I bought a misc box of parts at the computer show last weekend and I finaly went though it. It mostly has video cards and sound cards. I found a GeForce 5200 AGP 128MB vram I want to flash for my sawtooth. Can anyone help me locate the ROM for this? I've tryed flashing it twise and the mac ROM I found doesn't like the card. The card is made by MSI if it helps.

You can try heading over to strangedogs and see what they have to say about flashing the MSI boards. Other than that, good luck.

Is the ROM the right size? I believe the Mac ROMs have a tendency to be twice as big. Sadly not all the chips on PC versions are big enough to handle it.

Speaking of which (my G4 is indeed also a sawtooth-version  ;D) I have successfully flashed a eVGA-branded NVIDIA FX5200 Geforce video card to work on this Mac of mine, a 128 meg card as well!

I found the instructions on some site that I can't remember for the life of me, and the ROM that I used was also on an obscure site that I lost the bookmark to.  But if you have any questions on it or how to do it (or maybe if you want the rom from me) then do not hesitate to email me:

My email for such requests is: [url=mailto:digiplaya@gmail.com]mailto:digiplaya@gmail.com[/url]. Furthermore, please only send what I mentioned you to ask above to me. I don't want anything else.

Sorry if I just violated forum rules here, but I guess it's ok as long as I don't post the ROM or anything on the forum itself, right? So...if you want the ROM for a generic or otherwise FX5200, then simply mail me and I'll get you up and running.

Tom a.k.a digiplaya2007

Are you using the nvflash utility for DOS? I just went through hell and back to flash a 256meg version. Try using a command like this...

"nvflash -4 -5 -6 (the name of your .rom file).rom"

Without the quotes and without parenthesis.
then hit "y" for the messages that come up next. there should be three messages.
The -4 command will override the board ID, the -5 will override the sub, and i forget what the -6 overrides (i'm not infront of a PC right now, sorry).

I tryed it and it didn't work. I even tryed the tape mod on the pins on the card and no luck. I flashed it back with the PC ROM and it works so I didn't kill the card. I guess i'll have to live with my ATI 7000.

I have flashed several Nvidia cards (1 FX 5500, and 2 6800Gts ) using the same method all 3 have worked flawlessly.
Try this method with a PC in dos mode:

use NVflash

then back up old rom whith this command: NVflash -b backup.rom

next command: NVflash -e

then: NVflash -p -u -f (insert rom name).rom

If you make a mistake use this command to restore your back up rom:
NVflash -p -u -f backup.rom

make sure to tape pins 3 and 11 after the flash

I only use the Strangedogs roms. They work great.

Hope this helps.

I tried it in DOS. I even tried it in Linux.

It says that it flashed successfully. Tossed it in the mac and no video. I get the chime boot sound too. I taped pins 3 and 11. Same thing.

Heres a pic of the card http://68.209.133.69/fx.jpg

Ok, i have done this to several 5200 Nvidia cards. First you need the latest NV flash utility (version 5.1.6 i think, or later). Then go get the 5200/5500 rom (the 64K version) since the rom on the card will not be the 128K version.
Then you create a bootdisk on floppy and have a second floppy with the rom and the flash utility. Boot from the bootdisk. After coming to the A:/ prompt, eject bootdisk and insert flash disk. Now you type in this exactly...
nvflash -4 -5 -6 -j (insert rom name here)
What that will do is flash the rom without any of the annoying crap telling you that the strings are mismatched and will flash the rom anyways. Once that is done, it will ask if you want to continue with the overwriting flash. Press the "Y" key and the rest of the flashing procedure will continue. After it is finished, you can shut down the computer and be prepared to insert the card in a G4. As for taping pins 3 and 11, this is necessary for the Gigabit Ethernet G4's and later. Not the Sawtooths. Don't ask, i found out that that pins 3 and 11 on the AGP connector is for powering the card in 8X speeds. Since the Sawtooths don't have that, it's not needed. Later G4's and the Cube require it. Though the G5 8X ports don't require taping of the pins either. Also, according to the strangedog's site, this is imperative. Mac OS 10.4.3 is the minimum required to run the card.
Hopefully this helps you with flashing your card. Have fun.

Does this card suffer any wake up from sleep issue, espcially on VGA connection?