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Help needed! (Bricked?) Sapphire R9 280X TOXIC after a flash?

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Hi there! New poster coming in with a bunch of questions.

I just bought an used R9 280X TOXIC and the owner said it might still have a voltmodded BIOS, so as soon as I completed a few basic tests, I back up my original ROM and then proceed to flash a new one from TPU.
Not yet knowing that this card had different memory chips (mine is supposedly Hynix and the new ones come with Elpida), I flashed the .43 bios over my old .39 (Hynix) one, so I reboot and the card doesn't output anything.
I think, no problem, and flip the UEFI switch to see it'll power up with the BIOS in the second slot... so it does and I proceed with flashing my original .39 BIOS in what I thought was the first (affected) slot, only that I forgot to flip that damn switch!

Now, that was stupid... I'd say like big time stupid. WTH flash a card without saving all the info somewhere? But I guess my hands just were itching a little too much here :)

I think, no big deal, it's still the original BIOS, reboot and... see nothing! So I promptly swap in my old 6950 and proceed with flash from there, it flashes okay, I swap them around and again no luck.

Might I have bricked my card by flashing a BIOS that's supposed to be for a card with different RAM chips? RMAing it is gonna be tough, but is doable.

And yeah, my card has P/N 299-3E251-000SA. From what little info I was able to obtain online, it seems this card should have the new Elpida chips, but I'm not sure. Could anyone who has a confirmed old batch Hynix card post their P/N here to confirm this? (Maybe the Hynix ones could be 299-2E251-000SA?)
How can I make sure which chips my card has without voiding my warranty?

TL;DR: Flashed god knows what into both slots of my GPU, reflashed what I think should be there (both legacy and UEFI images), it reflashed okay, but card still won't show video. The PC seems not to progress with the booting too (no disk activity). Are there chances I can still get my card back or it's RMA time?

Also I just realized that the build date of the only available BIOS for Elpida cards is newer than the date on the receipt the seller gave me. So the card is most likely a Hynix one.
But what's with the part number then? I'll be very glad if some of you folks have a look at your cards and post your part number and the brand of the memory chips your card has. I'm sure this info will be extremely useful to anyone browsing TPU as I can find very little information about Toxic R9 280X card p/n's on the net.

Thanks :)
 
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So yeah, the card went to RMA-land today. Hoping to get a new one soon :)
 

Tatty_Two

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Good luck, my understanding was a bad bios flash would not be covered by Sapphire warranty..... things may have changed though.
 

Aquinus

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It's my understanding that you could have damaged the DRAM by flashing a BIOS that's designed for different DRAM ICs.

If you don't mind me asking, what was so important to you that flashing was your only option? Just about every forum thread about flashing (typically) says not to do it unless it's an absolute last, resort because things like this happen.
 

Tatty_Two

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The thing is, a simple Bios dump followed by opening it in VBE7 will show all the detailed specs for an AMD card which "should" ensure that the right Bios is matched to the right model, I know hindsight is a wonderful thing but just a little extra work can go a long way!
 
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Well, it was because I was in a hurry and assumed that I'd need the latest BIOS for the card. the seller had previously flashed a modded bios in there and I wanted to flash the one that's not modded.
I think they'll RMA the card anyway, but honestly it was my fault.
(yeah, I have a habit of rushing things so much i break something in the process... totally an ADHD type)
 

Aquinus

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Well, it was because I was in a hurry and assumed that I'd need the latest BIOS for the card. the seller had previously flashed a modded bios in there and I wanted to flash the one that's not modded.
I think they'll RMA the card anyway, but honestly it was my fault.
(yeah, I have a habit of rushing things so much i break something in the process... totally an ADHD type)

I completely understand, but just remember the video BIOS is one of those things where if the card is working fine, you really don't want to go messing with it.
 
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Yeah. I didn't notice newer batches of those had different chips...
BTW, when the warranty guy was eyeballing my card at the store, he did notice a little bit of oxidation near the PCIe connector, on the card's outer side (towards the 8pin connectors) which I failed to notice both when I bought it and when I examined it before I got to RMA it.
Anyway, he said it's not a big deal and they'll most likely swap it for a new one.
Also it seems like there's relatively many secondhand buyers RMAing their defective used mining cards too... at least I'm thinking like it is.
 

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Yeah. I didn't notice newer batches of those had different chips...
BTW, when the warranty guy was eyeballing my card at the store, he did notice a little bit of oxidation near the PCIe connector, on the card's outer side (towards the 8pin connectors) which I failed to notice both when I bought it and when I examined it before I got to RMA it.
Anyway, he said it's not a big deal and they'll most likely swap it for a new one.
Also it seems like there's relatively many secondhand buyers RMAing their defective used mining cards too... at least I'm thinking like it is.

Good luck then. As I say to everyone who bricks a GPU from flashing the BIOS.

I hope this was a learning experience. :)
 
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Good luck then. As I say to everyone who bricks a GPU from flashing the BIOS.

I hope this was a learning experience. :)
Definitely it was. Never bricked anything with a bad flash before - at least I don't remember I did.
Still, I think it'd be nice to have some R9 280X TOXIC owners post their p/n and memory type to this thread so we can see which p/n's are shipped with which chips.
 

brandonwh64

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You could have done the bios trick by taking the cooler off and putting a thin wire from pin 3 to 8 and then try to reflash. This worked great for non reference 6950's to flash unlocked shader bios.
 
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You could have done the bios trick by taking the cooler off and putting a thin wire from pin 3 to 8 and then try to reflash. This worked great for non reference 6950's to flash unlocked shader bios.
Nope. It seemingly flashed OK back to the original bios, but was unable to start after that.
Besides, I didn't want to ruin the warranty.
 
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