Nub needs help flashing a Video Card

[Drag'n'fly]

Hi

The video card in my Dell Inspiron 6400 appears to be playing up, and I think I need to 'flash' it.

Problem is, I'm a complete nub when it comes to this type of thing, and need some advice.

The video card is:

Dell ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 BIOS version 009.012.001.009.186.052

Following the guide HERE I stumble at the 1st hurdle as is so often the way when i try to do something remotely techy - in the guide it says 'download the BIOS, but the link to 'ATI BIOS collection' appears broken (edit - I found a list manually, but theres no mention of X1400). I therefore went to the ATI site & tried to find it - I found a zillion other BIOS files, but not one that looked remotely compatible with my X1400.

So - ummm - does anyone know where I can get the BIOS file from?

Also - any more detailed instructions to help me on my mission would be very very much appreciated.

Thanks muchly - I love you techy types!

 

[Widjaja]

What are the symptoms you are getting which make you think it's a GPU BIOS issue?

 

[Drag'n'fly]

Hi thanks for your reply.
Symptoms are:
Screen on laptop is dead. Can only use it by plugging a VGA into my TV.
When on TV, the pic has thin vertical lines on menu bars, and when using skype the video section has vertical green bars right across it, and also it won't play DVDs or MPEGs etc..
Also, I had a similar prob last year and ended up paying a PCrepairman to fix it - he said he had 'flashed' the video card.
Any ideas/suggestions?
Thanks again
Dave T

 

[Tatty_Two]

I have attached a zip copy of your x1400 mobility Bios, download and unzip from here.

here is a link to amending and flashing a bios, No 4 deals specifically with flashing, read carefully, come back if you need further help.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/154

 

[Drag'n'fly]

Tatty, you are a superstar! I will let you know how it goes!
Thanks very much indeed!
DT

 

[qubit]

I hope it works dude, but this sure sounds like a hardware fault unfortunately, so don't hold your breath.

However, welcome to TPU.

 

[alexsubri]

If the BIOS flash doesn't work, it maybe time to burry that card

 

[Widjaja]

Can always count on Tatty.

But as people have mentioned it does sound like graphics hardware failure.
If it is a GPU which is separate from the Motherboard, then there maybe a slim chance you could get a replacement.

Good luck.

 

[Drag'n'fly]

Hmmm. Thanks for all your comments. I've been looking on EBay and any i see appear to be sold as ' may or may not be working - salvaged' etc. Which doesn't give me much faith.

 

[Widjaja]

I guess the laptop you have maybe one of those, laptops which fail in a few years.

If you plan on buying a broken laptop, make sure you find one which has a broken screen but works perfect with external monitor.

I think you will have best luck with those ones.

 

[Drag'n'fly]

Owww dammit. Why is nothing ever easy...
Can't find a working replacement card on Ebay - been looking for weeks...

Trying to flash the card.. I keep hitting one stumbling block after another...
Seems winflash won't open for me & RBE BIOS editor is not compatible with cards as old as mine so wont even load up the BIOS file Tatty attached.. and I can't seem to find a (older version) RaBiT BIOS editor anywhere on the net ><

Grrr.

Time for a new lappy I've started thinking.. easy... but - oh, i need to back up all my outlook/iphone contacts etc 1st... so I back up the contacts file - and eh? wtf? Theres no contact info in it? I search a bit deeprer & find my contacts info in 'journal' hmmm, odd, but never mind... I faffed about a bit more trying to back it up and now I find some error has started on outlook '03 which means I cant open it to back it up (a zillion repeats of 'a programme is trying to access your outlook).

Aaaarghhh.. sorry... 'rant over'.

 

[Widjaja]

Sorry to hear about the PC dramas.

You could always just grab outlooks pst file and go from there if your outlook is totally had it when it comes to exporting.

To stop the outlook issue you have, use this http://www.mapilab.com/outlook/security/
It's a lot more informative than the stupid a program is trying to access outlook pop up.

It pretty much replaces the pop up and tells you what program is trying to access outlook and gives you the option to stop it accessing or not.

Last time I used it was on a customers PC which ad problems with spam fighter and outlook.

I'd guess that laptop was not exactly cheap when you bought it due to having it's own GPU.
But I'd say you would most likely have to upgrade and save yourself the grief.

