Guide to Radeon X800/X850 bios modding

[Fischpo]

@dolf

Well, I have severe difficulties having my card recognized during driver installation.
I read this from the inf file:
"RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition" = ati2mtag_R481, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4B4C&SUBSYS_00021002.

Accordingly I changed the BIOS to this.
But see what ATITOOL tells me...(see attached) Why ID 4A4C ?

And catalyst 6.2 installation fails. It says I should install standard VGA driver first.
I had to select driver manually then...
And yes, I have used DriverCleaner in safe mode before new installation!

 

[ShadowFlare]

Yeah, it doesn't seem to work in some cases. It seems like it may be locked out from that on yours somehow.

BTW, what flash utility are you using and what parameters?

 

[Megatron]

@dolf

Well, I have severe difficulties having my card recognized during driver installation.
I read this from the inf file:
"RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition" = ati2mtag_R481, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4B4C&SUBSYS_00021002.

Accordingly I changed the BIOS to this.
But see what ATITOOL tells me...(see attached) Why ID 4A4C ?

And catalyst 6.2 installation fails. It says I should install standard VGA driver first.
I had to select driver manually then...
And yes, I have used DriverCleaner in safe mode before new installation!

Sometimes u get "install standard VGA" when u need to reinstall your motherboard drivers.

Im back with original 16pipe bios, mainly because after going from omega 6.1 (change bios to r480) and cat 6.2 + ccc I had some lag which I have experienced in 2 different FPS, where I would act as if on ice and not stop moving. Very irritating and game breaking. Ive reinstalled once because of it. Cant put my finger on what makes that happen. Happened with nvidia firewall and without + ccc. Thats why I like minimal software and always have.

 

[dolf]

@dolf

Well, I have severe difficulties having my card recognized during driver installation.
I read this from the inf file:
"RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition" = ati2mtag_R481, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4B4C&SUBSYS_00021002.

Accordingly I changed the BIOS to this.
But see what ATITOOL tells me...(see attached) Why ID 4A4C ?

And catalyst 6.2 installation fails. It says I should install standard VGA driver first.
I had to select driver manually then...
And yes, I have used DriverCleaner in safe mode before new installation!

As I told you the first two digits can't be overriten during the flashing they are set on the "hardware level" and they should be equal with the first two digits from the choosed drver from CX_xxxxx.inf. You have 4A (for sure R420) which could be recognized only as: X800 Series; X800VE; X800PRO; X800XT; X800XT PE; X800GTO; X800GT (all with R420) and that is the whole range of cards that you can choose to be recognized . The choice is yours.

Success

 

[Fischpo]

[...]BTW, what flash utility are you using and what parameters?

mostly atiflash v3.09 with -p -f 0 [bios.bin] or the modified flashrom with identical parameters
After having flashed to 16p adding the -newbios parameter I only used that parameter once again, resulting in a black screen afterwards so I had to reflash as a blind-flight...
Why you ask?

 

[Giux-900]

@dolf

Well, I have severe difficulties having my card recognized during driver installation.
I read this from the inf file:
"RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition" = ati2mtag_R481, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4B4C&SUBSYS_00021002.

Accordingly I changed the BIOS to this.
But see what ATITOOL tells me...(see attached) Why ID 4A4C ?

And catalyst 6.2 installation fails. It says I should install standard VGA driver first.
I had to select driver manually then...
And yes, I have used DriverCleaner in safe mode before new installation!

Hi, I have the same problem !!!

This is very incredible because the id is changed in rabit: 4B4B-->4B4C, 0312-->0002
when flashing in dos mode the screen is this:

a:\>flashrom -p -f 0 name.bin

serial ROM
BIOS DeviceID =0x4B4C
ASIC DeviceID=0x4B4B
Exsisting SSID=0x0312
New SSID=0x0002
Existing BIOS p/n=113-A47503-103
New BIOS p/n=113-A47503-103
Flash Type=ST M25P05/c
65536 of 65536 byte verified

At restart atitool show the r420gl 4A4C impossible !!!!!!!!
No catalyst Driver intallation is possible, show me error...!!!
I have FLASH-BACK to original bios 4B4B with only 16pipe unlock, and ALL OK and dos mode is this:
serial ROM
BIOS DeviceID =0x4B4B
ASIC DeviceID=0x4A4C
Exsisting SSID=0x0002
New SSID=0x0312
Existing BIOS p/n=113-A47503-103
New BIOS p/n=113-A47503-103
Flash Type=ST M25P05/c
65536 of 65536 byte verified
ALL OK !!!

The backup with atitool is now identical at bios before the flash (perfect flash!!)
But ID is very very strange changes....

