3870 bad BIOS flash

[Nexxion314]

Ok, I have spent all day yesterday trying to solve my problem, searched the internet, searched forums, you name it, to no avail.
You guys really are my last hope before I try to RMA the card. Here's my problem.

I got my brand new Club3D HD3870 two days ago, I was a happy man.
I have a ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe, wich has two pci-e slots. I put the 3870 in the 1st slot, and my old X1600pro in the second. I did this because I have two monitors, and I thought, why not leave the monitor I don't use for gaming on the X1600pro and get maximum gaming performance out of the 3870 running one monitor on it instead of two.
Now, my gaming monitor has a DVI connection, and I could not see my POST screen when I booted, it only started working when I got to the windows Vista logon screen.
Being very irritated by this problem, I used GPU-Z to extract the original BIOS from the card, made a copy, opened it up in RaBit v2.2.1 and checked the "DVI on" checkbox.
Then I flashed the edited bios into the 3870 using AtiWinflash 2.0.0.2, worked perfectly.
I rebooted, not knowing that something had gone wrong.
Now, if I put the 3870 in the primary pci-e slot, my pc will not boot anymore. No POST, no beeps, just fans and drives spinning. Big trouble.

I tried to put the 3870 in the secondary slot and the X1600pro in the primary slot. Then it boots perfectly, although the 3870 does still not show a POST screen.
It showed up in Vista and CCC, and I tried some gaming on it. It's glitchy and thats because the seconday slot is only a 4x slot and not a 16x one, and no I can't change that in my motherboard bios. So the 3870 HAS to go in the primary slot.

I tried reflashing it with the original bios using AtiWinflash 2.0.0.2, but now I get an "MFC Application Error" so I can't open the app anymore, with or without the 3870 in the secondary slot. Older versions of AtiWinflash work fine, but they don't show the 3870.

Then I tried using Atiflash 3.49, that doesn't detect the 3870. When I type "atiflash -i" it doesn't show up. I also tried "atiflash -f -p 1 RV670XT.bin" and then it says Adapter not found.

Finally I made a small extra partition and put XP on there, to try to run the AtiWinflash app from there. I tried it without the drivers installed, then I get the same error as I got in Vista, and I tried it with the drivers installed, then I get 100% cpu usage and nothing happens.

That's where I am now. I would really appreciate it if you guys could help me out...

 

[trog100]

i think u need to do it from a floppy.. flash it blind perhaps with force switches set.. but i dont know without checking exactly how to do it.. its written down somewhere on site.. have a look..

trog

 

[Nexxion314]

Thanks trog...

I just tried blind flashing, but it didn't work because when the card is in the primary slot the motherboard won't post...
That means it doesn't even get to where it loads the blind flash boot cd I want to use.
And I can't put it in the secondary slot, then the motherboard doens't want to boot because there is no card in the first slot.

 

[dolf]

As usually the scenario with possibility 1000000:1 became reality . But you have to eliminate the boot attempt from the EEPROM chip on the wrongly flashed card. Look that: http://reference.techpowerup.com/Fixing_a_completely_gone_wrong_ATI_BIOS_flash.
Just have in mind that you have to flash adapter 1 (not 0 - which is your boot VGA card X1600 in the first slot). Flash in DOS using atiflash and command line: atiflash -f -p 1 3870.bin

And why you decide that RaBit 2.2.1 supports HD3870? This should caused the problem with the edited BIOS.

 

[Nexxion314]

Hi all, back with the latest...

Hi dolf, I went ahead and did the soldering thing.
I started by entering some of the codes I found on the chips into google.
Turns out the chip that has "Pm25LV512" on it, is flash memory(so most likely the bios), and the connections are the same as in the link you provided. Connect pin 1 to pin 8 and the chip is disabled. I work as an electrician so I did the soldering without any problems.

Now. When the card is in the secondary slot, everything is still the same. (atiflash says adapter not found) But when I put it in the primary slot, the system now boots, so thats some change in the right direction. I tried blind flashing the card with the connection undone and sadly that didn't work, most likely because of the 'adapter not found' thing. I think the latest ATI cards might not have that backup ROM bios that your page is talking about.

I'm starting to think that this was the absolute last thing that could have worked for me...
If I can't fix it in two days I'm going to RMA it, and I would hate to do that because everybody is on christmas holiday and it will take ages for it to return...

Thanks for helping me out guys, further suggestions are welcome.

 

[panchoman]

http://reference.techpowerup.com/Fixing_a_completely_gone_wrong_ATI_BIOS_flash

this might help...

 

[Dr. Spankenstein]

pancho,

Linked in the post 2 above yours...
c'mon man!

