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Dumb Questions from a Windows Guy... (video card troubleshooting)

Posted by: Tom2112 on 2021-10-15 15:54:52 So I got an Apple GeForce 4 video card upgrade for my G4 Quicksilver. It's definitely a Mac card, as it has the proprietary Apple monitor connector as well as a DVI port. So I yanked the old ATI Rage card out and put the GeForce in, then fired up the G4... and I didn't get any video. 🙁 Now, if I was working on a Windows box (what I'm familiar with), I would boot it into safe mode and make sure the driver was installed... But I have no idea if safe mode is even a thing on Macs. So, time for the stupid questions: Do I need to put the old card back in, then install some drivers? Is there a Mac "safe mode" that I can use to install the drivers? Or do Macs have some magic built-in drivers or updater or something I'm missing? Or, am I just crazy and should follow normal "bad video card" troubleshooting proceedures because it should have displayed something. (all I got was a blank screen and a "no signal" error on the monitor) Thanks in advance, Tom

Posted by: Tom2112 on 2021-10-15 16:00:00 BTW, I am booting in OSX 10.4. Later I hope to try out OS 9.2.2.

Posted by: Byrd on 2021-10-15 18:00:00 Hi Tom, What's the Geforce 4 GPU, and which Mac do you think it came from? Owing to a change in AGP 8X pinouts you might need to tape pins 3 & 11, see here: Pins 3 And 11 - The Mac Elite themacelite.wikidot.com Answering some Qs, in a Mac if it works you'll get grey screen on boot, no need for drivers at this stage - extensions that load later will enable acceleration and other features.

Posted by: Tom2112 on 2021-10-17 18:35:48 I tried Googling the part numbers on the card, but didn't get anywhere... It does clearly say it is an nVidia model A74... whatever that is. Surprisingly, I couldn't find much on that model in Google. Some suspect it is a GeForce4 MX from a Mirrored Drive Doors G4... I don't know. Here's pics of the card if anyone cares to ID it.

Posted by: Tom2112 on 2021-10-17 18:40:15 Some of the GeForce4 MX cards were AGP 4x, some were 8x. So I may need to mod the card as you suggested Byrd. Thanks for the info!

Posted by: Byrd on 2021-10-18 20:24:19 Hi Tom, Later Quicksilver models did come with Geforce 4 MX GPUs; it should just work. However, check if yours is keyed to AGP 8X and the usual troubleshooting - cleaning card contacts, resetting CUDA before start up. JB

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