# [Tutorial] ATIWinFlash - How to flash the BIOS of your ATI Cards



## KaRLiToS

*(* If you only have one BIOS chip on your card, flash the only BIOS at your own risk )

Usually You have *two BIOS positions* on your card: (switch)


Spoiler: Switch!






*#1*: Unlock BIOS (You can flash this one)
*#2*: Lock BIOS (This is the default BIOS you can't flash)

*It is important to save the BIOS #1 even if you have two BIOSes* (BIOS can have different clock state)



Spoiler: How to save a Backup of your BIOS using GPU-Z!







Now *first step* is to download *ATIwinflash*

*Then extract it on your Computer* and insert the BIOS you want to use in that folder like this : (In this Case, the wanted BIOS is 7970XFX.rom ) (Bios collection Link at the end of the post)

It is also important to take note of the *LOCATION of ATIwinflash.exe* for further use


*Now go in start menu and write cmd.exe in search and open command prompt* (cmd.exe) with right-click and "Run as Administrator


Spoiler: How to open Command Prompt







*Once open, write the location of ATIwinflash with CD before the command* (Since ATIWinflash is on my D:, I need to write D: then enter first, as shown here)



*Then enter* will give you this window



*Now, write this command* : *atiwinflash -f -p 0 "NAME of the BIOS".rom* then enter. In my case its *atiwinflash -f -p 0 7970XFX.rom*



*Then enter and the Flash Will proceed*



*When complete* it will show a windows like this one and will ask you to reboot. (Do it unless you have more than one card to flash)



*Crossfire Cards*









So the "*0*" in "*Atiwinflash -f -p 0 7970XFX.rom* " meant the first Card

*0* : First PCIe Slot
*1*: Second PCIe Slot
*2*: Third PCIe Slot
*3*: Forth PCIe Slot

*So if you have 4 Cards you will have to enter those commands* (No need to reboot between each flash, but very important to reboot at the end of the last flashed card)

atiwinflash -f -p 0 7970XFX.rom
atiwinflash -f -p 1 7970XFX.rom
atiwinflash -f -p 2 7970XFX.rom
atiwinflash -f -p 3 7970XFX.rom



*DONE*

*GPU BIOS Collection*

*ATI has 3,595 different BIOSes
Nvidia has 4,185 different BIOses*


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## 1ceMaster

Thanks for the great tutorial. I might need to resort to this if updating drivers / MSI Afterburner don't fix my Club3D HD 7870 freezing/hanging issues.


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## jason387

Nice read. I remember doing this like a million times after bricking my card


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## confed

Thank you for the tutorial. If you are flashing BIOS #1, should you currently be on BIOS #2 or does it not matter?


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## KaRLiToS

If you are flashing BIOS #1, you need to put the BIOS switch at #1. I usually do it before booting the PC.

*Lets say* your borked your BIOS flashing and the BIOS #1 is now corrupted and you can't boot into windows using that BIOS

-Turn Off PC
-Put the swtich back to BIOS #2
-You restart PC running "Locked" BIOS (#2)
-*Under Windows*: You flip the GPU Bios switch back to #1
-Proceed to a normal flashing of the BIOS
-BIOS#1 is now repaired


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## h2on0

Bookmarked and +repped. TY.

Are there any BIOS for 7970 that allow you to increase voltage above 1.3? Does anybody have any recommendations for different ones to try? I am cuurently at 1200/1700 and 1.275 with a max temp of 46c in farcry3.


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## krabs

I lack the balls to do this, my 7850 doesn't have any bios switch and the VRM lack heatsink.
Good to know it can be done on windows desktop instead of USB drive boot.


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## Nevk

Good article...very useful


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## KaRLiToS

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Nevk*
> 
> Good article...very useful


Thanks a lot.


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## Majorhi

Good read!


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## nikoli707

Sweet, i was wondering why my msi tf3 7950 was shipped in position 2.

Now i just need an unlocked bios because I'm stuck with no voltage control no matter what program i use.

Im also stuck at 1100mhz and no program will let me overclock further.

Anybody have an idea where i can get an unlocked bios that will allow me to possibly get up to 1200mhz with some minor voltage tweaking?


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## Luke133

Was thinking about trying this on my new Saphire 7970 GHZ edition its the double 8 pin version and the voltage seems to be locked at 1.25.
Does any one know which bios to use that has unlocked voltage ?

http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/index.php?page=1&architecture=ATI&manufacturer=Sapphire&model=HD+7970&interface=PCI-E&memSize=3072


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## jbmayes2000

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *nikoli707*
> 
> Sweet, i was wondering why my msi tf3 7950 was shipped in position 2.
> 
> Now i just need an unlocked bios because I'm stuck with no voltage control no matter what program i use.
> 
> Im also stuck at 1100mhz and no program will let me overclock further.
> 
> Anybody have an idea where i can get an unlocked bios that will allow me to possibly get up to 1200mhz with some minor voltage tweaking?


I did the -mcl mod to Msi afterburner to get past the 1100mhz.

However, if i'm getting 1200+ on my card with the stock bios, is there any reason to try a different one?


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## ehpexs

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jbmayes2000*
> 
> I did the -mcl mod to Msi afterburner to get past the 1100mhz.
> 
> However, if i'm getting 1200+ on my card with the stock bios, is there any reason to try a different one?


What voltage do you need to run those clocks?


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## jbmayes2000

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *ehpexs*
> 
> What voltage do you need to run those clocks?


I think at 1.1 -1.150 is usually where I hit 1200/1700.


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## RavageTheEarth

I just got my Sapphire Dual-x 7950 today to crossfire with my MSI TFIII 7950. They are both boost cards and the clocks were jumping when gaming which was affecting the performance so I decided to flash the BIOS's to non boost bios of the same cardS. I did the non-boost MSI 7950 and the non-boost Sapphire 7950. I followed this guide ( http://www.overclock.net/t/1353325/tutorial-atiwinflash-how-to-flash-the-bios-of-your-ati-cards ) SPOT ON. My MSI card is in the x16 lane (TOP) (so I figure that is card "0") and my Sapphire is in the 8x lane (BOTTOM) (so that should be card "1", right?) Both cards are set to BIOS 1. I went to flash the MSI (atiwinflash -f -p 0 MSINoBoost7950.rom) and it fails a quarter of the way through ("atiwinflash has encountered an error windows is searching for a solution"). Ok, that was wierd. So lets try the Sapphire. atiwinflash -f -p 0 SapphireNoBoost7950.rom. It finishes and asks me if I want to restart. I say yes. Restart is fine and I go into windows and it is saying that there is no AMD drivers installed or they arent working correctly. Directx 9 doesnt initialize correctly. Did I flash the Sapphire BIOS onto the MSI card or something? I open afterburner and none of my cards are recognized. I shutdown and flick the MSI BIOS switch to "2" and I blue screen trying to log into windows. I set them both to 2 and it logs in but still driver error, catalyst wont launch, nothing. I'm scared to even try to flash the original BIOS back because now I'm not sure if the MSI is really card "0" while the Sapphire is card "1".

PLEASE HELP I'M ABOUT TO FREAK OUT


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## KaRLiToS

You failed to flash the 1st BIOS.

Are you sure you took a compatible BIOS for this card? Anyway, since you have two BIOS, there is nothing to worry about. Follow these steps to flash BIOS #1 back to normal.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *KaRLiToS*
> 
> If you are flashing BIOS #1, you need to put the BIOS switch at #1. I usually do it before booting the PC.
> 
> *Lets say* your borked your BIOS flashing and the BIOS #1 is now corrupted and you can't boot into windows using that BIOS
> 
> -Turn Off PC
> -Put the swtich back to BIOS #2
> -You restart PC running "Locked" BIOS (#2)
> -*Under Windows*: You flip the GPU Bios switch back to #1
> -Proceed to a normal flashing of the BIOS
> -BIOS#1 is now repaired


Keep in mind that when you flash your BIOS, its like removing old cards and adding new ones. So you need to uninstall all drivers and install them again, its my preference.


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## RavageTheEarth

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *KaRLiToS*
> 
> You failed to flash the 1st BIOS.
> 
> Are you sure you took a compatible BIOS for this card? Anyway, since you have two BIOS, there is nothing to worry about. Follow these steps to flash BIOS #1 back to normal.
> Keep in mind that when you flash your BIOS, its like removing old cards and adding new ones. So you need to uninstall all drivers and install them again, its my preference.


Ohh ok thats why the drivers got all screwy. Thanks!


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## grifers

Hi, great guide!!!. But I have a questions.

Is better flash the card with "Atiflash" under MS-dos? or better your method?. And another question, is advisable make clear cmos in the motherboard before to flash graphic card?.

Sorry my english, im use google translator







. Hope you undertand me ;D.

Bye and thanks


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## KaRLiToS

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *grifers*
> 
> Hi, great guide!!!. But I have a questions.
> 
> Is better flash the card with "Atiflash" under MS-dos? or better your method?. And another question, is advisable make clear cmos in the motherboard before to flash graphic card?.
> 
> Sorry my english, im use google translator
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> . Hope you undertand me ;D.
> 
> Bye and thanks


*Under Windows is my favorite method* and do no harm at all to the graphic cards. I have used that method MANY times and I prefer it over the DOS method.

Also, no need to clear the motherboard CMOS before flashing. The GPUs bios is like the card firmware. Just ensure you have a stable system before flashing, you don't want the PC to crash while the BIOS is during the flash process

*If you fail while flashing* and the BIOS #1 is now corrupted and you can't boot into windows using that BIOS, there is a way to repair it.

-Turn Off PC
-Put the switch back to BIOS #2
-You restart PC running "Locked" BIOS (#2)
-*Under Windows*: You flip the GPU Bios switch back to #1
-Proceed to a normal flashing of the BIOS
-BIOS#1 is now repaired


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## sinnedone

INteresting.

What happens if something goes wrong on a card with no bios switch? Like my xfx 7870?


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## KaRLiToS

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *sinnedone*
> 
> INteresting.
> 
> What happens if something goes wrong on a card with no bios switch? Like my xfx 7870?


In that case, you must make your research properly before flashing. Check if the BIOS you want to flash is compatible.


----------



## grifers

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *KaRLiToS*
> 
> *Under Windows is my favorite method* and do no harm at all to the graphic cards. I have used that method MANY times and I prefer it over the DOS method.
> 
> Also, no need to clear the motherboard CMOS before flashing. The GPUs bios is like the card firmware. Just ensure you have a stable system before flashing, you don't want the PC to crash while the BIOS is during the flash process
> 
> *If you fail while flashing* and the BIOS #1 is now corrupted and you can't boot into windows using that BIOS, there is a way to repair it.
> 
> -Turn Off PC
> -Put the switch back to BIOS #2
> -You restart PC running "Locked" BIOS (#2)
> -*Under Windows*: You flip the GPU Bios switch back to #1
> -Proceed to a normal flashing of the BIOS
> -BIOS#1 is now repaired


OK, thanks for responding







.

Bye!


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## Carlosmans

Amazing guide thanks so easy to do

My 7870 Tahiti card was giving me headaches with the low performance and lots of stutter, note to everyone with bios version .031, flash the bios this version is terrible.

Massive thanks to this guide


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## rabidz7

How about on linux?
ON PowerPC linux?


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## KaRLiToS

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *rabidz7*
> 
> How about on linux?
> ON PowerPC linux?


Unfortunately, I don't have this expertise.

I believe you can use *ATIFlash* for this, it will flash in the DOS


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## theCombo

I missed this: _"( If you only have one BIOS chip on your card, flash the only BIOS at your own risk )"_

I flashed with a bios recommended in an earlier post which bricked the card. I did backup the original BIOS and managed to boot back into windows in the integrated GPU, but both atiwinflash and atiflash (via usbboot) report that there is no valid adaptor.







Help?

GPU-z is also reporting some really messed up card info: -


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## eXXon

Got the WF3 OC cards (rev 2.0 & 2.1) which according to many, will cause crashes while using the GHz Bios.
Any recommendations on which Bios to use? thx.

Thanks for the guide btw (+rep).


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## H_C_L

Umm... I just got my Sapphire 7950 Dual-X... The problem is that I have different kind of switch, it's not a slide type like in the OP, it's a push-button switch. I currently have it "pushed" lol . How do I know if I'm using Bios 1 or Bios 2?


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## PainKiller89

Your using BIOS 2 which is locked bios and boost bios, if you push it back you will have bios 1. Bios one is what you need to flash, but before you start flashing Make sure you make a backup of both bios's from gpuz.


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## H_C_L

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PainKiller89*
> 
> Your using BIOS 2 which is locked bios and boost bios, if you push it back you will have bios 1. Bios one is what you need to flash, but before you start flashing Make sure you make a backup of both bios's from gpuz.


Thank you!

I'll be making a backup of them now.


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## PainKiller89

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *H_C_L*
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> I'll be making a backup of them now.


No Problem, Here to help.


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## TigerLi

Thanks Karlitos,

Used the BIOS update steps at post one on this thread to successfully flashed a GV-797OC-3GD Xfire setup to the GV-797TO-3GD Ghz BIOS. Update was smooth for both video card with alternative use of the 0 and 1 in the DOS command. CCC (CAT 3.1) did not boot following system reboot after the BIOS update of both video cards. (CCC did not recognize the updated GPUs).

I then uninstalled CAT 13.1, re-booted, re-install CAT 13.1 and then re-booted. Everything worked fine thereafter.

Thanks again for the great AYIWinflash guide....


