Problem with 6950 PCS++ "Flashing"

[omergurlek]

I agree that, if, your cards are not doing what was advertised then they are faulty or ???.
Either way, you should be given what you paid for or get a refund... IMO.

If your cards are not un-locking the shaders, then call/e-mail:

Tech Support over at Powercolor for RMA or replacement. And, if that does not work...
E-mail Ted Chen, CEO of TUL Corporation and tell him of your dis-pleasure and send a copy of the news release, asking, where are my un-locked shaders?!?

If, that doesn't get the problem fixed the, contact your State Attorney General's office(if in the US) and file a false advertising suite against them.
Or, file in small claims court.

They did advertise on their site that (quote from their site)... "The PCS++ HD6950 allows unlocking of shaders allowing extra performance"

PDF of news release.

Goodluck to you.

Disclaimer: This is in no way legal advice, just opinion of what I might do.

How will we prove this though? I tried to flash that bios to 6970 myself, then flashed back to 6950 using the techpowerup easy-flash tool, so my BIOS is "modified" according to their standards.

 

[Kai Hohiro]

How will we prove this though? I tried to flash that bios to 6970 myself, then flashed back to 6950 using the techpowerup easy-flash tool, so my BIOS is "modified" according to their standards.

As long as you have the original bios back on it, I doubt it will matter.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

Odd how the title says it unlocks the shaders but then makes no other mention of it in the article and specs it without a shader count

 

[arroyo]

They did advertise on their site that (quote from their site)... "The PCS++ HD6950 allows unlocking of shaders allowing extra performance"

PDF of news release.

Two things about this advertise:

First. There is no information about unlocking shaders beside the title. "Unlocking" might mean that you get 880 MHz of power and not 1536 shaders.

Second. "* Specifications subject to change without notice. " - at the end of advertise. There is no way that Powercolor will give the money back. This is very lawyer friendly note for Powercolor, TUL and other producers. I hate when they did that.

 

[Kai Hohiro]

Two things about this advertise:

First. There is no information about unlocking shaders beside the title. "Unlocking" might mean that you get 880 MHz of power and not 1536 shaders.

Second. "* Specifications subject to change without notice. " - at the end of advertise. There is no way that Powercolor will give the money back. This is very lawyer friendly note for Powercolor, TUL and other producers. I hate when they did that.

The asterisk is only next to the Modern Warfare game, which would imply it only applies to that(which is also what happened, MW2 is not included with the card).

In these cases it really is the best to simply communicate with the company and be adamant but polite about it. That works more often than people would think.

Just saying "well you're screwed" doesn't solve anything.

 

[bill213]

just recieved my pcs++ today no shaders... what a bummer... first and last powercolor card. i rma'ed it to newegg.

 

[Raistlin]

My card should arrive tomorrow or Saturday. Obviously I'm distressed by this situation, however has anyone tried this?

UPDATE*** just talked to a powercolor rep and they said that the card does unlock... Only the PCS++ will, I gave them the model number and they verified. He said that you need to be running the latest version of cpuz for this show up. Also when you switch the bios you have to reinstall the drivers for the bios to switch correctly... Please someone with this card test this. He was very curtain these are guaranteed to unlock shaders, but will not 'flash'

courtesy of blkdoutgsxr at overclocker.nethttp://www.overclock.net/12596321-post16.html

If I'm not mistaken, having to reinstall drivers is how the conventional flash works? If so, maybe it's the same here? While that would kind of reduce the convenience we assumed the selectable BIOS gave us ... as long as it works, hey I think we can manage.


If anyone has the card on hand please give this a shot!!!

 

[omergurlek]

My card should arrive tomorrow or Saturday. Obviously I'm distressed by this situation, however has anyone tried this?



courtesy of blkdoutgsxr at overclocker.nethttp://www.overclock.net/12596321-post16.html

If I'm not mistaken, having to reinstall drivers is how the conventional flash works? If so, maybe it's the same here? While that would kind of reduce the convenience we assumed the selectable BIOS gave us ... as long as it works, hey I think we can manage.


If anyone has the card on hand please give this a shot!!!

Ok wait, I didn't understand this though. So do I have to reinstall drivers to reset the card's bios, and then try switching to 1st slot and check using the newest CPU-Z? (not GPU-Z?)

Or, do I have to reinstall drivers of the card after I switched the bios slot?

 

[Raistlin]

I can't test yet, but it sounds like after switching the BIOS you need to reinstall the drivers? So I assume 1) switch BIOS 2) reboot 3) reinstall drivers 4) check it?

After reinstalling the drivers not sure if a reboot is needed. As for CPU-Z ... I assume he meant GPU-Z?

 

[omergurlek]

I can't test yet, but it sounds like after switching the BIOS you need to reinstall the drivers? So I assume 1) switch BIOS 2) reboot 3) reinstall drivers 4) check it?

After reinstalling the drivers not sure if a reboot is needed. As for CPU-Z ... I assume he meant GPU-Z?

Well, I'll try both just to be safe ^^

I really hope it works!

