X800 GTO² to X850 XT BIOS Mod

[Frogger]

DOLF noted one one of the other pages that the chip will have a limited #of flashes it will tolerate before it stops runnig but I suspect each chip is different

 

[morely]

Well, I must of falshed my card like 15 times LOL, so I really don't think there is a limit of how many times you falsh. "BUT" if anything goes wrong, you can lose your card. So, becarful.

As for the mod bios, you can try using Rabit 1.7 or something to mod the bios yourself. See if that works. Plus is your card a GTO2 ?

Yeah I flash in DOS to reduce the risk of something going wrong. I'll keep it to a minimum though. The box I bought says "GTO2 Limited Edition" and in display properties it says "Radeon x800 GTO"...so I'm assuming it's the right card.

I'm wondering though - how many people out there have their profile change to the x850 after flashing? and how many stay the same (i.e. "GTO" profile)?

 

[Frogger]

you can change profile(name of card?) with RABIT1.7 all you have to do is change device ID read this .....http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=8060

 

[morely]

you can change profile(name of card?) with RABIT1.7 all you have to do is change device ID read this .....http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=8060

Thanks Frogger! That's exactly what I needed.

Okay, last question I swear. What are ideal temps to be running the VPU and board? I open up Trixx and my VPU Temp shoots up from 35 degrees to 55 degrees without having done a thing. I mean, what are dangerous temp levels?

 

[Frogger]

did the read up on Trixx ,not up on that one, correct if I'm wrong..you flashed 800gto to an 850 card bios ... ?what speed is card running at before loading Trixx(temp 35c)?... ?when Trixx loads it sees card as 850 and set to default speeds(pro 500/500 xt 520/540 xtpe 540/590) Gto stock speed 400/490! IF you still have stock cooling &the trixx prog loads XT or XTPE core/mem the temps will shoot up even at idle let alone in a game try useing the ATI tool to check the start up core/mem speeds post reply will be back F

 

[jamesmack]

my temps jump up to usually between 50 -54'c
i think its a normal thing with the trixx software, the same thing happens when you click on show 3d view in atitool. i dont know why it happens though.

 

[infrared]

It suddenly increases because the card is under load. 50c to 54c is fine

 

[twinsen]

just ordered maself a VF-900CU zalmans latest vga cooler. Only got it cause overclockers didnt have the x850 arctic cooler any1 heard anythiung bout this. Could only find two reviews on net but it looks promising. http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=192&code=013
Might make it a bit quieter and cooler aparently its not due to be released until april. Ill let you guys know wat it dus when i get it.

 

[Frogger]

my temps jump up to usually between 50 -54'c
i think its a normal thing with the trixx software, the same thing happens when you click on show 3d view in atitool. i dont know why it happens though.

If I read the Trixx software correctly it is an overclocking tool and even when you load it should not cause temps to run up IE Ati tool well not cause temps to rise just by loading the app yuo must put the card under stress(3d view) to get the temps to run up ??? When you run TRIXX does it show a 3d window ?? does it start to run up the clocks on card??
It must do somthing to stress the card and cause temps to rise ??WHAT are your stock speeds now??

 

[morely]

Hey guys, thanks for all the feedback. You've been more than helpful. I flashed my card back to the old bios so it's my plain old x800 again (more on that later). The temp does indeed increase as soon as the Trixx logo or ATI Tool cube appear. If 50-54 degrees is normal, then I'm in the clear.

As I said, I flashed back to my x800. Why? Because a friend of mine in the tech industry told be that sometimes, there are manufacturing defects in x850 cards...i.e. only 12 pipelines work...and so the manufacturer will rebrand it an x800, even though the specs are the exact same as the x850. This happens about 20% of the time...and since my card still glitches when unlocking all 16 pipelines, I maybe be one of those unfortunate few.

Some of you probably already knew that, but it was news to me. I think I've learned to accept the fact that my card can't be modded.

 

[Nosada]

Hello everyone,

After long deliberation I've decided to go ahead and try this GTO² unlocking of pipelines. I did however have a slight problem. I'm currently in the middle of nowhere, and the PC I brought along has no floppy drive installed (I know, "booo!", shame on me). Only today I saw a link in one of the BIOS flashing guides on this very site towards some program that would allow me to flash my video card from windows. So I went and installed ATI's winflash, using the "force" option cause, well, I didn't know any better, and using this websites own GTO bios with unlocked pipes.