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## KaRLiToS

I'm glad it helped









But keep in mind that when you flash BIOS, the system will believe you changed the GPU card with another one, so uninstalling and clearing the regedit is very necessary.


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## rabidz7

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *KaRLiToS*
> 
> Unfortunately, I don't have this expertise.
> 
> I believe you can use *ATIFlash* for this, it will flash in the DOS


Is DOS open source?
Would freedos work?


----------



## xzantos

Would I be able to flash my bios to a 7970 even though it doesn't have the same I/O ports (like 2 DVI and a displayport)? I'm also confused if it's a 7970 BIOS or a 7950 BIOS because the title says 7970 but the image shows a 7950 (http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/126754/his-hd7970-3072-120816.html). Let's say I flash it to a 7970 925/1250 BIOS, will it be any different from a 7950 925/1250 BIOS? Thanks


----------



## theCombo

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *xzantos*
> 
> Would I be able to flash my bios to a 7970 even though it doesn't have the same I/O ports (like 2 DVI and a displayport)? I'm also confused if it's a 7970 BIOS or a 7950 BIOS because the title says 7970 but the image shows a 7950 (http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/126754/his-hd7970-3072-120816.html). Let's say I flash it to a 7970 925/1250 BIOS, will it be any different from a 7950 925/1250 BIOS? Thanks


NO. I bricked my 7850 HD by flashing with the BIOS of a 7870 HD from the same brand. It has been out of action now for over a month and still waiting for stuff to arrive from China so I can attempt to fix it before attempting an RMA. Huge pain, don't do it.


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## Deo Domuique

The wondrous Gigabyte's utility along with my own stupidity have managed to brick both BIOS...

I fixed the unlocked, but what can I do for the locked BIOS? No chance to fix it within Windows? Any specific command that could reflash if I turn the switch to position 2?

And since it's locked, why the freakin' Gigabyte's utility has broken it; damn it.

EDIT: LOL ***? I did exactly what you said on first post and it worked perfectly... I just flashed the F43 on the locked position ( broken BIOS ) and currently it did boot normally!


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## Goldn3agle

If I brick my 7790 with some modified BIOS will I be able to flash the original BIOS back onto the card if I boot with the integrated graphics on my A-Series APU?
I was just thinking that it could work similarly to the method of using the BIOS switch on the 79xx cards to boot when the modified BIOS didn't work


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## BanjoTed

I tried this last night and all went well. However, once flashed (and with all drivers and oc software reintalled) I was getting lots of random freezing during games for 5-10 seconds at a time. Crashes here and there too. Plus AB suggested I was getting anything but constant voltage:



Any ideas?


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## cdoublejj

My first PCIe slot is a 1x so i did the command with a 1, that gave me a "no valid ati card detected" typ message so i did it again with a 0 and it flashed.

Glad i found this as it was freezing when trying to do it from windows explorer. When trying with RBE it would say "no ati card detected" but, this ended up flashing.


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## Takla

subbed for future


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## vinton13

Out of curiosity, if you have a card with two BIOS and you happen to flash the card with it on the locked BIOS, what are the consequences?


----------



## rdr09

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *vinton13*
> 
> Out of curiosity, if you have a card with two BIOS and you happen to flash the card with it on the locked BIOS, what are the consequences?


if you mean switch #2 as the locked bios, then nothing will happen. it is locked, therefore it is fail-proof. it cannot be flashed afaik.

edit: as a matter of fact - i know so.


----------



## vinton13

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *rdr09*
> 
> if you mean switch #2 as the locked bios, then nothing will happen. it is locked, therefore it is fail-proof. it cannot be flashed afaik.


Errrrr...I think I screwed up...I flashed one of my card while it was on switch #2, it changed in CPUZ, and now games would crash as soon as it puts the card on 3D clocks. Note that the system would start and run normal.

I switched it to #1 and everything works. I tried reverting the locked BIOS back to what I backed up, but it's not going back. I think I screwed up one of my lives.

EDIT: HELL YES...IT REVERTED...I dunno what I did...but...no more flashing BIOS for a while...boy...I almost...I almost...cried

I don't see why It would not work though. :\


----------



## rdr09

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *vinton13*
> 
> Errrrr...I think I screwed up...I flashed one of my card while it was on switch #2, it changed in CPUZ, and now games would crash as soon as it puts the card on 3D clocks. Note that the system would start and run normal.
> 
> I switched it to #1 and everything works. I tried reverting the locked BIOS back to what I backed up, but it's not going back. I think I screwed up one of my lives.
> 
> EDIT: HELL YES...IT REVERTED...I dunno what I did...but...no more flashing BIOS for a while...boy...I almost...I almost...cried
> 
> I don't see why It would not work though. :\


are you sure? Switch # 1 is the one closer to the bracket. if i were you . . . i'd save the bios in two places. HDD and Flash drive.


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## propheticus

Anyone reading this because he/she is planning on flashing an XFX Radeon HD 6870 Black Edition rom (940gpu/1150mem) to a XFX radeon HD 6870 Double Dissipation (900gpu/1050mem HD-687A-ZDFC): *DON'T!*

It doesn't have a dual bios switch and flashing this bios (from techpowerup database) bricked my card. The pc would not even POST properly and I couldn't get into the mobo bios even. So booting from a bootable USB to use atiflash in a win98/DOS environment was not possible.
Luckily I was able to find a (very) old PCI gpu at a local pc-shop I could borrow. With this I was able to boot into windows and restore my backed up bios using atiwinflash. Holy spaghetti monster be praised I was smart enough to make a backup.

Be warned.


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## Thi3p

+REP
this guide is amazing.

i bought a 1.25v voltage locked 7950 gigabyte. i spent hours trying different ways to flash it.
this guide help me flash it in 2 minutes!

Thanks KaRLiToS


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## richie_2010

I used it to flash a msi 880 1250 1.090v bios to my 840 1250 1.25v boost edition card.
lower voltage and better stability


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## shirow

hi, i have a shappire HD 6870 2 days ago when windows startup the screen tuern black and only can see the cursor mouse, i read this can be driver corruption and i format my pc but the problem still there i know this is not the tread for this but can somebody know if updating the bios can fix this? or i must buy a new video card? i can enter in safe mode only

thx


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## Goldn3agle

Won't deleting the video driver while in safe mode allow you to boot normally?
Sounds like driver corruption to new if you can boot into safe mode


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## shirow

i format my pc and install my 6870 in other pc of a friend ( he have the same video card ) but the problem is the same in the other pc whit me video card, what can be?


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## firaaero

Just wondering. What do i do with 'F62' files? I downloaded mine off the gigabyte site http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4290#bios

Which game me an exe that extracted 'R7970TO3D.F62'


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## Goldn3agle

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *firaaero*
> 
> Just wondering. What do i do with 'F62' files? I downloaded mine off the gigabyte site http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4290#bios
> 
> Which game me an exe that extracted 'R7970TO3D.F62'


HxD can open it and it is indeed a BIOS file, I suppose you could change the extension to .rom or try to flash it as it is. Sorry I can't be of more help.

And that rom has a GOP partition, makes me sad that Sapphire still haven't gotten around to it.


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## firaaero

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Goldn3agle*
> 
> HxD can open it and it is indeed a BIOS file, I suppose you could change the extension to .rom or try to flash it as it is. Sorry I can't be of more help.
> 
> And that rom has a GOP partition, makes me sad that Sapphire still haven't gotten around to it.


Hmmm thanks. But i tried installing the bios both with the .F62 and renaming it to .ROM But either way everytime i install the bios it makes windows unbootable







idno if i used the wrong bios or what.
Got a Gigabyte 7970 3gb GHZ edition


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## Tyhuynh

I just successfully flashed my gigabyte hd7970 OC revision 2.1 into the Ghz version F62. The first couple tries I was getting blue screen and such. Than it worked, amd display driver installed correctly. gpuz showed 1100core 1500memory, with higher voltages. Before it was at 1.170 now it's 1.256v. The only problem and biggest problem is I can't run any games. I can't even run 3dmark firestorm... So I'm guessing gigabyte revision 2.1 cards are hardware locked into 1000mhz core 1375memory at 1.170v.

I can run furmark, msi kumbuster, full screen movies, but no games or 3dmark.


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## Tyhuynh

ok to follow up on my post:

now that I know how to use Winflash, I went home and started messing around with various numbers on the Ghz bios. It seemed that the rev 2.1 card can't handle extreme voltage increase.

What I found that was slightly stable was:
1050 Core
1400 Memory
1.181 Voltage

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/898355

When I say slightly stable is, I got all games to run, but my screen would shake a bit once or twice, but not constantly.


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## miklkit

Great guide! It even worked for me.









I have an MSI R9 280X that seems to be about twice as fast as the old MSI 6970 it replaced in new games. Love it.

But is is really slow in old games. In MSI AB it shows clock speeds of 300 and 500 with a rare spike to 1050 while GPU usage is in the 20-50% range. I was recommended and flashed to
bios MSI.R9280X.3072.131009.rom in an attempt to keep the clocks higher, but it made no difference.

Is there a bios that can do this?


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## bigmac11

Too bad Karlitos is no longer a member







Awesome dude


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## miklkit

Uh ohh.


----------



## kgtuning

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *bigmac11*
> 
> Too bad Karlitos is no longer a member
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Awesome dude


??? then why does his profile say he's online at this moment?


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## stanimir330

Hello guys, I want to ask can I put the bios on sapphire Radeon R9 270X on my Sapphire HD7870 GHz Edition


----------



## jason387

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *stanimir330*
> 
> Hello guys, I want to ask can I put the bios on sapphire Radeon R9 270X on my Sapphire HD7870 GHz Edition


Could try but why would you want that?


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## stanimir330

I want to flash the bios from R9 270 X because I want more performance from my 7870 GHz edition, but I want to know if it will happen if there will be problems after flashing


----------



## SVATAZARSKY

Hi guys,

after flashing bios and PC restart, my card is not working, not reckognized by my motherboard.

Could I repair this problem somehow?

Thanks


----------



## Melcar

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *stanimir330*
> 
> I want to flash the bios from R9 270 X because I want more performance from my 7870 GHz edition, but I want to know if it will happen if there will be problems after flashing


Overclock it? If you want to flash it, just modify your original BIOS with increased frequencies and flash the card.


----------



## Melcar

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *SVATAZARSKY*
> 
> Hi guys,
> 
> after flashing bios and PC restart, my card is not working, not reckognized by my motherboard.
> 
> Could I repair this problem somehow?
> 
> Thanks


You need an additional card (PCI or PCIe) so you can boot the PC with that and reflash the bricked card.


----------



## bigmac11

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *SVATAZARSKY*
> 
> Hi guys,
> 
> after flashing bios and PC restart, my card is not working, not reckognized by my motherboard.
> 
> Could I repair this problem somehow?
> 
> Thanks


What card do you have? If it has a dual bios switch just switch to other bios.


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## SVATAZARSKY

I ve got dual bios switch,but the other one not responding too.


----------



## SVATAZARSKY

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Melcar*
> 
> You need an additional card (PCI or PCIe) so you can boot the PC with that and reflash the bricked card.


Its not working this way.


----------



## Melcar

Is the computer booting with the other card? If it's not than it's something else.


----------



## SVATAZARSKY

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Melcar*
> 
> Is the computer booting with the other card? If it's not than it's something else.


Yes another one card is working fine.


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## stanimir330

@Melcar, how to modify the video card, and how exactly it flashing because 7870 has one BIOS


----------



## Melcar

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *SVATAZARSKY*
> 
> Yes another one card is working fine.


You need ATIFlash

Here is a guide o how to use it.

Basically you need a bootable DOS USB key with your card's original BIOS in it and the ATIFlash program as well. You will use your good card to boot up your PC, with the bricked card in a secondary PCIe slot (I'm assuming you have a Crossfire capable board or at least one with multiple 16x slots). Boot from the USB and run ATIFlash:

* atiflash -i #view all available adapters, both cards should show up here listed by a number, even the bricked one

* atiflash -p 1 bios.rom #replace "1" with the number of your bricked adapter and "bios.rom" with the name of your BIOS file

* reboot when it is done
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *stanimir330*
> 
> @Melcar, how to modify the video card, and how exactly it flashing because 7870 has one BIOS


Guide on BIOS flashing

VBE7 (read through the thread to familiarize yourself with the program first)

It's pretty easy. Just make sure to back up your original BIOS first (use ATIFlash, not gpuz), make sure you have a failsafe in case you brick your card, and don't go crazy with your modifications. I already flashed my card and experienced no issues.


----------



## Gilgam3sh

I guess ATIWinFlash don't work with R9 290?


----------



## Melcar

Maybe. It's constantly being updated. Flashing within Windows is never a good idea though.


----------



## Gilgam3sh

I just tried, it does not work, getting error message. waiting for update.


----------



## Melcar

Or just use atiflash.


----------



## SVATAZARSKY

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Melcar*
> 
> You need ATIFlash
> 
> Here is a guide o how to use it.
> 
> Basically you need a bootable DOS USB key with your card's original BIOS in it and the ATIFlash program as well. You will use your good card to boot up your PC, with the bricked card in a secondary PCIe slot (I'm assuming you have a Crossfire capable board or at least one with multiple 16x slots). Boot from the USB and run ATIFlash:
> 
> * atiflash -i #view all available adapters, both cards should show up here listed by a number, even the bricked one
> 
> * atiflash -p 1 bios.rom #replace "1" with the number of your bricked adapter and "bios.rom" with the name of your BIOS file
> 
> * reboot when it is done
> Guide on BIOS flashing
> 
> I did exactly everything youd say, flashing is complete, but the graphic card still not responding.


