Title Change request please.
People who just scan forums will see title and believe 4870's randomly die.
it seems to be prety well layed out here that this was caused by incorrect bios mods.
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Title Change request please.
People who just scan forums will see title and believe 4870's randomly die.
it seems to be prety well layed out here that this was caused by incorrect bios mods.
Thanks I missed that. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by SimBy
Good news.
After reading this whole thread, I also agree that the title of this thread needs to be changed. It is very misleading. Flashing a bios is NOT RANDOM!!
Yay, good work people who worked through till fix :up:
Bad job for those moaning and blaming Ati :down:
well i just got my confidence back for the 4870 :)
nice work guys.
but these other guys with "non-flashed" dead cards need to respond..
so how many of you are using the 128kb bios and have modded it?
Well the key here is that it *wasnt* GDDR5 that was dying - it just wasn't being addressed by the BIOS. Looks like GDDR5 might have yet more headroom to go..
@ halo112358 You should edit your first post and say there is a fix for this. Just so someone doesn't have to go thru the soap opera of this. :)
Those that reported unmodded cards die are most likely just plain simple liars for now since there is no response from any of them. Trying to salvage their warranty is all...
Great work guys, I was sure we could figure it out. :cheer:
As for the unmoded failures: I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but they really need to speak up for themselves at this point. It saddens me that I stood up for you guys and as of yet your only response is deafening silence. It doesn't make your case look good at all.
I still wonder what those lights represent....
Great work guys!
+1 on that. Too much drama here on what looks to be a great card. :shakes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Your_Boss
Hey ALL, I guess I'm an Indirect liar. I told my buddy, who was here on Friday, helping me, that my HD4870s work again. And he confessed that he flashed in an altered BIOS to modify the fan speed only. He did it when I ran out to grab Pizza and beer Friday night.
When I asked him why, he said he saw how hot the card ran with such a slow fan speed. He is relieved that my cards work again.
The strange thing is, when he flashed in the Mod Bios, on Friday, with an increase in fan speed, the card still worked.
But on Saturday, when I did my initial Cross Fire install and bootup, everything just Failed.
Oh well, what are friends for?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ral3l3it
do you really believe that every card dead was not flashed ????
say thnks to wizzard !:up:
best regards
For real! :D
Just got back in, and a few of us here read through this. :mad:
We did try a single card with the new method, nothing cooking. We then disassembled the cards to check for anything burnt, disfigured, etc - nada.
We've been in contact directly with a few sources, and I must say that this is a very friendly situation on their part. The failure rate is extremely low, and overall, all of our other test cards that are going into end-user systems check out OK.
We placed another set into CrossfireX today, and it's still ticking as I type this.
Just a note - it's quite disheartening to see the level of hatred strewn about here when someone reports a problem. Let me make something known - we have no reason to lie about BIOS flashes, etc, as we are covered under further manufacturer protection plans (not end-user RMAs). Furthermore, I am very vocal in the modding community. For no reason would I hide the fact that something has been or is being being modded, etc. I came in tonight to volt mod a pair of 4850s, which is having some very good results. The customer is being issued an advanced warranty through our chain, NOT the manufacturer.
Before throwing stones at people with information, think first if that information is misleading (and to what end), or simply a spread of information. We will be more careful in the future to guard ourselves from those who seem to think independent companies and resellers like us here have an agenda. :down:
Bottom line: Card batch is going back, final answer from distribution center is possible bad batch. 4 dead, 11 working. CorssfireX set still working after 12+ hours.
EDIT: I do want to apologize for making this situation public - we only brought our situation to the public eye when it appeared that we could be of some assistance in this matter. As it turns out now, we look bad for simply trying to help out users we believed to be honest, and out-of-luck. As per standard channel rules, this information should not have been released without first contacting our rep. If anyone else cares, we have a batch of over 40 shipping in tomorrow, and I can post a quick follow-up. Otherwise, we're considering this matter closed.
lol, friends :p:Quote:
Originally Posted by Kensek
I think someone posted the explanation as to why the card might have just died *after* a day somewhere on these forums. It is indeed strange but it might be a power issue.
