X800 Pro VIVO to XT PE Bios Mod

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I had Serious problems with my Sapphire X800 Pro VIVO. I have the 1.6 memory and first overclocked the card to 520/560 and ran 3DMark to make sure it was stable at those speeds, no problems. I flashed with gvf11 as the flash program and r80x256v.f1 for the bios. I then had 16 pipes and more artifacts than you can shake a stick at!!! Lowering the clocks using ATI Tool had no effect on the artifacts. Temps are not bad. I flashed back to my "backup" bios and it's still had 16 pipes and all the artifacts. I also used Flashrom to use Sapphires original bios linked on this site, I still could not get back to 12 pipes!

I also read somewhere where the the Catalyst Control Center Drivers caused a problem like this for one user, but where uninstalling the CCC drivers and going to the Control Panel version seemed to get rid of his artifacts, I was not so lucky!

It's was so bad that I had to drop from 32bit to 16bit color just so I didn't have artifacts on my desktop and text!!! So, imagine what Far Cry looked like!

Finally, I used the "Modified Flashrom" to flash the "empty.bin" that I found on this site, and all is again well at 12 pipes!

Now, the question is do you think my cards extra pipes are bad, or was it the Gigabyte Bios? The modified flashrom allows flashing to any Bios, so I could try another one.
Ha, yes I like living on the edge! What do you think?

My card overclocks very well as a True X800 Pro Vivo;
Core up to 585 before having any problems, and a max temp of 64c
Memory up to 570 before any problems.

So the clocks are not a problem... I think it must be the Bios I flashed to, or bad pipe.

Thoughts?

Well, I guess I'm stuck with 12 pipes. I tried several different bios flashes, including ATI's X800 Pro Vivo w/16 pipes bios. I can do nothing it seems to get rid of the artifacts when I have 16 pipes. The extra pipes on this card must be bad.

So I'm back to my original bios w/12 pipes and OC'd it to the 520/560 XTPE settings. Everything is running fine and I get a 3DMark of 11566... not to bad, but I sure would have liked the 16 pipes.

If anyone can think of anything else I could try, please let me know.

[badkclark]

When I tried to flash the BIOS, I heard 3 successive tones from my computer. I'm going to reload drivers, etc, and see if this worked.

Anyone else heard these tones?

*Edit....check that....four successive tones. I've tried a number of BIOSes...seems that none of them are taking.

I have the Sapphire Pro Vivo card.

the sapphire card I just got today has the stupid laser cut, looks like this mod is done. time to hardmod.

[badkclark]

Got it to work. I have my 16 pipes enabled. Too bad my memory won't hit the 560 mark. Funny that my Core hits 570....memory hits about 480 and even that's close.

My most stable speed (and I haven't tested since I've opened the pipes) seems to be 520 core / 480 memory.

Anyone know of a more stable overclocking tool than ATITool? When I use that and try to benchmark with 3DMark03, looking at the 3DMark system settings, it's not correct. It boosts the speed for some reason. I think it's due to ATITool's instability with X800 series cards (from what I've read).

[Urlyin]

Originally Posted by badkclark

Got it to work. I have my 16 pipes enabled. Too bad my memory won't hit the 560 mark. Funny that my Core hits 570....memory hits about 480 and even that's close.

My most stable speed (and I haven't tested since I've opened the pipes) seems to be 520 core / 480 memory.

Anyone know of a more stable overclocking tool than ATITool? When I use that and try to benchmark with 3DMark03, looking at the 3DMark system settings, it's not correct. It boosts the speed for some reason. I think it's due to ATITool's instability with X800 series cards (from what I've read).

ATITool isn't unstable if you set the speeds using ATITool manually... just artifacts sooner than it will in games or benchmarking. Have you tried one of the XT 500/500 BIOS ? Some BIOS have more aggressive memory timings than others or some cards needed a little more juice to OC to XT PE speeds

[Urlyin]

Originally Posted by truevader

Hello guys!

This is the knowledge i collected so far reading through all those threads and forums etc.:

1. No matter what manufacturer, you should be able to mod a X800 Pro VIVO card so that it runs with 16 pipes. Is that correct?

