ne1 ever flash a Nvidia BIOS?

[PoppaGeek]

The 192 core card is now sitting on a shelf. Tired of even trying. 1st of month I should have a new PSU and will try it under Linux. I still do not think it is a hardware problem but a software problem. I asked Nvidia if ther was a different BIOS and never got an answer. So looking around I have found some but no info on what they are or what differences.

Nvidia and EVGA play so many games with these cards and changing stuff and calling it the same card that I feel it is a BIOS issue or something about the card that is different from the norm and it is making it so driver sensitive.

Any one try flashing BIOS on Nvidia? Know a good reputable site for BIOS?

[PoppaGeek]

Dunno if this will make any difference but I know a few people here have EVGA cards that were supposed to be 55nm and GPU-z showed them as 65 nm. Well one of my 260 216s showed as 65 nm in GPU-z but Everest says 55 nm, which is what it is supposed to be. GPU-z shows my other 260 216 as 55.

[Plan.B]

Know a good reputable site for BIOS?

http://www.mvktech.net/

[PoppaGeek]

Does anyone know, is a video card BIOS like a MB BIOS? Is it logical to think a BIOS flash MIGHT help? Or does it just control fan speed and stuff. Can I flash a 192 core with a 216 BIOS?

[JackOfAll]

Is it logical to think a BIOS flash MIGHT help? Or does it just control fan speed and stuff.

It's possible a bios update might help.


Can I flash a 192 core with a 216 BIOS?

Oh no, I wouldn't do that! (Unless someone who has actually done it tells you their card worked OK afterwards.) I can't see there being a problem flashing another manufacturers 216 bios to a 216 card, ie. like to like, but I wouldn't try putting a bios from a 216 shader model onto a 192, or vice-versa. You might end up "bricking" your card.

EDIT: As I'm coming in on the tail end of a conversation, exactly what is the problem with the card? Just flakey? Have you tried running the CUDA G80 memory tester (http://folding.stanford.edu/English/DownloadUtils) on it - does that flag up any memory errors?

[PoppaGeek]

It's possible a bios update might help.



Oh no, I wouldn't do that! (Unless someone who has actually done it tells you their card worked OK afterwards.) I can't see there being a problem flashing another manufacturers 216 bios to a 216 card, ie. like to like, but I wouldn't try putting a bios from a 216 shader model onto a 192, or vice-versa. You might end up "bricking" your card.

EDIT: As I'm coming in on the tail end of a conversation, exactly what is the problem with the card? Just flakey? Have you tried running the CUDA memory tester on it - does that flag up any memory issues?

The reason I asked about a 216 BIOS on a 192 was because the only place I have found so far for Nvidia BIOS does not specify cores. I see no way of telling except the BIOS number and GTX 260. :shrug:

I had this GTX 260 192 core on the 810 system in my sig. With driver 182.50 it was flawless on F@H and GPUGrid and games. GPUgrid went to requiring CUDA 2.2 or 2.3 so I had to upgrade drivers and NONE would work. Failed WUs and crashing game. Tried almost all drivers upto 190.62. So I moved it to F@H and 182.50 and it was fine. Did over 100 F@H WUs with no failures.

Then I got 2 more GTX 260 (216) and moved the 192 to the 9850 system. The 2 GTX 260 216 have been flawless under 190.62 in both machines. So nothing wrong with my machines or Vista 64. No crash in game, F@H or GPUGrid.

Put the 192 in the 9850 and it would work under NO driver I tried without crashing in games, failed F@H WUs and failed GPUGrid. I went from 180 thru 190.82 and none would work without problems. I have run thousands of CUDA Mem Test loops and never an error.

This has gone on for over 3 months. There is something about the card that causes it to be very sensitive to the driver and system it is on. I have updated BIOS and drivers on MBs and all update to Vista 64. Only thing left I think is either move it to Linux or upgrade it's BIOS.

I asked EVGA about BIOS and got no answer except "some WUs fail". :eek:

I will get a new PSU the first of the month and will try it under Linux on one of my Opterons. Guess I could RMA it although i do not think it is a hardware problem. Just tired of fighting with it.

[JackOfAll]

The reason I asked about a 216 BIOS on a 192 was because the only place I have found so far for Nvidia BIOS does not specify cores. I see no way of telling except the BIOS number and GTX 260. :shrug:

OK, exactly what make/model no is the card. Do you know what bios version is currently installed on it? (Don't know a lot about Windows$ apps but assume that something like GPUZ will give it. Failing that NiBiTor or 'nvflash -l'.) On mvktech, the zip files containing the bios files usually have the bios version number in the name and description. Normally only the last couple of digits differ, even between different vendor versions of the same card. I'll try and do a little research if you provide the name/model/bios version.


Only thing left I think is either move it to Linux or upgrade it's BIOS.

But it did work originally with Window$ and the 182.50 driver and no problems? But it won't now on the other machine, even with 182.50? (And I'll assume that you have uninstalled the nvidia drivers and cleaned any crap in the registry before re-installing 182.50).

Wasn't there a known issue with 260's, drivers and CUDA versions. Something to do with an incompatibility with fft?


Guess I could RMA it although i do not think it is a hardware problem. Just tired of fighting with it.

I probably would have RMA'd it by now jut to see if I got luckier with its replacement.

[PoppaGeek]

EVGA GTX 260 192 core. 896-p3-1260-b3 BIOS 62.00.65.00.60

The BIOS number I got off the back of the card. It is not in a machine right now.

EVGA Tech support gave me an RMA number, I guess I will just return it.

I uninstall device from Device Manager check Uninstall Drivers, reboot safe mode, run Driver Sweeper, delete Nvidia directory. reboot, install new drivers and reboot.