----------



## Melcar

It's dead Jim.


----------



## RoyZ

Guys

I recently bought a Gigabyte R9 280X Windorce.

BIOS version is F2, I downloaded Gigabyte OC GURU and Gigabyte @BIOS as instructed, downloaded the new BIOS, F3, with the program, and flashed it with the @BIOS program.

It said it was successful and asked me to reboot, the card was non responsive after that.

Then I remember these cards comes with 2 BIOS, and I saw it was selected at number "2"... Updates does not work for number "2" BIOS?

I switched to BIOS "1" so the card is working. What do I do now? Did I ruin my number "2" BIOS? Can it be fixed? Should have worked or only BIOS 1 can be updated?


----------



## Brenny06

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Goldn3agle*
> 
> HxD can open it and it is indeed a BIOS file, I suppose you could change the extension to .rom or try to flash it as it is. Sorry I can't be of more help.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And that rom has a GOP partition, makes me sad that Sapphire still haven't gotten around to it.


I tried installing the bios both with the .F62 and renaming it to .ROM But either way everytime i install the bios it makes windows unbootable frown.gif idno if i used the wrong bios or what.
Got a Gigabyte 7970 3gb GHZ edition.


----------



## SVATAZARSKY

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Melcar*
> 
> You need ATIFlash
> 
> Here is a guide o how to use it.
> 
> Basically you need a bootable DOS USB key with your card's original BIOS in it and the ATIFlash program as well. You will use your good card to boot up your PC, with the bricked card in a secondary PCIe slot (I'm assuming you have a Crossfire capable board or at least one with multiple 16x slots). Boot from the USB and run ATIFlash:
> 
> * atiflash -i #view all available adapters, both cards should show up here listed by a number, even the bricked one
> 
> * atiflash -p 1 bios.rom #replace "1" with the number of your bricked adapter and "bios.rom" with the name of your BIOS file
> 
> * reboot when it is done
> Guide on BIOS flashing
> 
> VBE7 (read through the thread to familiarize yourself with the program first)
> 
> It's pretty easy. Just make sure to back up your original BIOS first (use ATIFlash, not gpuz), make sure you have a failsafe in case you brick your card, and don't go crazy with your modifications. I already flashed my card and experienced no issues.


Finally I idid it, thank you for help.


----------



## SVATAZARSKY

Hi guys,

I´ve got a question.

For now Ive got in MSI afterburner values: Coreclock 1170mhz , Memory clock 1570 Mhz, but I cannot change voltage above 1.1188 V.

The core is unstable after 1 hour playing games. It caused small artifacts.

Any ideas please.


----------



## primal92

Hello everyone, I'm new to flashing vBios and have followed this guide to flash my 7970 dc2 card. I've started but it still showing the progress window and probably 5-10mins have passed now. How long does it normally take ? Or have I bricked my card now?

Thanks


----------



## Melcar

It normally does not take that long. Most I have experienced is 5 min. or so, and it was because the process hanged (had to alt-tab a few times to get it to respond again). This is why you flash from DOS. I really hope you saved your original BIOS and have a bootable USB key with atiflash in it... and a spare video card. You can try closing the window and pray 5 hail Mary's and cross your toe fingers after you reboot.


----------



## primal92

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Melcar*
> 
> It normally does not take that long. Most I have experienced is 5 min. or so, and it was because the process hanged (had to alt-tab a few times to get it to respond again). This is why you flash from DOS. I really hope you saved your original BIOS and have a bootable USB key with atiflash in it... and a spare video card. You can try closing the window and pray 5 hail Mary's and cross your toe fingers after you reboot.


My bad, did not start as administrator hence it gave a pop (which was behind hundreds of other windows) stating that. Redone and worked fine with no issues using command prompt, I agree bootable DOS is better (only way I do it for my motherboard bios) but just got a big lazy


----------



## balves

hi guys i own a r7870 hawk and i'm thinking about overclocking it, did some attempts and didn't had much problems about it, anyway.. i was wondering what's the point of flashing the bios of the vga and i'm having a hard time to know it haha could anybody explain the reason to do it so?

would like to off-topic a bit, when i was OCing the 7870 i got blue screen sometimes, every time i reseted and restarted the process of OC, no problem about that, right? :|

thx from brazil huehue


----------



## Melcar

Personally, I flash a video card to set core/mem frequencies and not have to mess with software to do it, software that can be buggy or cause issues with your drivers (or to OC higher than what software normally allows). And also so I can carry over my OC to Linux.


----------



## huhh

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *balves*
> 
> hi guys i own a r7870 hawk and i'm thinking about overclocking it, did some attempts and didn't had much problems about it, anyway.. i was wondering what's the point of flashing the bios of the vga and i'm having a hard time to know it haha could anybody explain the reason to do it so?
> 
> would like to off-topic a bit, when i was OCing the 7870 i got blue screen sometimes, every time i reseted and restarted the process of OC, no problem about that, right? :|
> 
> thx from brazil huehue


To get past the bios voltage limit, which most cards have. My 7970 has a limit of 1.256v and can't go over it unless i modify my bios. My overclock is shown in my sig rig.


----------



## balves

ok i think i got it.. I guess i dont have to update my bios than since my max mV is 1.35mv and i don't pretend to go further 1.28~1.30 with my vga haha


----------



## Hewlett-Packard

Hi I need some help

I flashed bios per op's instructions, I have a asus 7970 Matrix platinum trying to flash to r9 280x, but after the procedure is done GPUZ still says hd7970 series in the top.

What do









EDIT: Currently instaling driver for 280x, maybe that's the problem? Seriously doubt it....


----------



## Melcar

Did you do a clean install of the drivers? Sometimes the driver still detects the "ghost" from the previous BIOS. Happens to me all the time but a clean install always fixes it. Just uninstall using the provided AMD express uninstall and remove any related folder (ATI folder in your home directory, AMD folders in your user directories, etc.).


----------



## Hewlett-Packard

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Melcar*
> 
> Did you do a clean install of the drivers? Sometimes the driver still detects the "ghost" from the previous BIOS. Happens to me all the time but a clean install always fixes it. Just uninstall using the provided AMD express uninstall and remove any related folder (ATI folder in your home directory, AMD folders in your user directories, etc.).


I just installed the drivers and it is great







I bought this card for $350 from a friend and he has two more never opened. I am getting them all!!! Wooooooooooooooo


----------



## AlDyer

EDIT: Nvm was impatient lol


----------



## Hewlett-Packard

Now I've got a ASUS HD7970 DC2, I wonder if I can flash that to the 280x bios too?? Anyone?


----------



## Adamnfs

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jason387*
> 
> Could try but why would you want that?


*Quote:
Originally Posted by stanimir330 View Post

Hello guys, I want to ask can I put the bios on sapphire Radeon R9 270X on my Sapphire HD7870 GHz Edition
Could try but why would you want that?*

I wanted to do this too???, but I have a....

"REFERENCE DESIGN" AMD Radeon HD 7870 Ghz Edition with 2GB Hynix GDDR5 Gen3 PCi-E X16?

Could I flash a?????

"REFERENCE DESIGN" AMD RADEON R9 270/270X 2GB GDDR5 Card ???
as long as it uses the same HYNIX GDDR5 MEMORY???? My AMD Radeon HD 7870 Is using???

Why would anyone want to do this, im sure the New AMD Catylist 14.1 Beta Drivers Enable the MANTLE API for......the
HD 7000 series, R7 and R9 Series Graphics cards, but I read that their only optimized the best for certain R7 and R9 cards along with some
HD 7000 Series Cards, but my 7870 doesn't seem to run MANTLE the way AMD says it should run, im sure as heck, not getting a 45% performance increase like AMD Promised???

and im sure my HD 7870's bios isn't completely BUGS FREE, and the R9 270/270X uses the exact same Pitcairn GPU my 7870 is using???

and im sure there are a lot more driver optimizations for the NEWER R7 and R9 Series GPUS, especially in the 14.1 Beta AMD drivers because they realeased it for the MANTLE API support.. mainly for the newer cards.....

plus id just love to have, or see or feel like im running a newer card where my 7870 would show up as a Radeon R9 200 Series GPU, id just like it to show up like the new R9 270X??

?idk...

I have a back up card to reflash my 7870 if **** goes wrong, Im just worried to completely brick my 7870 with no way to reflash it, like the wrong bios wont let my PC boot, even if I have an older pci- pci e graphic card in slot 0


----------



## sakiboj

Hi guys, I have this card and i accidentaly pressed this button, now it have two positions, 1 and 2, what is default one?


----------



## kpoeticg

Click that link and scroll to the very last thing on the page. It comes with Legacy Bios default and UEFI when you push the button


----------



## sakiboj

I dont understand in that things, what is difference between two of them?


----------



## kpoeticg

It's really about compatibility with your OS install. If your windows is installed on top of a UEFI Bios then UEFI would be more compatible. It's probly Legacy though if Legacy's been working for you


----------



## rdr09

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *kpoeticg*
> 
> It's really about compatibility with your OS install. If your windows is installed on top of a UEFI Bios then UEFI would be more compatible. It's probly Legacy though if Legacy's been working for you


i feel for you, k. i will never buy from egg again. never. their price gouging practices really left a bad taste. i initially bought 2 290s. one from egg and the other (one i have) from provantage. cancelled the one from egg. i think that was a blessing in disguise.


----------



## kpoeticg

Yeah it definitely sux. Sending me a BSOD Elpida with only 6 days to rma was shady tactics. I've always bought most of my main components from them too


----------



## Orbiting234

With regards to crossflashing, is there anything that can be done when a card just doesn't seem to accept the Device ID change? Bios flashes fine, and I can see that it is indeed the new one upon reboot, but I also find that the Device ID is still at what it originally was even though atiflash shows both the old and new Device ID during the flash process. Doesn't matter how many times I try or how many different bios files I use. Device ID just refuses to budge. And yes, I am using the force flash command.


----------



## tugvarish

Hi there,
you made a wonderful tutorial... just one thing is incorrect: the part about the PCI-e ... those do not refer to Slot numbers but GPU number as detected by the ADL, usually matching OCL and therefore PCI-e slots, but not always... like in the case of multi GPU cards like the ATI 5970 (dual 5870), AMD 6990 (dual 6970) or AMD 7990 (dual 7970).

In those cases the ADL could still match the OCL (or being inverted), but for sure they do not match the PCI-e slots, let me clarify that:

Let's say I have in PCI-e Slot 0 the ATI 5970 (Hemlock - with the Cypress ASICs) which is basically like two ATI 5870 in one card and I let's say I also have a AMD 7970 (Tahiti ASIC) in the PCI-e Slot 1.

(by the way the PCI-e bus address do not correspond always to the number silk-screened on the motherboard - PCI-e enumeration depending on direction of the actual connection tracks and usually goes from farthest to closest to the CPU; ADL, APP and OpenGL and OpenCL is made in software so could depend to the OS (windows, Linux, Mac, etc) and drivers version)

Now based on your assumptions to flash them I would have to type:

atiwinflash -f -p 0 5970.rom
atiwinflash -f -p 1 7970.rom

But if anybody would have done that they would have flashed the ATI 5970 Slave Cypress ASIC BIOS chip with the 7970 BIOS code and nothing on the actual AMD 7970 Tahiti BIOS chip... obviously causing problem, since one card would have half 5970 code and half 7970 code try to compete for the card control, and the other nothing, if you were trying to fix the AMD 7970 BIOS non-boot problem now you would have two cards that would not boot until you remove them and place another card that works... hopefully you have a third one.

Here is the pics to prove my point:


----------



## taem

First thanks for the guide. But my flash did not go without a hitch.

I flashed a 290 tri-x to powercolor pcs+. Flash went fine. But it would not boot, just kept failing to boot and going to automatic repair.

So I booted in safe mode and used DDU to uninstall 13.12. Then it booted, showing both 290s as basic displays. I installed drivers.

Now it won't boot again.

Edit oh great I tried it in safe mode thinking it's ok since card is dual bios, it's hanging on the "please wait flashing in progress." Bar just keeps moving and then repeating. Been 15 minutes. Can I just force shutdown? Hope someone will tell me real soon lol.


----------



## Amph

does the last atiwinflash work with 290(any version, reference tri-x ecc)?


----------



## kpoeticg

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *taem*
> 
> First thanks for the guide. But my flash did not go without a hitch.
> 
> I flashed a 290 tri-x to powercolor pcs+. Flash went fine. But it would not boot, just kept failing to boot and going to automatic repair.
> 
> So I booted in safe mode and used DDU to uninstall 13.12. Then it booted, showing both 290s as basic displays. I installed drivers.
> 
> Now it won't boot again.
> 
> Edit oh great I tried it in safe mode thinking it's ok since card is dual bios, it's hanging on the "please wait flashing in progress." Bar just keeps moving and then repeating. Been 15 minutes. Can I just force shutdown? Hope someone will tell me real soon lol.


I had a black screen 290x that BS'd during bios flashing a few times on me. I just booted from the other bios, then flipped the switch after it was booted and flashed over the bricked bios

Does the 290 have the same type of dual bios as the 290x (silent/uber), or is it a legacy/uefi dual bios? If it's a legacy/uefi dual bios, that could explain why you have driver issue's booting from the other bios. Depending on your mobo you might have to either just set your CSM Compatibility Boot Settings for PCIE, or maybe have to reinstall windows to whatever bios version works.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Amph*
> 
> does the last atiwinflash work with 290(any version, reference tri-x ecc)?


