Flashing Cards. People still have problems. This might help.

Chouji · *Last edited by Chouji; 06-12-2004 at 06:48.*

Do not erase the EEPROM Ever!!!!"
Do not erase the EEPROM Ever!!!!"
Do not erase the EEPROM Ever!!!!"
Do not erase the EEPROM Ever!!!!"

Flashing s only for 5900 series cards!Click here.

No! Off Topic post no matter what it is. And follow the guidelines please.

Read this whole entire post at lease twice or your going to F up a 200$+ video card. So dont be a moron and read it.

Updated: Small update on 3/16/2004 (m/d/yyyy)

Update: Do not erase the EEPROM Ever!!!!"

Update: Use Nvflash 4.41 NOT!!!!!!!! 4.46
4.41 good.
4.46 bad
Get it? got it? good!

No asking for bios. no asking for any flashers or kind of software.
We may post links and stuff willingly but not to request.
And PLEASE dont flood this with useless post.. I want to keep it simple for those who actually need help. post questions willingly.

This will help those of you who need help flashing you cards. This is incomplete but pretty good. Feel free to add comments. Do not ask for Bios files here. There are other threads with links. Feel free to post links. just dont ask for links.

New Edit: before we get started many people ask why flash, why not just overclock.. well heres why.
When you flash your 5900nu/u to 5950u it raises the core voltage which allows higher overclocking and stability. which also creates more heat.
"but heat is bad i dont wanna flash it"
well heres the thing, the leadtech and many new bios's have something that speeds up the fans to the correct levels.
most people experience lower temps AFTER flashing.. "how did that come to be you ask" well obviously when the fans speed up it increases airflow most 5900s have very good stock cooling. "except the creative 3d labs, i was unimpressed"
soo... only downside to the higher fan speed is more noise.. but when the noise is the same of an actual 5950 how can you complain.. your not spending 450$ for a card more like under 200$ USD

Many people have 300watt Power suplies cause thats what many of the 5900nu's require, well get yourself a bigger psu.. its almost common sense now.. get at lease a 350watt 400 to be safe 500 to be withing the grasp of bliss.

5900nu/u to 5950u list, incomplete
Ok from what i've seen on other forums. the types that will work are
BFG 5900nu, 5900u,
Leadteks 350+ 5900nu and 5900u,
Gainward 5900nu&u,
PNY 5900nu/u,
eVga same as always..
MSI 5900s, these are testy and mean but they are flashable. Albatron
Gigabyte select 5900s such as U and NU,
XFX brands.
Chaintech,
Asus,
Aopen.
Prolink Pixelviews work too.
and even a couple people got a Jaton brand cards to work.

Click! --> Ok listen people FX5900 SE/XT/LX info, Read now! <-- Click!

5900SE and XT cards MAY or MAYNOT be flashable and usable. though your more then welcome to try.
To get started Flashing your bios. Please correct me if i make any mistakes.

Rename your bios file of the rom to A380u.rom or File.rom depends whats easier for you.

Copy your flashing program and the rom/s you want to flash to a blank floppy. may it be nvflash or WFFLASH your choice. i dont care.

Get ahold of a windows 98/ME boot disk and boot to dos it will probably give your choices. soo go ahead and boot to dos. (restart computer with boot disk in floppy drive)

Once in dos and you have your A:\ command prompt. (if you have C:\ or something else. just type a: then hit enter)

eject the boot disk and incert the disk with your flash software and bios rom files. then type "DIR" without quotes then hit enter it will list your files on that drive just for spelling and refrence purposes.

!!! DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHATS GOING ON HERE OR IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING ASK A FRIEND THAT KNOWS!!! I can not stress this enough! If i assume something that means im not 100% sure other people can correct me on this.

!!!Flashing with WFFLASH.exe from leadtek's site.

Prefered flash device was WFFlash (-s backup.rom, to save backup of your original)

1) A:\WFFLASH.exe -s backup.rom [Enter] (to backup just incase)

2) A:\WFFLASH.exe file.rom [Enter] (to write the file to card)

if that does not work, i hear some people can make it work this way \/

2) A:\WFFLASH.exe NM File.rom [Enter]

!!!Flashing with NVFLASH Use NvFlash version 4.41

1) A:\nvflash -b backup.rom [Enter] (to backup the rom)

2) A:\nvflash -p -u -f file.rom [Enter] (or A380u.rom this is to write it)

If error messages then you can though i would not advice going on
2*) A:\nvflash -5 -f file.rom [Enter]

if more errors, then
2*) A:\nvflash -5 -6 -f file.rom [Enter]

If you get write errors try to remove the write protect as in
A:\nvflash -r [Enter]

Some NVflash.exe commands alot of people are asking

-f <filename> "to flash the file, place before bios file name must include extinsion .rom .bios ect.."

-b <filname> "to backup the one currently on the card"

-y "reboot system place at very end, though this is not advized"

-a "list all nvidia display addapters found on the system"

-r "to remove bios protection, thanks Spuk0 for this infomation"

-i <index> "Force a specific device index.. not sure but i think this is before the flash command so you only flash the card you want if you have multiple nvidia cards in -a should show the cards"

Sample usage:
nvflash -n=1 -f nv30nz.rom [Enter] "to flash a certain card i assume."

