Hi, I already have another thread posted about trying to bios flash a bricked 6950. The card is packed up and ready to return once I get some details from the seller, but in the meantime, I've discovered that I have a problem with ATI Winflash that doesn't seem to be specific to the card itself - and I feel if I can fix this, I can fix the card itself.
Firstly, ATIflash, in DOS, simply will not work (if you read through my posts, you'll find I've exhausted pretty much every possible command), so please don't just recommend I use that. I've been trying to use Winflash, which I initially flashed the card with.
Anyway, I found that using the GUI, Winflash appears to function normally. It detects the card, and when I try to flash a new bios, I get a subsystems ID mismatch - which was to be expected, since I need to unlock the ROM.
Using command prompt (yes, as administrator), always results in a progress bar flashing up briefly then disappearing, without so much as an error, or window of information. This includes simply putting in "Atiwinflash -i". Realizing the software wasn't working as it should (if it didn't detect the card properly, I should have got an "ATI card not found" error) - I tried an old installation of Windows Vista I had on an old HDD, which did exactly the same. I even tried an installation of TinyXP, without drivers, in case that was the problem, with exactly the same result. Anyway, after discovering I should be able to return the card (that's a long story), I put my old 8800GTX in. Out of curiosity, I tried running Winflash to see if it would work properly without the "faulty" card, and it does exactly the same. Once again, the GUI exe works as it should - I get a "no ATI card found" error - but running any command in the cmd prompt simply gives me a glimpse of a progress bar, then nothing.
For the record, I tried running Winflash on my laptop, to see if this is normal in a system which can't detect a card, and it's not. Command prompt commands in winflash give me appropriate errors/feedback.
I even tried resetting my motherboard BIOS settings, and it makes no difference. I'm completely baffled as to what's happening here. In summary, regardless of OS (or HDD), drivers, or indeed the graphics card installed, ATIWinflash seems to crash when used through the command prompt. When I run the GUI, however, it seems to function as it should. Unfortunately - I need to unlock the rom before I can flash.
It's doubly baffling since it worked the first time I used it.
Firstly, ATIflash, in DOS, simply will not work (if you read through my posts, you'll find I've exhausted pretty much every possible command), so please don't just recommend I use that. I've been trying to use Winflash, which I initially flashed the card with.
Anyway, I found that using the GUI, Winflash appears to function normally. It detects the card, and when I try to flash a new bios, I get a subsystems ID mismatch - which was to be expected, since I need to unlock the ROM.
Using command prompt (yes, as administrator), always results in a progress bar flashing up briefly then disappearing, without so much as an error, or window of information. This includes simply putting in "Atiwinflash -i". Realizing the software wasn't working as it should (if it didn't detect the card properly, I should have got an "ATI card not found" error) - I tried an old installation of Windows Vista I had on an old HDD, which did exactly the same. I even tried an installation of TinyXP, without drivers, in case that was the problem, with exactly the same result. Anyway, after discovering I should be able to return the card (that's a long story), I put my old 8800GTX in. Out of curiosity, I tried running Winflash to see if it would work properly without the "faulty" card, and it does exactly the same. Once again, the GUI exe works as it should - I get a "no ATI card found" error - but running any command in the cmd prompt simply gives me a glimpse of a progress bar, then nothing.
For the record, I tried running Winflash on my laptop, to see if this is normal in a system which can't detect a card, and it's not. Command prompt commands in winflash give me appropriate errors/feedback.
I even tried resetting my motherboard BIOS settings, and it makes no difference. I'm completely baffled as to what's happening here. In summary, regardless of OS (or HDD), drivers, or indeed the graphics card installed, ATIWinflash seems to crash when used through the command prompt. When I run the GUI, however, it seems to function as it should. Unfortunately - I need to unlock the rom before I can flash.
It's doubly baffling since it worked the first time I used it.
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