Either way though, it looks like cards are being fixed :up:
Good to hear Theta. Looks like it might have been a bad batch that slipped through QA as the others you mentioned seem to work fine. We're probably just angrier at those who didn't admit they had issues with modding (knowingly or not) and suddenly have em fixed, but since everyone is getting it fixed it looks good :up:
Where's halo at anyways?
Post note: These cards do really kick some serious ass, and we're getting orders for a boatload of them pre-configured right now. Would be hard to bloody the nose of ATI at a time like this. Truth be told, I'm interested in seeing if the vmodded 4850 is in the same realm as the 4870 (as are quite a few others)... Taking a few goodies home tonight! ;)
How can it be?Quote:
Originally Posted by Theta
Isn't even volt-modded overclocked to hell GDDR3 still gonna struggle to compete with GDDR5?
Not sure, going to find out though. The spirit of XS, after all. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Big.Wayne
Need to see some 4850's @ 750 MHz to see how they compare against stock 4870's.
I can't even imagine what will happen when the 4870's with AIB GDDR5 from Samsung and Hynix at higher binds will produce. We're OC'ing GDDR5 to 4.4GHz effective right now, but imagine 4.4GHz stock OC'd to 5GHz+:eek:
And that Diamond WC card that is unlocked to run core up to 950Mhz via OC (800 stock) suggest that with proper cooling, we can see 900MHz Oc's in the not too near future... :up:
And I'm sure the pricing for performance of these cards must be really good for people who are going to buy them in bulk for pre-configured rigs...
Hehe, good luck and yeah :D.Quote:
Originally Posted by Theta
My 4870 is happily going along at 790core/4200ram right now... gonna push for more memory speed shortly (enjoying gaming for a few right now), but you're gonna have to get one hell of an overclock with that vmod to match it :D!
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/4834/4870gtoc2bo9.gif
zerazax, yeah, I can't wait to see what gets found out on the core clocks... my card definitely has more oomph to it still since it had run at 870/4500 for a few before I flashed back to what I thought was stock (but actually a truncated bios :( ) before this whole issue. It was getting too hot for comfort to me though since I hadn't modded the fan to a high % (only 32ish), was gonna switch the fan higher but shut the system off for some reason (I think it had locked on me randomly one bootup) then no boot due to the truncated BIOS of course. I'm hoping with a pencil mod or even just a proper overclock utility I'll see those speeds again... it was weird, when I had it at 870/4500 it was WAY outperforming 850/4500, by a factor of at least 15-20% in the benches I ran... like some bottleneck had been lifted suddenly somewhere.
What you mean who can nuke a graphics card the quickest! :p:Quote:
Originally Posted by Theta
whatever happens with 4870 wont stop me from getting one....just hoping mine wont be dead. Anyway what's good a card if it runs default only right? ...of course doing it carefully:)
Should be fine, seems almost all of them were flashed and not just dead :), so the dead ones are likely isolated in any case.Quote:
Originally Posted by non
Anxiously awaiting a software OC utility for these puppies... they have a lot more headroom past what the CCC OverDrive allows :D!
THANK YOU all for the fix, thanks wizzard and all the great xs users who helped him with the fix (i believe dave realized the file size issue ;))
Yeah if 870 was stable for you earlier, these puppies probably have a lot more headroom. Slap on an HR-03GT and we might see 900+ on air...
I take it the issue was fixed?Quote:
Originally Posted by SNiiPE_DoGG
Wouldn't surprise me greatly... :eek: .Quote:
Originally Posted by zerazax
slap water on there :)Quote:
Originally Posted by zerazax
one a water block comes out, its mine :)
If I end up getting 900~1000 on water with my 4870 I will be completely ecstatic. Even at stock clocks it should be plenty fast for the games I play (Quake Wars is my main one) at 1920x1200 with 4xAA, judging from the reviews. At 1000 it should have plenty of power for 8xAA + every graphical option I can tweak set to max. :explode2: <-dark matter cannon impacting my brain
Solus Corvus: I can almost see the drool coming from your mouth! ;)
I just hope the stock 4870 cooler clears one of my southbridge coolers until EK blocks become available.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=192970
Second picture shows clearance on G92 GTS, but I have an SLI TR cooler if that one interferes.
a stock 4870 cooler will definitely hit that monster SB heatsink.