2. What bios / or what clock speeds it will be able to handle later on, depends how good GPU and mem you have on your card. right?

3. In other Forums i read though, that the card MUST HAVE Samsung 1.6ns on it, in the bios collection it says Saphire X800 Pro VIVO´s do have the Samsung 1.6ns on them. But mine has GC20, i think that means 2.0ns chips on it. Does that mean probably my card is some kind of "protected" and i wont be able to do anything now? or will i at least be able to unlock the 4 other pipes?

4. If by messing with these Bios flashes etc. your card breaks into two parts, you still own the 2 parts, is that correct? but you most probably cannot RMA it anymore hehe

Thank you very much your help is very appreciated!

True

1. appears to be that way.. yes
2. generally speaking ... yes
3. memory will be handicapped but yes ... you should be able to run an XT BIOS
4. technically yes and no... flashing the BIOS in itself should not void the warranty, flashing it to an XT BIOS probally does... 2 parts only means you modded it ... 4 parts means it's an extreme mod ... 6 parts... you lost it and need to stay away from the caffine ... hehe

Remember to back up the original BIOS and maybe try the Pro 16pipe BIOS first ...

[truevader]

where do i find that Pro 16 pipe or XT 500/500 bioses? in the bios collection? i didnt seem to see them

And Uri many many thanks taking your time answering

[Urlyin]

Originally Posted by truevader

where do i find that Pro 16 pipe or XT 500/500 bioses? in the bios collection? i didnt seem to see them

And Uri many many thanks taking your time answering

ATI BIOS Collection is here

Review the this thread from the begining ... some good reading material on flashing how to
If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask... and your welcome

[runmc]

I flashed my vivo bios to the latest ATI X800XT pe bios in the collection using flashrom. Everything went fine. Card seems to run okay. I am getting the checkerboard effect in Lobby and Nature. I haven't done any vmods . Vcore is 1.42v

Thanks for the good information. Any ideas on what causes the checks?

[marcus2704]

Problems Im afriad... I have flashed my Powercolor X800 Vivo to X800XT using the guides kindly provided and I used the Powercolor X800XT bios, and ATI tool confirms that 16 pipes are now unlocked, and the clock speeds are 520/550.

All was well until Ive been playing Far Cry, and several times now the card has reset itself. Am I to assume that the card wont run safely at that speed, in which case Id need to revert back to the original bios? I did try this earlier, however upon running atiflash Im told 'Adapter 0 not found'. The fan is notably noisier now also, which I guess is to be expected. Any help/advice on this would be great.

[badkclark]

I'm going to be doing the volt mods sometime this week. My memory is still only able to run effectively at a max of 480. For memory slated to run at 600 mHz, this is interesting. I'm hoping the volt mods will provide more stability.

[marcus2704]

What does the volt mod involve? I ran a search on this thread but nothing came up.

[badkclark]

Go here: http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=194

[Urlyin]

Originally Posted by marcus2704

Problems Im afriad... I have flashed my Powercolor X800 Vivo to X800XT using the guides kindly provided and I used the Powercolor X800XT bios, and ATI tool confirms that 16 pipes are now unlocked, and the clock speeds are 520/550.

All was well until Ive been playing Far Cry, and several times now the card has reset itself. Am I to assume that the card wont run safely at that speed, in which case Id need to revert back to the original bios? I did try this earlier, however upon running atiflash Im told 'Adapter 0 not found'. The fan is notably noisier now also, which I guess is to be expected. Any help/advice on this would be great.

Marcus ... Alot of the VIVO cards could not run the XT PE speeds without a voltmod. Try one of the XT BIOS with the 500/500 speeds... or use a BIOS editor and set the speeds to something the card can handle.

Hello everyone,

I have a PCIe Sapphire X800 Pro VIVO. Ive done exactly whats written on the guide and I used both the ATI and Sapphire X800XT (not pe) bios. However when I restart, the system detects a x800se. ATI tool reports 500/500 speeds but only 12 pipes. My systems only has 2.0ns membory rather than 1.6

When stress testing at 500/500 levels i experianced no problem... just a small fps boost.

