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Fake NVIDIA Card GPU identification problem

G

gpetersz

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Joined
Aug 2, 2018
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Hello Guys,

I also was fool enough to buy a fake chinese VGA scam through eBay. I know, if something looks too good to be true, it is too good.
I did it in a wrong order. 1.) I saw the card (it was said: GTX 1050 2G..., it was 47 GBP) 2.) I bought it 3.) 3 days later, when I received the e-mail about that my package is sent, I did some research...

I found lots of videos (youtube) and descriptions (this page and forum for example), where it was described.
1.) I knew instantly, that I was scammed. No D-Sub connector on GTX 1050s...
2.) The videos said (and demonstrated), that I should remove the fan, check the GPU serial GFXXX-XXX etc.
3.) I instantly ordered an USB EPROM burner with clip, and cooler paste.
4.) And I've been waiting for my card

1.
Today, it arrived. I removed the fan, and found the image, I attached here (image 1: gpu_unknown.jpg).

Nothing about the GPU serials that were in the videos... :-/ no, nothing.
Just the first attached image. Maybe it was removed artificially? Google didn't help me with these numbers...

2.
There are some texts, written manually(!) on the frame around the GPU, starting with GF116-chinese letter-chinese-letter 192/128 blahblah (second attached image: gpu_2.jpg).
GF116 could mean GTS 450, GTX550, GT640 OEM, and some mobile versions of these cards... unfortunatelly, no more data is written by the guy who wrote to the frame by hand.

3. - non question
I was able to identify the DRAMs though. There are 4 of them, sk hynix h5gc2h24bfr-t2c : I found it, it is a 256 MB GDDR5 ram, there are 4 of these, so not 2Gb but it means 1Gb.
I might say... it is a usual scamm...

So, my question is in 1.) and 2.). How could I identify the GPU? (it is GF116- something... :-P)

Thank you in advance!
KR,
Peter
 

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Take pictures of the memory too let's get a big board shot, not just the core
 
I was able to flash a new BIOS to the card.
It is the first ever I've done anything like this.

I was able to read the original bios (which lied itself to a 2 Gb GTX 1050), saved it.

1.)
Then I tried flashing an ASUS GTX 550 Ti image.
It burnt. Then I tried to verify and it said: "chip with the contents are in disagreement "
I re-read the burnt image, it seemed as garbage (no readable part, not even where the burnt rom file had some info)

2.)
I tried a Gigabyte one.
Same: "chip with the contents are in disagreement "

3.)
Then I tried a Gainward one.
Success: verify ran, and said it is okay.

4.)
I rebuilt the card (that flop heatsink and fans), put into my PC, and it gave image (not bricked).
I installed NVidia drivers, and it said it is a GTX 550 Ti

5.)
I downloaded GPU-Z, checked it. More or less seemed OK, but it said the card has only 768 Mbytes of memory...
Can one of the modules be defective?

6.)
I tried Team Fortress 2, and it hung within a minute. It also hung my Win10.

7.)
I rebooted, and now, here I am, using the PC with the card, but well... it is only a browser... :-P
I guess any heavy 3D (TF2 is not that heavy...) would hang the card again.

Any ideas?

a.) Should I try to burn an other rom? (with a lower GPU and memory speed? Other roms seemed to have lower specs between 900 and 1000 Mhz for GPU)
b.) What could be that 768 Mbytes...?

Thank you for any help for a newbie.
KR,
Peter
 

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I would've returned it as soon as you could see it was a scam to be honest. 550Ti and a 1050 are pretty far apart.
 
Toothless said:
I would've returned it as soon as you could see it was a scam to be honest. 550Ti and a 1050 are pretty far apart.
Click to expand...
Seller may have packed up shop, I'd dispute it with eBay, get your money back and keep the card. As for the 768M of vram, it looks like you may have gotten a bios for a different card (don't know if there's a 768MB 550ti) and I'd suggest looking around for a serial number that identifies the card back to a manufacturer and model. If we could get a picture of the cooler we may be able to figure out the brand.
 
Toothless said:
I would've returned it as soon as you could see it was a scam to be honest. 550Ti and a 1050 are pretty far apart.
Click to expand...

Returning it would cost around the price of the card, it is not an option.
I filed a claim through PayPal, they opened an issue, and "investigating it". They say it'll take 3 business days.

therealmeep said:
As for the 768M of vram, it looks like you may have gotten a bios for a different card (don't know if there's a 768MB 550ti) and I'd suggest looking around for a serial number that identifies the card back to a manufacturer and model. If we could get a picture of the cooler we may be able to figure out the brand.
Click to expand...