Ok, I have the SLI (offset) version of the same cooler around here somewhere...
OK guys update:
my 1 card that died from flashing is now running perfectly with a new fan profile using a modded 128k BIOS, idles at 45, loads at 56 (20 minutes ATItool tested) i could get into windows so i used the DOS method and it went without a hitch
unfortunately i do have a card with defective ram that needs RMA so my crossfire wont be happening for quite a bit :\
good to hear you got one of them back up!
at least you'll have something to play with until your 2nd one comes back
Sorry to hear one of them is dead for you :( ... but still, on the bright side at least the other one works for you, so you'll have your system in the meantime just not quite as powerful. Here's hoping for a speedy RMA process for you :).
I had this same issue with atiwinflash when I tried to flash my 3870 X2. I don't know if you got it fixed but this was my solution. If you have a PE disc that was created from XP instead of vista, atiwinflash will work in PE.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldenTiger
thanks zerazax and goldentiger for the well wishes
im still seeing about 140fps average in cod 4 at max settings, 4xAA @ 1920x1200 card is at 790/1000
you better go tri-fire that's a slide showQuote:
Originally Posted by SNiiPE_DoGG
yeah, these cards make short work of CoD4. i love a well-optimized game. Infinity Ward rocks.
I have flashed mine quite a few times already (4870), no problems flashing in dos everytime with atiflash. I have a flash memory stick I keep just for booting to dos and flashing.
I just checked the dumped original bios from my sapphire card, it is indeed truncated. I'll track down a pci video card tomorrow and flash the 4870.bin back onto the board, hopefully that will fix it ^^.
Thanks a ton W1zzard.
To everyone who's up in arms about the thread title ask yourself this, if you modded a bios with a trusted graphics tool to change fan profiles - not to overvolt, not to overclock - and the board worked for a day before crapping out randomly what would your first reaction be? What would your reaction be after you heard that people were having the board die without flashing a bios in? I'm perfectly happy to admit my own mistakes, but I'm not going to take a bunch of :banana::banana::banana::banana: for an honest one. I think at this point the title could probably change to reflect the fact that we're talking about fixing a bad bios flash, but the bashing and whining isn't necessary.
same here I have a bootable flash drive and it makes thinks easier than hell, and now my card is working back up thanks to everyone's effort, it all happened for a good reason, lol. bye the way I am getting 40frames average in crysis at 1920x1200 at high settings with my card running at 790/1100 and my e8400 at 4.2, all on air. and with the profile fan speed hack my card idles at 50c running at 43% and stays below 65c under load.
Well good to hear that your card can probably be saved. If done, let us know and change the title so people know a solution is found.Quote:
Originally Posted by halo112358
And that newegg review could use an update too :p:;)
Good to hear as well NKD that things are working. Looks like most of the problems are fixed and it was probably an honest mistake for most people. Flashing is never a guarantee first week but at least we solved the issue.
Now let's get some Xtreme overclocking going!
Why isn't this thread locked and removed yet? There were no random deads warranting a thread like this.
Hmm, newegg won't let me edit or remove the review. I'll have to write another I guess.Quote:
Originally Posted by zerazax
I wasn't aware you made policy here, please don't try to be a mini-moderator.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin_The_Martian
You can probably email em about it if you feel inclined or write another one as a follow up i'm sure
I don't, I just like the XS spirit, and this thread is NOT part of it period. Take it how you want, report me for being rude for saying this I don't care what you do. I already reported my own post asking why it hasn't been closed yet, and you're lucky I'm not a mod because I would have given you some time off to think about how you go about asking help if you messed something up.Quote:
Originally Posted by halo112358
One hint, it's not by making it seem like a random accident. The truth will come out eventually.
Yeah, I'll check with them and see what they can do. After I get the card back up and running I'll give a proper review :DQuote:
Originally Posted by zerazax
Uh, I think you've made a mistake. I never tried to hide anything about what I did to the card, I've repeated a couple of times that I flashed the bios to modify the fan timing and run the card louder/cooler - I never said "I ran the card stock and it died" - what I did say was "it died randomly in about 24 hours." You can take that as you will, if there was any error it was an honest error of omission, not of malice.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin_The_Martian
If I hadn't started the thread 5 or 6 people wouldn't have been able to repair their cards - so I ask you this, is it better to report something and try to gather information on it (in the XS spirit) or is it better to just let everyone think that the cards died and RMA them? As a result of sharing information we've got better support in RBE and GPU-Z, and a proper fix tutorial online. I think we've done something constructive here, whether you agree with it or not.
