Guide to Radeon X800/X850 bios modding

[xvi]

Flash successful on ati radeon x800gto, AGP enabled 16 pipes... But the darn thing isn't very overclockable especially with the stock fan even with additional fans blowing directly onto the card. Original clocks were 405 core, and 986 memory... max I can get to with stabe image is 430 core and 1080 memory. Guys, is it pointless to look into aftermarket cooling? I mean the temperature of the core at these settings while gaming is about 55 degrees celcius... Any one suggest some good cooling, thats not going to break the bank? One last thing what should I really expect from a system upgrade while keeping this card?

It depends what's failing.
If it's your GPU, there could be two reasons. One, the cooler you have now can't keep your GPU cool. Two, the clock is just too high for the quality of the core. If you can overclock your card higher for a few seconds before it crashes, then it's probably heat and an aftermarket cooler would help. If your card just dies the instant you apply the overclock, then it's the quality of the core and not much can be done.
If it's your memory, you'll probably just get a bunch of artifacts. You can try cooling, but I haven't found it to help too much.
Stock cooling is going to be somewhat loud. Buying an aftermarket cooler will almost always quiet your system. It will also help prolong the life of your card. In this sense, it might be worth it to buy a cooler.

 

[xvi]

The "problems" with the RaBiT.sys driver will disappear if you are using RaBit 1.7.

I've tried both versions. Could WinXP 64-bit have anything to do with it? Should I just ignore the "problems"?

 

[dolf]

I've tried both versions. Could WinXP 64-bit have anything to do with it? Should I just ignore the "problems"?

To be honest no idea. But it is possible to be WinXP 64-bit. Sometimes I have such problem on my second PC and have no explanation for that (the same OS - Win XP Professional SP2).

 

[maed]

Unlocking pipes (12 to 16)

Hi guys, i am new so i maybe did something wrong
ATI X800
core R430 (i even removed heatsink to look)
from gigabyte model GV-RX80256D

CONFIG DIE FUSES 0xFFFFFFFF
CONFIG SUBSTRATE FUSES 0xFFFFFF9E
CONFIG ROM FUSES was 0xA61 but now is 0xA60
GB_PIPE_SELECT 0x2724

Well long story short i followed
"Guide to Radeon X800/X850 bios modding" written by "Shadowflare"
i changed value at offset 0x7A from 61 to 60
in RaBit i changed Device id from 554F to 554D
Subsystem id from 6110 to 2110
Subvendor id from 1458 to 1458
making from X800 X800XL both gigabyte brand
then i saved bios and flashed it with ... -p -f -newbios 0 ...

rebooted and windows changed drivers to X800XL, but atitool still shows 12 active pipelines

Any help appreciated
Thx

 

[PWNDbyNOOBS]

can someone walk me thru this step by steb? I was able to dump my bios with ati tool after about three hours of looking(read the whole thread all 86 pages) and found hold shift + settings then found misc(yeah I'm slow I'll admit it) downloaded ATIFLASH,RABIT,ATI WINFLASH and made a boot disk,

However when i did WINFLASH i get and error of "cannot find discrete ati video card" However in control panel under device manager it shows the card as RADEON x850 series.


So I tried atiflash off the bootable floppy box boots up get my prompt type in ATIFLASH I get the abort,fail,retry error, so I tried it with commands after -i, -s etc etc... still get the same error.So I figured I had a corrupt copy, nope hit the icon in windows brings up command prompt and shows all the commands however it won't work hit any key and the window closes.

So feel free to talk down to me belittle me hell I don't care I if you can help me fix this You can call me anything ya want,lol.

But really I mean it when I say start from scratch and hold my hand thru this cause I'm missing something.

My fuse data is

Device ID 4b4b
Chip name R481
HostInterface AGP
Catalyst Version 6.10
Memory Size 256MB
Memory Type DDR3
Memory Bus width 256 Bit
Active pipelines 12
Default GPU Clock 500.00Mhz
Default Mem clock 500.00Mhz
CONFIG_DIE_FUSES 0xFFFFFFFF
CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES 0xFFFFFF9F
CONFIG_ROM_FUSES 0x861
GB_PIPE_SELECT 0x2724

I am using just the video and wdm drivers catalyst is not installed since it causes a WHOLE nother hokey problem with refresh and choppy scrolling and such but anyway after reading everything I have read on this thread unless I missed something(I'm sure I missed ALOT) this card should be unlockable, really all I want is the other 4 pipes and bump up the timings a pinch till I get my fan which is backordered on newegg.