 

[wiak]

got any motherboard with onboard vga?
and you should boot from floppy or usbstick, and use atiflash when flashing graphics cards to be safe
http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=111381.0
added orginal Club3D 3870s bios from my card, you can try

merry christmas

 

[dolf]

Hi all, back with the latest...

Hi dolf, I went ahead and did the soldering thing.
I started by entering some of the codes I found on the chips into google.
Turns out the chip that has "Pm25LV512" on it, is flash memory(so most likely the bios), and the connections are the same as in the link you provided. Connect pin 1 to pin 8 and the chip is disabled. I work as an electrician so I did the soldering without any problems.

Now. When the card is in the secondary slot, everything is still the same. (atiflash says adapter not found) But when I put it in the primary slot, the system now boots, so thats some change in the right direction. I tried blind flashing the card with the connection undone and sadly that didn't work, most likely because of the 'adapter not found' thing. I think the latest ATI cards might not have that backup ROM bios that your page is talking about.

I'm starting to think that this was the absolute last thing that could have worked for me...
If I can't fix it in two days I'm going to RMA it, and I would hate to do that because everybody is on christmas holiday and it will take ages for it to return...

Thanks for helping me out guys, further suggestions are welcome.

With card in the first slot you have to flash (even blind) adapter 0 not 1. After booting from the floppy (bootable flash drive with atiflash and the BIOS on it) you can try atiflash -f -p 0 3870.bin and also atiflash -f -p -sst 0 3870.bin (start atiflash on the x1600 in DOS and type atiflash - then see all the available options and experiment with them too). It should work.

 

[Nexxion314]

like I said, the motherboard boots with the soldering mod, but the atiflash DOS tool still does not see the 3870 so I can't flash it with the backup bios.

 

[Nexxion314]

Hey, since I can see and use the card when its in the secondary slot and I've booted into Vista x64, all I need is for Atiwinflash 2.0.0.2 to work, right?
Why did it work when I flashed the card with the corrupted bios, and now it doesn't?
Do you need to have some driver or something to run it? Turn off some security thing?
I used to get some MFC application error when trying to open it, now I just get 100% cpu usage. Thoughts?

 

[mascaras]

For windows Vista you must use Atiwinflash 2.0.0.2a

download >> http://www.sendspace.com/file/ijobgd

regards

 

[pimpiliosious]

i have the same problem as nexxions314. i was trying to flash it using winflash not use what version it was either it was for xp for vista, btw im on vista, than the top quarter of my monitor screen turned black and everything freezed up. after a few minutes i resarted my pc and it never came on no screen all black!

i have tried everything on this forum and i have no idea what to do, i have tried re-flashing it when i put a working ati card is the first slot but no luck, i download that file you sent with that link but that keeps saying not valid vbois for some reason. HELLLPPP PLEASE this card cost me like 160 pounds more than anything i have spent on a gfx the HD 3870 is such an amazing card i should have not gotten greed and trying to flash it. if there was anyway of fixing it i will be soo damn help with you i have already gave myself 60 slaps for doing it, im sorry im a total noob!!!

if it helps my system spec is:

motherboard asus forumla (basic)
vista 32
HD 3870 Sapphire
Q6600 G0
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX
500GB Hard driver Sata Samsung
520Watt power supply
HP W2207H

 

[pimpiliosious]

BTW thanks to all of those people who have given there suggests! keep it comming

 

[Deleted member 24505]

I'm sorry i cant help,but i did the same thing to my old 1950pro.I have since got a 3850,which i will not be flashing at all ever.Later this year i am gonna buy a spi serial flash programmer,which i will use to flash any bios changes to my card with.

Good luck

 

[pimpiliosious]

OMG, i feel SOO DAMN LUCKY IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what i did was i used some crappy x1550 to get to desktop using it as my main display and i used winflash to flash back my old bois and it asked me to restart my pc and i done so than i swap my HD 3870 with the crappy x1550 and amazingly it WORKED, a hopless plan that worked i even bought another HD3870 not knowing! on well i will have to ran crossfire.

 

[Dr. Spankenstein]

Great news!! Enjoy your CF setup!!

 

[pimpiliosious]

thanks mate

 

[awallabilla]

OMG, i feel SOO DAMN LUCKY IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what i did was i used some crappy x1550 to get to desktop using it as my main display and i used winflash to flash back my old bois and it asked me to restart my pc and i done so than i swap my HD 3870 with the crappy x1550 and amazingly it WORKED, a hopless plan that worked i even bought another HD3870 not knowing! on well i will have to ran crossfire.

good for you.. can you explain what exactly you have done step by step? i have a bad bios flash situation too.. and i have two pci-e cards.. but it keeps saying ''adapter not found''.. could you help me? thanks..

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?p=1191890