However, the thing I'm worried about is that, a friend sent me his 1st bios (the 6970 one) on his 6950 PCS++, and mine didn't flash to it, and it was a different bios than what I had originally.

 

[Raistlin]

Not sure what to say if you've actually been flashing stuff yourself. I'm a n00b to this. Hopefully you can get your card back to it's original configuration.




Doing a little digging regarding the original issue, amongst numerous posts I've found this:

http://www.47r-squad.com/showthread...6950-into-a-6970!!&p=7139&viewfull=1#post7139

Ok finaly figured out what was wrong. After doing some searching on the net I found another article that says you "may need to reinstall drivers after bios flash". So running like a champ now!!!

It sounds like for the people doing their own flashing (on other cards), many people have ran into a situation where they need to reinstall the drivers for the flash to 'take'. I'm hoping that this is simply the same case.

 

[omergurlek]

Not sure what to say if you've actually been flashing stuff yourself. I'm a n00b to this. Hopefully you can get your card back to it's original configuration.




Doing a little digging regarding the original issue, amongst numerous posts I've found this:

http://www.47r-squad.com/showthread...6950-into-a-6970!!&p=7139&viewfull=1#post7139



It sounds like for the people doing their own flashing, many people have ran into a situation where they need to reinstall the drivers. I'm hoping that this is simply the same case.

Well, manual flashing didn't work for me at all. It first gave me "subsystem IDs mismatch" at first, and when I force-flashed, my PC didn't boot at all. So nope, I cannot flash to a 6970 BIOS with my card at all.

And yeah, I can probably get it to original configuration. I saved my original BIOS before doing anything.

 

[bill213]

ive just tryed it every which way and no shader increase.. only dif i get from position 1 and 2 is 800 clock or 880. ive uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled then with the switch both ways and still the same. gpu-z version 5.1 shows 1408 shaders no matter which way the switch is. as far as cpuz it doesnt show the shaders for me there greyed out... anyone know a phone number for pcs thats mot in taiwan lol?

 

[omergurlek]

ive just tryed it every which way and no shader increase.. only dif i get from position 1 and 2 is 800 clock or 880. ive uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled then with the switch both ways and still the same. gpu-z version 5.1 shows 1408 shaders no matter which way the switch is. as far as cpuz it doesnt show the shaders for me there greyed out... anyone know a phone number for pcs thats mot in taiwan lol?

Just a question: what is your "BIOS version" in GPU-Z, and is OpenCL enabled (has tick) at the very bottom?

 

[bill213]

bios version 013.010.000.007.039362
opencl has check

 

[bill213]

just called them there tech support is not in lol,they took my number there gonna call me back

 

[omergurlek]

bios version 013.010.000.007.039362
opencl has check

Are you by any chance using the 2. switch right now?

My Bios is 013.010.000.002.000000 and OpenCL checked.

There might be a problem with OpenCL'ed cards.

 

[bill213]

position 1 gives me the 880

 

[omergurlek]

position 1 gives me the 880

Yeah you currently using that?

 

[bill213]

yes

 

[omergurlek]

yes

Ok got it. I might not be using stock bios right now. Gotta update my bios version when I fix that

 

[bill213]

I have the correct bios version number for the position 1 that is supposed to have the shaders unlocked 013.010.000.007.039362 i spoke to powercolor and they confirmed i have the correct bios. They dont have an answer for the problem there working on it.. they said three other ppl called in with this problem.They said they will contact me by tomorrow.They were actually really cool. He also told me that once you reinstall the drivers for each switch setting you should'nt have to do it again if you want to switch the postion between 1 and 2.

 

[thesmokingman]

I have the correct bios version number for the position 1 that is supposed to have the shaders unlocked 013.010.000.007.039362 i spoke to powercolor and they confirmed i have the correct bios. They dont have an answer for the problem there working on it.. they said three other ppl called in with this problem.They said they will contact me by tomorrow.They were actually really cool. He also told me that once you reinstall the drivers for each switch setting you should'nt have to do it again if you want to switch the postion between 1 and 2.

That's kind of a bogus step, reinstalling drivers that is. With the bios switched, the system will see for our intent and purposes, a new card and will then install the proper driver. If you actually had to reinstall when you flipped the switch... you'd have to redo that everytime you flipped back right? Reinstall = uninstall, then install?

It seems the decision to make the change happened at the top and the little people haven't been informed yet. That or something happened during production?

Or...

AMD finally got around to fuse cutting the shaders, doh!

 

[bill213]

according to powercolor once you install the drivers on each switch setting you dont have to do it again if you decide to flip the switch.... also if new drivers are released you need to install them on both switch settings also.

 

[PowerColor]

Sorry guys about this issue, we are looking into this!

We are checking our production records, the GPU's are suposed to be hand picked (pre tested) to run with all shadders enabled!

If you guys dont have a fully shadder GPU, you can RMA the card to get a good one.
I will be asking for the performance bios (full shadders enabled) if you guys want to try to reflash the card.

I will keep you posted!