Msi Ati Radeon 9550

[mc00]

hello, and thank you for your time...
info:
MSI ATI RADEON 9550 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-Bit/Model "RX9550-TD128"
device id 4153
chip type RV350

ok i'm trying to overclock this card i already did find max core with atitool
and max 439 but i brought down to 350 to be safe and memory to 239 but it crashed so i brought it down to 220

i added a p3 500 mhz fan on to the heatsink of video card, the fan pretty good lol

so i check the info of the card with flashrom but it said is locked..

what i did i use the same bios(A dump with atitool) of the video card and increased the core/memory to 350/220 i haven't flased card yet... because is locked i dunno if would let me or what.. i install the softmod driver to bypass locked thing but i dont want to use softmod driver i rather just flash to the bios so could just stay there..
and on yah database i dont see my video card bios i see other msi card

the card has samsung chipset


so how do i bypass this locked ?


UPDATE:
i use the same bios came with the card and i dump it and i just change the core/memory and then i flash the bios and later try to install ati driver orginal one and didn't pick up the video card.. so had to reflash again with my backup now is working

what when wrong here ?

tools used
atitool 23
flashrom
radedit

 

[B.o.b]

I also have that video card and I had the exact same problem when I tried using Radedit to change the original MSI BIOS. Luckily, other users that have Samsung 5.0 memory (which is the memory used on the MSI 9550) had posted that you can also use a BIOS from a card with Samsung 4.0 memory.

I went to the BIOS section and found a BIOS from a Sapphire 9600 Pro that was using the Samsung 4.0 memory, but the timings were way high for my card. The solution to this problem was so easy, I couldn't believe it. All the way to the right, there are two links you can click: Advanced and Download. Click on the Advanced link and a window will pop open that allows you to modify the core and memory speeds before you download the BIOS file!!!

In your case, you would do the following:
1 - Insert the speeds you want (350 core and 220 memory)
2 - Check the button under BIOS options that says Download BIOS modified to the values above
3 - Check the button under Transfer options that says send as uncompressed BIOS image
4 - Click on the Start Download button and save your modified BIOS file, renamed as whatever you can remember easily (something like NEWBIOS.BIN)
5 - When you run Flashrom to update the BIOS on your MSI card, you will need the -f option, so the command line will look something like:
flashrom -p -f 0 NEWBIOS.BIN

Oh yeah, another thing that might help you out. There are like 15 Sapphire 9600 BIOS listings, but the BIOS that I did all of the above with is listed as the following:

Sapphire 9600 Pro 128 MB Aug 13th 2004 6:11 PM Oct 21st 2004 11:08 AM 400 / 230 Samsung 4.0

Have Fun with your new 9600 level video card!! I got mine for $67.00 and it easily gets me a 10,000+ score in 3DMark 2001SE now that I've flashed the BIOS

 

[marty]

@B.o.b
Just out of curiosity, do you have any 3DMark 2001SE results for that card prior to flashing your BIOS? Would they be in the 7500 neighborhood?

Are you using stock cooling, or aftermarket? I know web vendors' product pictures are often "for representational purposes only", but Newegg.com and MSI's Website show this card with only a HS, whereas GameVE.com and eWiz.com both show it with a HSF. Also the capacitors - I would be considering adding an Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer Rev.3 if it would help - are placed differently on each card.

And lastly, now that the card is flashed it will be recognized as a 9600 Pro by e.g., Linux, right?

 

[B.o.b]

Hi Marty,

Yes, when I first received the card, I wanted to have a baseline to compare any overclocked results against, so I ran 3DMark 2001SE a few times with the original MSI BIOS and the scores were all around 8500. The card I got from Newegg has the passive heatsink, and that's all I'm using. I've had the core speed as high as 410 and memory as high as 230, but I don't think it would be safe to keep it that way with only a passive heatsink and nothing on the RAM chips. (fwiw - the stock speeds that MSI ships with are 250 core and 200 memory, so 410 represents a 164% overclock )

As far as Linux recognizing the card differently, I don't know if it would specifically call it a 9600 Pro, but if Linux detects hardware similar to the way Windows XP does, it should see it as a Radeon 9600 Series.

 

[nyioo7@hotmail.com]

hey did you guys' cards has fan ? cuz i have exact card without fan and whenever i install a fan it would crash or show some wired colors. but if i unplug the fan it works just fine . so i was wondering will i be able to flash to 9600 series without fan? and also why can't i install fan on my card?

the fan i tried to install is Vantec "IceBerq" .

 

[mc00]

Well my didn't come with fan so i added one using p3 500mhz slot a fan and i overclocked the card to 400 but drop it to 360mhz to be save and the memory only to 230mhz, only got to 400 because of the fan wasn't for the fan problably would got no higher then 350.

 

[nyioo7@hotmail.com]

i got the fan install successfully. turns out it was touching some of the resistors on the card. now i got it clear. the fan is turning at 3550 rpm . so should i flash it to 9600 ? should i just overclock it without flashing it?

 

[nyioo7@hotmail.com]

i tried the way B.o.b described. downloaded the powercolor 9600 pro with samsung 4.0 and set the core and memory speed to 350/220 and it worked. but unfortunately i started seeing artifacts on the screen so i had to flash it back before it damage. i don't know what went wrong. any ideas?