Radeon BIOS flash ****ed up my card...

[Grahf]

Hi.

I have an HIS Excalibur Radeon 9800pro ICEQ.

Some months ago, I flashed the bios of the video card using flashrom, went through the correct procedure etc....and I flashed it with this BIOS->
Gigacube.9800PRO.128.Samsung.bin


These BIOS seemed to help my card at the time; as I enjoyed higher default clock speeds and what seemed to be more stability when OCing.

Ever since doing that I have experienced a few problems (which may or may not be related to flashing the BIOS but I'm starting to think they are).

issue 1) From time to time, when I boot my computer in the morning, I get total display corruption in the form of vertical lines and garbled images. This appears in the BIOS POST as well as on the OS.
It very closely resembles the problem in this thread-->
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread....lay+corruption

After rebooting several times or turning off the computer and waiting several minutes, the problem goes away.

ALSO, my screen just goes black from time to time for no apparent reason at all. Computer makes normal noise and nothing seems wrong.

issue 2) For the past several months since flashing the video card bios, I have had extreme graphical corruption in MOST 3D games. Strangely enough (and inexplicably) the problem seems to be apparent far more in some games than others.
The problem is most apparent in World War II Online, Day of Defeat (all HL mods), and Battlefield Vietnam.
The problem doesn't seem to exist at all in Morrowind, Battlefield 1942, Call of Duty, and UT2004.
It exists somewhat in other games like America's Army and Dawn of War, but it is not as pronounced.

ODDLY ENOUGH, the problem seems significantly less pronounced if triple buffering and v-sync are OFF.

Here are screenshots:
http://www.prequel-spoilers.com/ogl-prob1.jpg
http://www.prequel-spoilers.com/ogl-prob2.jpg
http://www.prequel-spoilers.com/ogl-prob3.jpg
http://www.prequel-spoilers.com/ogl-prob4.jpg
http://www.prequel-spoilers.com/ogl-prob5.jpg
http://www.prequel-spoilers.com/ogl-prob6.jpg

----
Now then.

At first I thought this might be the PSU.

I was using a cheap 400 watt PSU.....just yesterday I installed a brand spanking new PSU: Enermax Noisetaker 420 watt.
I have two hard drives (one IDE, one SATA), one wireless network card, and one sound card (SB Audigy 2). Other than the gfx card, THAT'S IT.

The problem still exists.
So it's NOT the PSU.

Now....

I ERASED THE BACKUP.BIN I MADE OF THE ORIGINAL BIOS WHEN FLASHING.
Searching for the floppy, I realize I must have copied over it in the last few months.
If I remember correctly, the BIOS was Hynix (I remember doing a BIOS dump with ATItool), so I just downloaded the HIS Radeon 9800 PRO 128mb HYNIX DDR bios from www.techpowerup.com/bios

After flashing the card with these BIOS(and now it has the original default clock speeds)..........I STILL HAVE THE SAME PROBLEMS!!! ARGHHHHH



Please help.

[Evil-Taco]

I think your memory is bad. In you first sentence you said you used 'Gigacube.9800PRO.128.Samsung.bin'. Then you say you reflashed it with 'HIS Radeon 9800 PRO 128mb HYNIX DDR bios.

Those are different rams. By flashing it with samsung ram bios you dammaged your ram.

There is no way to fix it, sorry

[Grahf]

You may be right and that could be the case....

....but to play the role of skeptic;

It's been widely reported that the Gigacube Samsung bios were COMPATIBLE and in fact RECOMMENDED for the HIS Excalibur Radeon9800 ICEQ.


The Samsung BIOS were highly recommended to me, and so I used them on the advice of owners of the same card.


I should mention that my chip is R350, NOT R360.

Which BIOS should I be using?...

[Grahf]

OK I JUST FOUND OUT WHAT MY ORIGINAL BIOS WAS

R350 Hynix DDR BIOS - P/N 113-A07521-104

I found it out from this thread I posted in before I ever flashed my BIOS->
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread....threadid=98023


BUT HERE'S THE PROBLEM....

I CAN'T FIND THE BIOS AT WWW.TECHPOWERUP.COM/BIOS

The closest I could find was
R350 Hynix DDR BIOS - P/N 113-A07521-102

But I need
R350 Hynix DDR BIOS - P/N 113-A07521-104


Someone please help....
Can anyone provide me with the correct BIOS?


EDIT:

OK I JUST FOUND THE CORRECT BIOS.

Sapphire was the only one that had them. Opened the bin with notepad and it is indeed the correct one (104).

FLASHING NOW! WISH ME LUCK!!

[Six Shooter]

I think the R350 Hynix DDR BIOS - P/N 113-A07521-102
will do.

EDIT: Okay, just saw your edit. Good luck, dude.

[Evil-Taco]

Dude, the fact remains that you flashed you card with the wrong type of bios for your ram. And it ran for 2 months i doubt anything will bring it back.