I suggest you stop attacking me personally, I'm not going to participate and I don't much care for your opinion. I am not a moderator, there is nothing I can do to change the thread title - I've already requested that it be changed, what more would you like?
/End converstion right here ok? It's not about who eventually got helped, it's about creating a thread with a misleading subject. Also you might have just edited your first post, no where in there did you admit it could be an user error. You crawled back after you got the attention you needed to ensure someone would figure out what to do and now you're trying to act like you didn't mislead this whole forum?Quote:
what I did say was "it died randomly in about 24 hours.
Edit: but ok you're absolutly right I don't need to act like a mod, that's why I asked them to look at it. If you convinced them I got no problem with them deciding otherwise.
Check the first post again, I haven't been on in a couple of days - the first thing I did was fix it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin_The_Martian
Chill
Out.
You're missing the point.Quote:
Originally Posted by halo112358
I gone out off my way to defend this death card syndrome as not something resulting of a bios flash / mod or even overclock which automaticly is assumed when a thread likes this pops up here. Now it turns out you mislead us on purpose, you can denie all you want but it's in clear view for all to see. That warrants action in my eyes, be glad I'm not the one who decides.
:shrug:
Edit:
Your post saying, well I haven't been online for days only makes it wurse.
Sorry halo, I gotta agree with Marvin on this. In the future some of you ought to be more careful about the what you do to your parts and/or the way you post about it, not run around willy-nilly like Chicken Little and "the sky is falling" before you know for sure what's up.
Not meant as a flame, just an observation.
Put's on Mod hat, but only 1/2 way;
Hi Guys,
Seems from what I've read that the whole issue may be in a bad bios that people downloaded and tried. I don't have the card, I don't know jack except what I have read but it seems like the problem may be settled as the knowledge of that bad bios is spreading throughout the community.
Can we agree that the knowledge itself is the fix and essentially settles the problem?
No need to point fingers at anyones motives as it's a done deal.
Both sides here have valid points but again, now we know what caused the issue and maybe it's time to move on and see what this card can do with a good bios in it.
Remember, friends first, and if you approach these issues in that way then all come out ahead.
Thanks for reading..
(damn, the hat fell off on the floor):rofl:
Tnx for te title fix, i hope it hasnt caused to many people from not buying a card they would have.
Sapphire HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 Stock BIOS 128k in attachment
Saved with GPU-Z 0.2.5 (29 June 2008)
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads...-Z_v0.2.5.html
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShambleS
Guess they changed the name of this tread. :) No problem on buying a new card,, cause ya cant find any to buy right now anyway. People on this thread seem to have them all right now. :D :ROTF:
the bios wont take on either of mine... started a new thread... :mad:
fixed.....
so the general consensus here is to wait on doing any bios flashing?
no, bios flashing is fixed as long as you use a 128k bios (can be found on techpowerup)
well I just flashed my new gecube 4870 with the techpowerup fix
after doin 790 easy @ ddr5 1100,
changed the gpu to 830 on clock info 3 only (RBE v1.11)
flashed (Ati Winflash 2012)
no display
connect my 8800gts 320
but now cannot get ati winflash2012 to load in vista or xp
RBE v1.11 gives me "YOU HAVE NOT CONNECTED ONE OF YOUR VIDEO CARD POWER CONNECTORS TO THE POWER SUPPLY"
http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/08/07/05/2rp.pnghttp://gpuz.techpowerup.com/08/07/05/a0t.png
help me obi wan
I better powerdown and check those cables as I am using a modular psu
edit: cables are not the problem triple check
critisisms, jokes and suggestions welcome :D
Try making a dos boot disk and use atiflash to flash a stock bios or one you know works. It worked for me to recover a bad flash with winflash.
thats a warning built into the BIOS, you are not getting that warning :p:Quote:
Originally Posted by Alcibiades
set you boot clocks to stock and every other clock in the RBE to your desired clock. make sure you use a fresh 4870 stock bios EVERY time.
