Fixing a Bad BIOS Flash on the 4870

[halo112358]

/End converstion right here ok? It's not about who eventually got helped, it's about creating a thread with a misleading subject. Also you might have just edited your first post, no where in there did you admit it could be an user error. You crawled back after you got the attention you needed to ensure someone would figure out what to do and now you're trying to act like you didn't mislead this whole forum?

Check the first post again, I haven't been on in a couple of days - the first thing I did was fix it.

Chill

Out.

[Marvin_The_Martian]

Check the first post again, I haven't been on in a couple of days - the first thing I did was fix it.

Chill

Out.

You're missing the point.

I gone out off my way to defend this death card syndrome as not something resulting of a bios flash / mod or even overclock which automaticly is assumed when a thread likes this pops up here. Now it turns out you mislead us on purpose, you can denie all you want but it's in clear view for all to see. That warrants action in my eyes, be glad I'm not the one who decides.



Edit:

Your post saying, well I haven't been online for days only makes it wurse.

[aztec]

Sorry halo, I gotta agree with Marvin on this. In the future some of you ought to be more careful about the what you do to your parts and/or the way you post about it, not run around willy-nilly like Chicken Little and "the sky is falling" before you know for sure what's up.

Not meant as a flame, just an observation.

[Movieman]

Put's on Mod hat, but only 1/2 way;
Hi Guys,
Seems from what I've read that the whole issue may be in a bad bios that people downloaded and tried. I don't have the card, I don't know jack except what I have read but it seems like the problem may be settled as the knowledge of that bad bios is spreading throughout the community.
Can we agree that the knowledge itself is the fix and essentially settles the problem?
No need to point fingers at anyones motives as it's a done deal.
Both sides here have valid points but again, now we know what caused the issue and maybe it's time to move on and see what this card can do with a good bios in it.
Remember, friends first, and if you approach these issues in that way then all come out ahead.
Thanks for reading..

(damn, the hat fell off on the floor)

[ShambleS]

Tnx for te title fix, i hope it hasnt caused to many people from not buying a card they would have.

[wiak]

Sapphire HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 Stock BIOS 128k in attachment
Saved with GPU-Z 0.2.5 (29 June 2008)
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads...-Z_v0.2.5.html

[Sleepyzone]

Tnx for te title fix, i hope it hasnt caused to many people from not buying a card they would have.

Guess they changed the name of this tread. No problem on buying a new card,, cause ya cant find any to buy right now anyway. People on this thread seem to have them all right now.

[purecain]

the bios wont take on either of mine... started a new thread...

fixed.....

[strange|ife]

so the general consensus here is to wait on doing any bios flashing?

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

no, bios flashing is fixed as long as you use a 128k bios (can be found on techpowerup)

[Alcibiades]

well I just flashed my new gecube 4870 with the techpowerup fix
after doin 790 easy @ ddr5 1100,
changed the gpu to 830 on clock info 3 only (RBE v1.11)
flashed (Ati Winflash 2012)
no display

connect my 8800gts 320
but now cannot get ati winflash2012 to load in vista or xp
RBE v1.11 gives me "YOU HAVE NOT CONNECTED ONE OF YOUR VIDEO CARD POWER CONNECTORS TO THE POWER SUPPLY"



help me obi wan

I better powerdown and check those cables as I am using a modular psu
edit: cables are not the problem triple check

critisisms, jokes and suggestions welcome

[Solus Corvus]

Try making a dos boot disk and use atiflash to flash a stock bios or one you know works. It worked for me to recover a bad flash with winflash.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

well I just flashed my new gecube 4870 with the techpowerup fix
after doin 790 easy @ ddr5 1100,
changed the gpu to 830 on clock info 3 only (RBE v1.11)
flashed (Ati Winflash 2012)
no display

connect my 8800gts 320
but now cannot get ati winflash2012 to load in vista or xp
RBE v1.11 gives me "YOU HAVE NOT CONNECTED ONE OF YOUR VIDEO CARD POWER CONNECTORS TO THE POWER SUPPLY"



help me obi wan

I better powerdown and check those cables as I am using a modular psu
edit: cables are not the problem triple check

critisisms, jokes and suggestions welcome

thats a warning built into the BIOS, you are not getting that warning

set you boot clocks to stock and every other clock in the RBE to your desired clock. make sure you use a fresh 4870 stock bios EVERY time.

