ATIFlash "ROM not erased"

Saul · *Last edited by Saul; 03-24-2011 at 17:40.*

Hi all,

I recently bricked my MSI Twin FrozR II R6950 by flashing it to a 6970, only to realise that you can only "upflash" if you have a reference card, so my PC now won't even POST; fortunately I have the backup BIOS. At the moment, I have an old ATI card in the master PCI-E slot, with the broke R6950 in the secondary slot, so then I can boot into FreeDOS, or Windows safemode. However, in DOS when I do:

Code:

atiflash -unlockrom 1
atiflash -f -p 1 backup.bin

I get the following error:

Code:

ROM not erased
Error 0FL01 - press 1 to continue

Any help is much appreciated, thanks!

EDIT: less verbosely, ATIWinFlash also fails with:

Code:

ROM programming FAIL

(see http://screencast.com/t/9yHGVDqAd)

NOTE: MSI Twin FrozR II's do NOT have dual BIOS switches

GaBBa-Gandalf · 03-23-2011, 22:04 | posts: 150

what does it say when u use "-ai"
and try to use the newest atiwinflash in dos

Saul · 03-23-2011, 22:31 | posts: 4

I removed all installed VGA drivers in safe mode and now I've got into "real mode" again. So I'm using atiwinflash now, the program that was originally used to flash it to an R6950 in the first place. Here's the result of -ai:

And this is weird... now the flash type is "Unknown", whereas before it was AT something (the ATMEL one). Also you can't use atiwinflash in DOS, can you? :o if you mean atiflash, I was already using the most up to date version

GaBBa-Gandalf · 03-24-2011, 00:10 | posts: 150

Yes u can use it...

open cmd as admin
type:
atiwinflash -unlockrom 1
atiwinflash -f -p 1 backup.bin

king-dubs · 03-24-2011, 00:57 | posts: 2,350 | Location: 127.0.0.1

You're confusing him.

Command prompt != DOS

Saul · 03-24-2011, 09:50 | posts: 4

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaBBa-Gandalf

Yes u can use it...

open cmd as admin
type:
atiwinflash -unlockrom 1
atiwinflash -f -p 1 backup.bin

I've tried this but I get:
"ROM programming FAIL"

TwL · *Last edited by TwL; 03-24-2011 at 11:37.*

It's not supported to read BIOS on this specific board.

I bet you cannot even dump BIOS at DOS level.

-edit-

Is that -ai switch resulting the same on when you turn the switch to second position ?

and are you testing this:
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads..._2.0.1.14.html

sarditia · 03-24-2011, 11:47 | posts: 25 | Location: Bulgaria

Do not worry , follow this steps:

1.Safe Mode , or System Restore - uninstall all drivers.
2. Boot windows normali ,and start RBE (Radeon Bios Edtior)
3.Download AtiWinFlash 2.0.1.14
3.Load your bios in RBE and click, ...Flash
4.Select AtiWinFlash folder , and click the "tick" button "FORCE FLASH"
5.Then click FLASH and restart your computer after finish.

Hope i help and sorry for my English.

MadelineX · 03-24-2011, 16:26 | posts: 256 | Location: Seattle, WA

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saul

Hi all,

I recently bricked my MSI Twin FrozR II R6950 by flashing it to a 6970, only to realise that you can only "upflash" if you have a reference card, so my PC now won't even POST; fortunately I have the backup BIOS. At the moment, I have an old ATI card in the master PCI-E slot, with the broke R6950 in the secondary slot, so then I can boot into FreeDOS, or Windows safemode. However, in DOS when I do:

Code:

atiflash -unlockrom 1
atiflash -f -p 1 backup.bin

I get the following error:

Code:

ROM not erased
Error 0FL01 - press 1 to continue

Any help is much appreciated, thanks!

Maybe Skip the -unlockrom 1 command. Focus on just getting it un-bricked by replacing your backup. Or go online to techpowerup and grab the original bios from the archives there. http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/

No worries. You can never bust a card without being to undo what was done.

davetheshrew · 03-24-2011, 16:42 | posts: 4,091 | Location: where shrews live

maybe ask unwinder nicely at the msi afterburner thread to help you, this card is not meant to be touched bios wise.

beppe_7 · 03-24-2011, 17:24 | posts: 150 | Location: PA

6950's dont have the bios switch by the crossfire connector like the 6970's?

Saul · 03-24-2011, 17:35 | posts: 4

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwL

It's not supported to read BIOS on this specific board.

I bet you cannot even dump BIOS at DOS level.

-edit-

Is that -ai switch resulting the same on when you turn the switch to second position ?

and are you testing this:
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads..._2.0.1.14.html

There is no BIOS switch on the MSI R6950 unfortunately, and yes I am using that version of Winflash.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sarditia

Do not worry , follow this steps:

1.Safe Mode , or System Restore - uninstall all drivers.
2. Boot windows normali ,and start RBE (Radeon Bios Edtior)
3.Download AtiWinFlash 2.0.1.14
3.Load your bios in RBE and click, ...Flash
4.Select AtiWinFlash folder , and click the "tick" button "FORCE FLASH"
5.Then click FLASH and restart your computer after finish.

Hope i help and sorry for my English.

Same problem again:
http://screencast.com/t/9yHGVDqAd

Thanks for the advice though!

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadelineX

Maybe Skip the -unlockrom 1 command. Focus on just getting it un-bricked by replacing your backup. Or go online to techpowerup and grab the original bios from the archives there. http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/

No worries. You can never bust a card without being to undo what was done.

Still the same issue without the -unlockrom command

It seems even if I do:
atiflash -lockrom 1 I still get the same error, so maybe it's not unlocking correctly?

Quote:

Originally Posted by beppe_7

6950's dont have the bios switch by the crossfire connector like the 6970's?

Afraid not

Quote:

Originally Posted by davetheshrew

maybe ask unwinder nicely at the msi afterburner thread to help you, this card is not meant to be touched bios wise.

And thanks Dave I will!

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions again people it's really helpful!

tomigun · 05-29-2011, 14:33 | posts: 1

Hi Saul I know this thread is a bit old, but I have just recovered from a similar disaster.
I have a Sapphire 6950 1gb that I tried to unlock the shaders on . BSOD Dead.
I was using winflash and had modded a bios using RBE to unlock extra shaders.
I had saved the bios as a .rom and I think that may have been an issue?
Lucky for me I had just dumped the original bios using the sapphire software Trixx.
in .bin format.
I restarted using my intergrated graphics and tried to flash with winflash.
I keep getting "cannot read Rom " error.
after following this link http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...6&postcount=19 using the command prompt like yourself and the original .bin bios I managed to restore my card.
I tried again foolishly to unlock the shaders , but with no luck.
lucky to still have a working card I guess.

Regards

thatguy91 · 05-30-2011, 10:39 | posts: 2,758 | Location: Australia

try the W1zzard script, RBE unlock doesn't play nice with some non-reference bioses, whereas the W1zzard script does. Asus DirectCU II HD6950 for example (as I found out)