Back from the dead :up:
http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/08/07/06/8qn.png
booted up with a drdos boot cd
ran atiflash -f -newbios -p0 4870.bin from my c: drive
but my default clocks in CCC are 500/900 :confused:
edit: overdrive to 790/1100 running good and cool
I'll wait for a good bios and good tools to come out
my clocks are the same as that, I put it down to power saving in 2D mode
glade i saw this and talked with a couple of you via pm. I almost flashed from the last GPUZ with RBE. Glad i did not!
Now to get the balls to up voltage, can not get past 830 core on 4870...it gives me a display stopped working...
I think bumping it up to 1.3~v should be safe enough and will try that when i get home tonite, if it nukes im still in rma period with newegg
I killed my computer trying to flash the 4870 back to original. I actually never got to the flashing part. I still have a dead 4870 at this point. Since you have to have 2 video cards in the system and I didn't have another ATI card that would fit one of my slots, I tried with an Nvidia 7800.
This is with Vista64 and a P5E MB. Is it possible to kill a MB just by using 2 different cards at the same time? I wouldn't think so but if I get a new board I'm going to have to try it again so I want to be sure.
Right after I first put the card in the and booted to Vista i got a Blue Screen shortly afterward. I reseated the cards and tried again and everything seemed OK for a while. I also had to change my wireless PCI network card to the top slot because I no longer had room at the bottom with the 4870 in the next slot.
Anyway, I couldn't get my wireless network connected. Also on my other computer I was trying to figure out how to make a bootable cd with bios flash utilities. When I turned my 4870 computer back on it went to a blue screen just before getting to the desktop. I was able to enter safe mode but as luck would have it, the restore function would not function. I had already tried going to last working config with no luck.
At this point I thought I would try to repair with the V64 disc.
I set the Bios to boot from CD and everything was going well until it finished with a blank blue screen and a working mouse pointer.
At this point I'm thinking hardware again and disconnect everything except for the hard drive and I also put in a different video card and memory. Now I can't even get a display. Only thing left is my motherboard and CPU and I woud guess that I must have damaged the MB when inserting a card with static or maybe a hairline crack. Oh, I also reset the CMOS more than once.
I have the worst luck with computers, I should buy a Dell and never open the case.:( I've read most of this thread and searched the net quite a bit but I haven't seen an actual procedure for fixing the 4870. Can you just use the 4870 and any other video card? Looks like the best way is to use a boot disc and then flash the Bios.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Waxking1
you shouldnt boot to windows to do the flash to fix the card, make an ms-dos boot floppy and flash using win flash per the 4870 fix article: here
I read the article and I will take your advice when I try again.
I may use my old DFI system(I will have to piece it back together) to try the flash. If it kills the MB again, at least it will be one I wasn't using anyway. The article doesn't say not to boot to Windows as it mentions using Winflash as an alternative.
well booting with alternate graphics brands is kinda sketchy, i wouldnt consider going to windows as an optionQuote:
Originally Posted by Waxking1
Goto http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.htmlQuote:
Originally Posted by Waxking1
download 4.1.1 iso from preferred source
create your UBCD from iso
copy your atiflash.exe and the 4870.bin to your c:\
(that's the root dir) just to make it easier when in dos
boot with your UBCD that you created
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/graphics/screenshot.gif
start edit:
WRONG --> choose *Boot First Hard Disk* This will actually boot you back into Vista
correct steps to boot ntfs drive(s)
choose
DOS/Linux Boot Disks
DOS Boot Disks
FreeDOS Boot Disk v3.40
now a series of dialogue boxes will pop up
keep pressing enter on each one but watch out for the NTFS dialogue box
you want to use your arrow keys to get to the checkbox and press spacebar to select it
press enter
you will get to dos and q:\
type c:
and press enter
if invalid drive try d e f etc
do a dir on each one to see which one has your flash files
(my c: drive was invalid and it came up as d: drive)
when you are in the drive and folder with your flash files
end edit:
type
atiflash -f -p ? -4870.bin
where ? is the pci-e slot with the 4870
example: atiflash -f -p 0 -4870.bin
to find out which pci-e slot your 4870 is in
type
atiflash -i
Well what are you waiting for??!?:shrug:
Get to flashing already!:D
switch notes
-i Display information of ATI adapters in the system
-f Force flashing regardless of security checking BIOS file info check OR boot-up card
-p Identifies adapter(s) to flash
lol Yeah, an' don't screw it up this time. :cord:Quote:
Originally Posted by Alcibiades
I'm pretty good at screwing computers up.:) I used a floppy first with the DFI motherboard and I get Invalid Command when trying to flash with Atiflash. I also tried with a cd and get the same. The atiflash -i works fine and tells me the card is on 0. Not sure where to go from here but I may load XP and try winflash on this board. The other board was dead but I don't think putting the card in the second slot hurt it, it had to be something else. Thanks for the help
Alcibiades. The Iso file is what I needed.