 

[JJjr]

HIs All i flashed it back to a x850Pro bios , To get the clock speed down, But it also took the 4 pips wit it ?? . So now im flashed to the x850xt agin...

 

[Megatron]

HIs All i flashed it back to a x850Pro bios , To get the clock speed down, But it also took the 4 pips wit it ?? . So now im flashed to the x850xt agin...

When u flash from x850xt to pro then dont use -f. I think that will stop the number of pipes from changing.

 

[dolf]

HIs All i flashed it back to a x850Pro bios , To get the clock speed down, But it also took the 4 pips wit it ?? . So now im flashed to the x850xt agin...

Just use normal not modified flashrom. If you prefer atiflash don't use -newbios key during flashing. But -f -p you must use .

 

[JJjr]

i flashed as " aiflash -p -f 0 original.bin " rebooted.. check ATI tool.. Was at x850Pro defalt speeds with 16 pips still open i may go back up to xt clock speds when i get that GPU cooler..,, Thx all for the help.. Your all good people

 

[Fischpo]

So it has no R???ID on the chip like this one


has any body else seen these chips this is on a BBiat

Yes. No Rxxx ID on mine either.
See attached pic which is bad quality, I'm sorry.

This is the descriptor string from original BIOS: R481 BIOS 113-A47503-103 (BR#13483)
DeviceID is 4A4B (ATITOOL) -> R420 according to dolf.
SubsystemID is 0312 which corresponds to this "CONNECT 3D RADEON X800 GTO" = ati2mtag_R423, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5549&SUBSYS_031217EE
while subvendor doesn't match at all then (in combination with SubsystemID).

I will flash back to original BIOS now, only with the pipes changed to 16!

On request from giux-900 (on pm) I'll add my original BIOS and the 16p-modded one.
And I agree with you that the change of deviceIDs indicated by the tools we use is confusing. But keep in mind what was said before: the first two digits that ATITOOL reports are said to be the determent for your R-type of GPU.

Edit: also added this zip for you giux-900!

 

[tdbone1]

Fischpo hello

mine is like that kinda also
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=9123

is there any and i mean anyway to get 16p with this card?

Yes. No Rxxx ID on mine either.
See attached pic which is bad quality, I'm sorry.

This is the descriptor string from original BIOS: R481 BIOS 113-A47503-103 (BR#13483)
DeviceID is 4A4B (ATITOOL) -> R420 according to dolf.
SubsystemID is 0312 which corresponds to this "CONNECT 3D RADEON X800 GTO" = ati2mtag_R423, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5549&SUBSYS_031217EE
while subvendor doesn't match at all then (in combination with SubsystemID).

I will flash back to original BIOS now, only with the pipes changed to 16!

On request from giux-900 (on pm) I'll add my original BIOS and the 16p-modded one.
And I agree with you that the change of deviceIDs indicated by the tools we use is confusing. But keep in mind what was said before: the first two digits that ATITOOL reports are said to be the determent for your R-type of GPU.

Edit: also added this zip for you giux-900!

 

[Frogger]

@dolf

Well, I have severe difficulties having my card recognized during driver installation.
I read this from the inf file:
"RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition" = ati2mtag_R481, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4B4C&SUBSYS_00021002.

Accordingly I changed the BIOS to this.
But see what ATITOOL tells me...(see attached) Why ID 4A4C ?

And catalyst 6.2 installation fails. It says I should install standard VGA driver first.
I had to select driver manually then...
And yes, I have used DriverCleaner in safe mode before new installation!

I end up with same result [4a4c] after device id change...

used stock bios for edits note changes in RaBit loging [see att] note pic of chips
should edit bios with hex to reapply [4b4c/481 id]???

 

[Frogger]

wrong text file see this one

 

[Giux-900]

try again with 4B4C for platinum edition id, but leave 0312 because is needed to recognize secondary information ex. vivo features..

( Fischpo thanks for bios)

 

[tdbone1]

dont forget me

 

[chaosmachine]

just wanted to say i have successfully flashed my sapphire x800 gto (not gto2) 256mb to 16 pipes using the bios editing method. my card has 2ns ram and a r480.

for the record, here's my fuses:

config_die_fuses: 0xffffffff
config_substrate_fuses: 0xffffff9f

3dmark05 before: 4565
3dmark05 after: 5152

not as much of an improvement as i'd hoped, but i don't think 3dmark tells the whole story.. also, gpu temperature has increased by about 10c at full load since doing this mod.

thanks to everyone who helped make this mod possible!

