Is anybody else experiencing this?

[CrazyNutz]

Ok, so theoretically if we unsolder the BIOS chip on the front of the card it should automatically force the card to use the other BIOS chip, so if you flash it.. VIOLA! As theres no backup chip theres nothing for the card to revert to. Alternatively we need a way to flash the backup chip as well. Ideas anyone?

ED - My other card I haven't flashed either yet. But as its a KFA as well (Galaxy rebrand) then it will have that damn backup BIOS chip as well.

Thats what i was thinking.
And that solder may be holding the CE pin low (forceing the front bios chip to be enabled)
First thing I would do is touch the tip of your soldering iron to that blob and suck it out with a desoldering tool. Then the internal pullup resitor (if it has them) in the flash chip would pull the CE signal high, and disable that bios chip. Or heat pin1 and lift it off the pad with a needle

[Ket]

I'm all over that. I'll get on it once I've taken a shower. Kinda didn't open my business today because I had new PC parts arriving and I look like a proper bum atm

[Ket]

I took the markings off of the front BIOS chip (blue dot and a white dot), without any effect. What I'm unsure of now is which BIOS chip is the main BIOS chip? Or won't it matter which BIOS chip I snip a leg off of? Oh, and if anyone wants to have their GTX460 always run in PCIE 2.0 mode instead of switching between PCIE 1.1 (desktop) and PCIE 2.0, just take the resistor off shown in this pic;

Do bare in mind though if you take it off your card will always run 3D clocks.

[CrazyNutz]

ket dont snip the leg off Unless you can repair it.
you dont know witch one is the main bios.

[Ket]

Snipping would be the only option. You cant heat the pad from the other side or anything because the other BIOS chip is right there.

[Mungri]

In physx games with two GTX 460s, is it better to have them in SLI mode, or with the second GPU dedicated to Physx?

[CrazyNutz]

Snipping would be the only option. You cant heat the pad from the other side or anything because the other BIOS chip is right there.

You dont heat from the otherside, you need a 15-25 watt small tip solder iron,
just heat the leg until the solder flows then with the other hand use a sewing needle to pry the leg up.

And if you really want to know whitch one is main bios put you volt meter on the pin 1 leg of the bios on back of card, fire up the machine. If it is pulled low you'll see 0v (or less than 1v) that indicates chip enable (i.e. the bios it is using), if high > 2v, then its not the main bios.

[Ket]

Well my 2nd card has just started acting even more strange so its being sent back.

[askimo]

I have similar issues with two GTX 460 1GB GC Galaxy cards; let me describe the problem

- Two identical cards in SLI. Card #1 on top Card #2 bottom
- Successfully flashed the same mod bios in both cards using the process described here
- nVidia inspector correctly reports the new upper limit voltages 1.212v. (This is the only tweak in the modded bios)

Next is when things became interesting, because after rebooting the computer or crashing the cards with a high overclock the upper limit voltage in the card #1 is back to 1.087v. The only way to bring back the upper limit voltage to 1.212 is by reflashing the bios. Card #2 behaves normally and keeps the modded bios.

I will include here both bios in case somebody is curious enough to compare them

[Ket]

I found very similar with the KFA cards. Only for me reflashing doesn't work. I have to physically remove the card and put it back in, then it'll use the modded clocks.. until I reboot.

[askimo]

Below are the original bios from my cards

Im wondering if somebody can mod each bios to brake the upper limit so I can try them to flash it back into its original card.

Also the min fan RPM to 0 --Tks

[Ket]

I think its safe to say there could be something fundamentally wrong with the engineering design of KFA/Galaxy cards, at least in early batches. If thats not the case then we need a way to disable one of the BIOS chips, or find a way to flash the backup chip as well.

[CrazyNutz]

Dudes, these cards have dual bios, Its just supposed to work that way, i.e.
safety net incase you screw up your bios, however it's not very desirable and does seem to be a pain in the arse You guys should contact your vendor and get instructions on how to flash the backup bios, there has to be a way. They should be ok with giving out this information.

I mean hell they put dual bios on these cards they did that so you could tweak one and have one to fall back on, they made this card for tweakers/modders they should give you guy's the tool or information.

[Ket]

The cards seem to have a mind of their own, choosing which BIOS to boot with at whim. Hence my comment about there could be something wrong with early batches.

[askimo]

Something else that I would like to add is that after erasing the eeprom in both cards I rebooted the computer, but the video card was able post. This may confirm the presence of a back up bios.

Ket can you please mod my original bios attached above with the min rpm to 0% and the voltage upper limit to 1.212v? Tks

[CrazyNutz]

The cards seem to have a mind of their own, choosing which BIOS to boot with at whim. Hence my comment about there could be something wrong with early batches.

I agree with what you are saying, It's flaky!

Things that are supposed to help you not screw up, tend to be flaky, or get in the way, just all out nuisance, especially for people that actually know what they are doing.

[Ket]

Yeah, real pain in the arse. If anyone has the proper equipment to try it, I would say try outright removing one of the BIOS chips and see what happens.

Something else that I would like to add is that after erasing the eeprom in both cards I rebooted the computer, but the video card was able post. This may confirm the presence of a back up bios.

Ket can you please mod my original bios attached above with the min rpm to 0% and the voltage upper limit to 1.212v? Tks

Clicky

[Zloyd]

In physx games with two GTX 460s, is it better to have them in SLI mode, or with the second GPU dedicated to Physx?

This might be game specific just try both and see what works best

[Mungri]

This might be game specific just try both and see what works best

I dont have any physx games though, except for Sacred 2, and they recommend not use physx in that because it is too buggy.

[Funky]

The weird part is, we know the bios is sticking to at least one chip. Once you flash the bios and read it again via GPUZ, it has same checksum and same voltages as the modified one which I flashed. So bios is definitely sticking.
Results are same with even when I use xtremetuner HD for flashing as well which is tool made by galaxy themselves.

I dont have any problems like others with this card though. No pci express 2.0 bus issues what so ever, it clocks nicely, remains cool. If only I could unlock the voltages successfully. Seems like very nice GPU as it is 100% stable at 920/2225 in vantage, Kombuster as well as games with max temp of 63°C (sure fan is at 100% at these clocks).

[Ket]

As I said earlier, somebody needs to try removing one of the BIOS chips from the PCB completely, that way the board will have no choice but to use the one BIOS remaining.

[kI Smoke]

after trying to flash twice and it saying successful still no modded bios for me either.so i grew a pair and yanked the bios chip off the back leaving the one on front with the solder,or whatever that is on it.restarted and presto your modded bios was there waiting when rebooted.but sadly it wasn't stable and this galaxy looks to be a poor overclocker.so i reverted back to stock bios for now.any chance you could mod one that has gpu@800 and remove the volt cap but leave everything else at stock?pls pls pls .it was either the 1.1v or the memory @4005 that kept making the driver crash i think but i'm not sure which.

[kI Smoke]

hehe nevermind about modding a bios i think i did it.thx for the thread and the one with all the modded bioses,much appreciated.

[vern]

Success?

[kI Smoke]

as far as being able to flash the bios and it stick yes.but this card is not a high o'clocker at all.about 860 is as high as i can get it.anything over 1.05v and it just wont run.