Fixing a Bad BIOS Flash on the 4870

[ShambleS]

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.

[eleeter]

You mean Kensek?! Go back one page and you will see his cards are OK now

Thanks I missed that.

Good news.

[buckshot]

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!!

[Crankybugga]

Yay, good work people who worked through till fix
Bad job for those moaning and blaming Ati

[ripken204]

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?

[zerazax]

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..

[Your_Boss]

@ 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.

[TurboDiv]

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...

[Solus Corvus]

Great work guys, I was sure we could figure it out.

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....

[AriciU]

Great work guys!

[aztec]

@ 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.

+1 on that. Too much drama here on what looks to be a great card.

[Kensek]

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?

[mascaras]

So the problem with these cards dyeing was a bad bios flash?? What about the other people that did not flash the bios or was that just a bad install from the manufacture?

do you really believe that every card dead was not flashed ????


say thnks to wizzard !



best regards

[Big.Wayne]

For real!

[Theta]

Just got back in, and a few of us here read through this.

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.

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.

[zerazax]

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?

lol, friends

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

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

Where's halo at anyways?

[Theta]

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!

[Big.Wayne]

I'm interested in seeing if the vmodded 4850 is in the same realm as the 4870

How can it be?

Isn't even volt-modded overclocked to hell GDDR3 still gonna struggle to compete with GDDR5?

[Theta]

How can it be?

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.

[zerazax]

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+

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...

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...

[GoldenTiger]

Not sure, going to find out though. The spirit of XS, after all.

Hehe, good luck and yeah .

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 !



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.

[Big.Wayne]

The spirit of XS, after all.

What you mean who can nuke a graphics card the quickest!

[non]

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

[GoldenTiger]

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.

Anxiously awaiting a software OC utility for these puppies... they have a lot more headroom past what the CCC OverDrive allows !

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

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 )