The cooler is a cheap, generic one, unfortunatelly, I guess they changed the original. I removed it, checked the face of the GPU, but seemingly the seller (probably using some chemical stuff) removed the GPU ID. :-/
As for the board, there isn't any relevant (at least for me) or identifiable text on it... :-/

I really fear, if one of the memories is defective, as far as I know there is no GTX 550 Ti with 768 Mbytes, and there is 4 x 256 Mbytes sk hynix h5gc2h24bfr-t2c chip... :-/

I am unexperienced... can a VGA run the Windows Desktop with a defective memory? (if it is not used... GPU-Z says 191 Mbytes used, so probably the defective memory is not used...)
I could solder it out, get a chip somehow... but well... I could easily screw up the whole board, I haven't done anything like this before.

I found GTX 460 with 768 Mbytes: https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/139243/nvidia-gtx460-768-100603

I guess flashing a GF104 GPU bios to a GF116 card is not the best idea...

:)
 
gpetersz said:
Returning it would cost around the price of the card, it is not an option.
I filed a claim through PayPal, they opened an issue, and "investigating it". They say it'll take 3 business days.



The cooler is a cheap, generic one, unfortunatelly, I guess they changed the original. I removed it, checked the face of the GPU, but seemingly the seller (probably using some chemical stuff) removed the GPU ID. :-/
As for the board, there isn't any relevant (at least for me) or identifiable text on it... :-/

I really fear, if one of the memories is defective, as far as I know there is no GTX 550 Ti with 768 Mbytes, and there is 4 x 256 Mbytes sk hynix h5gc2h24bfr-t2c chip... :-/

I am unexperienced... can a VGA run the Windows Desktop with a defective memory? (if it is not used... GPU-Z says 191 Mbytes used, so probably the defective memory is not used...)
I could solder it out, get a chip somehow... but well... I could easily screw up the whole board, I haven't done anything like this before.

I found GTX 460 with 768 Mbytes: https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/139243/nvidia-gtx460-768-100603

I guess flashing a GF104 GPU bios to a GF116 card is not the best idea...

:)
Click to expand...
You should be able to file a claim with eBay I think as well, without having to do anything. Generic VGA drivers tend to work on desktop at least so you probably have just a display adapter at this point. As for the 460/550ti, I'm suprised that it would have worked at all. If you use nvflash in windows, you may be able to send a proper bios onto it as well.
 
therealmeep said:
You should be able to file a claim with eBay I think as well, without having to do anything. Generic VGA drivers tend to work on desktop at least so you probably have just a display adapter at this point. As for the 460/550ti, I'm suprised that it would have worked at all. If you use nvflash in windows, you may be able to send a proper bios onto it as well.
Click to expand...

Reclaim: I did that.

It is not a generic VGA driver, it was the proper Nvidia driver, I've downloaded Geforce Game Ready, and it identified the card, and installed the proper driver (GTX 550 Ti).

I think I also identified the problem meantime. There is no GTX 550 Ti with 768 Mbytes of memory (we have GTX 460, but that's not GF116 GPU).
So probably 1 of the 4 hynix memories are off. Not working: defective.

That could simply cause the hung during TF2 game test. Probably the game wanted to load something onto the defective memory.

Now, I am after a method where I can "downgrade" the bios and such, make the card not to use that memory... :-P

I am not a pro: this card is already here to do something with it... The claim is not decided yet, but I am ready to loose that 47 GBP anyway, it was my fault, but it is a great occasion to learn something new.
 
gpetersz said:
Reclaim: I did that.

It is not a generic VGA driver, it was the proper Nvidia driver, I've downloaded Geforce Game Ready, and it identified the card, and installed the proper driver (GTX 550 Ti).

I think I also identified the problem meantime. There is no GTX 550 Ti with 768 Mbytes of memory (we have GTX 460, but that's not GF116 GPU).
So probably 1 of the 4 hynix memories are off. Not working: defective.

That could simply cause the hung during TF2 game test. Probably the game wanted to load something onto the defective memory.

Now, I am after a method where I can "downgrade" the bios and such, make the card not to use that memory... :p

I am not a pro: this card is already here to do something with it... The claim is not decided yet, but I am ready to loose that 47 GBP anyway, it was my fault, but it is a great occasion to learn something new.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, you really aren't going to be able to edit the bios to edit out a whole chip of ram unless you are fairly familiar with the card’s architecture, and even then it would take some time to do, this is not as simple as modifying a couple of values for voltage and clock. That said, for the price you paid, unless you really want a project. I’d leave it at that, personally I would not attempt such things on a gpu thats even semi working (and probably even then nothing lower than a 980/980ti)
 
Dude. A 550ti for 47 pounds?

Put it in a frame and on a shelf. Collectors item, decent value, perhaps 20 years down the line you can get a decent ROI. No problems IMO :)
 
Greed, greed always wins.. :P
 
gpetersz said:
I downloaded GPU-Z, checked it. More or less seemed OK, but it said the card has only 768 Mbytes of memory...
Can one of the modules be defective?
Click to expand...

On that Screenshot the Bus Width is also off. It should be at 192bit
 
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