IMPORTANT INFORMATION for the
ATI RADEON X800 XT Mac Edition
Firmware Update v108

May 2005

Release Notes for Mac OS X

Version 108 corrects a kernel panic at startup problem experienced by some users. There are no other changes from the previous 107 release.

Added built-in Firmware Fan control

Fan control has been implemented within the card's firmware to maintain full fan control with or without the presence of the ATI ROM Xtender file. This update is recommended for all X800 XT Mac Edition cards.

Previous reports documented the loss of fan control after accidentally losing the ATI ROM Xtender in the System's Extension folder. With this update, fan control is enabled early in the boot process and maintained with or without this extension file present.

To re-install the extension file, simply run the original RADEON X800 installation, this update or a newer ATI web released driver update.

• Bootable Mac OS X 10.3.5+ or 10.4
• Retail RADEON X800 XT Mac Edition
• Firmware Update application file
• The computer MUST NOT be interrupted (shut down or power failure) during firmware update

IMPORTANT: Do not turn off your computer while the firmware update is being applied.*  Do not run any other applications while running the firmware update.

Safe Boot is required to use this ROM Update. Hold shift during boot to Safe Boot.

1. Make sure the RADEON card is installed in one of the computer's AGP slot.
2. Boot the computer into Mac OS X 10.3.5+ or 10.4
3. Locate the ATI RADEON ROM firmware update application file (ATI RADEON ROM update)
4. Double-click the file to launch it
5. Follow the on-screen prompts
6. While flashing, you will see a new window pop up with text showing the current ROM version and new version being flashed
7. When complete, this window will automatically close and you will be prompted to restart the system - you're done

Note: It is normal behavior for the RADEON card's TV-Out display and/or VGA connected through DVI-I port to go blank during the flash procedure. Please wait and any such display will return once the flashing has completed.

For convenience, the firmware update will work with or without a display connected to the RADEON X800 XT Mac Edition card.

*WARNING: If your computer is accidentally shut down in the middle of the update, you may need to use a secondary video card to start the system and re-apply the update. Ensure that you Safe Boot on startup.

A flash failure due to power loss or other interruption of the flash procedure (system crash/hang) will generally leave the RADEON card with an invalid or blank ROM. When booting such a card you will not have a valid display. Apple System Profiler will show this card with a name of "pcifff,ffff." You will need to boot from a different (PCI) card to run the flash program again. Run this version of the flash program to repair a previously blanked RADEON card.