All I know is make sure you get a decent warranty.
Companies charge through the teeth for replacement parts on laptops.
Had someone come in asking for a replacement display for a 1167USD laptop.
The display was 778USD.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Here is a link to a 2008 version of RBE that might help.....................

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1016/TechPowerUp_Radeon_Bios_Editor_v1.08.htm

And here is an older Winflash issued after this RBE update so they should be compatible with each other...............

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1122/Winflash_2.0.1.2.html

 

[Drag'n'fly]

Hiya Guys
Thanks again for your responses. Sadly I've still not met with much success (the RBE link won't work, and winflash still wont work, and I can't make head nor tail of Mapilab) - so I'm now after a very simple solution more fitting with with my 'utter nub' status.
Where am i likely to find outlooks (2003) .pst files to grab?
Thanks again for all your help!
DT

 

[Drag'n'fly]

Scrap that - i found the litle monkeys!
Going to back up all the stuff i need, add a shiny new lappy to the Xmas list (any recommendations?) and then set about experimenting with this one to see what i can get it to do and elevate myself to only 'slightly nubby',

Thanks very much for your help guys! You are brill.

Dave T

 

[Widjaja]

Depends what you want the laptop to do and what it will be for primarily.

 

[Drag'n'fly]

Hi again guys
Just thought I'd do you the courtesy of letting u know how I got on...
I finally managed to flash the card - after about 3 weeks of faffing.... with the end result that nothing actually changed - so i concluded that the card was, as you correctly said, buggered.
Searched Ebay for suitable replacement and couldnt find anything under £100 - so decided to use it as a paperweight, and buy myself a shiny new lappy... which i did....
Then, 3 days after getting a new laptop, the graphics card which i was seeking appeared on Ebay for a mere £30.00 - and i won it - and slapped it in the old laptop - and hey presto - it is back to life again!
Now i am in the fortunte position of having a spare laptop - which i intend to have as a 'tinkering' machine... to experiment for 1st time with new operating sytems etc.... any suggestions as to what i can get up to with it? i was thinking of trying to get it to boot up snow leopard for a starter....
Any more suggestions for fun stuff to try?
Cheers

 

[Widjaja]

Yeah right from the start I was thinking hardware failure.
Us computer geeks know.
Good to hear you got lucky because that's what it was going to be like trying to find a replacement part for your laptop.

May as well make a hackintosh laptop or something of another OS.
Possibly Linux based or Android just to get used to another OS.

Personally I would choose Android because it is a light OS and relatively new.
There are going to be some people who are wanting to use it..
Personally I don't like the Android interface at the moment and would prefer OSX after playing on it with one of Toshiba's new non moving parts laptops.

 

[qubit]

Hi again guys
Just thought I'd do you the courtesy of letting u know how I got on...
I finally managed to flash the card - after about 3 weeks of faffing.... with the end result that nothing actually changed - so i concluded that the card was, as you correctly said, buggered.
Searched Ebay for suitable replacement and couldnt find anything under £100 - so decided to use it as a paperweight, and buy myself a shiny new lappy... which i did....
Then, 3 days after getting a new laptop, the graphics card which i was seeking appeared on Ebay for a mere £30.00 - and i won it - and slapped it in the old laptop - and hey presto - it is back to life again!
Now i am in the fortunte position of having a spare laptop - which i intend to have as a 'tinkering' machine... to experiment for 1st time with new operating sytems etc.... any suggestions as to what i can get up to with it? i was thinking of trying to get it to boot up snow leopard for a starter....
Any more suggestions for fun stuff to try?
Cheers

Hey thanks for following up on this, dude. Glad it's sorted. I knew it had to be hardware failure, something like this.

What to do with the old one eh? hmmm, what about a really slow but steady Folding machine, perhaps? To be honest, it's really hard to know what to suggest without knowing it's make, model and spec (the spec, really) and what sort of tech you like to get up to.

Perhaps loan it to a deserving family member?

 

[yyjet]

it seems like over heating? did you ever try to clean the thermal system?

 

[Drag'n'fly]

Cleaning the thermal system..... Hmmm..... I think you hit the nail on the head - 5 years of WoW (a terrible affliction) and a huge build up of fluffy stuff I think has led to the card slowly cooking itself.

 

[Thatguy]

glad to see you got it fixed.laptops always seem to die, which is likely why manufacturers love to sell those highly propriatary pieces of junk.