Fixing a Bad BIOS Flash on the 4870

[halo112358]

edited: This is resolved, most (all?) of the cards reported here had incorrectly flashed bioses due to the use of DDR5, see W1zzard's excellent fix article over at techpowerup for a proper bios and full instructions - and GOOD LUCK!

If anyone cares, flashed cards wouldn't initialize ram after a cold boot (and we all know how often we cold boot our machines) so the failures appeared random. Easy mistake to make IMO.

[purecain]

same here m8, i have 2 of em that wont boot.... wtf is going on....

[Gunnz Akimbo]

well, you could try taking all PCI cards out?

[jimmyz]

Be more descriptive , does the fan spin 100%, are any of the red led's on the bottom of the card staying on, do they go on then off while trying to boot, does it seem as though the pc is booting but not the card? any info you can provide would help, it may or may not be dead

[purecain]

3 leds light up instead of 4 , the fans spin as normal... no post so no reflash.... dead as a dodo... but why didnt they do this last night why only after they had been dorment for a few hours.... dont get it m8...why are they preventing post?????????????????????????????????????????????? ???

[jimmyz]

3 leds light up instead of 4 , the fans spin as normal... no post so no reflash.... dead as a dodo... but why didnt they do this last night why only after they had been dorment for a few hours.... dont get it m8...why are they preventing post?????????????????????????????????????????????? ???

You flashed them already? if your clocks are too high for the voltage it will not post, there is your issue. If you can perform the volt mod they will most likely work, I had a 4850 refuse too boot at 900 , raised the volts and it boots fine, the card with only 1 led is not getting juice, i bet it is your secondary right?

[halo112358]

I'm pretty sure that's what mine does - I already filed an RMA with the egg, this crap is going back in the box. Maybe I'll buy another when they've sorted this out, maybe not.

[twohype]

I'm pretty sure that's what mine does - I already filed an RMA with the egg, this crap is going back in the box. Maybe I'll buy another when they've sorted this out, maybe not.

If someone flashes a working card and volt mod's it with a modified bios from a tool which ATI "NEVER" indicated was safe for a 4800 series card - Why is that ATI's or NewEgg's issue? If you can sucker NewEgg more power to you Of course I'm not saying that you modified your card since obviously yours was DOA

[Edin]

If someone flashes a working card and volt mod's it with a modified bios from a tool which ATI "NEVER" indicated was safe for a 4800 series card - Why is that ATI's or NewEgg's issue? If you can sucker NewEgg more power to you Of course I'm not saying that you modified your card since obviously yours was DOA

The card was idling around 80C for me with stock fan/heatsink/BIOS settings so dont you think that's a bit high? Also I've done BIOS flashing quite a few times before for motherboard and VGA and never had something like this happen... also the flashing tool I used had a statement it suported HD4850 and HD4870 otherwise I wouldn't have used it... also the card was working fine even AFTER the BIOS flash and stoped working only 1-2h later... and you know, it would be more helpfull if you kept your useless comments for yourself... you got a working HD4870? If yes and you are happy with it then good for you, if not... don't comment on things you haven't had experience with... maybe if you did get one and it would die on you "justlike that" you would be here talking other way around...

[ghost101]

The card is idling around 80C for me with stock fan/heatsink/BIOS settings so dont you think that's a bit high?

ATI picked the fan profile and if they dont think its high, nor do I. the majority of people who buy these as well as OEMs will sell this and no one will ever know what the temperature is and the card will live out its life. It is high if you plan on overclocking, but then...

Also I've done BIOS flashing quite a few times before for motherboard and VGA andnever had something like this happen... also the flashing tool I used had a statement it suported HD4850 and HD4870 otherwise I wouldn't have used it... also the card was working fine even AFTER the BIOS flash and stoped working only 1-2h later

Doesnt matter. Your warranty is null and void and so isnt ATIs problem. Also the tool clearly stated that hd4xxx support is experimental.