It works for me with 290x. The GUI doesn't work for me, can't get it to read from the card. Using the cmd prompt works though. Sometimes it fails like 3 or 4 times before it will work. But it always ends up working


----------



## Amph

nevermind i managed to do it with msi beta version, and i can't go down too much anyway


----------



## Roy360

when people say their bios is locked, does that mean it can not be flashed over?

p.s what does changing the TDP do? Mines is currently at 150. I dropped it down to 130 to see what would happen, and nothing changed. From what I understand, it the power the card uses accordingly with the clock speed.
So is my card only using 130W instead of 150W?

ie. If I were to lower the TDP to say 100ish, would I be able to run two cards on a 250W PSU? (excluding CPU and ie)


----------



## Roy360

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *tugvarish*
> 
> Hi there,
> you made a wonderful tutorial... just one thing is incorrect: the part about the PCI-e ... those do not refer to Slot numbers but GPU number as detected by the ADL, usually matching OCL and therefore PCI-e slots, but not always... like in the case of multi GPU cards like the ATI 5970 (dual 5870), AMD 6990 (dual 6970) or AMD 7990 (dual 7970).


I've always gone with the order found in GPUZ. Currently 5 for 5


----------



## Fear of Oneself

How critical is it to flash a bios from your vender?
I'm using the Gigabyte windforce R9 270, which has a locked bios. I can't change the voltage at all, which is a shame.

The card does 1175/1550 on stock voltage and hits 60C under load. I'd like to go higher, as it is water cooled and I've got some fans on the way to keep the temps in check. Would it brick my card to turn it into an XFX 270X or something? Thank you in advance. For reference, this is the card I have: http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/150214/gigabyte-r9270-2048-131028.html

I've tried MSI afterburner with all the cfg tweaks to unlock it, Gigabyte OC guru, RadeonPro and good ol' CCC to try and get more than 1.207V into the GPU, no dice.


----------



## Melcar

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Fear of Oneself*
> 
> How critical is it to flash a bios from your vender?
> I'm using the Gigabyte windforce R9 270, which has a locked bios. I can't change the voltage at all, which is a shame.
> 
> The card does 1175/1550 on stock voltage and hits 60C under load. I'd like to go higher, as it is water cooled and I've got some fans on the way to keep the temps in check. Would it brick my card to turn it into an XFX 270X or something? Thank you in advance. For reference, this is the card I have: http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/150214/gigabyte-r9270-2048-131028.html
> 
> I've tried MSI afterburner with all the cfg tweaks to unlock it, Gigabyte OC guru, RadeonPro and good ol' CCC to try and get more than 1.207V into the GPU, no dice.


Different vendors use different settings within their vBIOS. Personally I wouldn't do it. Tried it before with a Sapphire HD6850 (tried a MSI BIOS) and while it did not brick the card, I sarted to experience hard system freezes even at stock speeds.

By the way, you say your BIOS is voltage locked? I was planning on getting a GB R9 270X, but if their vBIOS are locked then I may reconsider.

Edit: Have you tried VBE7 yet? It's for editing the vBIOS on HD7xxx cards, but the R9 270s may work too. Some people are able to modify voltages in their vBIOS even when they are software locked.


----------



## Fear of Oneself

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Melcar*
> 
> Different vendors use different settings within their vBIOS. Personally I wouldn't do it. Tried it before with a Sapphire HD6850 (tried a MSI BIOS) and while it did not brick the card, I sarted to experience hard system freezes even at stock speeds.
> 
> By the way, you say your BIOS is voltage locked? I was planning on getting a GB R9 270X, but if their vBIOS are locked then I may reconsider.
> 
> Edit: Have you tried VBE7 yet? It's for editing the vBIOS on HD7xxx cards, but the R9 270s may work too. Some people are able to modify voltages in their vBIOS even when they are software locked.


Yea, I believe the 270's are voltage locked. I'm not sure what to do with VBE7. It sees the BIOS (one of my backup images) and populates the fields. What should I modify to bring more power to the card?

EDIT: This is what I see. The highest clock, and the VDDC that corresponds to the fastest 100% load setting is labelled as "boot". I don't want to change a setting and then brick my GPU, and be unable to get into windows to fix it


----------



## Melcar

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Fear of Oneself*
> 
> Yea, I believe the 270's are voltage locked. I'm not sure what to do with VBE7. It sees the BIOS (one of my backup images) and populates the fields. What should I modify to bring more power to the card?
> 
> EDIT: This is what I see. The highest clock, and the VDDC that corresponds to the fastest 100% load setting is labelled as "boot". I don't want to change a setting and then brick my GPU, and be unable to get into windows to fix it


The changes you want to make are under the PowerPlay tab. Find the "Performance" state and change clocks corresponding to you "3D" frequencies (or leave them alone for now). The value below the clocks is the core voltage. Change that. Save the BIOS and flash the card (make sure you have the original BIOS backed up on a USB key and have a spare card in case you brick your card). If all goes well, do a fresh install of the drivers and see if the new voltage value shows up.
Again, I don't know if it works for R7 270 cards.

Note: Use ATIFlash to backup your original BIOS and to flash the card, don't do it from Windows.


----------



## Fear of Oneself

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Melcar*
> 
> The changes you want to make are under the PowerPlay tab. Find the "Performance" state and change clocks corresponding to you "3D" frequencies (or leave them alone for now). The value below the clocks is the core voltage. Change that. Save the BIOS and flash the card (make sure you have the original BIOS backed up on a USB key and have a spare card in case you brick your card). If all goes well, do a fresh install of the drivers and see if the new voltage value shows up.
> Again, I don't know if it works for R7 270 cards.
> 
> Note: Use ATIFlash to backup your original BIOS and to flash the card, don't do it from Windows.


Worked like a charm.

I downloaded a bios from techpowerup which is the one for my card. I then backed up my default bios and started messing with the BIOS that was downloaded from techpower up.

I changed the VDDC from 1.21V to 1.31V.
I then flashed using ATi flash and rebooted. The Gigabyte tools still saw only 1.21V, but GPUz and MSI kromebuster (however it's spelled) both saw the voltage bump.

With a full 0.1V, I couldn't get the elusive 1.2Ghz. I tried unigine valley, and it locked up at 14 runs. (Which sucks, 0.1V should be enough for just a 25Mhz bump right?)

Anyhow, I made it through the benchmark at these settings:


It scored 1284 points on the ExtremeHD setting. Which isn't bad, I think I can do more tweaking. Temps haven't moved, it went from 61C to 62, occasionally 63C at most.

There must be something up, because a 0.1V increase on my CPU yields more like 10 more degrees, not 1

EDIT: I would love it if my $199 card could roughly equal the $299 GTX 760, that's my end game here


----------



## Melcar

You can't compare a CPU core to a GPU core like that, temp wise at least.
I would do modifications on your original bios and not download it from tpu (unless you lost your bios and don't have another choice). Just keep one unaltered copy somewhere safe and a second copy to edit.
Try bumping the vcore a bit more.

Just remember to always do a clean driver install every time you flash. Sometimes the driver sees the "ghost" of the old bios and will not reflect changes.

Edit: A lot of GB boards tend to be **** for overclocking, so maybe you hit a wall.


----------



## DrClaw

what about the risks involved with flashing bios? what is the worst thing that can happen? can you revive the gpu if the worst happens?


----------



## Fear of Oneself

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *DrClaw*
> 
> what about the risks involved with flashing bios? what is the worst thing that can happen? can you revive the gpu if the worst happens?


You kill your card.

If you have a spare GPU, and at least 2 pcie slots, you might be able to put another card in there as your primary, then reflash the stock bios back onto your dead card. That should revive it, assuming you didn't blow the card (if you were overclocking)


----------



## DrClaw

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Fear of Oneself*
> 
> You kill your card.
> 
> If you have a spare GPU, and at least 2 pcie slots, you might be able to put another card in there as your primary, then reflash the stock bios back onto your dead card. That should revive it, assuming you didn't blow the card (if you were overclocking)


what if the gpu has a bios switch? can that save the card?


----------



## Melcar

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *DrClaw*
> 
> what if the gpu has a bios switch? can that save the card?


Yes, as long as the backup BIOS works.


----------



## DrClaw

if the backup bios works? so then its possible that both bios could fry if the card was bricked? is there any chance of that happening?


----------



## Fear of Oneself

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *DrClaw*
> 
> if the backup bios works? so then its possible that both bios could fry if the card was bricked? is there any chance of that happening?


Tell you what, before you do anything, turn off your PC, and flick that bios switch. Then turn it back on, and see if everything works. If you can make it through a GPU benchmark, it works.

Then, read up on your card, so you know how much power it can take.

Then turn your PC off, and flick that switch again.

Modify your bios to year heart's content.

If it's a bios problem, you can switch to your old bios and everything is cool.

If you overvolted your card too much, and broke the actual card, then it won't work at all, regardless of bios settings.

And remember, if you can't afford to replace it, don't mess with it


----------



## DrClaw

lol thanks man, i will do that, i didnt know the procedure to make sure the bios works and all, wish i thought of that, thank you very much sir









+ rep


----------



## Fear of Oneself

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *DrClaw*
> 
> lol thanks man, i will do that, i didnt know the procedure to make sure the bios works and all, wish i thought of that, thank you very much sir
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> + rep


No worries man, that's what OCN is for!


----------



## amptechnow

I flashed one of my bios' on my reference xfx r9 290 to the asus r9 290 bios. went smoothly as i knew it would having flashed other cards before. ran some benches and got much better results. overclocked and got way better results with a lower oc then i was using on stock bios. went to open up a game and black screened and froze. using new bios set everything to default and same thing. any ideas?


----------



## Kira900

Dude, thank you very much for this helpful tutorial. I was finally able to restore my original SWITCH #1 BIOS. For my luck I have a video card with Bios Switch, and I wanted to restore the original on the #1 SWITCH.
Thank you very much, I add rep+


----------



## Illuminaughty

There's no switch on my 5870... did this become standard in later models, or do I have to remove the entire heat sink to get to the switch?


----------



## Fear of Oneself

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Illuminaughty*
> 
> There's no switch on my 5870... did this become standard in later models, or do I have to remove the entire heat sink to get to the switch?


Became standard later.

The reference 5870's don't have switches at all, but maybe the non-reference ones do.


----------



## Fear of Oneself

I tried this method again on my R9 270. I reseated the water block and now my load is 40C (18C ambient) at the stock 1.206V. I am now able to push the core to 1190MHz. (Not bad on stock volts, with stock clock at 975MHz)

All I did was increase the value of VDDC in performance mode to 1260mV and it refuses to output video in 3D mode. In fact, whilst flashing any bios that has been loaded in VBE7 will not output video in 3D mode. As soon as I open something up, it says "No signal" on all my monitors and the system locks up. Could this be because my copy of VBE7 or ATiwinFlash aren't working correctly?

I have the GUI version of ATiwinFlash, if that makes any difference.

...I should have gone MSI for this card, I've heard they're voltage unlocked from the factory


----------



## custode83

Hi, welcome, I'm sorry to bother but I need help, I made something wrong with the Bios of my card.

First things first: It is the first time that I change Vbios, so please take my hand and let me understand XD

Ok, so, I tell you what I've done:

I have a Sapphire 280X TOXIC ed.

I downloaded the last Vbios from techpowerup.
I opened GPUz and backuped the current bios.
I Started the last version of atiwinflash, started the exe program and flashed the bios I downloaded from techpowerup, from there. It asked me to reboot.
Tried to reboot but the pc does not start, black screen, no bios page, nothing.
So I turned off, pushed the button on the sapphire and the pc strarted with no problem...

What I'm asking to you is: What I have done?
What I have to do now?

Here are the things I'm not sure how to do:

1) How can I put the old bios on the "1" position (ithink it was 1 before pusching the button, it is written nothing on)
2) To put the bios on the old position to flash the old one over the bricked one, can I push the button while the pc is on?

Please help me, I fear to do something wrong and corrupt even this Bios (the button pressed bios)

Thank you


----------



## Fear of Oneself

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *custode83*
> 
> Hi, welcome, I'm sorry to bother but I need help, I made something wrong with the Bios of my card.
> 
> First things first: It is the first time that I change Vbios, so please take my hand and let me understand XD
> 
> Ok, so, I tell you what I've done:
> 
> I have a Sapphire 280X TOXIC ed.
> 
> I downloaded the last Vbios from techpowerup.
> I opened GPUz and backuped the current bios.
> I Started the last version of atiwinflash, started the exe program and flashed the bios I downloaded from techpowerup, from there. It asked me to reboot.
> Tried to reboot but the pc does not start, black screen, no bios page, nothing.
> So I turned off, pushed the button on the sapphire and the pc strarted with no problem...
> 
> What I'm asking to you is: What I have done?
> What I have to do now?
> 
> Here are the things I'm not sure how to do:
> 
> 1) How can I put the old bios on the "1" position (ithink it was 1 before pusching the button, it is written nothing on)
> 2) To put the bios on the old position to flash the old one over the bricked one, can I push the button while the pc is on?
> 
> Please help me, I fear to do something wrong and corrupt even this Bios (the button pressed bios)
> 
> Thank you


You've bunked one of the bioses it sounds like. I did it with my 270 that I was talking about earlier in this thread. Honestly, I tried booting over and over, and on the 5th try, I got video. (I had to unplug the PC and wait 10 seconds)

If that doesn't work, boot with another card as your primary, and leave your 280 in as a secondary. Then flash it with the switch in the 1 position.

