Bios for Sapphire "Grouper" A9RX480 mobo?

[trodas]

Since the absolutely lame Sapphire disable the bios downloads for the A9RX480 there:
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presenta...006&lid=1&os=7
...and tech support did give me the very same link I posted above, so I can't get the BIOS, nor the DOS flasher - not to mention some guide that could be handy, because I feel that only by completely erasing the settings the mobo could post... (eg. visibly post, now it posting and seems working as much, as even blind flash is possible, but NOTHING is on the screen!)

So, anyone can provide me with the Sapphire bios:
PI-A9RX480 BIOS(2K060417)
...and the flasher:
Awardflash(8.63a)
...preferably with some readme on how to get the settings completely erased?

Thanks a lot!

 

[trodas]

Hoooray, sapphire tech support provided me working link to the latest bios, however no help at all, because this is old bios that I already have:


Hello, tech support!
Thanks for the bios and Awdflash. Unfortunately, this is the bios from 17. 4. 2006, witch can be found even there:
http://ax2.old-cans.com/grouper/
That means I already tried to flash it, yet nothing happend. So, are there any other recommendations how to proceed?

I tried Uniflash v1.40, because it can output log, and it give my this log file:

00:00:51.95: UniFlash v1.40 started: A:\UNIFLASH.EXE -REBOOT -CMOSC -UNLOCK -LOG -E bios.bin
00:00:52.94: Chipset detected: (1002,5950,01) ** (1002,4377,80)
00:00:52.94: Flat Real Mode initialized
00:00:53.99: CMOS size detected: 256b
00:00:53.99: Found DMI 2.3 board info: RX480-SB450
00:00:54.98: System ROM selected
00:00:55.96: Beginning Flash ROM detection...
00:00:55.96: DetectLoop
00:00:56.95: DetectLoop
00:00:57.94: Flash ROM detection complete
00:00:57.94: Allocating memory block 00080000
00:00:58.98: Allocating memory block 00080000
00:00:59.97: Allocating memory block 00001080
00:00:59.97: Flash ROM chip detected: PMC Pm49FL004/3.3V (LPC/FWH)
00:01:00.96: Flash ROM ID: 9D6E,FFFF
00:01:01.95: Exiting UniFlash...
00:01:02.99: Turning off logging, shutting down to real mode
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So it is not even clear, if the flash happend or not to me. However still nothing on the display is shown up

Please advise.

Thanks.


PS. Also I must say, that this line in autoexec.bat doest NOT work:
awdflash bios.bin /PY /SN /CC /CD /CP /R

...while when I use this line:

awdflash bios.bin /PY /SN /CC /CD /CP /F /Tiny /R

Then in worked and flashed (slowly, as the "Tiny" force the loading during flashing, so, it is slow and /F should snad for: "The key /F enables AwardFlash to reprogram FlashROM with the algorithms of the current BIOS version. If a mainboard peculiarities do not allow applying AwardFlash Writer algorithms, you should use the key /F.") and then rebooted the machine quite well. However, still the display did not kick on. Eg, still nothing on the screen is shown up, witch is the major problem since the beginning.

So I managed the Awdflash to run AND flash the bios into the mobo, however computer, that did not display a thing is simply useless...

Of course, there is a positive way to look at it - one did not need monitor, nor graphic card for this thing

 

[trodas]

Moderator on the PC perspective forum told me, that he had the best results with the old bios from 26.9.2005, so I tried to flash it using the Awdflash and it really "helped" - the mobo is now not even posting.

After flashing the old bios from 26.9.2005, the machine just flick 7x fast the led near the CMOS battery and that it is. Then it try to post, yet no post, no image on screen, nothing. And then again the led 7x flick and again it try post and again fail... That way it is much worser, because it is IMPOSSIBLE to flash a new bios now...!
Not even blind flash is possible, when the machine refuse to post.

That somewhat confirm that the bios is the root source of problem AND it seems the older bios is better, by judging that the monitor is getting frequently some signal pulses, so it not go to sleep, instead it showing in cycles the error message about videosignal 0 kHz vertical and 0 kHz horizontal... (Eizo F35 Flexscan)

So, more closer to the root of the issue, but yet still far from any solution at all.

Is there are any emergency bios flash (like the Ctrl + Home for Amibios - but this is Awardbios) or what can I do, to get the PC to work again, like it did well for me before? The "amergency" Award bios require the machine to actually boot, witch is not the case there...
http://www.biosman.com/biosrecovery.html

Tech support seems to be "really" helpfull:

Sorry that, we would suggest you to upgrade the MB due to even this MB BIOS still cannot help to boot up the MB.
Thanks.

PS. Hoooray! When exchanged the PCIEx gfx card to a PCI one GF2 suxxka, then the machine post (altrough nothing on the screen is shown up) and flashing nicely again! Now that is a improvement! It just beep as it finished the flash! Cool. At least the machine can post and the problem might be in the GFX card then... maybe only a externally powerd graphic card works? Dunno. I must try the old card in there...

PS2. Almost there! Got the machine to display something - finally! By using the old gfx card (even w/o pluged the external power cord!) it nicely show up the logo, allow me to do bios settings and work as it should! W/O a glitch! Now that means, that the mobo is working. It just did not like the MSI GeForce 210 589/1024MHz 512MB DDR2 card for one reason or another. It is a ver. 1.1, and it was tested in another PC and it worked there. No idea why it fail to work now...
Suggested settings BIOS to make the card work?

This damn card refuse to work: http://www.msi.com/product/vga/N210-MD512H.html#?div=Specification

Meanwhile the board is passing memtest test with no errors twice Seems good!


