Fixing a Bad BIOS Flash on the 4870

[zanzabar]

the thread need the name changed

[GoldenTiger]

Mine is recognized by atiflash with a DOS boot CD, but I flashed back to stock again and it still won't POST with just the card... in Windows it is detected as an HD4800 Series with a yellow exclamation point saying "the device reported problems" in device manager, winflash won't even start now for some reason. I have three lights that go on with 100% fan, then go off and the card spins back down... looking at the card top-down with the IO shield at the top, it's the two right-hand LEDs and then the left one, with the 2nd from left unlit (X-XX) like that. Any thoughts? Is it possible it didn't really flash it like it should have (it went very quickly, a couple of seconds, whereas Winflash before took 15-20 seconds generally)?

[purecain]

no you did everything properly, i just cant believe RBE has 4870 support listed otherwise i would never of tried it... its bugging me that it worked all night.. only showing a problem when i tried to boot my pc today...
thats two cards completely fubar'd.. all be it temporarily.... and the community learns from our mistake and moves on.... lets hope wizard and BAGZZlash hears of our problem and offers some help....

[GoldenTiger]

I don't get why flashing back to my pure-stock BIOS that I had copied from the card itself isn't fixing it... that's what bugs me especially, it's weird unless RBE had something very wrong there that caused permanent damage.

[halo112358]

Here's the stock bios from my sapphire - http://halo112358.googlepages.com/bios.rom

I'm pretty sure that using RBE to tweak the fan settings is what caused the card to not post on a cold boot. Funny that it worked fine for a day until I shut the machine off and back on (totally explainable). Should I track down an old PCI video card and use it to boot up and flash the stock bios back onto the board?

If I can get the card working again I'll cancel the RMA and order a crossfire motherboard - I already have another 4870 on the way

[GoldenTiger]

Here's the stock bios from my sapphire - http://halo112358.googlepages.com/bios.rom

I'm pretty sure that using RBE to tweak the fan settings is what caused the card to not post on a cold boot. Funny that it worked fine for a day until I shut the machine off and back on (totally explainable). Should I track down an old PCI video card and use it to boot up and flash the stock bios back onto the board?

I already tried using my stock BIOS from my card that I had backed up before editing at all (so 100% unmodified) and my card still isn't booting either .

[halo112358]

Well then, I guess we should warn people not to use RBE and winflash to tweak anything on their 4870s :-p

[GoldenTiger]

Yeah, I just don't get why with the *stock* BIOS it isn't booting...

[jimmyz]

no you did everything properly, i just cant believe RBE has 4870 support listed otherwise i would never of tried it... its bugging me that it worked all night.. only showing a problem when i tried to boot my pc today...
thats two cards completely fubar'd.. all be it temporarily.... and the community learns from our mistake and moves on.... lets hope wizard and BAGZZlash hears of our problem and offers some help....

The issue isn't with RBE in case you didn't notice If goldentigers card won't flash back to an unmodded bios then it is the flashing component that isn't working properly with the 4870.

also if you read it clearly says experimental in the revision history for RBE 1.11
there are reports of 4870's dying that were never flashed so it could be the same deal, I lost a 3870X2 ran fine the first day never booted again.

Can somebody with a "dead" card use a multi-meter to test voltage while booting and report back.

[xMrBunglex]

if it was the flashing that caused the problem, the title of this thread is a little unfair.

Purecain, i imagine that person meant a hard mod or pencil mod for the voltage. if the 4K cards are anything like the 3K cards, i don't think changing the voltage through BIOS has any effect on them. at least that's how i remember it - i never messed with the volts on my 3870's.

[keiths]

Isn't there an easy pencil mod that could tried?

[jimmyz]

if it was the flashing that caused the problem, the title of this thread is a little unfair.

Purecain, i imagine that person meant a hard mod or pencil mod for the voltage. if the 4K cards are anything like the 3K cards, i don't think changing the voltage through BIOS has any effect on them. at least that's how i remember it - i never messed with the volts on my 3870's.

Exactly W1zzard said the max bios can give is very little so that is the issue. A hard mod is the only current way to get voltage greater than that.

and the attitude from Purecain can stop now, all I am doing is trying to help, you can chase dead ends all you want but the sooner you realise the flash is the problem not RBE the sooner you will have working cards,(maybe RBE doesn't work for 4870's yet that is irrelevant if the stock unmodded bios won't take, use your head.) I don't care if you listen to me, I will just go play Grid with my cards(they work).

[purecain]

if i cant fix this through rbe and if bagzzlash doesnt update it, which is unlikely . he's probably been working on it like mad as the community needs it.

if they still do not work i'll return them... thanks for the ideas lads but its definatly rbe1.11... i bet the next version fixes it..... remember if bagzzlash has used his own 4870 to test functionality he will be seeing exactly what we are...

[jimmyz]

the issue is BAGZZlash doesn't have a card, he desperatly needs input in the form of bios dumps etc. in order to test, the more the better and also dumps of bios's modded with a complete description and possibly a screenshot of the clocks page open using the bios in the dump. SO that is why it is a work in progress, if you can send me a hi res pic of your card I will show you how to get it booting with a pencil mod, do you have a camera and a MultiMeter?

[purecain]

i cant post on there, i've been a member for 5 years and my account wasnt set up properly... i need to set up a new account, infact will do so immediatly... also from bagzzlash to a forum member over at techpowerup


Even though RBE can open pre-modified BIOSes, this is only recommended for looking up the changes made. RBE uses some bytes inside the BIOS file for adjusting the checksum. The number of those bytes is limited. So, it is recommended to use a "fresh" BIOS for any changes.
The crash however occurred because of a bug in a code line for displaying just an error message for used up bytes. Will be fixed in the next version. Thanks again for telling me this.

