VOGONS

ATI Rage 128 Pro MAC to PC flash

Topic actions

First post, by fool

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

I have couple of these 109-63000-00 MAC cards + couple of Xpert 2000 Pro 32MB 64-bit cards.

Atiflash didn't want to read flash from MAC card, so though I was clever and replaced flash chip from Xpert 2000 to MAC-one.
Of course it wasn't so easy. As a result I have ATI Xpert 2000 Pro 8MB with 64-bit membus... I think MAC-card uses the whole 128-bit bus and now BIOS configures it to use only 64-bit and sees only half of the onboard 16MB. Clocks were 120/120 in Xpress 2000 Pro and it that seemes to work.

I tried one or two BIOS from http://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu/item/ … ti-rage-128-pro but none of them worked with my card - no post after flashing.

I have read many threads about the topic and most of them ends without solution. There is register MEM_BUS_WIDTH (0=64bit, 1=128bit). Before I try to locate it from BIOS dump, does someone have a file I could flash test?

Toshiba T8500 desktop
SAM/CS9233 Wavetable Synthesizer daughterboard
Coming: 40-pin 8MB SIMM kit, CS4232 ISA wavetable sound card

Reply 1 of 5, by douglar

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I posted a list of ATI add-in boards here-- https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/ATI#ATI_ … e_add-in_boards (please send me corrections & additions)

Your board is a "109-63000-00" which I think was named "Xclaim Dual Rage 128 Pro". "Xclaim" was the name for the mac product line. Not sure what the PC name would be.

If you can find a PC bios for a board with a part number like "109-63000-x0", there's a chance it could work, but I'm not finding any revisions of the board other than "-00", which hurts your chances.

The 8 chip SOJ SDRAM config only seems to appear on the Xclaim cards. 109-63000-10 & 109-72700-02

Reply 2 of 5, by Kahenraz

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Did you ever get this working? Also, even with the reduced bus width, does the DVI portion work with the new BIOS?

Reply 3 of 5, by douglar

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I picked up a 109-A13600-10. It’s a mac 9600xt die shrink with usb over agp and a 4 pad edge connector for extea power. https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/ati- … n-9600xt-mac-g5

It doesn’t PCI enumerate during plug and play, probably because it has the mac rom. Maybe also because the extra power connectors are not attached. Whatever the case, even if I boot using a pci card, the ati flash program can’t see the card, so I can’t try flashing with a pc rom. Any suggestions on how to flash the rom without desoldering the eeprom.

Reply 4 of 5, by Kahenraz

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I didn't have the expertise to figure this one out and ended up selling my card off. Good luck to anyone who can solve this.

Reply 5 of 5, by paradigital

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
douglar wrote on 2025-12-27, 01:50:

I picked up a 109-A13600-10. It’s a mac 9600xt die shrink with usb over agp and a 4 pad edge connector for extea power. https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/ati- … n-9600xt-mac-g5

It doesn’t PCI enumerate during plug and play, probably because it has the mac rom. Maybe also because the extra power connectors are not attached. Whatever the case, even if I boot using a pci card, the ati flash program can’t see the card, so I can’t try flashing with a pc rom. Any suggestions on how to flash the rom without desoldering the eeprom.

Pretty sure the extra power connection is just for ACD power passthru (to power an ADC monitor), and isn’t required for the card to run.

If you really don’t want to desolder the ROM can you try a clip and still use an external programmer that way?

Go to top of page Go to top of page
Back to General Old Hardware
Close window
Close window