My p.c is a stock hp box(read that as crappy A$$ P4SD-LA motherboard,3.0 P4 proc, 1gig Ram,550 watt ps,RADEON X850 PRO VIVO card. if any of this helps(god I wish I could find another motherboard but my next box will be a core 2duo)

Thanks for any help

 

[dolf]

Hi guys, i am new so i maybe did something wrong
ATI X800
core R430 (i even removed heatsink to look)
from gigabyte model GV-RX80256D

CONFIG DIE FUSES 0xFFFFFFFF
CONFIG SUBSTRATE FUSES 0xFFFFFF9E
CONFIG ROM FUSES was 0xA61 but now is 0xA60
GB_PIPE_SELECT 0x2724

Well long story short i followed
"Guide to Radeon X800/X850 bios modding" written by "Shadowflare"
i changed value at offset 0x7A from 61 to 60
in RaBit i changed Device id from 554F to 554D
Subsystem id from 6110 to 2110
Subvendor id from 1458 to 1458
making from X800 X800XL both gigabyte brand
then i saved bios and flashed it with ... -p -f -newbios 0 ...

rebooted and windows changed drivers to X800XL, but atitool still shows 12 active pipelines

Any help appreciated
Thx

Not possible to unlock that core to 16 pipes .

 

[maed]

My mistake

i did a bit reading and found that i need to have 0xFFFFFF9F
pls delete my posts

 

[dolf]

can someone walk me thru this step by steb? I was able to dump my bios with ati tool after about three hours of looking(read the whole thread all 86 pages) and found hold shift + settings then found misc(yeah I'm slow I'll admit it) downloaded ATIFLASH,RABIT,ATI WINFLASH and made a boot disk,

However when i did WINFLASH i get and error of "cannot find discrete ati video card" However in control panel under device manager it shows the card as RADEON x850 series.


So I tried atiflash off the bootable floppy box boots up get my prompt type in ATIFLASH I get the abort,fail,retry error, so I tried it with commands after -i, -s etc etc... still get the same error.So I figured I had a corrupt copy, nope hit the icon in windows brings up command prompt and shows all the commands however it won't work hit any key and the window closes.

So feel free to talk down to me belittle me hell I don't care I if you can help me fix this You can call me anything ya want,lol.

But really I mean it when I say start from scratch and hold my hand thru this cause I'm missing something.

My fuse data is

Device ID 4b4b
Chip name R481
HostInterface AGP
Catalyst Version 6.10
Memory Size 256MB
Memory Type DDR3
Memory Bus width 256 Bit
Active pipelines 12
Default GPU Clock 500.00Mhz
Default Mem clock 500.00Mhz
CONFIG_DIE_FUSES 0xFFFFFFFF
CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES 0xFFFFFF9F
CONFIG_ROM_FUSES 0x861
GB_PIPE_SELECT 0x2724

I am using just the video and wdm drivers catalyst is not installed since it causes a WHOLE nother hokey problem with refresh and choppy scrolling and such but anyway after reading everything I have read on this thread unless I missed something(I'm sure I missed ALOT) this card should be unlockable, really all I want is the other 4 pipes and bump up the timings a pinch till I get my fan which is backordered on newegg.


My p.c is a stock hp box(read that as crappy A$$ P4SD-LA motherboard,3.0 P4 proc, 1gig Ram,550 watt ps,RADEON X850 PRO VIVO card. if any of this helps(god I wish I could find another motherboard but my next box will be a core 2duo)

Thanks for any help

I have good news for you: you will unlock your card to 16 pipes .

Probably you are missing my automated flash utility for X850PRO VIVO AGP on bootable CD image: http://savefile.com/projects/738578

Before to start flashing read carefully the "flash instructions" file in order to avoid mistakes . Don't forget to reinstall the drivers after every flash proces (every BIOS from the utility). My advice would be to start with X850PRO 16 pipe BIOS and after the drivers reinstallation and 16 pipes unlocked to test for max. core / memory with ATITool. Just after that to decide what to be the next BIOS - X850XT (520/540MHz) or X850XT PE (540/590MHz). Be carefull if you have single slot cooler (why - in the flash instructions) and because with X850XT PE speeds the card is very, very hot and the single slot cooler is not enough!!!