-n "Bypass the PCI BIOS. i assume so this does not flash any pci adapters installed"

!!!if you get error messages and you dont know what your doing STOP and let someone who does know to do it for you or use WFFlash.exe from leadteks site and stuff!!!

nvflash thing its -b to backup the file, and -f to flash. and if you get errors flashing you can use -5 -6 -f file.rom which will bypass the errors but havent tested this myself. x-bios to change the startups of the bios's screen and such. which is nifty. Nice to have a 2 second show of your screen when you computer shows anything you want to say. like "Choujis computer! equiped with bfg 5950 128mb." and such.. its always cool

you can get the bios's at leadteks main website. and you can always google nvflash or wfflash

ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR ORIGINAL BIOS! IF YOUR FLASHING FAILS YOU CAN ALWAYS DO A BLIND FLASH OR USE A PCI VIDEO CARD

A blind flash! i will explain. if you fail in flashing or accidently restart to soon or what not. you can start up your computer you wont be able to see anything.. KEEP the boot disc in the floppy drive, and let your computer load untell the floppy reads NOTE you wont be able to see anything.

If you have questions go ahead and post them, i read this about every couple hours and daily. * is for alternative methods

NVFlash software

Vivo and Flashing fix. Doesnt always work but worth a shot! For those with Problems.

01-11-2004, 16:10 | posts: n/a

Sticky?

Chouji · *Last edited by Chouji; 01-11-2004 at 18:19.*

Any mods want to review this, pm me with any needed corrections or advice. maybe correct my spelling

) and possible make a sticky or make it a temp sticky untell a better thread comes along. this should clear up alot of info..

Chouji · 01-11-2004, 22:59 | posts: 5,564 | Location: In a house, on a hill, by a road.

i just did about 12 flashes on difference cards useing differnt bios's the easiest way is using wfflash from leadtek even if you dont use their bios, but just go a:\wfflash.exe nm romfile.rom
hit enter and boom. it takes like 5 seconds.. tops. and nothing crazy, it even makes its own backups to the floppy called saveold.rom so wfflash is very nice, didnt fail once on 12 different cards..

Easiest Flashing method is using the WFFLASH.exe from leadtech
simply type at the command line

A:\WFFLASH.EXE nm biosfilename.rom

hit enter. it will do the stuff and so forth very easy

now all my cards have their own boot up message for instance one says "from bios editing with x-bios"

The Madness Within Asylum BFG Geforce FX5950 Ultra
128.0MB

Slam · 01-12-2004, 13:45 | posts: 3,037 | Location: Dallas, TX.

Question is, are there any perfomance gains in doing this? My BFG 5900nu is overclocked a good bit.

Chouji · 01-12-2004, 13:51 | posts: 5,564 | Location: In a house, on a hill, by a road.

Yes slam there are great performance gains. 1200 points on 3dmark 2003.. i pesonally did a test though i didnt save the results and i got ~6,150 from a bfg 5900nu to 5950u flash.

Over clocking directly can get you some speed but the bios flash of a leadtech bios will lower temps and speed it up pretty well. and i have the same card, fro your pc specs and OCing, the default 5950 should be 475/950 which is higher then what you have now, and you wont even have temp problems. plus you can OC ONTOP!! of the 5950u defaults to 520/1010 for even higher performance. Flashing is a great touch to an already great card.

01-12-2004, 15:49 | posts: n/a

Hi guys,

I've got an eVGA FX5900 (128 2.2nS RAM) which easily overclocks to the 5950 Ultra speeds and I'm keen to try out the bios update. However, neither the eVGA or nVidia web sites seem to have a BIOS specifically for my card.

Q. Will the A380U BIOS that I downloaded from the Leadtek site work OK on my eVGA FX5900 card?

Fritz

Chouji · 01-12-2004, 16:24 | posts: 5,564 | Location: In a house, on a hill, by a road.

yes it will

everyone!
Msi bios's work best on msi cards
Gainwardbios's work best on gainward cades
Leadtechs bios's work best on all the other cards! including evga and all the others

Try not to post anything without reading the first post completely.

Chouji · 01-12-2004, 17:36 | posts: 5,564 | Location: In a house, on a hill, by a road.

Yes the higher vcore, "core voltage" allows for more stability at higher clocks. people get over 500/1000 easily with such a card i alone got 600/1100 but i use water cooling soo i wouldnt advise trying that.

higher core voltage = more heat, which is canceled out because of the better fan controll, so even though your getting more speed and at higher vcores, your getting lower temps.

only down side is it might be a little bit noisy. thats all. which a little noise is ok when your looking at 1000+ points more on 3dmark 2003

wait tel directx9.1 is out.. big performance boost big big

Chouji · 01-12-2004, 17:51 | posts: 5,564 | Location: In a house, on a hill, by a road.

nope none at all.. not any i noticed anyways.. anyone else have issues?

i think it was only a few select brands.. i will test it later

Victor Morales · 01-12-2004, 19:50 | posts: 1,038 | Location: Miami, FL

I think someone with a 5950 Ultra from evga should post the bios somewhere. I would love to have a bios from the same manufacture not someone elses.

