[G4] identifying a Radeon 8500

[Kevin Willis]

On Dec 28, 2004, at 4:03 PM, David N. Paules wrote:

> Did you ever find an answer to your question about identifying an 
> authentic Mac radeon 8500 card?
> I purchased an 8500 from an eBay reseller and have also been 
> experiencing deadlocks. The deadlocks appeared at different times with 
> different OS updates. in 10.3.5 I had them while playing a game, but 
> then 10.3.6 fixed those issues.
> Now I am seeing those deadlocks again in 10.3.7, but not in the game, 
> only in the process of waking from deep sleep. Grrr. The seller claims 
> the card was taken directly from an older Mac, but I don't believe 
> him.
>  
> Dave Paules

	No, I never got a definite answer.  Everything on the ATI web site 
referred to a "102" part number.  Both of mine are "109".  Both of the 
cards seemed to work fine under 10.3.6 until I updated the ROM.  After 
that, reapplying the old ROM didn't even solve the problem.  I finally 
got one of them to work quite by accident.  I put my Radeon 7000 PCI 
card in along with the 8500 AGP in an attempt to flash it to work in my 
wife's PC.  The flashing didn't work, but the 8500 has been running 
just fine as long as the 7000 is installed beside it.  Go figure.  The 
only problem I have had with the card since is when I tried playing 
Halo at 1280 X 1024.  It runs all day at 800 X 600 though.

	As a side note, after trying several different ROMS on the "Mac 
compatible" card, I e-mailed the seller.  He just happened to have a PC 
ROM for it.  I had him send it to me.  After a blind flashing of it, I 
got it to work just fine in my wife's PC.  Now if I can just find a way 
to quiet the fan down a bit.

Good luck


Kevin