Safe to say all did not go as planned. My PC hung on pretty much every 3D app I threw at it and to top it off, the pipes weren't even unlocked. Rolling back to the original BIOS (the one from this site again, I was too enthousiastic to make my own backup) solved most of the problems, although the card still is prone to giving out while doing 3D apps overclocked.

Pre-flash ATItool gave me my first artifact at Core 550~ Mem 620~, so I rolled them back to 520/600 (I tried 540 but it was just not stable enough). Post flash, I can no longer overclock without getting artifacts, so the card is back at it's 400/490 default.

I'm pretty sure both my current problems and the ones directly after the flash are caused by bad flashes, so I'd like to be able to perform a full flash, pipes and all. So my question is this: Can I perform a complete flash (aka -newbios) without absolutely requiring a floppy drive. Can I use winflash in a certain way that it will have the exact same result, or can someone link me to a page that explains (in laymans terms, since I am far from an expert) how to write a bootable CD that will allow me to get into DOS and perform the flash?

Thanks in advance,
Nos

 

[twinsen]

mine is always kept under 70deg c and usually under 60 im running at 600/585 with vf900cu which is far far supirior to the standard one temps drop by 10-12 deg and alot quieter.

 

[ShadowFlare]

Hello everyone,

After long deliberation I've decided to go ahead and try this GTO² unlocking of pipelines. I did however have a slight problem. I'm currently in the middle of nowhere, and the PC I brought along has no floppy drive installed (I know, "booo!", shame on me). Only today I saw a link in one of the BIOS flashing guides on this very site towards some program that would allow me to flash my video card from windows. So I went and installed ATI's winflash, using the "force" option cause, well, I didn't know any better, and using this websites own GTO bios with unlocked pipes.

Safe to say all did not go as planned. My PC hung on pretty much every 3D app I threw at it and to top it off, the pipes weren't even unlocked. Rolling back to the original BIOS (the one from this site again, I was too enthousiastic to make my own backup) solved most of the problems, although the card still is prone to giving out while doing 3D apps overclocked.

Pre-flash ATItool gave me my first artifact at Core 550~ Mem 620~, so I rolled them back to 520/600 (I tried 540 but it was just not stable enough). Post flash, I can no longer overclock without getting artifacts, so the card is back at it's 400/490 default.

I'm pretty sure both my current problems and the ones directly after the flash are caused by bad flashes, so I'd like to be able to perform a full flash, pipes and all. So my question is this: Can I perform a complete flash (aka -newbios) without absolutely requiring a floppy drive. Can I use winflash in a certain way that it will have the exact same result, or can someone link me to a page that explains (in laymans terms, since I am far from an expert) how to write a bootable CD that will allow me to get into DOS and perform the flash?

Thanks in advance,
Nos

What does your card look like? Based on that information, I could give you a bios that would likely be identical to the original.

1) Does it have two DVI-I connections or just one DVI-I and one DSUB (analog VGA) connection?
2) What color is the card overall?
3) Does it have some yellow little parts near the bottom in the back?

These 3 things about the appearance will help me determine what bios you need. The first is probably the only that matters for determining, though.

 

[Nosada]

What does your card look like? Based on that information, I could give you a bios that would likely be identical to the original.

1) Does it have two DVI-I connections or just one DVI-I and one DSUB (analog VGA) connection?
2) What color is the card overall?
3) Does it have some yellow little parts near the bottom in the back?

These 3 things about the appearance will help me determine what bios you need. The first is probably the only that matters for determining, though.

1) One DVI, one analogue.
2) Darkish red.
3) Not that I can see without disassembling the PC (dark room + losta cables)

Will this bios allow for the original setup, or will I be able to use all 16 pipes. Also, can I use this file with Winflash, or is a bootable CD required?

Thanks for the swift reply,
Nos

 

[ShadowFlare]

Oh, forgot to ask. Is it a retail boxed one?

BTW, are you able to set up your computer to boot with bootable CDs?

 

[Nosada]

Oh, forgot to ask. Is it a retail boxed one?

BTW, are you able to set up your computer to boot with bootable CDs?

I did purchase the card in full retail.

I can set up the bios to boot from a CD. However, I haven't got the faintest idea on how to write a bootable, let alone one that includes the necessairy files. I do have a cd-burner, empty HDD and USB-stick (that I can't get to boot for the life of me) available.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply,
Nos

 

[ShadowFlare]

I did purchase the card in full retail.