Someone please post one or email it over vmorales@dsli.net

01-12-2004, 20:05 | posts: n/a

I'm with Victor on this one, I'd prefer to get an eVGA bios too tmawson@yahoo.com

Chouji · 01-12-2004, 20:07 | posts: 5,564 | Location: In a house, on a hill, by a road.

please do not post asking for bios's

This will help those of you who need help flashing you cards. This is incomplete but pretty good. Feel free to add comments. Do not ask for Bios files here. There are other threads with links. Feel free to post links. just dont ask for links. was the first thing you see when you get in here. please try to abide by those topic thread guidelines..

funkymonkey · 01-12-2004, 20:26 | posts: 5,527 | Location: Mumbai,India

nice thread.
Gona put link to this in my sticky

01-12-2004, 20:34 | posts: n/a

i have a leadtek a350 5900 and flashed it to a 5950ultra runs a treat but no tv-out any more
been told this firmware will fix it

any chance some one could email me the BFG FX-5950NU.rom

or tell me where i can get it

kello@freeuk.com

cheers

01-12-2004, 20:36 | posts: n/a

This is not a request for a BIOS link

Call us wimps but I think that Victor and I are of similar mindsets in that we are looking for a little bit more certainty that things are gonna be OK than "sure, the Leadtek BIOS works on eVGA cards" before we flash our $225 eVGA FX5900s and turn them into scrap.

So, can anyone confirm that they have flashed an FX5900 eVGA 128Meg card up to 5950 Ultra and had everything work just fine? If so which BIOS did you use please?

"Brave but not stupid" (to quote the guys driving the Mars rovers).

Fritz

Chouji · 01-12-2004, 20:39 | posts: 5,564 | Location: In a house, on a hill, by a road.

i have not tested the evga cards only bfg and the bfg's work fine, i'd get you the bios, but its on another computer, which right now has no cpu.. cause the cpu is in another computer without a video card..

i take them apart alot..

Victor Morales · 01-12-2004, 20:48 | posts: 1,038 | Location: Miami, FL

if you do that you will be king and i would host it and people can download it. Maybe we can start a new thing a bios page for people iw ould be more then happy too.

Chouji · 01-12-2004, 20:54 | posts: 5,564 | Location: In a house, on a hill, by a road.

you do not understand. this is the wrong place. im sure you can find another thread or start your own. your shopping for car parts in a food store.. your in the wrong place...
and it would be queen not king

Victor Morales · 01-12-2004, 20:55 | posts: 1,038 | Location: Miami, FL

lol sorry but u offered

01-13-2004, 04:02 | posts: n/a

I get a board mismatch warning that doesn't allow me to flash, nvflash. I bypass the other two using -5 -6, but don't know what to do now..

EDIT: NVM, WFFLASH SUCCESS

xXMrMeathooksXx · 01-13-2004, 08:19 | posts: 939 | Location: Chico,California

Hey man just use the Leadtek bios...1...2...3 yer done!

xXMrMeathooksXx · 01-13-2004, 08:50 | posts: 939 | Location: Chico,California

Well I flashed everything perfect,took 10 seconds once it was going.All I did was create a bootable disk dident need windoze 98 or none of that.I just chose to format a new disk as a bootable.And like what was said before by other people here,just copy the rom file and wfflash.exe to a seperate floppy.Once in dos just type the commands in and thats it the program does the rest.It was so easy im still amazed

Chouji · 01-13-2004, 09:15 | posts: 5,564 | Location: In a house, on a hill, by a road.

Quote:

Spuk0 wrote on 01-13-2004 01:03 AM:
Um, thought you could add this to your sticky for those of us that seem to have write protection on our EEPROM.

This was discussed in the futuremark thread....

I have an XFX card. WFFLASH does not seem to work for me. In fact the stupid program would not even make a backup of the ROM.

So that leaves NVFLASH. That worked for a backup but again had problems flashing and there seems to be a handful of versions out there.

The guys at FM forum suggest using version 4.41 or 4.42.

Usage parameters to add.

NVFLASH -R for removing write protection.

-P and -U for bypassing Board and Vendor IDs for mismatch problems.

if using 4.42 add extra -2 to bypass board ID.

Anyways I had numerous problems at first, but I may try this tomorrow having just found this out. I do know my EEPROM is write protected also because during this process it wouldn't allow it. I'm mainly interested in seeing if I have lower temps which doesn't make sense but if it flickers I'll flash it back.

Spuk0 had a problem with the wfflash, but i dont know if he had the dos4gw.exe in there cause i think wfflash uses dos4gw to unprotect the bios.

Yes nvflash does work read this if you have problems with the brand protection

01-13-2004, 14:58 | posts: n/a

Are there any new/ better Bios for a BFG asylum GFFX 5600 256mb

currently the bios i have is 4.31.20.38?