[Grahf]

Originally posted by Evil-Taco
Dude, the fact remains that you flashed you card with the wrong type of bios for your ram. And it ran for 2 months i doubt anything will bring it back.

Taco, I admit, I admit...you might be right.

But the fact also remains that people with the HIS Excalibur Radeon9800PRO ICEQ (HYNIX VRAM) have ALSO flashed their cards with those Samsung BIOS I used and they didn't experience any problems.

[Grahf]

BTW:

Yep you were right Taco.

I'm now using the original BIOS but I still have the same f*cked up problems.
Ah well.

Too late to RMA, looks like I'm out $200.

[Evil-Taco]

Thats why they say to use the same memory as your card has, i dont know why anyone would say other wise, even if it did work.

[Psychlone]

Just like he said, the Sam E-Die BIOS is favored over others for the HIS IceQ 9800Pro.
I have had 2 HIS IceQ 9800Pros, both flashed with the Samsung E-Die BIOS, and had aboslutely NO problems at all.
The BIOS allows for higher overclocks on the mem for both of my cards also.
Sounds like something went wrong somewhere...maybe a manufacturing defect, maybe a static discharge (?) -- I don't know, but in his defense, my 2 HIS IceQ 9800Pro run BETTER with the E-Die BIOS than the stock one...BY FAR!
(By the way, I do have the original .bin for the HIS, but have no way to upload it, and you have already found it.)
Just out of curiousity, did you remove the hs?
I found with an old Sapphire 9500Pro, that I had tightened the hs mounting screws a little too far and imperceptibly cracked the core. I wasn't able to salvage it, but it was a great lesson in how to screw up a good card, even though I was VERY careful.
If you did remove the hs, maybe try loosening the screws just a little and see if that helps.
Sorry for your misfortune. (?)
Psychlone

[Psychlone]

I just reviewed your 1st post and every screenlink you had there. EVERY SINGLE PIC that you have there are CORE thrown artifacts, supporting my theory about overtightened heatsink screws. -- I've seen this SAME EXACT problem with my old 9500Pro, just before it became unsalvageable. Right after it was doing what your pix show, along with the BIOS DOS screens on bootup intermittently, etc. - it started with some very light blue vertical lines...then graduated to as many vertical lines as to cover the screen, then they darkened, then there were varying colors of red vertical lines between them and overlapping.
I pulled the card and checked it over and over, but the damage was already done...under a heavy duty magnifying glass and some really bright light, I finally was able to see a crack in the core itself...VERY tiny, much smaller than a human hair, running across a small portion of the core...looked like a VER fine scratch, but AS3 stayed in there even after cleaning it with alcohol and swabs. Plain to see once I saw it, but completely unnoticeable all the other times I removed the hs.
Check yours out. At the VERY LEAST loosen your screws a quarter turn or so (not enough to make the hs loose, but not tight either) and just see if that may help.
Hope this does help you out...I know I wish someone had told me about tightening those screws before I did it!
Make sure when tightening the screws, that you do it like tightening lug nuts on a car...1st one, then the other, then slightly snug down the first, then the other.
Psychlone

[Grahf]

Thank you for your help Psychlone. You are a good man.

It seems I've jumped to conclusions regarding the card because I have a major newsflash....

IT'S NOT THE CARD. IT'S NOT THE VRAM. IT'S NOT THE BIOS.

I just swapped the Radeon 9800PRO with a friend and I'm now using his FX5900.

We put the 9800PRO into his system and guess what??....

It works beautifully!!

No bugs, no corruption, nothing.
We tried it with the VERY SAME games, same settings and everything.
WORKS FINE.

I put the FX5900 into my system and guess what??...

It ALSO works beautifully!!!


................I have no friggin clue what is going on here.
When I had the ATI card I reinstalled it with different drivers many times in an effort to fix the problem but it never worked.
Now of all a sudden I put it in a different system and it works fine???
And why does the Nvidia card work perfectly on my machine if it's my system that's screwed up????

Doesn't make sense at all.


I'm thinking I'm gonna reformat and do a fresh Windows XP install and then get my ATI card back. I'm not an Nvidia person.

[weiran]

Strange, never seen driver problems do this before...

[Drunkenmasta]

I dunno bro, it MAY br your mobo and his mobo that is making this difference....

Temperature can be funny also....what kind of cooling is there on your system? (besides the HiS on 9800 pro)

P.S lol, I don't blame you for not being an Nvidia person, their FX range was completely SH*T. I had to wait over a year for them to release something good (6800) so I could upgrade my Ti lol. Otherwise it would have been the 9800 pro for me too!

Pz out man! Good luck!

[Psychlone]

Well, since the card works in his system, and you're planning on a reformat anyway, GET YOUR 9800Pro BACK!
In my opinion, a 9800Pro is NO TRADE for a 5900!
You should be able to use it fine if it works in his system.
Anyway, get back your investment!

Psychlone