Fixing a Bad BIOS Flash on the 4870

[Theta]

Bump for back on topic!

Morning W1z, any further insight?

[Wesker]

Bump for back on topic!

OK, then can I ask you how your 4 cards died?

Did you have them setup in CrossFireX? Also, did the cards die after a cold boot?

[NKD]

I Have been reading the post, and I swear instead of finding a solution, there are some users that are not working on solving the problem.

1. who cares if he flashed the bios, we need a solution, so if you can't help please don't turn this thread into a war.
2. Newegg or Powercolor or whatever company is not going to be in any damage if it is indeed a bad bios flash(just like you said), the manufacturer will probably just flash it back and rebrand it.
3. when someone rma's a card it is not a scam, alright the man paid 300 plus so what if he flashed the bios, no one a noob here. I have flashed numerous nvidia cards and even I have even flashed an 8800 ultra with the 8800gtx bios, why? because I had an ultra and I got a gtx a long time ago for dirt cheap. and the cards are no longer in sli, but they work like a charm.
4. if it is just a bad bios it the card should have no damn problem when you flash it back to original bios.
5. there is a lot of hard work that is involved in this thread, so please don't try to hijack the thread with useless comments. there is no solution in those comments.
6. It does not take a rocket scientist to flash a vga bios, so stop blaming the guy.
7. may be it is the bios tool that we need that would be able to do a good flash, so please chill, and let the people in this thread work towards a solution which in turn is only going to help us.

yes my powercolor radeon hd 4870 just died as well, and yes I flashed the bios, but it worked for two days, so yes it could be the bios tool, gddr5 god knows what, no problems gaming, and I only adjusted for fan speed that is it, and it worked fine, was idling at 55c and load 63c, so for it to work for 2 days and just take a crap does not make any sense, plus it was running hell of a lot cooler, and It was overclocked to 790/1050 with autotune, because I just wanted the damn thing to run cool, I know what I am doing so I don't need anyone to tell me that I am stupid, and yes I did do a stupid thing, do I think it could be because I flashed it with edited bios, probably, may be not. but running at better temps than stock setting for two days and for it to not just boot, it is pretty clueless.

I might have had a bad flash and or the card might be just dead, I tried to flash back to original through dos, it said the flash went fine, but still the same thing. It is useless telling me that I killed my card, because I am man enough to admit that I did, if it is proven that I did it. But that does not mean that we don't need to know the culprit here, all I want to know why it worked for two days and than decided not to boot, all this with 25c less temps. Please help and don't flame because it does not help, and yes I know how to flash a card.

My sig is old so don't even look at it, lol.

[Wesker]

My thoughts were that early BIOS files for the HD4870 were the culprit behind the dead cards, but Theta says he has 4 dead cards without any BIOS flashes applied.

Also:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...7&postcount=17

EDIT: Theta had 2 sets of 2 HD4870's in CrossFire.

Could CrossFire also have something to do with these dead cards?

[Theta]

OK, then can I ask you how your 4 cards died?

Did you have them setup in CrossFireX? Also, did the cards die after a cold boot?

Please do note that this was all posted previously in this thread, but I will post it again for you...

Each set of 4870 HIS cards died shortly after being placed into CrossfireX mode, and exhibit the now famous no-post, 3-LED scenario.

So far, these were the only two sets that were put into CrossfireX.

Not flashed, not overclocked, not overvolted... So...

Back to the topic at hand. Hopefully there is an answer for this, because I just don't want to believe it's horrible QA related to 4870 Xfire.

After we hear back from W1z, I may just flash one of our tested working 4870s to see what happens.

Could CrossFire also have something to do with these dead cards?

I think that's the root cause for non-flashed deaths, looking at several posts from non-modded failures.

[NKD]

I doubt crossfire had anything to do with it, because I really don't know how that would be possible, but than again anything is possible, but yeah my card had the same bios, I just edited the fan speed, worked for two days and than the 3 led power. the second led from the left does not light up.

[Theta]

I doubt crossfire had anything to do with it, because I really don't know how that would be possible, but than again anything is possible, but yeah my card had the same bios, I just edited the fan speed, worked for two days and than the 3 led power. the second led from the left does not light up.

Yeah, I find it hard to believe as well...

The only thing that is the same across the playing field of errors here is the power LED similarity...