 

[Megatron]

just wanted to say i have successfully flashed my sapphire x800 gto (not gto2) 256mb to 16 pipes using the bios editing method. my card has 2ns ram and a r480.

for the record, here's my fuses:

config_die_fuses: 0xffffffff
config_substrate_fuses: 0xffffff9f

3dmark05 before: 4565
3dmark05 after: 5152

not as much of an improvement as i'd hoped, but i don't think 3dmark tells the whole story.. also, gpu temperature has increased by about 10c at full load since doing this mod.

thanks to everyone who helped make this mod possible!

First Ive heard of a 3rd type of x800gto that can unlock to 16pipes via bios.

Dolf said that u cant change the first 2 letters in the device ID, its difficult to say whether you are trying to do this; state what bios u are flashing from (what card type) and what you are flashing to ( and card type).

 

[tdbone1]

what about me

 

[dolf]

Yes. No Rxxx ID on mine either.
See attached pic which is bad quality, I'm sorry.

This is the descriptor string from original BIOS: R481 BIOS 113-A47503-103 (BR#13483)
DeviceID is 4A4B (ATITOOL) -> R420 according to dolf.
SubsystemID is 0312 which corresponds to this "CONNECT 3D RADEON X800 GTO" = ati2mtag_R423, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5549&SUBSYS_031217EE
while subvendor doesn't match at all then (in combination with SubsystemID).

I will flash back to original BIOS now, only with the pipes changed to 16!

On request from giux-900 (on pm) I'll add my original BIOS and the 16p-modded one.
And I agree with you that the change of deviceIDs indicated by the tools we use is confusing. But keep in mind what was said before: the first two digits that ATITOOL reports are said to be the determent for your R-type of GPU.

Edit: also added this zip for you giux-900!

It is not "according" me but according Device ID - 4A (only cards with R420 has device ID starting with 4A) but it is not so strange it was the same with 9800PRO and 9800XT (respectively R350 and R360) the only difference is that R420 and R480 are putted in different classes (X800 and X850) with different device ID's.

It is very interesting that R481 has device ID starting with 4Axx (4A is typical for R420). I wander how the device ID is set (probably some resistor jumpers matrix).

Could you please send me (vgd_new@yahoo.com) or post here pictures of your card back and front side (without cooler). As detailed as possible will be necessary. I am going to investigate a bit.
I've flashed my X800XT AGP with X850XT BIOS and it is working like hell but as I mantioned the first two digits from the device ID can't be changed with flashing. That's why the card was recognized like X800 Series (but with X850 BIOS which hints me that in fact R420 and R480 are almost one and the same thing).

My opinion about the mess with the device ID's and cores is the following:
(Considering the above - "R420 and R480 are almost one and the same thing") The explanation could be that the remaining R481 (the only produced after stopping of R420) are mounted on the remaining X800 AGP boards.

With such card (Device ID starting with 4A) it is possible to obtain X800XT or X800XT PE directly by changing the device ID to 4A50, SubSystem ID: 0002 and SubVendor ID: 1002

Please somebody to try it and to report the result. Also if possible the PN of the PCB (top ftont side of the card). It should be something like that: PN 109-Axxxxx-xx.

Success

 

[Giux-900]

R481 is with ID 4Bxx ,
0312 id is for secodary features exaple vivo,
if I mod the ID change the ASIC config, and here is the problem

 

[Fischpo]

Fischpo hello

mine is like that kinda also
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=9123

is there any and i mean anyway to get 16p with this card?

I'm not an expert but as far as reading goes I'd say that dolf really gave a clear answer to that question.

 

[Fischpo]

@dolf you already got mail.
So far I'm very pleased with the OC performance achieved with the current BIOS ( stock + 16p) with Arctic silencer 5rev2 in use with
core 600MHz and
mem 590MHz.

3DMark05 6427 points.

OT: I wonder how they manage the task of taking into account all the different settings for the benchmark.

 

[ShadowFlare]

@dolf you already got mail.
So far I'm very pleased with the OC performance achieved with the current BIOS ( stock + 16p) with Arctic silencer 5rev2 in use with
core 600MHz and
mem 590MHz.

3DMark05 6427 points.

OT: I wonder how they manage the task of taking into account all the different settings for the benchmark.

Hmm, what kind of cpu is that on? Mine gets 6414 at X850 XT PE clocks (540/590); well, also the X850 XT PE memory timings, too, but those only make around a 15-20 point difference. My CPU is an Athlon 64 3200+ (Venice core).

My highest score I've even seen on my system is 6633, with 550/600 and some modified memory timings, although it wasn't 100% artifact-free, though. I've tried also overclocking my cpu and memory before, but it only makes a minimal increase in the score - about 30.

 

[Alien666]

Hi,
I want to ask how can I mod the X850XTPE BIOS to controll Sapphire GTO2's Fan: Which rows are for this.Thank you!