 

[PWNDbyNOOBS]

Ok..............so I burned X850AGP_FlashCD to a c.d. rom verified that it was on the cd this time, restarted, went into my BIOS and selected my dvd as my first boot option...

logged in put the cd in the burner and restarted the box......it spun up in the drive lights flashed all that good stuff and nothing..........I know there is an F key that will boot directly from cd but for the life of me I can't remember what it is..........

If I don't figure this out in a few more tries I'm gonna skip cause well now I'm starting to feel like a super loser.............any ideas what i'm doing wrong?

Good lord normally I can figure these things out but this is my first foray into overclocking and bios flashing besides the .rom from hp which is a snap.


thanks

 

[maed]

PWNDbyNOOBS

look carefully through your bios, i personally have two menus
first in advanced settings there i have first boot device i hit enter and can select it
BUT there is also value BOOT DEVICE PRIORITY -I hit enter and there is small menu from connected hardware and with +- i change boot priority...

On top of that when i start computer and instead of going to bios hit F12 there is nice boot menu... of course non-working

good job manufacturer shadedshu

So you might have something similar
I wish you luck

 

[Raimo]

Hello! I just bough Connect3d X850Pro VIVO AGP With Zalman VF900-CU from my friend because it was so cheap

Would it be possible to enable all 16 pipes? Here is info from atitool:

Device ID: 4B4B
Chip Name: R481
CONFIG_DIE_FUSES: 0xFFFFFFFF
CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES: 0xFFFFFF9F
CONFIG_ROM_FUSES: 0x861
GB_PIPE_SELECT: 0x2724

What bios should I use if the mod would be possible?

 

[xvi]

Hello! I just bough Connect3d X850Pro VIVO AGP With Zalman VF900-CU from my friend because it was so cheap

Would it be possible to enable all 16 pipes? Here is info from atitool:

Device ID: 4B4B
Chip Name: R481
CONFIG_DIE_FUSES: 0xFFFFFFFF
CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES: 0xFFFFFF9F
CONFIG_ROM_FUSES: 0x861
GB_PIPE_SELECT: 0x2724

What bios should I use if the mod would be possible?

From what I understand, Yes. If you do a bit of reading on this thread, you'd see that you need "CONFIG_DIE_FUSES" to be "0xFFFFFFFF" and "CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES:" to be "0xFFFFFF9F". Also, if you have a single slot cooler and you flash to an x850 XT or XT PE BIOS, your fan will stop. The best BIOS would most likely be your own modified BIOS or Dolf's Bootable CD.

 

[xvi]

And speaking of that last post, I tried flashing to my somewhat-modified X850 XT PE BIOS, but like a few people mentioned, the fan stopped spinning. I hate playing with hex editors, but I'll give it a try.

I need to be off to bed, though. I need to get up "early" for an all-you-can-eat breakfast out at the grange. I'll be loading up on pancakes, biscuits and gravy, and apple-butter. (woot!)

 

[dolf]

Ok..............so I burned X850AGP_FlashCD to a c.d. rom verified that it was on the cd this time, restarted, went into my BIOS and selected my dvd as my first boot option...

logged in put the cd in the burner and restarted the box......it spun up in the drive lights flashed all that good stuff and nothing..........I know there is an F key that will boot directly from cd but for the life of me I can't remember what it is..........

If I don't figure this out in a few more tries I'm gonna skip cause well now I'm starting to feel like a super loser.............any ideas what i'm doing wrong?

Good lord normally I can figure these things out but this is my first foray into overclocking and bios flashing besides the .rom from hp which is a snap.


thanks

I hope that you have burned the image with "burn image" option ont just .iso on the CD (in the second case it won't boot).

 

[dolf]

And speaking of that last post, I tried flashing to my somewhat-modified X850 XT PE BIOS, but like a few people mentioned, the fan stopped spinning. I hate playing with hex editors, but I'll give it a try.

I need to be off to bed, though. I need to get up "early" for an all-you-can-eat breakfast out at the grange. I'll be loading up on pancakes, biscuits and gravy, and apple-butter. (woot!)

Look I am telling that for 1xxxxxxxx-th time but once again: the fan stops because of the fan itself (type of control) it is the good old X800PRO, XT, XT PE which has different way of regulation than the dual slot cooler originally mounted on X850XT and PE. The flash utility contains all needed (atiflash, X850PRO, X850PRO 16 pipe, X850XT and X850XT PE BIOSes) you don't need to do or modify anything. I have never seen X850PRO VIVO AGP BIOS differ than the included in the utility.