[Alcibiades]

Back from the dead


booted up with a drdos boot cd
ran atiflash -f -newbios -p0 4870.bin from my c: drive
but my default clocks in CCC are 500/900
edit: overdrive to 790/1100 running good and cool

I'll wait for a good bios and good tools to come out

[Olly_K]

my clocks are the same as that, I put it down to power saving in 2D mode

[strange|ife]

glade i saw this and talked with a couple of you via pm. I almost flashed from the last GPUZ with RBE. Glad i did not!

Now to get the balls to up voltage, can not get past 830 core on 4870...it gives me a display stopped working...

I think bumping it up to 1.3~v should be safe enough and will try that when i get home tonite, if it nukes im still in rma period with newegg

[Waxking1]

I killed my computer trying to flash the 4870 back to original. I actually never got to the flashing part. I still have a dead 4870 at this point. Since you have to have 2 video cards in the system and I didn't have another ATI card that would fit one of my slots, I tried with an Nvidia 7800.

This is with Vista64 and a P5E MB. Is it possible to kill a MB just by using 2 different cards at the same time? I wouldn't think so but if I get a new board I'm going to have to try it again so I want to be sure.

Right after I first put the card in the and booted to Vista i got a Blue Screen shortly afterward. I reseated the cards and tried again and everything seemed OK for a while. I also had to change my wireless PCI network card to the top slot because I no longer had room at the bottom with the 4870 in the next slot.

Anyway, I couldn't get my wireless network connected. Also on my other computer I was trying to figure out how to make a bootable cd with bios flash utilities. When I turned my 4870 computer back on it went to a blue screen just before getting to the desktop. I was able to enter safe mode but as luck would have it, the restore function would not function. I had already tried going to last working config with no luck.

At this point I thought I would try to repair with the V64 disc.
I set the Bios to boot from CD and everything was going well until it finished with a blank blue screen and a working mouse pointer.

At this point I'm thinking hardware again and disconnect everything except for the hard drive and I also put in a different video card and memory. Now I can't even get a display. Only thing left is my motherboard and CPU and I woud guess that I must have damaged the MB when inserting a card with static or maybe a hairline crack. Oh, I also reset the CMOS more than once.

I have the worst luck with computers, I should buy a Dell and never open the case. I've read most of this thread and searched the net quite a bit but I haven't seen an actual procedure for fixing the 4870. Can you just use the 4870 and any other video card? Looks like the best way is to use a boot disc and then flash the Bios.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

I killed my computer trying to flash the 4870 back to original. I actually never got to the flashing part. I still have a dead 4870 at this point. Since you have to have 2 video cards in the system and I didn't have another ATI card that would fit one of my slots, I tried with an Nvidia 7800.

This is with Vista64 and a P5E MB. Is it possible to kill a MB just by using 2 different cards at the same time? I wouldn't think so but if I get a new board I'm going to have to try it again so I want to be sure.

Right after I first put the card in the and booted to Vista i got a Blue Screen shortly afterward. I reseated the cards and tried again and everything seemed OK for a while. I also had to change my wireless PCI network card to the top slot because I no longer had room at the bottom with the 4870 in the next slot.

Anyway, I couldn't get my wireless network connected. Also on my other computer I was trying to figure out how to make a bootable cd with bios flash utilities. When I turned my 4870 computer back on it went to a blue screen just before getting to the desktop. I was able to enter safe mode but as luck would have it, the restore function would not function. I had already tried going to last working config with no luck.

At this point I thought I would try to repair with the V64 disc.
I set the Bios to boot from CD and everything was going well until it finished with a blank blue screen and a working mouse pointer.

At this point I'm thinking hardware again and disconnect everything except for the hard drive and I also put in a different video card and memory. Now I can't even get a display. Only thing left is my motherboard and CPU and I woud guess that I must have damaged the MB when inserting a card with static or maybe a hairline crack. Oh, I also reset the CMOS more than once.

