Sapphire X800GTO (AGP) Flashrom Locked (mod)

[Gotno]

First off I'd like to apologize, from what I can see you guys are absolutely swamped with posts on this topic, and though I did my best to rummage through the almost 100 total pages of posts; I did not manage to find a solution to my problem.

I just recently purchased a Sapphire X800 GTO (not 2) AGP card after reading about the very large number of people having success with a modification found on this website. After using ATITool to verify that the fuses were, in fact, correct for the flash I resumed to download and prepare the new Connect3D bios for the AGP version of the card. Edit: This card reports that it uses the R480 core.

Using a USB Stick modified to a USB HDD I booted and fired up flashrom.exe.

Using the tag:

Flashrom.exe -s 0 oldbios.bin

I saved the old bios for my protection in case something wrong happened, and prepared to write the new bios.

Flashrom.exe -p 0 newbios.bin

To which it responded that the bios files did not match in size (not surprising) and it suggested that I might use the -f flag to force the bios write. After inputting the same line but as -p -f 0 newbios.bin it refused to write.

Instead it fed me back ERROR 0FL01 "Serial Flashrom Locked."

Am I just out of luck? I seem to have found zero leads using various google searches on that error code and the potential unlocking of the said Flashrom. Any suggestions? Taking pictures with a digital camera is within my ability--I'm highly knowledgeable about computers in general, so if you don't want to dumb it down, by all means let me have it.

(screenshot of ATITool attached)

 

[Changis]

just a shot in the dark for you to try, have you uninstalled your windows drivers? if not, do it.
I don't care how ludicrus it sounds, just try it.

I have a hunch....

 

[Gotno]

It does sound rather ludicrous that software drivers could have anything to do with a piece of hardware completely unable to access them as a result of booting into DOS. However, having seen a laughable account of this actually working on another forum I'll give it a shot just for you.

 

[Changis]

Gotno: Damnit you ruined my chance of wow-ing with my unprecedented 1337 "computer-pshycic" or something

(link to the forum: http://www.driverheaven.net/archive/index.php/t-8650.html )

 

[Gotno]

Alright, gave the driver uninstall a whirl, but to no avail. Nothing changed as anticipated--however I copied down the result of the bios flash attempt:

BIOS DeviceID = 0X5549
ASIC DeviceID = 0x5D4F
Existing SSID = 0x1600
New SSID = 0x0312
Existing BIOS P/N = 11X-CC661ASA-001
New BIOS P/N = 113-A31960-102
Flash Type = ST M25P05/c

Error: data not erased
ERROR: OFL01 Serial flashrom locked

 

[Changis]

try flashrom -p -f -sst 0 biosfilename.bin

 

[Gotno]

Same deal however this time the readout provides a different Flash type:

Flash type = SST25VFxxx/c


The rest remains the same.

 

[Frogger]

look at the pics in these files and use the automated utility for your card
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=131342&postcount=2309

 

[Gotno]

Worked perfectly, just identified my card as an R480 and fired up the iso into a bootable CD and flashed it like it was meant to be.

Thankyou very much for your time, I appreciate it.

 

[Frogger]

Dolf is the one to thank he did all the work on those disks ....Can you post shot of pipes after flash.... F

 

[dumaiso]

I was about to suggest using dolf's tool, it works like a charm. I have a X800GTO R480 AGP here. Downloaded the image, burned and booted it to flash and have the 16 pipelines.

 

[Gotno]

Yes, I can supply a screenshot of the finished product. I managed to get it to run at 500/500 flawlessly as well as at 16 pipes. The performance increase was visually noticeable at about 15% gain.

3DMark2003 on AXP @ 200fsb running 2.4GHz 8400 pre-modded and 9500 post-modded.
3DMark2005 on same configuration gave 4000 pre-modded and about 5000 post-modded.

I will post screenshots in a few hours when I return home.

Thanks again.