Don't feel alone. I've done my share of borks too. :slapass: :lol2:
Hey, it's a learning experience! At some point we were all n00bs or just got unlucky.
Good luck on the flash.
My card is also back from the dead. The flash is really quick in DOS. I ended up making the cd but I'm sure it would have worked fine from the floppy. Thanks alcibiades for your instruction on making the bootable cd as I am sure it will come in handy later.
The thing that was giving me trouble was the syntax. I was keying in atiflash -f -p0 -4870.bin. It should have been atiflash -f -p 0 -4870.bin. The newbios part is not needed but it will probably work either way. If you just execute atiflash it gives you all the different parameters and I didn't see anything about newbios so I left it out.
Now I can use winflash to load a new fan profile.(That's how I got into this trouble)
I'm glad your card is working againQuote:
Originally Posted by Waxking1
Yeah I did a typo on the syntax Oops
Must have done one too many backspaces to delete the 0 value and added the ? without the space I guess
Sorry 'bout that, I'll edit orig post so others don't type wrong command
:up:
How many lights are supposed to flash on boot? All 4? I only have 3 light up here but my card is fine.
as has been written countless times: 3 lights will turn/blink on during boot
Hey W1zzard, i'm glad i did a little research before flashing my 4870. Today is the 21st July and there are still bioses in the Techpowerup database that are 64kb. The Gecube, Visiontek, (1 of) the Sapphire, powercolor, and (1 of) the ATI bioses are all 64kb.
Please remove them ASAP.
i have been trying all night to fix my 4870...i used the method that is posted in first page without any luck...I can see the ati 4800 series in device manager but with a sign that has a problem and from gpu-z i get the following pic...Pls help me out...what can i try? and i am using Vista x64...
I flashed mine and I can't get mine to clock correctly with the new 8.11 drivers because it acts like the drivers are constantly trying to turn the clock back down. I tried to reinstall the driver should I clear it out better the reminents of the driver I mean? Is that what my issue is?
I flashed my XFX 4890 XXX bios and it went bad. I have been trying to restore the original bios. I have a backup. When I try to boot with the card in it just beeps. I unplugged the card from the pcie slot and plugged it back in and it actually showed up in my windows for a minute then I went into RBE editor and it showed my card but when i hit anaylyze flash windows crashed. I have unplugged it a few times since and cleaned the drivers. It has not showed up again since. Any idea how I can make it show up again? I have tried to use ati flash and followed the tutorial exactly. It did let me into my hard drive where I put the files but now it's saying invalid dir. So what can I do?
guys i been reading all over the net trying to fix my card. I have tried about 6 different bios no luck. I used my other 4870 and 7900gt to try to flash the bad card but no go. I can flash it in dos but when windows loads up it finds the other card (the reflashed 4870) it loads the drivers, reboot, 1 of two things happens. Windows XP will start to load and about 1/2 way though the load where the load bar is it locks up or if i uninstall the drivers in safe mode load windows and install drivers it black screens or if i load last know good config once windows loads it will black screen. the card will not post at all.
any ideas?
Thanks
Quote:
Originally Posted by truehighroller
:confused:
You mean 'remnants'? :rolleyes: You have a PC. Search on dictionary.com for how to spell simple words.
hank123 - sounds like your card is nuked. :(