We're all in the same boat, somehow... Let's hope the 3-LED startup does not mean the gDDR5 is dead, etc.

[bill_d]

I doubt crossfire had anything to do with it, because I really don't know how that would be possible, but than again anything is possible, but yeah my card had the same bios, I just edited the fan speed, worked for two days and than the 3 led power. the second led from the left does not light up.

do the 3 led just flash on start up or stay on, my card is stock and working fine but same leds just flash on start up about 1/2 a second flash on left to right 1, 3 and 4
2 stays off

[eleeter]

My company is running a number of stock 4870s, and so far, 4 have died.

What kind of company, and what are you using them for?

[Crankybugga]

1. who cares if he flashed the bios, we need a solution, so if you can't help please don't turn this thread into a war.

Well i for one care!
Like many others we need to know why this is going on, and if people are fudging their 4870s with a pretty stupid bios flash, then that is very rellevent.

2. Newegg or Powercolor or whatever company is not going to be in any damage if it is indeed a bad bios flash(just like you said), the manufacturer will probably just flash it back and rebrand it.

You are joking right?

3. when someone rma's a card it is not a scam, alright the man paid 300 plus so what if he flashed the bios, no one a noob here. I have flashed numerous nvidia cards and even I have even flashed an 8800 ultra with the 8800gtx bios, why? because I had an ultra and I got a gtx a long time ago for dirt cheap. and the cards are no longer in sli, but they work like a charm.

Not sure where this is going...

4. if it is just a bad bios it the card should have no damn problem when you flash it back to original bios.

So why havent you done that?

yes my powercolor radeon hd 4870 just died as well, and yes I flashed the bios,

Now i see...
Why was i not surprised to finally get to the bottom of your post to read you killed your vga..and oh....you flashed the bios..
Be interesting to see what the ratio is of dead 4870s flashed and not flashed, because at this stage id say the flashers are leading

[NKD]

Well i for one care!
Like many others we need to know why this is going on, and if people are fudging their 4870s with a pretty stupid bios flash, then that is very rellevent.



You are joking right?



Not sure where this is going...



So why havent you done that?


Now i see...
Why was i not surprised to finally get to the bottom of your post to read you killed your vga..and oh....you flashed the bios..
Be interesting to see what the ratio is of dead 4870s flashed and not flashed, because at this stage id say the flashers are leading

now was all that really necessary, I really wanted to point out that yes I killed the card if that makes you happy, it worked for two days and than it died, now if you can't explain why it died after two days, and tell me what to do, I would be more than happy, it is no help pointing to people for what they already know of. I really don't know what you are getting out of this, I never blamed anyone but myself so for you to come out and point that out like I did not admit it, does not really make any sense. I will not respond to your post again, and you should not really respond to mine if you dont wanna help.

[NKD]

this is the first time after two years with in my last flash that a card worked like a champ for two days and than just died. that is all that makes me suspicious. I flashed the card does not mean that it was a bad flash, I never had artifacts and I was gaming for a few hours, no freezing or anything. my last flash was 8800 utlra to a gtx and that card still works.

I have flashed cards for my freinds with OC'ed bioses and they never had any problems. But I am still open to any conclusions, I guess that is just the way it is.

and the leds on the hd 4870 do not stay on, they flash when I turn on my computer.

[Martin.v.r]

I RMA a 1000W Antec Quattro it kill,s a 3870x2 / 4850 wrong W/AMP on the PSUen???
death after restart,again graphics error before this.

[SimBy]

1st of all you should all spread the warning around for ppl NOT to either flash, overclock or do anything non stock. Thats the least you can do.

Then if the cards continue to die even stock, things could get more interesting.

Would be nice if some1 compiles all the deaths. What brand were they, were they stock or any changes were made to bios or overclocked.

Somehow I have trouble believing cards 'just die' for no fing reason.

[NKD]

Now Please instead of telling me its my fault I flashed, if it happened right after the flash I would understand but 2 days is a big time between flash and gaming for 8-10 hours without a problem, and than going to a dead card on boot up.

and Yes to be on the safe side I would really recommend to everyone that do not mess with this card so we can all isolate this problem. just remember that these cards did not finalize until computex and they were bearly available, so this might be an early culprit.