I have the worst luck with computers, I should buy a Dell and never open the case. I've read most of this thread and searched the net quite a bit but I haven't seen an actual procedure for fixing the 4870. Can you just use the 4870 and any other video card? Looks like the best way is to use a boot disc and then flash the Bios.

you shouldnt boot to windows to do the flash to fix the card, make an ms-dos boot floppy and flash using win flash per the 4870 fix article: here

[Waxking1]

I read the article and I will take your advice when I try again.
I may use my old DFI system(I will have to piece it back together) to try the flash. If it kills the MB again, at least it will be one I wasn't using anyway. The article doesn't say not to boot to Windows as it mentions using Winflash as an alternative.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

I read the article and I will take your advice when I try again.
I may use my old DFI system(I will have to piece it back together) to try the flash. If it kills the MB again, at least it will be one I wasn't using anyway. The article doesn't say not to boot to Windows as it mentions using Winflash as an alternative.

well booting with alternate graphics brands is kinda sketchy, i wouldnt consider going to windows as an option

[Alcibiades]

Would you be kind enough to email to me the Iso file of your bootdisc. This has been driving me nuts but I can't get it to work. I've spent hours trying.

Also once you are booted, do you just type in the command line like you posted and it flashes the ati bios chip? I have a P53 motherboard with an Nvidia 7800 in one slot and the 4870 in the other and am using V64.

Thanks for the help.

Goto http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

download 4.1.1 iso from preferred source

create your UBCD from iso

copy your atiflash.exe and the 4870.bin to your c:\
(that's the root dir) just to make it easier when in dos

boot with your UBCD that you created



start edit:
WRONG --> choose *Boot First Hard Disk* This will actually boot you back into Vista

correct steps to boot ntfs drive(s)
choose
DOS/Linux Boot Disks
DOS Boot Disks
FreeDOS Boot Disk v3.40
now a series of dialogue boxes will pop up
keep pressing enter on each one but watch out for the NTFS dialogue box
you want to use your arrow keys to get to the checkbox and press spacebar to select it
press enter
you will get to dos and q:\
type c:
and press enter
if invalid drive try d e f etc
do a dir on each one to see which one has your flash files
(my c: drive was invalid and it came up as d: drive)
when you are in the drive and folder with your flash files
end edit:

type
atiflash -f -p ? -4870.bin

where ? is the pci-e slot with the 4870
example: atiflash -f -p 0 -4870.bin

to find out which pci-e slot your 4870 is in
type
atiflash -i

Well what are you waiting for??!?
Get to flashing already!

switch notes
-i Display information of ATI adapters in the system

-f Force flashing regardless of security checking BIOS file info check OR boot-up card

-p Identifies adapter(s) to flash

[aztec]

Well what are you waiting for??!?
Get to flashing already!

lol Yeah, an' don't screw it up this time.

[Waxking1]

I'm pretty good at screwing computers up. I used a floppy first with the DFI motherboard and I get Invalid Command when trying to flash with Atiflash. I also tried with a cd and get the same. The atiflash -i works fine and tells me the card is on 0. Not sure where to go from here but I may load XP and try winflash on this board. The other board was dead but I don't think putting the card in the second slot hurt it, it had to be something else. Thanks for the help
Alcibiades. The Iso file is what I needed.

[aztec]

Don't feel alone. I've done my share of borks too.

Hey, it's a learning experience! At some point we were all n00bs or just got unlucky.

Good luck on the flash.

[Waxking1]

My card is also back from the dead. The flash is really quick in DOS. I ended up making the cd but I'm sure it would have worked fine from the floppy. Thanks alcibiades for your instruction on making the bootable cd as I am sure it will come in handy later.

The thing that was giving me trouble was the syntax. I was keying in atiflash -f -p0 -4870.bin. It should have been atiflash -f -p 0 -4870.bin. The newbios part is not needed but it will probably work either way. If you just execute atiflash it gives you all the different parameters and I didn't see anything about newbios so I left it out.

Now I can use winflash to load a new fan profile.(That's how I got into this trouble)