I can set up the bios to boot from a CD. However, I haven't got the faintest idea on how to write a bootable, let alone one that includes the necessairy files. I do have a cd-burner, empty HDD and USB-stick (that I can't get to boot for the life of me) available.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply,
Nos

OK, just unzip this iso image and burn it to a CD, then you will need to set your bios to be able to boot from it. It has the flash utilities and the original and 16 pipelines bioses. There are two versions I put on there, an older one which is from the oem one, and a newer one from the retail boxed one. The numbers in the filenames correspond with the bios month and day.

http://shadowflare.samods.org/files/GTO2 BIOS Boot CD.zip

You won't actually see the files that are on the bootable part, I just put those others there in case you wanted to have a copy of the files. To flash the bios, after you have booted from the CD:

1) Type dir and press enter to see what bios files are on there.
2) Type atiflash -f -p 0 biosfilename.bin -newbios (or flashrom -f -p 0 biosfilename.bin if the other doesn't work for you), then press enter
3) Restart the computer to see if it worked.

Replace biosfilename.bin with the name of one of the bios files. If you want to flash to the non-16 pipeline, original version then add original\ to the beginning of the file name. I put files them in that directory, but with the same names.

 

[Nosada]

OK, just unzip this iso image and burn it to a CD, then you will need to set your bios to be able to boot from it. It has the flash utilities and the original and 16 pipelines bioses. There are two versions I put on there, an older one which is from the oem one, and a newer one from the retail boxed one. The numbers in the filenames correspond with the bios month and day.

http://shadowflare.samods.org/files/GTO2 BIOS Boot CD.zip

I'd never thought I would be helped to this extent anywhere Shadowflare. I'm very grateful for all the help you've provided ... and you just made my day. If this was a bar I'd offer you a , but it's not, so I'm just gonna


Thanks a bunch!
Nos

 

[ShadowFlare]

I have a Windows installation in Virtual PC, so creating the floppy disk image needed to make a bootable CD in Nero is fairly easy. There are probably other easy ways too that don't involve using that, but it works so I don't care. All I have to do is make a new floppy disk image, mount it, format it, then put files on it. I don't even need a real floppy drive or floppy disk. Then I load that into Nero to make the image of the bootable CD.

Heh, I had to upload it to my personal web space instead of putting it in as an attachment because of the size, though. It still isn't really huge, though, around 900 KB or something like that.

 

[Nosada]

Sadly I don't have any time left to try all of this tonight (past midnight, and I need to get up at 5) but I'll keep you appraised of my progress.

This may not have been a big effort for you, but you saved me alot of trouble, headaches and time Shadowflare.

Again: a big thanks for all of this, you were a great help.
Nos

 

[Nosada]

As it turns out, the iso you provided works flawlessly, yet I seem to be doing something wrong.

after entering "atiflash -f -p 0 gt020914.bin -newbios" the program immediately gives an

Unable to write to A:\
Abort? Retry? Fail?

error. I'm guessing this is caused by the fact that one of the commands entered makes atiflash try to backup my original BIOS (could be very wrong on this though).

Is there any way to add or remove a command so the flash proceeds without trying to write to the disk?

EDIT: Turns out I was just using the wrong program. Entering the same line, but using flashrom instead of atiflash, performs the flash as planned. However, no matter which bios file I use, I "always" end up getting 8 pipelines. Even rolling back to the original files is of no use.

Thanks,
Nos

 

[ShadowFlare]

As it turns out, the iso you provided works flawlessly, yet I seem to be doing something wrong.

after entering "atiflash -f -p 0 gt020914.bin -newbios" the program immediately gives an

error. I'm guessing this is caused by the fact that one of the commands entered makes atiflash try to backup my original BIOS (could be very wrong on this though).

Is there any way to add or remove a command so the flash proceeds without trying to write to the disk?

EDIT: Turns out I was just using the wrong program. Entering the same line, but using flashrom instead of atiflash, performs the flash as planned. However, no matter which bios file I use, I "always" end up getting 8 pipelines. Even rolling back to the original files is of no use.

Thanks,
Nos

Hmm, post your fuses information from ATITool. One of the parts I want to see from it is one of them which is a setting in the card's bios.

 

[Nosada]

 

[infrared]

to that commandline, add this tag: -newbios

So you end up with:

atiflash -p -f -newbios 0 [biosname].bin

 

[ShadowFlare]

And it says you have 8 pipelines? According to that information, it really should say you have 16 pipelines. Maybe try reinstalling the drivers. From what I've heard, that sometimes happens if the driver didn't install right.