided to replace the OnBoard VGA with my 8400GS PCI-e. All accelerations & resolutions work fine with fully Q/E & C/I (just a same as above method), but wait... now i get very slow OS Performance and unfortunately my PS/2 Mouse & USB Keyboard couldn't run perfectly (jittery, acceleration problem, I couldn't move it on). Then, I try to replace the USB Mouse with PS/2 Port, using other mouse / keyboard but it doesn't work anymore. When using OnBoard VGA (1024x768 Native Resolution; X4500.kext compatibility issue, no Q/E & C/I) it works perfectly (Both PS/2 Keyboard & USB Mouse).

 

So, I assume that 8400GS VGA caused this problem.

(Additional: When booting with "-v" option, I got some outputs that ALPSGlidePoint, VoodooPS2SynapticsTouchPad, and ApplePS2Trackpad are loaded. I don't know what this mean, since I'm sure that my PC doesn't have this hardware. I've tried to remove it from S/L/E, but I found nothing there...!?)

 

Please, help me to fix this problem... Thanks very much, and I apologize for my bad English.. (I'm Indonesian too :wink2: )