 

[lolalul]

hi all
can someone explain me how to do the vid mode?
the pencil mod not working for my gigabyte x800xl
i want to give to the card 1.5V
can i do it with pencil too?
THX!

 

[dolf]

hi all
can someone explain me how to do the vid mode?
the pencil mod not working for my gigabyte x800xl
i want to give to the card 1.5V
can i do it with pencil too?
THX!

You should move the resisstor VID 1 to VID 2 place and to add 1K ohm 0603 SMD resistor to place VID 0. You have to obtain finally closed VID 0,2,4 for 1.5V. VID 1 and 3 should be opened.

 

[lolalul]

can you mark it on the pic?
thx!

 

[Hayt121]

Im interesetd in buying the X850 Pro and opening up the extra pipes, im completely comfortable with the bios flashing but not so much of any actual hardware mod as i have no exp. with soddering electronics. I was woundering if all of the later model X850 Pro's have that laser cut and if they do, how difficult is the hardware mod? should a complete noob attempt it?

My apologies if this has been mentioned before, this thread is massive!

Thanks

 

[PWNDbyNOOBS]

WOW it worked.............That autoflash .iso Is AWESOME...............thanks DOLF.


I have the fan set thru ATI TOOLS at 100 percent sounds a little funky but oh well.

I just have one question(I reloaded the drivers) How do I get rid of the choppy scrolling I thought it only happened when I had catalyst installed but now I get it on everything webpages are HORRIBLE you can watch the refresh scroll down pages turns blank basically then you watch it fill from top to bottom? Did I screw up?


Well I fixed it...............I deleted all my drivers for the card re-booted double checked to make sure they were all deleted ran regedit defraged the reg all that rebooted and reinstalled,rebooted 3 or 4 more times works like a champ now.

This place is AWESOME..........

 

[xvi]

Im interesetd in buying the X850 Pro and opening up the extra pipes, im completely comfortable with the bios flashing but not so much of any actual hardware mod as i have no exp. with soddering electronics. I was woundering if all of the later model X850 Pro's have that laser cut and if they do, how difficult is the hardware mod? should a complete noob attempt it?

My apologies if this has been mentioned before, this thread is massive!

Thanks

I just bought mine on Newegg.com about a week or two ago ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102606 ). I haven't been able to test it yet, but it's unlockable.

From what I understand, you're looking for a VIVO (Video in, Video Out) AGP version x850pro. Your best bet would be with an original ATI card (as opposed to Sapphire, Connect3d, etc).

 

[Hayt121]

Heh, thats the exact one i have saved in my favs. Is that the best AGP version of the card? I saw mention of X850 XT/PE/EXT ect. Ive been a nvidia man up until this point so were does the PRO suffix fit into the preformance line?

 

[xvi]

Heh, thats the exact one i have saved in my favs. Is that the best AGP version of the card? I saw mention of X850 XT/PE/EXT ect. Ive been a nvidia man up until this point so were does the PRO suffix fit into the preformance line?

In the X850 line, you have (in order of performance):
X850Pro (Good GPU, but with disabled features)
X850 XT (Full features and higher clock speed)
X850 XT PE (Full features and an even higher clock speed)
X850 CrossFire (Same as the XT, but Crossfire Capable)

Since most of the VIVO models of the X800Pro and X850Pro cards have the same GPU as the XT and XT PE (and extra features only disabled), they're popular for unlocking.

 

[Hayt121]

Ahh, so this whole mod thing basically turns a X850Pro into an XT. How about the clock speeds? Can the Pro be overclocked to XT/XT PE speeds?

 

[xvi]

Heh, thats the exact one i have saved in my favs. Is that the best AGP version of the card? I saw mention of X850 XT/PE/EXT ect. Ive been a nvidia man up until this point so were does the PRO suffix fit into the preformance line?

(This was supposed to be an edit, but it didn't seem to work out that way)

In the X850 line, you have (in order of performance):
X850Pro (Good GPU, but with disabled features)
X850 XT (Full features and higher clock speed)
X850 XT PE (Full features and an even higher clock speed)
X850 CrossFire (Same as the XT, but Crossfire Capable)

You should also consider the rest of the cards that came out in this generation.. (In order of performance)
X300
X550 (Came out the same time as the X850, I think)
X600
X700
X800
X850 (Came out a while after the X800)