Flashing edited BIOS from R6950 OC turns into BSOD

[Leito360]

I'm one of the many guys who fell into the hands of the bad engineering work. My R6950 OC CFX setup crashes because they can't stand the 1000 MHz in the memory clock.

MSI Afterburner wasn't responding very well, so I decided to edit the BIOS of the cards.

I changed the clocks of the memories from 1000 (or more) to 900. So I reflashed and when Windows was above to start I received a BSOD making reference to "atisys" or "ati.sys".

I have attached the original BIOS from my cards and my edited ones.

Can someone take a look to them and help me with this?

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by Leito360

Can someone take a look to them and help me with this?

Did you flash each card seperately, with it's mate removed from the system?

[Leito360]

I flashed separately. Should I use -pa instead??

[2DividedbyZero]

this may be CCC related, for some reason the latest Cat drivers doesn't like the BIOS clock being changed. You may have to do a complete driver clean and reinstall.

[Leito360]

i'll give it a try.

[adolfotregosa]

I found the same problem but on a 6990. If i open and save each bios (not changing anything) and flash using atiflash, windows boots correctly. If i change a single value on RBE I get bsod. I'm using the correct bios for each gpu. I did try to remove and re install amd drivers but I got bsod again. Have to use stock bios..

Any ideas ??

[2DividedbyZero]

A thorough driver clean (registry specific) may fix it.

I tried it with my 5970:

BIOS FLASH - BSOD

BIOS FLASH - driver clean / reinstall - BSOD

BIOS FLASH - OS reinstall - all good.

there must be a specific registry entry hidden in there somewhere, perhaps even a windows registry entry and not driver?????

if you really really want to change the clocks via BIOS and not use AB or the sapphire utility, then I would say do it before you even look at installing any sort of driver, these newer cards/drivers are turning out to be a pain when changing the stock BIOS clocks.

suffice to say, i use AB

[BAGZZlash]

Originally Posted by 2DividedbyZero

I tried it with my 5970:

BIOS FLASH - BSOD

BIOS FLASH - driver clean / reinstall - BSOD

BIOS FLASH - OS reinstall - all good.

Interesting stuff. I wonder if anyone can reproduce this experiment.

[adolfotregosa]

I'm doing it atm ! I'll report back in half hour..

EDIT: No, sorry but i get instant bsod after installing amd drivers and restarting. I reinstalled OS with the modified bios(s)..

It has to be something else. Had to roll back to original bios(s)

[2DividedbyZero]

wow, didn't expect that. could it be RBE related? its odd how it worked out fine for my card?

[adolfotregosa]

yeap, reflashed original bios and windows booted right away .. :S lol hmm.. I HATE OC by software

[2DividedbyZero]

Originally Posted by adolfotregosa

yeap, reflashed original bios and windows booted right away .. :S lol hmm.. I HATE OC by software

i don't see the issue with simply using AB tbh. this is what i do from now on

[Leito360]

I couldn't try it out for my self yet...
Is there any other program that do the same RBE does?

[TimoX]

You can't change clocks in the BIOS at this time without causing a driver failure on the 6950/6970.
6990 is probably the same.

Reason being the driver looks for a matching signature from the BIOS, which if altered will cause a BSOD or even a BlackSOD.

This is why a OS re-install will "seem to work", as the updated driver isn't loaded yet.

ATIKMDAG.sys seems to be the culprit.

Until AMD drops the stupid id check, unless someone can modify the driver file to ignore the id check, you won't be able to modify clocks and fan profiles via the BIOS. (Or if someone can find out a way to change clocks and not let it change the signature)



With no drivers installed, other than the default generic windows driver, you could tweak and play with the clocks all day, but you can't run any 3D apps.

You could even take last years ATIKMDAG.sys, and drop it in the latest driver folder and do a "new driver install", and everything will probably install, but you still won't get to run any 3D apps, as the driver file won't recognize the newer card, and the minute you drop a version in that does, the ID check fails and no boot.

[W1zzard]

Originally Posted by 2DividedbyZero

BIOS FLASH - OS reinstall - all good.

are you saying that with a modified bios (broken checksum) you can boot if you are on a new windows installation that has never seen the card before?

[2DividedbyZero]

Originally Posted by W1zzard

are you saying that with a modified bios (broken checksum) you can boot if you are on a new windows installation that has never seen the card before?

this is what I know:

I have a 5970 4Gb, default clocks 850/1200

I edited the BIOS with RBE to give default clocks 900/1200 (aka 5970 toxic)

BIOS edited = BSOD
BIOS edited after drivers removed, then drivers reinstalled = BSOD
BIOS edited then initiated an OS reinstall = everything worked.

I had a PM saying a similar thing to a guy who offered me his 5970 toxic BIOS, but I stated to him I fixed the BSOD issue with an OS install. PM deleted now, can't remember who it was but if he sees this, he may still have the message himself...?

[adolfotregosa]

no, he is saying that without drivers windows boots and gpu-z confirms the clocks you used on bios, but since you have no drivers you have no 3d has you know.

[W1zzard]

ah ok

[2DividedbyZero]

[adolfotregosa]

Originally Posted by 2DividedbyZero

in your case, and i don't understand how, it worked.. ON the 6990 with 11.4 drivers you get bsod with modified bios. If you uninstall drivers you can still read the card with gpu-z and confirm your modded bios clocks but that's it, you can't do shit with it that way so back to stock bios.

[Leito360]

F*cking atikmdag.

I tried to change the BIOS clocks in first instance because MSI AB doesn't work properly with my configuration... I have no idea way, so...

Is there a way to configure CCC to apply overclock when windows starts?

[2DividedbyZero]

I could decrease the clocks in the BIOS ok, but as soon as I tried to increase clocks = BSOD

I have no idea why

[2DividedbyZero]

Originally Posted by Leito360

F*cking atikmdag.

I tried to change the BIOS clocks in first instance because MSI AB doesn't work properly with my configuration... I have no idea way, so...

Is there a way to configure CCC to apply overclock when windows starts?

CCC should do it automatically if you set it in the overdrive section(whatever its called now)? is it not doing this for you?

i'm on my laptop so it just show powerplay settings

[Tatty_One]

Why not just flash the shader only 6950 Bios giving you all the 6970's shaders but standard 6950 clocks (this should get around any driver issues), you can even tweak the voltage on the shader only Bios in RBE to give you 6970 GPU clocks then just OC in AB.

[2DividedbyZero]

Originally Posted by Tatty_One

Why not just flash the shader only 6950 Bios giving you all the 6970's shaders but standard 6950 clocks (this should get around any driver issues), you can even tweak the voltage on the shader only Bios in RBE to give you 6970 GPU clocks then just OC in AB.

he's already stated AB doesn't work for him/his set-up/config.