Kind regards
BAGZZlash

any ideas why i can pm members but not post...

[GoldenTiger]

My card DID accept the original BIOS in DOS, but it still won't boot.

I don't have a multimeter, and just a point-and-shoot 5mp 3x optical zoom camera... . Thank you for the offer though... I wish there were any way to get it going, as it looks like the RMA for a HIS video card (if they'd even accept it) has to go to hong kong, and pay shipping from them back to me ! Really silly, that's almost $100 both ways... 1/3 the price of the card, and if it breaks again, another 100...

i cant post on there, i've been a member for 5 years and my account wasnt set up properly... i need to set up a new account, infact will do so immediatly... also from bagzzlash to a forum member over at techpowerup

any ideas why i can pm members but not post...

You probably need to have the activation email re-sent, you likely never clicked on it? *shrug*

[jimmyz]

My card DID accept the original BIOS in DOS, but it still won't boot.

I don't have a multimeter, and just a point-and-shoot 5mp 3x optical zoom camera... . Thank you for the offer though... I wish there were any way to get it going, as it looks like the RMA for a HIS video card (if they'd even accept it) has to go to hong kong, and pay shipping from them back to me ! Really silly, that's almost $100 both ways... 1/3 the price of the card, and if it breaks again, another 100...



You probably need to have the activation email re-sent, you likely never clicked on it? *shrug*

do you have a pci video card, don't pack up the card yet you can boot to the pci card and once in windows try the atiWinflash again, that is the preffered method for flashing .

[GoldenTiger]

do you have a pci video card, don't pack up the card yet you can boot to the pci card and once in windows try the atiWinflash again, that is the preffered method for flashing .

I tried atiWinflash but it won't even start like it would before (I am on vista 64, used 2.0.0.7 and it was starting/flashing fine, after this issue it no longer will start for some reason, just opens and closes after a split-second in task manager). Any ideas? I only have another PCI-E video card (nvidia), no PCI one, but my rig has 3 PCI-E slots... that's how I was booting to DOS. Is it possible ATIwinflash stopped loading because of an nVidia card in the system?

[jimmyz]

i cant post on there, i've been a member for 5 years and my account wasnt set up properly... i need to set up a new account, infact will do so immediatly... also from bagzzlash to a forum member over at techpowerup


Even though RBE can open pre-modified BIOSes, this is only recommended for looking up the changes made. RBE uses some bytes inside the BIOS file for adjusting the checksum. The number of those bytes is limited. So, it is recommended to use a "fresh" BIOS for any changes.
The crash however occurred because of a bug in a code line for displaying just an error message for used up bytes. Will be fixed in the next version. Thanks again for telling me this.

Kind regards
BAGZZlash

any ideas why i can pm members but not post...

You can pm him here he is a member and has the same handle. he lives in germany so he is asleep right now. I will be talking to him early in the morning and we will be going over this thread. the issues need to be resolved, nobody should RMA their card till monday anyway and we should know something by noon EST tommorow. I am currently testing states and their effect in full screen and windowed, and what settings affect which etc. so by morning we will know more.

[cstkl1]

can someone upload a stock bios and a link to a bios flash utility that works... i'm getting bored of this...

saphhire hd4870 stock
http://rapidshare.com/files/125529697/RV770.bin.html

[jimmyz]

I tried atiWinflash but it won't even start like it would before (I am on vista 64, used 2.0.0.7 and it was starting/flashing fine, after this issue it no longer will start for some reason, just opens and closes after a split-second in task manager). Any ideas? I only have another PCI-E video card (nvidia), no PCI one, but my rig has 3 PCI-E slots... that's how I was booting to DOS.

right click and run as administrator, if that doesn't work delete the folder and redown load, i had that issue on Vista 64 I am only flashing in xp now. but it works in Vista or XP 64 just quirky.

tommorow if you can get a pci card (local pc shop for 5 bucks used is fine).

[GoldenTiger]

right click and run as administrator, if that doesn't work delete the folder and redown load, i had that issue on Vista 64 I am only flashing in xp now. but it works in Vista or XP 64 just quirky.

tommorow if you can get a pci card (local pc shop for 5 bucks used is fine).

Yeah, I tried running as admin but no go still. There's actually a shop down the road from me, maybe I'll see if I can grab a cheap PCI card. You don't think ATIwinflash wouldn't load from an nvidia card in the rig, do you? In safemode it won't work at all, says must run as admin but rightclick--->run as admin, gives the same message. In normal mode it just does what I described. I tried redownloading and putting in a new folder but it wouldn't load then either.

[jimmyz]

Yeah, I tried running as admin but no go still. There's actually a shop down the road from me, maybe I'll see if I can grab a cheap PCI card. You don't think ATIwinflash wouldn't load from an nvidia card in the rig, do you? In safemode it won't work at all, says must run as admin but rightclick--->run as admin, gives the same message. In normal mode it just does what I described. I tried redownloading and putting in a new folder but it wouldn't load then either.

Try it, got nothing to lose either it works or doesn't.

[GoldenTiger]

Do you think it might run off of a BartPE boot disk (Win32 XP "live" environment)? I'm thinking that's the next best option for the night...

[purecain]

thanks for helping out jimmyz...
changing just the first voltage in rbe changes the lights that appear at boot... all four should light up i think and the two outer lights flash now x..x ...