... and you know, it would be more helpfull if you kept your useless comments for yourself... you got a working HD470? If yes and you are happy with it then good for you, if not... don't comment on things you haven't had experience with... maybe if you did get one and it would die on you "justlike that" you would be here talking other wy around...

Erm, he can say what he wants.

[Theta]

If someone flashes a working card and volt mod's it with a modified bios from a tool which ATI "NEVER" indicated was safe for a 4800 series card - Why is that ATI's or NewEgg's issue? If you can sucker NewEgg more power to you Of course I'm not saying that you modified your card since obviously yours was DOA

Okay, this BS is not helpful at all.

Some of us are trying to get to the bottom of why this is happening. In some cases, this has NOTHING to do with flashing. We had 4 fail on us, and they were simply put into Crossfire mode.

I appreciate that some may have modded, etc... But stop threadcrapping for the sake of us that actually would like to get this solved.

[ghost101]

Okay, this BS is not helpful at all.

Some of us are trying to get to the bottom of why this is happening. In some cases, this has NOTHING to do with flashing. We had 4 fail on us, and they were simply put into Crossfire mode.

I appreciate that some may have modded, etc... But stop threadcrapping for the sake of us that actually would like to get this solved.

I dont think he meant to do that. But when some people do flash the bios and then file an rma it results in higher prices for everyone. So I agree with him.

But if you genuinely didnt do anything, an rma will fix things surely?

[Theta]

I dont think he meant to do that. But when some people do flash the bios and then file an rma it results in higher prices for everyone. So I agree with him.

But if you genuinely didnt do anything, an rma will fix things surely?

I do understand that, but please realize that an RMA won't help one bit.

Our distributors are out of stock, and NewEgg isn't exactly stocked fully on these.

I am interested in seeing what can be gleaned from all of this...

I do want to point out that several of us were not modding the BIOS, however.

[keiths]

What brands?

[halo112358]

Sapphire - but as far as I can tell all of the boards on the market are just rebadged OEM.

[keiths]

Yeah, that sounds similar to my 940 server board. It has two power leds; one lights up, the other on and off if the 8 pin CPU power connector isn't plugged in.

[purecain]

right np... i have booted xp by disabling a 4870 in safe mode using the 3870 as video adapter... i'll try upping the volts now.. thanks.. let you know what happens in 10 minutes...

[halo112358]

I've got 3 LED's lit up when the board tries to post, then it fails and spins the fan down. If you're looking at the board from the top down the two leds on the right are lit up, then one is dark, then the one on the far left is lit.

[purecain]

yep thats what i had, now after raising the voltage, it still doesnt work.. only now i have 2 red lights flash very quickly... so i'm on my way to fixing it...
best thing to do is flash a stock bios, only problem is that it wont flash the original one as it says its already installed... using latest winflash... atiflash wont work... what else is working in dos for these cards???
right... managed to reflash my 4870 but the bios isnt right, or the flashing process is fubar'd... this is what gpuz reads from the card now...

[Jakalwarrior]

Fastest 4870 ever!
Anywho, why not try flashing in a bios from a different manufactuer so it wont say its already installed? or maybe there is a force command parameter.

[Scubar]

Wow, that makes me abit happier i didnt hit the Buy button yesterday on the HIS crossfire package for £440. I might hold off to see how the 4870X2 does when released next month because the 4870s do look very promising even for the slightly inflated price for launch due to price gouging.

[mr2sw21]

oh man I just bought one yesterday and I hope it is not going to happen like that.

[xMrBunglex]

i just got two 4870's as well. i'll hold off on the overclocking or flashing until the source of this is discovered. i'd hate to kill my shiny new cards. i don't think any of us know much about GDDR5 yet, so i have no idea how hot it runs or how well it overclocks.

[Papu]

unlucky

[philbrown23]

I read an article saying that atiflash and winflash have caused crashed on the 4XXX series because of inproper bios coding for gddr5 try the one that is in the bios mod forum on this site, flashrom I heard there have been no problems with it yet and you can force flash the cards back to stock if needed.