When way more powerfull and way more PSU demanding 7800 GTX works fine then it make me wonder, why MSI GeForce 210-MD512H did not work at all

Some BIOS settings are really interesting - how about to tweak these?

LTD Configuration - Enabled
Upstream LTD Bus Width - 16bit
Downstream LTD Bus Width - 16bit
LTD Bus Frequency - Auto (1GHz, 800MHz, 600MHz, 400MHz, 200MHz)

(I know, this have more to do with the CPU memory controler that GFX card, but who knows?)

PCIE GFX Core Payload Size - 64Bytes (32Bytes, 16Bytes)
PCIE GPP Core Payload Size - 64Bytes (32Bytes, 16Bytes)
NB-SB Port Configuration - Default (Enhanced)
PCI-E GFX Link Width - x16 (x12, x8, x4, x2, x1)
Assign IRQ For VGA - Enabled (Disabled)

...any suggestions? Tried 32Bytes (for the PCIE GFX Core Payload Size|PCIE GPP Core Payload Size settings), but no change. Eg. NO POST with this MSI card...

 

[trodas]

I realized, where the problem is. Since the mainboard Sapphire A9RX480 PCIE slots are version 1.0a, then any graphic card have to be backwards compatible with PCIE 1.0a in order to work. Since there is, in the MSI GeForce 210-MD512H, mentioned only support for PCIE v2.0, then it probably means that it will never work on PCIE v1.0a and hence I need a gfx card, that is backward compatible with PCIE v1.0a...
And this card is not it.

So, unless there could be done a bios tweak, that allow this backward compatibility, there is no way to make the card work in Sapphire A9RX480. Damn!

 

[trodas]

I got borrowed today for test a Point of View GeForce 7300GT card and it run in Sapphire A9RX480 w/o a single glitch (I recapped the card with Samxon caps like 4 years ago for friend, because the card died). So I would say that the board run pretty good, unless someone is trying to use in it the PCIE v2.0 card that is _NOT_ backwards compatible with PCIE 1.0a.

Witch is the case of the MSI GeForce 210-MD512H, unfortunately for me.


PS. now it looks like this:


...testing phase...

 

[trodas]

Also Point of View GeForce 8600GT is working just fine:



...so it is a rather isolated case of the MSI GeForce 210 card, seems. I do wonder, if other manufactures GeForce 210 cards will have this problem, tough.

 

[trodas]

So now I using a Point of View 8600GT card:

...it have reasonably quiet fan, but of course far too noisy for my liking. So I looked out for something that will fit well the reasonably small card, preferably overlaping ith 92mm fan over the top, so it cool a bit the NB heatsink after the card...

But much to my surprise, something like Arctic Cooling Accelero S2 are too big. The heatsink is huge, a 188x140mm (or 182x137 if you take their words: http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/discontinued-products/72/accelero-s2.html#techdata ) monster for a 120mm fan... That is a bit overkill for the small and reasonably not too hot (TDP 40W, or so they say http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/198/geforce-8600-gt.html ) card.

So, are there something like the Accelero S2, but smaller... for a like 92mm fan out there?

I managed to find a Accelero L2 with reasonable 119x94 size, however the bottom does NOT look like that it can fit on my card AND there did not seems to be any suitable connections awailable, besides the GPU is at anged position on this card...
http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/discontinued-products/vga/23/accelero-l2-pro.html?c=2264

But at least it is smaller, yet it is unclear, if there is enought space for the caps that have to fit bello the heatsink. At least 14mm there must be, preferably 15 as the Accelero L2 have... :|

So I'm a bit stuck. Of course there are alternatives like Zalman VF1000, but this is again overkill AND also the heatsink did not feature big enought fan to cool the chipset too AND I want to be able to use quiet fan (preferably Noctua... or shall I get something even quietier there from the 92mm pool?) of my choice and not their fan...

 

[trodas]

Since moderator uddarts on PC perspective forum have the same Sapphire A9RX480 mainboard and he tried a Galaxy GTX 650 in it. This is a PCIE v3.0 (!) card from 2013.

And quess what! It worked right away w/o troubles! Now that means that the mobo is NOT the problem, but MSI ficked up the backwards compatibility in the card bios and that prevent it being used at all in older mainboards. Terrible...

Maybe a flashing bios from other company GeForce 210 card could help, but that would be a pretty adventurous operation!

 

[shovenose]

Well, GeForce 210 cards aren't very expensive like on eBay, so you couild just buy another and see if it works.

 

[Frick]

WTH am I reading? Why did you want to flash the BIOS to begin with?

 

[trodas]

shovenose - true, but I decided that I did not want GeForce 210 anymore Especially not, when I got a 8600GT for free
Beside, there are two other GeForce 210 bioses that will match my HW (Asus and XFX one, IIRC) and since MSI is not going to fix a thing, then it might be fixable by flashing a better bios from other company, that did not screw up the backwards compatibility so bad, like MSI did with this GFX card.
However I did not have another mobo with PCIE, so it require help from others and that might took time, before I can try this bios swap


Frick - Well, because I believed, that the problem it must be in the bios in first place, lol. If I tried my old card first, well... it might been quite different But I did not wanted to meddle with the watercooling, so... I did that too late.
That is why.
And also because MSI screwed up so bad... even the PCIE specs clearly define the backwards compatibility and when something did not work, they blame the bios and Sapphire for old bios. That is why.
You know - blame someone else. Never accept responsibility. No, they did not want to admint that they f*cked up bad. No no no. It must be the bios of the mobo, lol