Flash Bios Radeon 6950, Both Bios Switch Possitions BSOD

[liquidtension]

Ok so here's what happened:

1. I flashed the bios on my PowerColor 1GB Radeon 6950 using WinFlash a few times trying to unlock shader clocks. A couple of those times i forgot to flip the bios switch to position 1 but position 2 should be read only?

2. BSOD on startup in both bios positions (1 and 2). Tried removing drivers in safe mode and system restore to no avail.

3. Reinstalled Windows 7 64 bit successfully

4. Installed 64 bit video drivers with bios switch in position 2 but it's still BSOD on startup with atikmdeg.sys failure.

5. System restore to remove video drivers, boots successfully.

6. Tried reinstalling drivers in position 1 with the same result.


I must have somehow overwritten the default bios in position 2 but to flash back to the default bios WinFlash needs video drivers installed!! Catch 22 what to do?

If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks in advance -Dom

P.S. Is there any way to flash the gpu bios without the video drivers installed?



New info:

1. Tried installing my GTX 465 + drivers and it worked.

2. Tried using the integrated motherboard graphics to flash the bios without actually using the card. My motherboard doesn't let me get past bios saying that I can't use integrated graphics with a video card installed. AHHH!

3. Tried blind flashing the bios from a bootable usb but 'atiflash -i' couldn't find any compatible display adapters.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I smell a John Petrucci fan....

Can you boot into safe mode with the 6950?

 

[liquidtension]

Thanks for your response!

good call. Petrucci is the best (well one of the best at least ).

I can boot to safe mode and i can even boot normally as long as the ATI drivers are not installed. Unfortunately i can't re flash the bios (using atiWinFlash) without the ATI drivers installed. You can see my dilemma.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

well ive always managed to flash a borked card in safe mode. make sure you haev themost upto date version of winflash and try again

 

[liquidtension]

I can't seem to find the 6950 1gb powercolor bios in the gpu bios collection on this site or anywhere else. Do you know where i could find it?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

you didnt make a back up of the original before you flashed everything?? If the correct bios is not in our collection then id make a new post on the forum and see if anyone has the same card and is kind enough to upload the original. failing that then the only thing you can do is file for an RMA and see if they can just email you a bios instead of having to send the card all the way to them

 

[liquidtension]

I did save the stock bios but unfortunately I forgot to backup a copy when I formatted to reinstall Windows 7 (step 3) :/ I posted a separate feed about where to find it. Thanks for all your help!

 

[liquidtension]

My mistake was that I was using an older version of atiflash which didn't recognize the 6950. I managed to flash position 1 back to the stock bios. My problem is that position 2 is still not working (BSOD) and that bios should be read only! It must have been corrupted some how. Any ideas on how to flash a read only bios lol

 

[FreedomEclipse]

In case of error, such as an ID mismatch or "Could not erase ROM", you can try this fix:

- Unpack the Winflash download onto your desktop in a folder called "winflash"

-Save the 6970 BIOS in your Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin

- Click Start Button

- Type "cmd"

- Right click the entry and select "Run as Administrator"

- Black command prompt windows opens

- Type "cd %USERPROFILE%\desktop\winflash"
- Type "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" <-- the 0 means first adapter, if you have multiple cards, physically uninstall all but the one you want to flash

- Type "atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin"
- It should complete the flashing process with a message saying something with "verified".

 

[loopingz]

Sorry for bumping this thread.
I had never a big need to upgrade the shadows of my Sapphire 6950 1gb up to now with latest game.
Well I tried to do a new bios with unlocked shadow using rbe (I cannot use a 6970 bios with only 1gb of ram).
Then when I try to flash it through command line I usually have a cannot erase rom message, I also had a bsod once (without further consequences).
Is there anything else I can use as unlock.bin or I am missing something?

Thanks for your support.

 

[eidairaman1]

there is a how to on this site to do a flash- pertains to the 6950 specifically- look for it and read it

 

[loopingz]

Thanks, I did read it first but this post was looking more specific, sorry for the noise.

By the way, I had to play with the bios switch which was set to 2 facepalm.

 

[eidairaman1]

so did you resolve your issue?

 

[EiSFX]

I think i seen your problem as far as i know/remember i thought only the 2gb version of the 6950 was shader unlockable not the 1gb version

 

[ChristTheGreat]

Some 1gb has been able unlock, but 2G got better result!