[eleeter]

Now Please instead of telling me its my fault I flashed, if it happened right after the flash I would understand but 2 days is a big time between flash and gaming for 8-10 hours without a problem, and than going to a dead card on boot up.

What do you think is more likely, a defective card that just happened to die after you flashed it, or that the flashed BIOS caused some glitch or damage and rendered the card dead?

[STEvil]

Neither.

Stock cards are dieing as well as flashed cards.

The problem is the GDDR5 as far as I can tell. No 4850's have died (without heavy mods) and they are identical other than the memory.

Clap your hands for Quimonda... more crappy ram from them!

[NKD]

What do you think is more likely, a defective card that just happened to die after you flashed it, or that the flashed BIOS caused some glitch or damage and rendered the card dead?

LOL, alright may be a glitch happened. I just don't want anyone else going through this I guess, Hey I can't even RMA my card since I got this card of someone, so I would have to buy another one, but anyways it could be that the card just died, or yea there was a glitch in the bios. Anything is possible, but it is hard for me to believe that it would work so good after a flash, and than die. The symptoms seem to be same as the other cards, that weren't even flashed.

[SimBy]

Well of course messing with stock settings/flashing with experimental beta flashers is primary suspect for most deaths for now. With exception of those cards that 'just died' stock.

The other could be GDDR5. GDDR5 is the biggest difference compared to HD4850 which I don't think I've seen much if any reports of dying.

Were there any reports of HD4870 cards dying in reviewers hands?! I mean those guys surely put them through its paces! But what they did not do is flash bios.

[eleeter]

Stock cards are dieing as well as flashed cards.

I did a Google and the only thread that came up about 4870's going dead was this one. If this really is a problem, you would think other people would be talking about it.

[NKD]

Neither.

Stock cards are dieing as well as flashed cards.

The problem is the GDDR5 as far as I can tell. No 4850's have died (without heavy mods) and they are identical other than the memory.

Clap your hands for Quimonda... more crappy ram from them!

you are right that is the only difference between the two cards, so lets see what is going on, may be there was a reason the official launch was pushed to july 8th. It might be the ram, it is all speculation unless someone sheds more light on it. so there might not have been a great quality control, because we all know that these are the first wave of the cards, the samples weren't even available until few weeks ago, heck some of the review sites even admitted recieving samples a week before june 25th launch date.

whatever it is, if it is a bad bios flash there is no reason for us to not be able to flash it back. bios might be corrupt but it is highly unlikly it damaged the card from ever being flashed again.

[Solus Corvus]

There does seem to be some correlation between flashed cards and dead cards. But it isn't anywhere near perfect and we are just guessing that is the culprit. An even stronger correlation is between an altered LED pattern and the failed card state. It would be wise to consult ATI and find out what the LEDs represent. It may very well be that in some cases the user is at fault - but we can't be sure without more information.

And even if the users are at fault blaming them doesn't really help them at all. What they need is information because that's what they need to make the decision of how to proceed. We are all aware of the risks in modifying hardware, there is no need to berate each other for trying something a little extreme or risky.

[eleeter]

What they need is information because that's what they need to make the decision of how to proceed. We are all aware of the risks in modifying hardware, there is no need to berate each other for trying something a little extreme or risky.

I applaud people that are flashing and willing to take the risk. And I sympathize with them, I've killed expensive hardware before it's not a good feeling.

But we have people tossing into the mix that stock cards, never overclocked, are going dead for no apparent reason. That is confusing things.

[SimBy]

I guess finding out what those different LED states at POST mean would be nice.

[eleeter]

It might be the ram, it is all speculation unless someone sheds more light on it. so there might not have been a great quality control, because we all know that these are the first wave of the cards, the samples weren't even available until few weeks ago, heck some of the review sites even admitted recieving samples a week before june 25th launch date.

I don't know where you are going with this, but you're not making sense. Of course review sites had cards prior to launch. How do you think they get the reviews ready for launch day? It takes time to do a review, why wouldn't they have cards before the offical launch? What do you think the NDA is for?

whatever it is, if it is a bad bios flash there is no reason for us to not be able to flash it back. bios might be corrupt but it is highly unlikly it damaged the card from ever being flashed again.

You say there is "no reason" but you can't make that claim, bad BIOS code can most certainly kill hardware, especially when it powers up/initializes.