If you don't have another card, just leave it in the second position and don't mess with it from now on. Also, welcome to the forums








All the cool kids from OCN hang out on the teamspeak. Info is on the main page if you're interested in gaming with buddies


----------



## SpeedyVT

I've got two GPUs and a iGPU. How do I know which card I'm flashing?

I've got two ASUS 270s I think their BIOS are corrupt I want to reflash them or consider a new bios from another manfacturer and if that doesn't work flash back.


----------



## RushFudge

Can I flash an HD 5450's bios while I am using my HD 3000 Intel Graphics? My HD 5450 just shows black screen but Windows still boots.
I found out because I just typed my password and I heard the sound of Windows 7 logged in. That was some time ago.


----------



## Melcar

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *RushFudge*
> 
> Can I flash an HD 5450's bios while I am using my HD 3000 Intel Graphics? My HD 5450 just shows black screen but Windows still boots.
> I found out because I just typed my password and I heard the sound of Windows 7 logged in. That was some time ago.


Yes. Either from DOS or Windows. Just make sure you flash the correct GPU.


----------



## RushFudge

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Melcar*
> 
> Yes. Either from DOS or Windows. Just make sure you flash the correct GPU.


So I just boot using Integrated Graphics and then follow the steps here. I just put the 5450 in the 1st PCIe slot and use the "index 0" because it is in the first PCIe slot? Thanks.


----------



## Melcar

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *RushFudge*
> 
> So I just boot using Integrated Graphics and then follow the steps here. I just put the 5450 in the 1st PCIe slot and use the "index 0" because it is in the first PCIe slot? Thanks.


Yes, should work no problem.


----------



## RushFudge

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Melcar*
> 
> Yes, should work no problem.


Ok. Thanks for the help.


----------



## Luka1nm

Hello i did everything from above and i flashed my bios without any problems

Pic :









I have one Powercolor R9 270X PCS+ i found exact bios files and flashed everything but now i have the problem with drivers
Whenever I restart pc windows is asking me to install drivers even tho i have the installed already, when i do install them again nothing changes.

Did anyone had the same problem ?

Thanks in advance.


----------



## astrixx

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *KaRLiToS*
> 
> If you are flashing BIOS #1, you need to put the BIOS switch at #1. I usually do it before booting the PC.
> 
> *Lets say* your borked your BIOS flashing and the BIOS #1 is now corrupted and you can't boot into windows using that BIOS
> 
> -Turn Off PC
> -Put the swtich back to BIOS #2
> -You restart PC running "Locked" BIOS (#2)
> -*Under Windows*: You flip the GPU Bios switch back to #1
> -Proceed to a normal flashing of the BIOS
> -BIOS#1 is now repaired


I tried this and the atiwinflash hangs and fails.

I have in the second PCIE using atiwinflash -f -p 1 Hawaii.rom and it just hangs. What am I doing wrong. I tried to put to the flashed and got black screen it's ok by flipping the switch but now that one is constantly black screening.


----------



## amptechnow

did you try creating a DOS boot disk and running atiflash from dos before windows loads?


----------



## astrixx

I'll try that next. I'm back to using legacy Bios on the MSI 290x V308 V2.1

http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/upload/pictures/MSI-R9-290X-Gaming-4G-Radeon-R9-290X-4GB-GDDR5-%28V308-014%29-PCB.jpg

There are two bioses on the card one is lagacy Bios and the other is the UFEI bios. Is it possible to flash the legacy bios? I'm worried that it might damage that one as well. I heard that one apparently is protected and can't be written to and I'm guessing it's the legacy right.

Will I be able to flash the UEFI side in the BIOS using the usb method?

The reason I did this is I had 2 v308 V1.0 but after sending one back for a issue I got back a version 2.1 (the PCB above) also this card came with a locked VRM # 2 temp at 68 degrees .

It didn't have working fan controller in MSI afterburner unless I installed WDDM1.3 but when I installed catalyst it took it off again. One cards fan was being read as a percentage and the other as a tachometer.

Now I can't even install WDDM1.3 without problems on the UEFI side.

I have reinstalled Catalyst on the legacy bios and played BF4 and it played awesome on 14.4 but I would like to fix the other bios.


----------



## Nightfallx

I was able to flash one of my 7970's, the other one refuses to flash, it says error reading rom. and when I use GPU-Z it says bios reading not supported on this device. is there a way to force it to flash?

EDIT: fixed it after rebooting and trying over and over, now I have flashed both with the black edition bios and everything is working great.


----------



## astrixx

I'll try that, people I recommend not doing this I think it causes more problems, luckily for me I have 2 bioses. Now I know why people were gettijng black screens on. I wasn't even able to flash it back to the original one. It worked until I tried to install WDDM1.3 driver and it would just start buzzing and hand. Then it happened when I tried to install catalyst.

I when back to using the legacy bios.

On the MSI R9 290x Gaming R308 v2.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Nightfallx*
> 
> I was able to flash one of my 7970's, the other one refuses to flash, it says error reading rom. and when I use GPU-Z it says bios reading not supported on this device. is there a way to force it to flash?
> 
> EDIT: fixed it after rebooting and trying over and over, now I have flashed both with the black edition bios and everything is working great.


Use the USB/CD method follow the steps on this thread.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/how-to-use-atiflash.57750/

I followed the method in the video below but in the end I flashed it from the CD not th USB but I did have the USB bood drive set up as well.





Below is my post when I finally did it from the techpowerup forum, I was getting a MSCD001 driver error trying to boot from the USB. After changing some settings in my BIOS I describe it in the post below.
Quote:


> I had the same MSC driver error
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> but I fixed it!
> 
> I changed the Sata to IDE and IDE legacy in the BIOS and flashed it from the CD I burned.
> After changing to IDE the F drive (USB stick) still wasn't showing up but the MSCD001 driver loaded. So I pointed it to the Disc (CD-R) "Drive E" and it flashed the bios
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And it finally booted on that bios again. It was the original bios that I backed up
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> . that I broke trying to flash the wrong Bios in ATIWinFlash
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> So I used - E:\ then atiflash -p 0 hv2.rom and it successfully did the job, it said it successfully flashed the BIOS and to restart to apply it.


----------



## astrixx

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Nightfallx*
> 
> I was able to flash one of my 7970's, the other one refuses to flash, it says error reading rom. and when I use GPU-Z it says bios reading not supported on this device. is there a way to force it to flash?
> 
> EDIT: fixed it after rebooting and trying over and over, now I have flashed both with the black edition bios and everything is working great.


make sure you can update the drivers without it failing, On Atiwinflash it was working but I couldn't update the drivers it would go nuts. After doing the DOS method on the USB/CD I was able to update drivers without issue.

It's just a good way to know for sure it's working right because I was able to play on the damaged bios for a little while before it would lock up but couldn't update the drivers or install the WDDM1.3 driver from windows at all.


----------



## Nightfallx

yeah, I uninstalled the drivers, then reinstalled the drivers. everything seems to be working fine except cod ghosts run like crap and I Don't know why lol.


----------



## astrixx

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Nightfallx*
> 
> yeah, I uninstalled the drivers, then reinstalled the drivers. everything seems to be working fine except cod ghosts run like crap and I Don't know why lol.


That's good to know, how about other games?
Do the 7970's have duel BIOS's?


----------



## Nightfallx

no they don't have dual bios, it seems like every other game I get about 150+ fps on a 1080p monitor in BF4, I'd say the minimum it goes to is about 85FPS in intense battles


----------



## astrixx

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Nightfallx*
> 
> no they don't have dual bios, it seems like every other game I get about 150+ fps on a 1080p monitor in BF4, I'd say the minimum it goes to is about 85FPS in intense battles


Other 7970's have duel bios that sux that yours doesn't.


----------



## Nightfallx

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *astrixx*
> 
> Other 7970's have duel bios that sux that yours doesn't.


why does it suck? I didn't brick it and I have the original bios saved so I can easily go back.


----------



## astrixx

Most other cards do, if something were to happen to the bios...
It's a tiny switch I just don't know why some have it and some don't, I was thinking you maybe missed it








Cards that have two Bioses one is protected.


----------



## Xoriam

Hello,

So I have a Sapphire 7870xt with the .30 bios.

I tried modding my BIOS with VBE7

I adjusted my VDDC TDP and Even power board % limit.
Yet when I go into MSI afterburner to OC no matter what i change my VDDC remains the same as it was before the mod.
Resulting in my being able to only obtain the same results.

Whats wrong here?


----------



## Impreza22b

Ive got a sapphire 7970 Vapor X Ghz Edition 3Gb, it doesn't have a bios switch as such where you move it from 1 to 2. It has a button where if you press it it lights blue, as far as i'm aware this is a boost button. Is that right rather than it being a dual bios ?

I want to flash this card.

Can someone tell me firstly if you can flash this card, second what bios do you recommend flashing too if it can be done, is it straight forward ?


----------



## battleaxe

So I tried the OP to flash my 290. All the available MSI BIOS rom's failed for the GPU. So maybe my GPU is not on slot 0 or 1? Or something else?

during one of the attempted flashes my screen went black then started displaying weird after letting it sit a while. Had to hard reboot. Flash didn't take either. Ideas?


----------



## mAs81

Is it unlocked for sure?see the info here to make sure,if you haven't already :
http://www.overclock.net/t/1443242/the-r9-290-290x-unlock-thread
That is,if you wanted to unlock to 290x


----------



## battleaxe

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mAs81*
> 
> Is it unlocked for sure?see the info here to make sure,if you haven't already :
> http://www.overclock.net/t/1443242/the-r9-290-290x-unlock-thread
> That is,if you wanted to unlock to 290x


.

No. just wanting to try a new BIOS. Mine is not unlockable to 290x. Already know that is a negative.


----------



## e4et

Hi guys.
I have a question and cant find a clear answer on the interwebs.
Can both bios 1 and 2 on a 7950 be flashed, or is bios 2 locked and cannot be flashed and is only there for backup/recovery ?

Thanks in advance.


----------



## IrionDaRonin

Hi there, i'm new here.

I got a problem doing this tutorial.
I made a backup with GPUZ, the file was called Barts.rom

Then i flashed my Ati Radeon HD 6870 1GB and when i restarted, black screen, i can't do anything else.
(I forgot to active the motherboard integrated graphics, so i opened my computer, extracted the video card and my hard disc to save the rom and now i'm in my girlfriend's computer (a crappy one).
I insert my hard disc and here goes the funny part, the BARTS.rom file has dissapeared from my desktop without reason. (????)

Can i have another rom file for this video card please?

This is my video card, exact model.


I hope you can help me.

The real reason i wanted to flash it, it was because the fan wasn't working anymore, so i wanted to try this just in case.

Nothing else, i could manage to come back to the original vbios.
Thanks









Thanks for your time.


----------



## Cherryblue

Hi guys,

'got a VTX3D 7870 1 fan, was wondering if it was possible to make it into a R9 270X since every single hardware website on the internet tells you "its the same ******* card!".

Why would I want to do that? Mantle. Seems stupid that the same chip can't do mantle because the company wants you to to buy the new branded product.

I backuped my bios just in case; wanted to update the bios to the VTX3D R9 270X 1 fan, which seems to really be the same card xD. But can't find its bios on the web..

Any idea/advice/opinion?

Thanks guys, and btw happy new year, have a great day







.


----------



## the matty

has anyone tried this with an asus 7950 DCU2 V2?


----------



## kissinger

Hello guys. I'm trying to use this guide to flash one of the BIOS on my MSI HD7970 but when I get to the part where you type 'atiwinflash -f -p 1 BIOS.rom' into command prompt and hit enter, nothing seems to be happening. Something flashes up on screen for a split second but the BIOS flash doesn't seem to happen. What am I doing wrong?

And just to clarify, I'm typing '1' instead of '0' because my GPU is seated in the second PCIe slot on my motherboard, not the first.


----------



## dbcooper

Hi, i'm trying to flash my HD 7850 Dual-X with a custom fan-curve so the fans dont spin until the temperature gets to 60C. It flashes OK but it doesn't seam to work.. I can't go below a certain limit (25% i think).

For example: if i flash the card with a bios with a fan curve set to 50% and i set afterburner to 0%, the fans will spin at 50%. But if i use a bios fan curve of 1% and i set afterburner to 1%, the fans will spin at 25% (aprox).

Any solutions?

Thanks!!


----------



## passey

I have a sapphire referencer9 290x 8gb.

Is it correct that i can flash any 290x bios onto it eg the asus direct 2? Its apparantly allowed higher voltages?


----------



## Ralff

I followed this tutorial and everything seemed to work fine, but it turns out that I installed the wrong drivers. I picked the latest ones for my graphic card (Sapphire Toxic R9 280X), but the newer ones use different memory and the drivers are not compatible. The techpowerup.com website which provides all the drivers doesn't make it apparent at all, that there are different models with incompatible drivers. It just looks like a newer version. Only if you click on the details and take a look at the bios internals you'll be able to notice, providing you're even aware of there being different memory types. It would be nice if the tutorial also mentioned that there might be incompatible drivers for the same video card.

Well, luckily I can use a second bios by pressing a button, but I have no way to fix the other one, because I have no spare video card and the "onbard graphics" from my motherboard (MSI Z87-G45) apparently aren't really onboard at all, but rather only support CPU integrated graphic chips, which my Xeon doesn't have.


----------



## MrKZ

You can reflash the "broken" bios from the working one. Just boot to windows using the working bios then change the bios switch position to the broken one and flash the stock bios. I did it several times on my old HD7850.


