Fixing a Bad BIOS Flash on the 4870

[Marvin_The_Martian]

Yeah I posted in the other thread he should try to get in touch with Wizzard at techpower if he can't reach em here. On the other hand, I would be surprised if Wizzard wasn't certain when he said the bioses were not the problem. Only other thing could be that the download server is truncating the downloads of Dave Baumann?

[W1zzard]

The ROMs on these boards are 1Mb ROM's, used for the first time used on AMD/ATI PC desktop boards.

Dave, the BIOS dump using winflash/atiflash is 62.976 bytes. i thought 1 Mb ROM too. that's why I specifically asked for Winflash/ATIFLASH dumps.

so far nobody reported if the actual bios chip is 512k or 1M.

[Dave Baumann]

Only other thing could be that the download server is truncating the downloads of Dave Baumann?

No, because I checked those at both TechPowerup and the filefront one GoldenTiger uploaded, referenced in the earlier post; neither of them are the same size at the production BIOS.

[Dave Baumann]

so far nobody reported if the actual bios chip is 512k or 1M.

Its 1Mb on all HD 4870's (HD 4850 is still 512Kb).

I have no idea how old the versions of WinFlash you are using are. They almost certianly haven't been updated specifically for RV770.

[W1zzard]

the bios files are 1 Mb indeed. i'm taking the 4870 bioses offline right now

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads...h_2.0.1.2.html is the winflash those people used .. no newer version, feel free to check yourself dave

[Mechromancer]

the bios files are 1 Mb indeed. i'm taking the 4870 bioses offline right now

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads...h_2.0.1.2.html is the winflash those people used .. no newer version, feel free to check yourself dave

This is good to know. I'm now more concerned with the people that say they simply crossfired their 4870s and experienced a failure. Or were these reports misleading?

[Marvin_The_Martian]

This is good to know. I'm now more concerned with the people that say they simply crossfired their 4870s and experienced a failure. Or were these reports misleading?

I feel that if they were misleading those people's accounts should be banned here, they give XS a bad name trying to aquire an easy rma by using a forum to make it look like they didn't do anything wrong themself.

I still have some hope in the good of people, so I'm not definetly saying they were lying but I would like to have this found out without a doubt.

[SimBy]

I guess the question now is if truncated bios indeed caused many of this deaths, can the cards be revived with correct bios or are they fubared.

[ripken204]

I guess the question now is if truncated bios indeed caused many of this deaths, can the cards be revived with correct bios or are they fubared.

if a proper bios flashing tool comes out then you would assume so.

[W1zzard]

ok football is over, back to work. i need volunteers with a working 4870 and one person with a non-working 4870 .. can be the same person

contant me on instant messenger asap

[GoldenTiger]

Whatever tool you used to save that with it is not saving to the correct size; the ROM image should be 128K.

I've just looked at all the BIOS's collected on W1zzard's download site, and again they are all incorrect sizes and the BIOS is truncated. W1zzard I would urge you to remove those BIOS's

I used ATIwinflash 2.0.0.7 for it under Vista 64.

I feel that if they were misleading those people's accounts should be banned here, they give XS a bad name trying to aquire an easy rma by using a forum to make it look like they didn't do anything wrong themself.

I still have some hope in the good of people, so I'm not definetly saying they were lying but I would like to have this found out without a doubt.

I fail to see why someone would lie on a forum where they are anonymous about what caused their card's death... if they were going to lie why not lie to the manufacturer or vendor for RMA? I told the situation to my vendor and was offered an RMA for a full refund which was lucky as heck on my part.


EDIT: I am taking my truncated BIOS down from filefront now, since I assume those who needed to look at it did and it is clearly not proper.

[STEvil]

ATI Tray Tools can dump bioses as well, but dont know if it works on 4850/4870.. doesnt want to work on my X1950XTX.

[GoldenTiger]

W1zzard, did anyone with a non-working card contact you yet on messenger? I am installing MSN messenger now.

[W1zzard]

nope ..

[GoldenTiger]

OK, I'll be done with installing in a few minutes... should I pop my 4870 in alongside my current card (working 4850) after it's done?

[xMrBunglex]

ok football is over, back to work. i need volunteers with a working 4870 and one person with a non-working 4870 .. can be the same person

contant me on instant messenger asap

MSN is the only messenger i use. i just sent you an invite (i think. i don't use it very often). i have two working 4870's and i'd like to help as long as they don't end up dead.

[GoldenTiger]

MSN is the only messenger i use. i just sent you an invite (i think. i don't use it very often). i have two working 4870's and i'd like to help as long as they don't end up dead.

Reading a BIOS should never harm anything for you, so don't worry about that... it's only if you write to it that you can have something happen.

[Marvin_The_Martian]

I fail to see why someone would lie on a forum where they are anonymous about what caused their card's death... if they were going to lie why not lie to the manufacturer or vendor for RMA? I told the situation to my vendor and was offered an RMA for a full refund which was lucky as heck on my part.

EDIT: I am taking my truncated BIOS down from filefront now, since I assume those who needed to look at it did and it is clearly not proper.

Well some people seem to thing that if their is some forum saying it's not an user problem, it might be easier talking with a retailer/manufacturer about an rma?

I applaud your honesty and you been rewarded for it I see, but not everyone is as honest as you. Again, it's almost like I'm saying I'm certain they lied, I'm not. But to litle cases are known to warrant someone saying that these cards are dying from nothing, that's all I do know for certain. It's been a day since this has been going on here on XS, other forums picked up but I can only see one new case being reported, for me that's pretty conclusive but you seem to think otherwise and again even for your trust I applaud you. I just hope you're right.

[wiak]

I don't think so. I only Oc'd 1 card to 790/1050 for 15 minutes.

The second card was never OC'd. On the initial bootup with both cards inserted and powered up and with the cF bridges installed XP would not load.

Hence, I removed 1 card thinking a Corsair 750TX was insufficiently powering the cards. However, after this neither card never worked again.

Though they can be seen through ATI Flacs when another ATI model card is used as the primary.

if am not mistaking crossfire will make both cards run at same speed unless both are clocked, so here might be the problem?

[W1zzard]

got the 128k image now .. testing if it revives the card

[Kensek]

What Flash Utility do you use and where is the 128k image file.

I'll dig out my 4870s again

[wiak]

guys, i have a idea
whats the serial numbers, manufacturer and manufacturer dates?
and where did you guys buy them from to?
then we might find out something

[W1zzard]

the fix works. i'll need another volunteer with a broken card. instant message me

[Kensek]

Don't have IM - but set to try

[SimBy]

Very glad to hear it m8