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Trouble flashing HD 6950 to 6970

Volatile_Mike

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Hi Guys

I followed this guide; http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159

But When I load the Bios in winflash I get "invalid vbios"

I also tried the other way using cmd but it seems to get so far in flashing and then the progress bar just dissapears.

Card is gigabyte 6950 2GB

Any ideas?

Thanks
 

InnocentCriminal

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Welcome to TPU Mike.

After flashing via the command prompt, did you uninstall the Catalyst drivers, reboot and then reinstall them?
 

Volatile_Mike

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Welcome to TPU Mike.

After flashing via the command prompt, did you uninstall the Catalyst drivers, reboot and then reinstall them?

No I didn't do that. Could that be why it is not completing , as i get no message saying it was sucessfull. Should also point out I am running Catalyst 11.4 (beta i think)
 

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When I did it, I restarted my machine and it wasn't working. I removed the Catalyst software, rebooted and reinstalled. After that reboot it worked.

If that doesn't help you may have one of the new cards that can't be unlocked.
 

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Just tried it, still the same. So maybe it doesnt work perhaps its new or something.
 

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Volatile_Mike

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Suggest that you try on another rig or fresh OS install then, looks like your current OS install isn't working too good.
 

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Is the performance much better with the flash? I mean if its not that big I will just leave it.
 

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Is the performance much better with the flash? I mean if its not that big I will just leave it.

I wouldnt flash to 6970, just unlock the shaders and OC from there. It works great!

What card do you have?
 

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I wouldnt flash to 6970, just unlock the shaders and OC from there. It works great!

What card do you have?

Gigabyte HD 6950 2GB, How do i go about doing that then?
 

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Gigabyte HD 6950 2GB, How do i go about doing that then?

Make sure your Gigabyte card is the 2GB reference design, as that's what I have and it works.
Try this

packaged the hd 6950 bios modding script.

www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip

give it a try and let me know how well it works

download that.
Take your default Gigabyte 6950 bios and put it in that folder.
Name it "original.bin"
Then run "run.bat" That takes your bios and enables all 1536 shaders.
Modded bios shoulder be saved as "modded.bin"
Then flash "modded.bin" that with atiwinflash.
Since it's a gigabyte card, it should flash without difficulty and without having to go to CMD
After flashing, double check in GPUz that shaders are changed.
 

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Card is gigabyte 6950 2GB
Any ideas?
Thanks

Yes, I have an idea.
When attempting your shader unlock flashing, make sure your Gigabyte 6950 is in the bios#2 position.

I've seen 3 other instances of Gigabyte owners failing to flash on Bios1. But is successful on bios 2.
 

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download that.
Take your default Gigabyte 6950 bios and put it in that folder.
Name it "original.bin"
Then run "run.bat" That takes your bios and enables all 1536 shaders.

Modded bios shoulder be saved as "modded.bin"
Then flash "modded.bin" that with atiwinflash.
Since it's a gigabyte card, it should flash without difficulty and without having to go to CMD
After flashing, double check in GPUz that shaders are changed.

Doing the first part I keep getting "the system cannot find the path specified"
 

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Doing the first part I keep getting "the system cannot find the path specified"

Should look something like this


Then when you run run.bat

original.bin is the original bios
modded.bin is the one you want

Do you see something like that
 
Last edited:

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Remember, you have to run the unlock command first to unlock the Bios before it can be flashed.
 

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Should look something like this

Do you see something like that

Right got that far now thanks, did the command thing, got modded.bin but when I tried to flash with winflash said cannot erase rom
 

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Right got that far now thanks, did the command thing, got modded.bin but when I tried to flash with winflash said cannot erase rom

I don't have an 6950/70 but i know that they have a switch for bios , have you read post#15?
 

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Volatile_Mike

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I don't have an 6950/70 but i know that they have a switch for bios , have you read post#15?

I will have to try that next, isnt the other switch for recovery mode though?
 
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well not exactly recovery mode but just a default bios, you can run the card on it, but like jayc said in post #15 it could be that they ended up backwards so it could be that you're running on the unflashable default bios instead of the one thats flashable hence why you cant flash it, it's worth a shot to try it with the switch in the other position, there isn't much that can go wrong so you have nothing to lose, plus that the whole reason for the switch in case something does
 

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Yeah I try that , it starts it but never completes it and then dissapears.

I was having the same exact problem with my xfire 2gb Sapphire models. I logged what I did on paper somewhere around here; and I was getting the same results as you, in the middle of the flashing, the DOS screen would disappear.

Also, for some reason, I am not sure if my Bios switch came with the switch in the unlocked side or not (I didnt take the cards out, and seeing the number Bios 1 / Bios 2 were really hard to see) and following the tutorials were not working for me.

I had to manually unlock the BIOS once I figured out the non default lock bios switch on the cards. I did GPU 0 then GPU 1 .. etc Let me see if I can find my notes.


well not exactly recovery mode but just a default bios, you can run the card on it, but like jayc said in post #15 it could be that they ended up backwards so it could be that you're running on the unflashable default bios instead of the one thats flashable hence why you cant flash its

That is exactly what I believed happened to me. I could have swore the switches were in the correct place. As everyone said here, I too had to uninstall CCC and the drivers and reinstall to show the successful flash in GPU-Z
 
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