----------



## Ralff

Oh, thanks! Good to know. I assumed that the button had no effect after booting, thinking it would merely determine what bios to load at the very beginning.


----------



## MrKZ

Well it does determine what bios to load, but after that it also determine in which chip atiflash should write.


----------



## Ralff

Got it fixed, just like you said. You could even see the different bios version if you checked gpu-z or atiwinflash after pressing the button.

I guess I didn't need to waste those hours trying to get onboard graphics to run heh.


----------



## Viking8

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *MrKZ*
> 
> You can reflash the "broken" bios from the working one. Just boot to windows using the working bios then change the bios switch position to the broken one and flash the stock bios. I did it several times on my old HD7850.


Hey MrKZ, I am curious about something. I have a Powercolor 7950 that has BIOS position 2 borked, but position 1 works fine, which I gather is an odd thing to have happen.
From what the OP wrote, that position is locked and un-flashable. Do you know if there is any work around to get the stock BIOS flashed back to it. Should I try saving BIOS 1
and then flashing it to the BIOS 2 position anyway?

Thanks for any and all help!

UPDATE: I decided to save the stock BIOS from position 1 using GPU-Z and flashing it to the borked position 2 and it worked perfectly. So apparently BIOS position 2 is writable after all!


----------



## MrKZ

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Viking8*
> 
> Hey MrKZ, I am curious about something. I have a Powercolor 7950 that has BIOS position 2 borked, but position 1 works fine, which I gather is an odd thing to have happen.
> From what the OP wrote, that position is locked and un-flashable. Do you know if there is any work around to get the stock BIOS flashed back to it. Should I try saving BIOS 1
> and then flashing it to the BIOS 2 position anyway?
> 
> Thanks for any and all help!
> 
> UPDATE: I decided to save the stock BIOS from position 1 using GPU-Z and flashing it to the borked position 2 and it worked perfectly. So apparently BIOS position 2 is writable after all!


It's nice that you got it fixed







. Flashing on the "locked" bios position never worked on my Sapphire. I guess it depends on the brand/model too


----------



## wingclip

Each time I tried that, the system would freeze and I'd have to re-boot. A while back I borked the "Position 1" Bios flash so I slipped it back to Position 2. It's not like I have an emergency but I would feel a lot better with Pos. 1 back up and working.

I have an intel i7 2600K, z77 Asrock xtreme 4, and a Windows 7 64bit O/S. I can boot to the "on-board" graphics if need be, maybe there's a way to flash the 7970 Pos. 1 bios from there?
Thanks,
Rich
PS; the freeze up may be a coincidence, but if someone can confirm that this is the way to install the bios in that Position 1 option, then I'll try again as soon as I can, I just want to make sure I'm following the right path.


----------



## lostsurfer

do these instructions work for windows 10? need to flash latest bios revision for a pos xfx 280x


----------



## huhh

I had no problems flashing in windows 10.


----------



## StillClock1

What if you have a dual GPU card, like an R9 295x2. Would the 0 & 1 still apply if the are both on the same physical Pcie slot (since it's one card)?


----------



## joeh4384

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Hoff248*
> 
> What if you have a dual GPU card, like an R9 295x2. Would the 0 & 1 still apply if the are both on the same physical Pcie slot (since it's one card)?


Yes. I flashed the bios on my 295x2 and it had that. I also had to flash two bioses, a master and slave.


----------



## StillClock1

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *joeh4384*
> 
> Yes. I flashed the bios on my 295x2 and it had that. I also had to flash two bioses, a master and slave.


Joeh4384: Would you mind telling me exactly what your process was? I want to make the card UEFI boot compatible with this bios posted by CrisInuyasha in the R9 295x2 Owners Club forum. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20405147/sapphire_r9_295x2_uefi.zip

As it stands now, I just feel like the risk/reward balance isn't there as I run the risk of bricking my card for a 10 second improvement on each boot. If I could find someone who had done it before and could walk me through their steps, specific to the R9 295x2 as I have found single-GPU guides, I'd feel a lot more comfortable.

How come you flashed your BIOS?

Thanks


----------



## joeh4384

I flashed it to the Sapphire OC version. It really didn't do much but give it a slight boost to 1030/1300 at stock plus I believe TriX allows extra volts which I haven't touched. I didn't use ATI-Winflash though, I downloaded the dos based version and used a USB drive to create a bootable disk following the instructions in the guide. Also, the 295x2 does have a Bios switch, so you do have a backup in case something disastrous happens.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2306/atiflash-4-17/

Guide: https://www.techpowerup.com/articles//overclocking/vidcard/34/1


----------



## StillClock1

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *joeh4384*
> 
> I flashed it to the Sapphire OC version. It really didn't do much but give it a slight boost to 1030/1300 at stock plus I believe TriX allows extra volts which I haven't touched. I didn't use ATI-Winflash though, I downloaded the dos based version and used a USB drive to create a bootable disk following the instructions in the guide. Also, the 295x2 does have a Bios switch, so you do have a backup in case something disastrous happens.
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2306/atiflash-4-17/
> 
> Guide: https://www.techpowerup.com/articles//overclocking/vidcard/34/1


Thanks, I'll look into that guide.

Actually, despite buying a Sapphire R9 295x2, there is not a switch on the PCB side of the card like it advertises - so I don't think I have any backup.


----------



## Laamapalmu

Hello

I need help with my system atm. So I flashed BIOS compatible to XFX HD7850 2GB (I have the Double Dissipation) I flashed the older bios as I understood that it might have bigger voltage table. Well I flashed it and then I encountered problem with atikmdag.sys. I have been playing around with it atm. I reflashed my backup bios and reinstalled Windows 10 from new cleaned partition.

Whenever I try to install latest stable drivers (The only one I've tried yet) it crashes either on the "Installing catalyst center" or "Installing AMD Display Driver" I tried going to the InstallManager.cfg and change the WorkaroundInstall to "True" but neither did this help. And I'm on point where I can run windows without drivers normally. So when I try to install GPU drivers the computer blue screens to atikmdag.sys and making a new file from atikmdag.sy_ doesn't help.

Cheers!

I got it working. So apparently I flashed a BIOS that wasn't compatible after all and the bios backup I made from my original bios came out as ver. 16 as the real one is 22 and that's why I never got it working and I found out I was flashing the wrong bios on Win98 DOS. Flashed the 22 and works fine now


----------



## DannyDK

Can anyone mod my BIOS for a R9 280X Royal Qeen so that i can use more votage and maybe give me some higher clocks for the GPU and memory?
Thanks in advance 

OriginalBIOS.zip 98k .zip file


----------



## StillClock1

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *joeh4384*
> 
> I flashed it to the Sapphire OC version. It really didn't do much but give it a slight boost to 1030/1300 at stock plus I believe TriX allows extra volts which I haven't touched. I didn't use ATI-Winflash though, I downloaded the dos based version and used a USB drive to create a bootable disk following the instructions in the guide. Also, the 295x2 does have a Bios switch, so you do have a backup in case something disastrous happens.
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2306/atiflash-4-17/
> 
> Guide: https://www.techpowerup.com/articles//overclocking/vidcard/34/1


Joeh4384: Did you do two flashes on each side of the switch (R9 295x2) or just one?

Sapphire support is telling me that one side of the switch is Master and the other side of the switch is Slave. I've read on the forums that each side contains a Master and a slave, for a total of 4 BIOS files on the card. They're also telling me that it is a hybrid BIOS which will switch to UEFI mode magically when it detects Windows 8 or 10, which I am told is bull.


----------



## huhh

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *DannyDK*
> 
> Can anyone mod my BIOS for a R9 280X Royal Qeen so that i can use more votage and maybe give me some higher clocks for the GPU and memory?
> Thanks in advance
> 
> OriginalBIOS.zip 98k .zip file


If you want it modified you'll have to know your highest stable overclock, i highly recommend you learn how to modify your own bios and flash it so if something goes wrong you can fall back and reflash with stock. It's pretty easy and only takes a few minutes when you find your stable overclock.


----------



## MrKZ

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *DannyDK*
> 
> Can anyone mod my BIOS for a R9 280X Royal Qeen so that i can use more votage and maybe give me some higher clocks for the GPU and memory?
> Thanks in advance
> 
> OriginalBIOS.zip 98k .zip file


For testing you can try Sapphire Trixx.. Don't know how it works for Club3D but on my Asus and my older hd7850 it allowed more voltage than other tools.


----------



## Mahasin Raihan

Can i use this BIOS on my 270X? Both has the same core and mem clocks but different coolers. Should i pull the trigger?

The reason why i am doing this is the card has been crashing on me when i play games since day one. Tried another card (GTX670) and it works fine. It's been a year and i'm tired of it. Tried rolling back to various driver version using driver sweeper, reinstalling OSes multiple times, no luck. The only thing that kinda helps is downclocking all the way to 900MHz (*from 1050!*) and that only postpones the crash (like, from 10 min to 15min into the game). Overvolting does the same, too. And then recently i heard that a BIOS update could fix this issue so i'm interested and wanted to try it. Thanks before


----------



## jmcda

Is there a known fix for windows 10 not allowing atiwinflash to run. I keep getting the admin mode prompt, even though I'm using the admin account. I also tried running in safe mode.


----------



## navjack27

mine works just fine, like in the video i shown


----------



## battleaxe

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jmcda*
> 
> Is there a known fix for windows 10 not allowing atiwinflash to run. I keep getting the admin mode prompt, even though I'm using the admin account. I also tried running in safe mode.


use the amdflash approach. Mine did the same thing. Amdflash worked fine though. I'd post a link but I'm on my phone. If you look at my other threads on my username you will see it as one of the threads I subscribe to.


----------



## jmcda

I'm not sure if the bios on this card is correct. The model, according to the sku on card, is 11221-08. The bios on the card is for the oc version. It's probably the right one, just not sure, since there are three different versions.
Edit: Okay. I found the 390 bios thread, and used the tut. Worked fine.


----------



## Noyjitat

Do i need to follow that step in crossfires cards for a single dual card like the r9 295x2? I only have 1 card but it's a considered two cards since it runs crossfire. So do I only need to run:

G:\atiflash>atiwinflash -f -p 0 Sapphire.R9295X2.4096.140414.rom

and that's it or would I need to also run

G:\atiflash>atiwinflash -f -p 1 Sapphire.R9295X2.4096.140414.rom

I only have 1 r9 295x2 but I wasn't sure if it running the top option automatically flashes the bios for the entire card or just one of the gpus.


----------



## R3dBull

hi guys i just wanna know if i can put in my Sapphire Dual-x 7850 1gb with 900mhz and 1200mhz clocks a bios that up my clocks to 1100 or even more??? and how can i do it and where is the bios to do this...

thanks a lot....

pd: sorry for my English


----------



## MrKZ

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *R3dBull*
> 
> hi guys i just wanna know if i can put in my Sapphire Dual-x 7850 1gb with 900mhz and 1200mhz clocks a bios that up my clocks to 1100 or even more??? and how can i do it and where is the bios to do this...
> 
> thanks a lot....
> 
> pd: sorry for my English


You need to dump your bios file using GPU-z (a small button on the right of the bios version info) then you will have to download the hd7000 bios editor tool and edit the frequency and voltage values there. If your bios is UEFI enabled I think you will also need to patch some bios checksums after you save the new bios file (Don't remember exacly. It was a long time ago when I had my 7850). Then you follow the steps from this flash tutorial. BUT I do not recommend flashing a bios with custom frequencies without testing for stability before tho. You should try overclocking your card using Sapphire Trixx tool instead. It allows frequencies up to 1200mhz and even voltage control on sapphire cards.


----------



## R3dBull

actually i have already downloaded trixx and i think that would be a good option... but the thing is how the numbers of the clocks must be set?... i dont have any idea of how much i can rise the number or whats voltages i need to use... sorry im really new about this overclock stuff's

i repeat my VGA is a Sapphire Dual-X 7850 1gb


----------



## MrKZ

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *R3dBull*
> 
> actually i have already downloaded trixx and i think that would be a good option... but the thing is how the numbers of the clocks must be set?... i dont have any idea of how much i can rise the number or whats voltages i need to use... sorry im really new about this overclock stuff's
> 
> i repeat my VGA is a Sapphire Dual-X 7850 1gb


There is really no way of telling what frequency your video card will run stable overclocked. The only way of doing it is to to raise the frequency by a small amount of mhz and test using some benchmark or game. What I do when I overclock my gpu is:

Raise the frequency by 10-20mhz
Test stability by leaving some benchmark such unigine valley or heaven running in loop for 10-15 minutes WHILE WATCHING GPU TEMPERATURES and WATCHING FOR ANY GLITCHES ON SCREEN
If everything works fine back to step 1. If the card shows glitches during the test, or it freezes/crash the pc, I raise the voltage a bit (0.01-0.02v) and test again.

When I'm happy with the results I run some intensive games for a few hours to see if it can hold long load periods. My 7850 was doing 1050mhz without any voltage and for 1100 it needed somewhere around 1.12v but your card will probably need different voltages. Keep in mind that it was a long time ago when I had my sapphire 7850 and overclocked it (the year when it released) so I might not remember everything correctly, so I'm not responsible if you damage your card. There are many overclocking guides out there, and other threads that would probably answer all your questions about overclocking.

P.S.: I think you should start a new thread if you need help with your overclock, because this thread is about bios flashing and not overclocking


----------



## Hellhummel

Hey guys,

well i am new here, i read this article, flashed my 5770 and failed.