Anyone?

[marcus2704]

Thanks, Ive set the speed to 520/530 as after lengthy tests using ATITool it provided those as the relavant maximums. So far Ive not had any issues since, so I expect Ill stick with this for the time being.

[Urlyin]

Originally Posted by marcus2704

Thanks, Ive set the speed to 520/530 as after lengthy tests using ATITool it provided those as the relavant maximums. So far Ive not had any issues since, so I expect Ill stick with this for the time being.

Good to hear Marcus ... enjoy!

[Urlyin]

Originally Posted by runmc

I flashed my vivo bios to the latest ATI X800XT pe bios in the collection using flashrom. Everything went fine. Card seems to run okay. I am getting the checkerboard effect in Lobby and Nature. I haven't done any vmods . Vcore is 1.42v

Thanks for the good information. Any ideas on what causes the checks?

Use ATITool to set your speeds to 500\500 and try the bench then... let us know if that helps. I also remember someone posting something with the checkerboard in another thread, I'll try to find it. As I recall I think they found the issue ...

[Urlyin]

Originally Posted by aL Doom

Hello everyone,

I have a PCIe Sapphire X800 Pro VIVO. Ive done exactly whats written on the guide and I used both the ATI and Sapphire X800XT (not pe) bios. However when I restart, the system detects a x800se. ATI tool reports 500/500 speeds but only 12 pipes. My systems only has 2.0ns membory rather than 1.6

When stress testing at 500/500 levels i experianced no problem... just a small fps boost.

Anyone?

Al ... I'm not up on the PCie boards yet but from what I've seen they are flashing the BIOS successfully... not to many PCIe BIOS to pick from as of yet... have you reflashed back to the original? Anyone have a PCI XT BIOS you can send to Run ? Maybe W1zzard has some he hasn't posted yet ... W1zzard?

Seems my card is a bit unique W1zzard did mention something about PCIe and thought its a-o-k to go ahead and flash. I never read about anyone who had a x800se identified instead of a pro. odd.

Thanks anyway,
aL

[Urlyin]

Originally Posted by aL Doom

Seems my card is a bit unique W1zzard did mention something about PCIe and thought its a-o-k to go ahead and flash. I never read about anyone who had a x800se identified instead of a pro. odd.

Thanks anyway,
aL

AL... don't know how a Pro VIVO can flash to a SE unless the SE BIOS has been used... Did you backup the original BIOS? Use the empty.bin BIOS and then flash a PE BIOS. Remember use the empty BIOS with caution and make sure you have the BIOS you intend to use on the floppy to flash right after you use the empty BIOS ... with the PE BIOS you can still set the speed that your card can handle.

You can check the BIOS with Rabid to see if it is the correct BIOS
Make sure you use the Flashrom16p here

I'll send Mad Maxx a PM to see if he can take a peek at one ....

I've just done this mod and it has all gone ok except for one thing. I can't run games and windows has poor performance on visual elements. Dxdiag says this:
"Direct3D functionality not available. You should verify that the driver is a final version from the hardware manufacturer."
I have tried reinstalling the latest drivers from ati but to no avail. My card is an asus x800 pro tvd and i am running xp pro sp2.

Never mind, i changed the driver for my primary monitor from plug and play monitor to default monitor and all is well. Thanks for the free upgrade!

[aL Doom]

@Urlyin: I was talking to w1zzard earlier. Something is definitly amiss. Perhaps things will become clearer when pcie is more prevelent. I was using ATI x800xt bios. No idea whats going wrong.

Anyone have a PCIe card and want to share their modding experiance?

[Urlyin]

Originally Posted by aL Doom

@Urlyin: I was talking to w1zzard earlier. Something is definitly amiss. Perhaps things will become clearer when pcie is more prevelent. I was using ATI x800xt bios. No idea whats going wrong.

Anyone have a PCIe card and want to share their modding experiance?

Al I'll look but I thought we had a member who successfully did the mod with a PCIe ...