The PC doesn't Start anymore.
It's an old card, so I guess I haven't done much damage. I think the card doesn't have a second BIOS, so...
But, I heard it is possible to use a second card to start the PC with, while my 5770 is also installed. After that I could use the saved original BIOS on the 5770. Is that correct? If so, could someone explain how to do that and how can I make sure to flash the BIOS of the right card?
Sorry for my English and I hope you can help me.


----------



## magnapeccatrix

Hello Guys,

I have used the program (Dos commands through Windows) to update my PowerColor R9 290 PCS+ and completed successfully.

I restarted computer and it goes blank after booting OS and after that reset/shutdown system. So I pulled bios switch to right side and OS booted fine. I saw the VGA bios is still older version so I have updated the vga bios again. Now I can't boot OS anymore.

I have fresh installed Windows 10 and now I have GPU as unknown device and when I run GPU-z it is blank information.

I made a Win 98 bootable media and flashed VGA from there successfully as well. Card is working but as a unknown device. Can't install driver.





Could you tell me what shall I do?

Thank you.


----------



## Ne01 OnnA

Hi

Try to Boot from USB in DOS Mode and Flash it with Original not Tampered BIOS (Backup of your BIOS will be OK )
You can make bootable USB DOS NP, use Google and pick Rufus-2.9.exe tool for that.

It will be OK.


----------



## kithylin

I hope this isn't consider'd necro'ing .. it's just 3 months back but this thread is relevant to my question.

I've been mostly an nvidia man other than some HD 4890's I owned years ago. So I recently picked up an HD 6870 off ebay and been playing with overclocking it and some stuff. I think I modified the bios wrong and then tried to flash it to the card and now it won't boot and won't POST. I -DID- extract the stock bios under windows with gpu-z and saved it. And now I'm trying to flash it back to the thing and having problems.

This is what I've been doing right now:

I have my older computer, Intel x58 / 1st gen I7 system from storage in the closet. System works fine even though it's not been powered on for several years. I have the HD 6870 in the first PCI-Express Slot #0, and I'm using a PCI video card with DVI output just to boot the system (ATI 9100 PCI), and booting to a MS-DOS bootable floppy over usb floppy drive, and have the original stock rom image on it and atiflash.exe for dos on it, and I'm trying to flash it.

See image here for what I'm getting:



I've even tried the -i and -ai switches to get info on all AMD cards in the system and it's returning nothing. I've tried even -fa and force it and still getting nothing. It's as if this card doesn't exist at all.. it does just not working for some reason.

Does anyone have any insight at all in to how to force blind-flash this card, or is it totally bricked and I should just toss it at this point?


----------



## TheLAWNOOB

Maybe try plugging it in another slot or something. The card should be detected as long as you have the right version of ATIFLASH.

Make sure the version you have supports the 6870.

I flashed bad BIOSes to cards every once a while, and they never become undetected.


----------



## kithylin

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *TheLAWNOOB*
> 
> Maybe try plugging it in another slot or something. The card should be detected as long as you have the right version of ATIFLASH.
> 
> Make sure the version you have supports the 6870.
> 
> I flashed bad BIOSes to cards every once a while, and they never become undetected.


That's what I thought.. I'm doing something wrong then. Okay I'll try different things, and older versions of atiflash. Thanks for that info.


----------



## kithylin

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *TheLAWNOOB*
> 
> Maybe try plugging it in another slot or something. The card should be detected as long as you have the right version of ATIFLASH.
> 
> Make sure the version you have supports the 6870.
> 
> I flashed bad BIOSes to cards every once a while, and they never become undetected.


Okay well I finally got around to working on this again. I've tried every possible version of winflash and ms-dos atiflash from the most current back to a version from 2009 (the card was released in 2010, so no point in trying anything back beyond that) and still getting "Adapter not found" when either doing -i (show all cards in system) or just force flashing with -f -p0 file.rom.

All I did was download a bios for a different HD 6870 from Techpowerup bios database and flashed it to my Sapphire HD6870 card with atiwinflash.... and now I can't flash the stock back to it. Nothing sees it, not in dos not in windows.. is my card totally bricked?

I'm using an older AMD 590-SLI motherboard with a PCI video card and the 6870 in PCIE 16x slot #0.. and I've tried it in the other slot as well, nothing there either.

I'm sort of at a loss by now









Anyone have any ideas?


----------



## gohaun

I have now tried to do the Sapphire 5750 within windows 10. 3 different computers, and at least I get this on 2 of the 3. The other one I cant select the IGD and boot into windows 10. Its an old Q8300 so oh well.



I get this program has stopped responding, and this is the output.

Not sure other than doing the DOS and ATIFLASH option.
But I feel like I should be able to do this in windows 10 command prompt running as administrator.

Any help would be amazing.


----------



## kithylin

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *gohaun*
> 
> I have now tried to do the Sapphire 5750 within windows 10. 3 different computers, and at least I get this on 2 of the 3. The other one I cant select the IGD and boot into windows 10. Its an old Q8300 so oh well.
> 
> 
> 
> I get this program has stopped responding, and this is the output.
> 
> Not sure other than doing the DOS and ATIFLASH option.
> But I feel like I should be able to do this in windows 10 command prompt running as administrator.
> 
> Any help would be amazing.


It looks like it's completing correctly both times I think?


----------



## gohaun

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *kithylin*
> 
> It looks like it's completing correctly both times I think?


That is what I was thinking, but I guess Ill just have to put it in the mac and test it.


----------



## kithylin

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *gohaun*
> 
> That is what I was thinking, but I guess Ill just have to put it in the mac and test it.


Did it work out for you?


----------



## gohaun

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *kithylin*
> 
> Did it work out for you?


I will have to wait to get one of the production machines over the weekend. *crosses fingers*


----------



## gohaun

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *kithylin*
> 
> Did it work out for you?


That would be a no. I tried both of the DVI outputs. I hear the chime waited about 2 minutes and still no image.
I guess ill see if I can do the ms dos option now this weekend.

EDIT: I made a freedos bootable usb drive and dropped the folder into that usb. I cant run the program in DOS.
Welp back to the drawing board.

Note: I am still able to use it in windows without an issue as far as I can tell.


----------



## TIDI

Hello. I'm getting this error 

EDITED : This is when I do the method posted here, Nothing happens.

I get this error when I try opening ATIWinFlash 

When I flashed the rom it booted into windows normally. No black screens no nothing but its recognised as a generic driver.
AIDA64 

When I try opening catalyst 

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.


----------



## Chimericat

Hi, I have 8 XFX AMD Radeon RX580s, two Crimson and six White. They have been nothing but problems. As in this thread and the youtube video posted below, all over the internet there are resources showing how overclocking can result in 27-30 Mh/s mining rates with these GPUs. However, I have not seen anyone report consistent results after long periods of mining. In my hands, I can achieve stable mining for a few days to a week. However, I am currently left with 6 "bricked" cards. First, each showed strange, inconsistent operation. For instance, the computer would crash, with some of the cards left with LEDs on and fans spinning, others completely lights out as would be expected with the motherboard off. In another case, the card would run but the fans would not, so the card would start at a a high speed, then quickly drop to zero because I limited the temp to 71C. In each case, I would switch the bios back to the stock position. Sometimes this worked, sometimes not. When I was able to still recognize the card in the stock bios switch position, I would flip the switch back to the position I switch the bios and re-flash with the saved stock bios. After confirming the card was stable with the re-flashed stock bios, I tried re-flashing the modded bios (eg what it shown in this video using Polaris Bios Editor and ATIwinflash). Once again, I would get good operation for a while.. But ultimately, I am now left with 6 bricked cards unable to mine, the hardness for ether is doubled, the price of ether is half, and I've wasted over 100 hours troubleshooting and stuck with a three thousand dollar credit card bill. After over a month, I've earned only 1.4 ethereum.﻿

The whole endeavor has been a lesson in the pain of noobery and why not to do projects outside of my wheelhouse. I knew there was a risk in the volatility of the currency, but had no idea how fringy the mining technology is. Running 6 or more overclocked GPUs is presented as legitimate, but in reality it appear we are pushing these machines to beyond what they are designed to do. Thus, there is a huge risk that the calculated ROI on paper will unlikely become reality.

Ultimately, I realize that my personal experience is a "one off", but the whole endeavor is unscientific because everything we find on the internet is self-reported and there is rarely follow up from users over the long term with users who report "success" after finally getting a system running, as I did, with a modded bios.

A review of how terrible these particular RX580's are:


----------



## Chimericat

*Here are the details:*

Steps taken to mod bios (this worked fine with the Sapphire RX580):
*1)* Open GPU-Z and look at the memory type, make sure it's Hynix.
*2)* Open ATI Win Flash (right-click, open as Administrator), and save the original BIOS.
*3)* Power down computer, flip the super tiny little switch next to the power cables towards the ports on the back (i.e., towards the HDMI), power up computer. I also opened Claymore's here, just to see that the one card got ~22.5Mh/s.
*4)* Open ATI Win Flash again (as administrator), save the original "silent" BIOS
*5)* Open Polaris BIOS Editor v1.4, open the original "silent" BIOS you just saved, and in the bottom right window, edit the 2:1750, 2:2000, and 2:2250 timings to have the following value:777000000000000022AA1C00B56A6D46C0551017BE8E060C006AE6000C081420EA8900AB030000001B162C31C0313F17 Save the file as a "modded" BIOS file (Don't save over the original...) NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU DO THE 2:xxxx TIMINGS! There are two sets of them, 1:xxxx and 2:xxxx. Do the second set only (the last 3 entries in that little window)
*6)* Go back to ATI Win Flash, Program the card 7) Reboot, open Claymore's and make sure it's now ~29Mh/s 8) Unplug that card from the PCI, do the next one

*Software*: Claymore's Dual Miner v9.4 on Windows 10. PolarisBios BiosEditor v1.4
*System*: GPUs: AMD Radeon™ RX 580 GTR Black Edition 8GB Crimson. BestBuy Part No: RX-580P8DBRR or AMD Radeon™ RX 580 GTR XXX Edition 8GB White. BestBuy Part No: RX-580P8DFWR *Motherboard*: Asus Prime Z270-A, running 5 or 6 on PCI slots depending on stability, 1 on M2.2 with adapter.
RAM: 16 GB GDDR5 *PCIE risers*: Mintcell (Amazon) 4-Pack PCIe VER 006C PCI-E 16x to 1x Powered Riser Adapter Card w/ 60cm USB 3.0 Extension Cable & 6-Pin PCI-E to SATA Power Cable *PowerSupply*: Roswell 1500W (plenty of power, correct stock cables for power required)


----------



## kithylin

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Chimericat*
> 
> Hi, I have 8 XFX AMD Radeon RX580s, two Crimson and six White. They have been nothing but problems. As in this thread and the youtube video posted below, all over the internet there are resources showing how overclocking can result in 27-30 Mh/s mining rates with these GPUs. However, I have not seen anyone report consistent results after long periods of mining. In my hands, I can achieve stable mining for a few days to a week. However, I am currently left with 6 "bricked" cards. First, each showed strange, inconsistent operation. For instance, the computer would crash, with some of the cards left with LEDs on and fans spinning, others completely lights out as would be expected with the motherboard off. In another case, the card would run but the fans would not, so the card would start at a a high speed, then quickly drop to zero because I limited the temp to 71C. In each case, I would switch the bios back to the stock position. Sometimes this worked, sometimes not. When I was able to still recognize the card in the stock bios switch position, I would flip the switch back to the position I switch the bios and re-flash with the saved stock bios. After confirming the card was stable with the re-flashed stock bios, I tried re-flashing the modded bios (eg what it shown in this video using Polaris Bios Editor and ATIwinflash). Once again, I would get good operation for a while.. But ultimately, I am now left with 6 bricked cards unable to mine, the hardness for ether is doubled, the price of ether is half, and I've wasted over 100 hours troubleshooting and stuck with a three thousand dollar credit card bill. After over a month, I've earned only 1.4 ethereum.﻿
> 
> The whole endeavor has been a lesson in the pain of noobery and why not to do projects outside of my wheelhouse. I knew there was a risk in the volatility of the currency, but had no idea how fringy the mining technology is. Running 6 or more overclocked GPUs is presented as legitimate, but in reality it appear we are pushing these machines to beyond what they are designed to do. Thus, there is a huge risk that the calculated ROI on paper will unlikely become reality.
> 
> Ultimately, I realize that my personal experience is a "one off", but the whole endeavor is unscientific because everything we find on the internet is self-reported and there is rarely follow up from users over the long term with users who report "success" after finally getting a system running, as I did, with a modded bios.
> 
> A review of how terrible these particular RX580's are:


As with anything, "Mining", you are running -CONSUMER- grade video cards Waaaaaaaay outside of their designed operating parameters. Consumer video cards are -NOT- designed to operate @ 100% load 24-7-365. It's no surprise that they're dying when used for mining.

I'm sure you should know in your head when you started it that there's a very high chance of gpu failure when you try to mine with consumer cards. That's pretty much a "Given" acceptable risk with "Mining" things.

If you want a gpu to handle that sort of load consistently without failure look towards AMD FirePro or Titan or Tesla series cards. They're more robust in their components and actually designed for that sort of thing.

In short: It's not a fault of the card or the hardware or anything to do with that. The cards work great for what they're designed for.. they're not designed for the kind of load mining puts on them. So don't be surprised if your cards die spontaneously or stop working when you're mining. You're artificially trying to kill them faster than normal by mining em.


----------



## Chimericat

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *kithylin*
> 
> As with anything, "Mining", you are running -CONSUMER- grade video cards Waaaaaaaay outside of their designed operating parameters. Consumer video cards are -NOT- designed to operate @ 100% load 24-7-365. It's no surprise that they're dying when used for mining.
> 
> I'm sure you should know in your head when you started it that there's a very high chance of gpu failure when you try to mine with consumer cards. That's pretty much a "Given" acceptable risk with "Mining" things.
> 
> If you want a gpu to handle that sort of load consistently without failure look towards AMD FirePro or Titan or Tesla series cards. They're more robust in their components and actually designed for that sort of thing.
> 
> In short: It's not a fault of the card or the hardware or anything to do with that. The cards work great for what they're designed for.. they're not designed for the kind of load mining puts on them. So don't be surprised if your cards die spontaneously or stop working when you're mining. You're artificially trying to kill them faster than normal by mining em.


What you've written above all totally make sense. However, after "doing my research" and finding a plethora of examples online of people running 6+ cards of this style at full capacity for the purpose of mining, it seemed like there was a precedent. After all, these cards aren't even available because the demand is so high for mining. On the other hand, if they are failing at the rate that mine have been, then no one is even breaking even, regardless of the stability of the currency value. I was explaining this to someone yesterday as welding together a string of VW beetles instead of using an actual 18 wheel big rig to haul a large load. The trouble with using graphic cards that cost thousands of dollars is the ROI, of course. You get the stability and higher hashrate, but one will never pay off their rig let alone profit with that kind of investment. So.. basically what this all amounts to is that the premise behind GPU mining is flawed?

*Update*: Today I was able to get 5 out of 7 of the "failed" RX580s to be recogized when I plugged them directly into the PCIe x16 slot, one at a time. I then used ATIWinFlash at the command line and the "-f -p" commands to force re-flash the stock bios, for both switch positions. After each bios flash, I ran Claymore to confirm I was getting the stock 22Mh/s and that the card was stable again. NOW... (after another half day of wasted effort) I will try re-installing them one at a time. The problem could be my PCI risers... they are notorious for failing due to poor craftsmanship, although those that I purchased have decent reviews.


----------



## Chimericat

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Chimericat*
> 
> What you've written above all totally make sense. However, after "doing my research" and finding a plethora of examples online of people running 6+ cards of this style at full capacity for the purpose of mining, it seemed like there was a precedent. After all, these cards aren't even available because the demand is so high for mining. On the other hand, if they are failing at the rate that mine have been, then no one is even breaking even, regardless of the stability of the currency value. I was explaining this to someone yesterday as welding together a string of VW beetles instead of using an actual 18 wheel big rig to haul a large load. The trouble with using graphic cards that cost thousands of dollars is the ROI, of course. You get the stability and higher hashrate, but one will never pay off their rig let alone profit with that kind of investment. So.. basically what this all amounts to is that the premise behind GPU mining is flawed?
> 
> *Update*: Today I was able to get 5 out of 7 of the "failed" RX580s to be recogized when I plugged them directly into the PCIe x16 slot, one at a time. I then used ATIWinFlash at the command line and the "-f -p" commands to force re-flash the stock bios, for both switch positions. After each bios flash, I ran Claymore to confirm I was getting the stock 22Mh/s and that the card was stable again. NOW... (after another half day of wasted effort) I will try re-installing them one at a time. The problem could be my PCI risers... they are notorious for failing due to poor craftsmanship, although those that I purchased have decent reviews.


*Update #2* _*The issue does not appear related to overclocking or failed hardware*_

Since the issue results in Claymores hanging up, I am currently trying "-r 60" to refresh Claymores every hour. It is so strange.. One by one I reprogrammed the bios on every card using ATIwinflash at the command line (because in Win the cards were often not recognized) using the saved original bios with them plugged directly into the 1st PCI slot to eliminate possible issues with the risers. Many times the cards were still not recognized, but using their HDMI ports for running the display seemed to force them to be recognized. Once they all were working consistently individually by testing using Claymores, I physicallyremoved them all, restarted, and then also removed all the AMD drivers from Windows 10 using the "Display Driver Uninstaller" program. Then I plugged all 5 GPUs back into the risers and restarted so that they all loaded with the default windows driver. Then I followed by updating the driver manually to the patched driver available from the youtube user "cryptomined". I was so happy they ran successfully about 18h, even though it was the stock 22Mh/s rate! But then they crashed showing the same behavior as before. (eg Claymores and Win freezes, 4 out of 5 GPUs have fans spinning) After lots of troubleshooting, I found in Windows event viewer the following System error repeating over and over before 4 out of 5 GPUs crashed, "Warning - Source: Display Event ID: 4101 "Display driver amdkmdap stopped responding and successfully recovered". After that, I again unplugged all GPUs and risers, removed all drivers, then reinstalled all GPUs and drivers. Interestingly, again the hashrates and stability is restored to the stock values, at least for now. My conclusions from today are that the problem is hopefully not the GPUs, but something with the software/drivers. I am running 2 Crimson and 4 Black/white xfx amd 580s with the same bios and drivers. One possible issue I am pondering is whether they have different bios and I made the mistake of saving only one "original" which I have used to update both the Crimson and Black/white. Similarly, I don't know if it is incorrect to apply the same drivers to both versions of these GPUs. I don't think this is the issue though because there is still one card that never shows the problem the four others do! Sorry for the long reply. I just want to be thorough because I know there is something I am missing, but I think I am on the right track. Hopefully regularly re-starting Claymores solves the issue, but I am not holding my breath!﻿


----------



## kithylin

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Chimericat*
> 
> *Update #2* _*The issue does not appear related to overclocking or failed hardware*_
> 
> Since the issue results in Claymores hanging up, I am currently trying "-r 60" to refresh Claymores every hour. It is so strange.. One by one I reprogrammed the bios on every card using ATIwinflash at the command line (because in Win the cards were often not recognized) using the saved original bios with them plugged directly into the 1st PCI slot to eliminate possible issues with the risers. Many times the cards were still not recognized, but using their HDMI ports for running the display seemed to force them to be recognized. Once they all were working consistently individually by testing using Claymores, I physicallyremoved them all, restarted, and then also removed all the AMD drivers from Windows 10 using the "Display Driver Uninstaller" program. Then I plugged all 5 GPUs back into the risers and restarted so that they all loaded with the default windows driver. Then I followed by updating the driver manually to the patched driver available from the youtube user "cryptomined". I was so happy they ran successfully about 18h, even though it was the stock 22Mh/s rate! But then they crashed showing the same behavior as before. (eg Claymores and Win freezes, 4 out of 5 GPUs have fans spinning) After lots of troubleshooting, I found in Windows event viewer the following System error repeating over and over before 4 out of 5 GPUs crashed, "Warning - Source: Display Event ID: 4101 "Display driver amdkmdap stopped responding and successfully recovered". After that, I again unplugged all GPUs and risers, removed all drivers, then reinstalled all GPUs and drivers. Interestingly, again the hashrates and stability is restored to the stock values, at least for now. My conclusions from today are that the problem is hopefully not the GPUs, but something with the software/drivers. I am running 2 Crimson and 4 Black/white xfx amd 580s with the same bios and drivers. One possible issue I am pondering is whether they have different bios and I made the mistake of saving only one "original" which I have used to update both the Crimson and Black/white. Similarly, I don't know if it is incorrect to apply the same drivers to both versions of these GPUs. I don't think this is the issue though because there is still one card that never shows the problem the four others do! Sorry for the long reply. I just want to be thorough because I know there is something I am missing, but I think I am on the right track. Hopefully regularly re-starting Claymores solves the issue, but I am not holding my breath!﻿


I don't want to appear rude.. and... please I hope you don't see my post as being rude, but.. I think in general you are probably not going to find much help here on OCN for your issue mining. Most people on overclock.net are gamers or world record hunting overclockers. I might suggest you try to find a mining forum and ask there. However, if you want to try... In the very least I would suggest starting your own thread for this issue in one of the video card sections here on OCN and perhaps someone may help you there.

I don't believe your issues are anything to do with ATI Winflash in this thread.


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## Chimericat

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *kithylin*
> 
> I don't want to appear rude.. and... please I hope you don't see my post as being rude, but.. I think in general you are probably not going to find much help here on OCN for your issue mining. Most people on overclock.net are gamers or world record hunting overclockers. I might suggest you try to find a mining forum and ask there. However, if you want to try... In the very least I would suggest starting your own thread for this issue in one of the video card sections here on OCN and perhaps someone may help you there.
> 
> I don't believe your issues are anything to do with ATI Winflash in this thread.


Hi Kithlyn,







Thank you for taking the time to fill me in. I am new to this site and appreciate your directness. It is sometimes difficult to tell whether one is being redundant when starting new threads, which seems to be highly discouraged in online forums. However, I can see how my posts are very tangential to the spirit of this thread. To be clear, the reason I posted here originally is because I believed my problem was directly related to my inability to get ATIwinflash to recognize my cards. I still have two cards that I cannot seem to update the bios with the original because they are not recognized. Ultimately, I really appreciate the info on this thread because it allowed me to access the GPU bios in the command line and get 5 out of 7 of my bricked cards working again. Whether I am using them for gaming or mining, I think it at least relates to flashing the bios. It is true that at this point I believe the (possible) issue with the bios (plural?) is secondary to a driver or other issue. Thanks again for the advice for starting another thread, which I will do. I am also posting on relevant youtube videos, reddit /r/ethermining, bitcoin forum, and ethereum community forum. If you know of any others please let me know since I am clearly a noob!


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## whitrzac

Is the PCIe slot ## the 1st slot, or the 'primary' slot?

Most mobos the first slot is a 1x, slot 2 is the 'primary' 16x, etc.


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## kithylin

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *whitrzac*
> 
> Is the PCIe slot ## the 1st slot, or the 'primary' slot?
> 
> Most mobos the first slot is a 1x, slot 2 is the 'primary' 16x, etc.


In what exactly are you referring to? The last post here was 5 months ago.


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## escape75

I have a Sapphire R9 285 ITX with the dual bios switch,
and every time I program the UEFI rom and then read the UEFI rom back, the following bytes are changed:

00000021: 7A 91
00000261: 5D 5E
00000263: 0F 2F
00000264: 10 D8

So if I program a dump from techpowerup and read it back it changes as well ...

(If I program the non UEFI version it's always the same)

Any ideas?

Everything still works fine, possibly the dump is not right on techpowerup ?


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## red8

Hey guys I need some help please! My rx 580 nitro 8gb card is doa or something. The pc boots but the screen doesn't turn on for me with hdmi or display port. The gpus fans spin up for a sec then stop but the sapphire logo is still on the entire time. When I ran it with my other cards it did the same thing and just doesn't seem to work or register in device manager. I've tried to flash the bios to see if I could fix it through the atiflash from launch with a external hdd and the card still isn't registering with my pc??? What should I do? I saw there was a solder jump I could try but I can't seem to find a way or guide to do it. Is there anything I could possibly do? I know I won't get another back if I send it back due to the scarce supply so all help is appreciated!


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## Zer0drago

*Flasg gpu 11,12,13*

How to flash gpu 11,12 and 13 using command line? It only detects 10 even if I have 13.


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## kithylin

Zer0drago said:


> How to flash gpu 11,12 and 13 using command line? It only detects 10 even if I have 13.


Correct, the flash tool only detects up to 10 gpu's to sort through. You'll have to flash the remaining 3 in a different system, or remove 3 and then flash those three then put all 13 back.


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## connorstair

Thanks for the guide, I flashed my vega 56 to a vega 64.


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## kithylin

connorstair said:


> Thanks for the guide, I flashed my vega 56 to a vega 64.


I'm not sure what you did but whatever it is you did.. you can't flash a Vega56 to Vega64. They're not the same card and physically different with different shader core counts. It's not possible to just flash up a card like that.


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## Pandabird

Thanks!

Used this guide to successfully upgrade my Asus Matrix 7970 HD into a Asus ROG Matrix R9 280x Platinum.

Yes there's an actual performance increase by doing this, and tbh i'm quite baffled this was real. Wish i had known i had an R9 in my computer years ago 

Old BIOS vs New bios:


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## geronimo

hi,

what exactly does it mean when I get ID mismatch while trying to flash BIOS? I tried ATIwinflash v2.93 and older v2.87 (run as admin), under Win7. 

I'm trying to flash my MSI Radeon RX Vega 56 AIR BOOST 8G OC (samsung HBM) with vega 64 bios taken from techpowerup database. I'm using MSI RX Vega 64 8 GB BIOS (Air Boost OC) from here:

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/201941/msi-rxvega64-8192-171212

I've set the switch to the front position away from the back ports because that one says in GPU-z 150w but it seems that's the wrong one. is that why I get this ID error cos that's the bios that is protected?
The other position toward the back ports that I've been using this whole time is the 165W according to GPU-z.

Is there some specific difference between 2 BIOS except that one is supposedly write protected? I'm using AMD memory tweak so I don't care if the clocks are different. also I don't need more than +50% power (I'm on stock cooler and thinking of Morpheus Vega if I get this done successfully).

I want to try to do this cos I want to try to get my VRAM higher. I have Sammy HBM. the card is C3 rev if that matters.

I know about all the stories about dead HDMI/DP ports after flashing etc. I'm not sure what is the difference between these card's and what causes sometimes failure in this operation. I presume that using ATIflash under CMD is forcing the thing without protections and that's what goes wrong with all these cards?

thanks.


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