Topic: I need help, please. (Read 2238 times)

Rod ONeal · « **on:** January 20, 2009, 01:52:05 am »

I've screwed the pooch attempting to update my video card's bios. Before you all start telling me off and tell me that I shouldn't have messed with it, I did have a reason. I was experiencing crashing with my 3D app. and, because my card is a Radeon model not a fireGL, I couldn't get any support. After sorting through months of driver releases, I decided to try a newer bios, hoping that might fix it.

Here's my dilemma. It won't post and I don't have another PC to put my card into, nor do I have another video card to use in my PC to get a working display. I was wondering if someone knew how to create a bootable CD to force flash my card. I've looked around on the net to try and figure out how to do this myself. It's a bit beyond my skill level though. I've found articles on how to do it, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to feel comfortable to try it.

If someone knows how to do it would you mind creating an .ISO file that I could burn to CD to attempt it. It's just some DOS sh!t. Nothing too terribly complicated. I'm hoping someone here can help me sort it out.

Age · « **Reply #1 on:** January 20, 2009, 02:01:24 pm »

This is where you can get bootable disk.

http://www.bootdisk.com/

and this onehttp

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Just plain old Punisher · « **Reply #2 on:** January 20, 2009, 02:48:20 pm »

Without a working display, how are you going to use the bootable CD?

When you say it won't post, do you mean you don't get any display function at all, or the machine just won't boot into windows?

Did your computer come with onboard video? If so, you can just enable that in the BIOS and use that.

Dash Jones · « **Reply #3 on:** January 20, 2009, 05:52:28 pm »

It sounds as if he tried to update the BIOS and messed up. Hence, it could be onboard video, but it's screwed up all the way down to the BIOS level. If I understand correctly, that's what he's saying he did.

What he needs is either the original BIOS configuration, or some program that will enable his Radeon via the BIOS.

My thoughts are that his first mistake was going with Ati, perhaps the most unfriendly driver makers on the face of the earth.

Now that this was said, what version of Radeon did you have?

Here is a wild beginning of wild guesses...

http://www.amd-firefly.com/firefly2007/fireflyclient.jsp

I'm not an expert at BIOS troubleshooting though.

To make an ISO, normally they will have the ISO there already for the particular MB or BIOS you are looking for.

I would suggest looking up the manufacturer of the actual computer you have (Radeons are normally part of a make of a computer company, rather than something someone puts in if I understand correctly), and see if they have a default BIOS ISO you can download. They you need to use something like NERO in order to burn an ISO and flash your BIOS.

You could also try these guys

http://www.amd-firefly.com/firefly2007/fireflyclient.jsp

If you haven't already.

Rod ONeal · « **Reply #4 on:** January 21, 2009, 02:08:00 am »

Radeon is just the consumer version of ATI cards as opposed to FireGL which are for 3D workstations. This isn't ATI's fault. I'd be in the same boat if I had an Nvidea card. Except possibly I might not have had the issue that made me attempt the flashing.

Anyway... It won't post, no output to my monitor at all. I don't have onboard video. The computer isn't store bought, it's custom assembled. The card is an MSI RX3870-T2D512E-OC Radeon HD3870 512MB I have the BIOS I need. What I don't know how to do, and I believe that it is possible, is to make a bootable CD that will force flash my video card. IE; I load the disk into the drive and the DOS command to flash my card is read off of the CD without having to type the command in myself.

I will try the links provided. Thanks for the input. If anyone here knows what I need and can help, I'd really appreciate it.

marstone · « **Reply #5 on:** January 21, 2009, 04:44:03 am »

It might be easier to start with picking up a real cheap video card (a store near me has some for around $10). That will get your video up, have both video cards in, and reflash the card.

Dash Jones · « **Reply #6 on:** January 21, 2009, 06:40:23 pm »

marstone beat me to it. In that case from what you said, I'd say pick up a REALLY cheap video card (just about any old thing should do just to show the screen) that will go in the MB and work it from there.

Javora · « **Reply #7 on:** January 21, 2009, 06:54:10 pm »

I know there are ways to make a bootable CD but I think it would be easier to use Hewlett-Packard's program to make a bootable USB key. You can find the program by going to HP's web site and searching for cp006049.exe and downloading it from there. This might be easier as you can change things on the fly and not worry about burning a bunch of CD's.

That said, I have to wonder if you can save the video card. I know with some motherboards that if a Bios install is interrupted for any reason it will kill the motherboard permanently. I hope you are not facing the same thing with your video card but the fact that the system won't post has me worried. I hope this helps, good luck.

Rod ONeal · « **Reply #8 on:** January 21, 2009, 11:19:56 pm »

Thanks everyone. No 10.00 video cards in NZ. They start at around 50.00. I'm considering buying a 2nd 3870, if I have to buy another card, and run crossfire afterwards. I don't think I killed the card. I wish they had a bios reset like a mobo does. Wouldn't want to put that 2.00 part on the card when they made it though. Might break the bank.

Javora, My PC isn't set with a USB port as 1st boot device.

Javora · « **Reply #9 on:** January 22, 2009, 04:17:50 pm »

Quote from: Rod ONeal on January 21, 2009, 11:19:56 pm

Javora, My PC isn't set with a USB port as 1st boot device.

Shouldn't make a difference. It is my understanding that the program was created to get around that limitation. Note that this works with Win2000 and not just Windows Server OS. This Link should explain it a little better.

Bonk · « **Reply #10 on:** January 25, 2009, 07:15:23 am »

Quote from: Rod ONeal on January 21, 2009, 02:08:00 am

Anyway... It won't post, no output to my monitor at all. I don't have onboard video. The computer isn't store bought, it's custom assembled. The card is an MSI RX3870-T2D512E-OC Radeon HD3870 512MB I have the BIOS I need. What I don't know how to do, and I believe that it is possible, is to make a bootable CD that will force flash my video card. IE; I load the disk into the drive and the DOS command to flash my card is read off of the CD without having to type the command in myself.

That might be possible, depending on the tools available, you have the link for the bios you want to use?

Rod ONeal · « **Reply #11 on:** January 25, 2009, 01:51:43 pm »

I think the links here are what you want.

Link to the bios: http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/5801/MSI.HD3870.512.080130.bin

Utilities: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/Utilities/BIOS_Flashing/ATI/

Helpful link: http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=11

Thanks, Bonk. I hope you can help. I'm almost to the point of flopping down a few hundred dollars for another card. I'd really like to avoid that at the moment

Bonk · « **Reply #12 on:** January 25, 2009, 05:31:18 pm »

Untested boot cd images attached.

Test with the -noauto version on a working system to see if any interaction is required at boot.

The first version will automatically run "atiflash -p 0 MSI.HD3870.512.080130.bin -f" from the autorun.bat called from autoexec.bat. DO NOT run/boot this on any system other than the target one.

Two things occur to me however - will a system with no video bios boot at all? (you may need to put a temporary second card in to get this one updated). Second, the bios linked and used in the image attached seems rather small (61KB).

So you can give those a try but I'm not sure how far you'll get. If it does work it will be hard to tell when it is done as the reboot flag does not seem to be present in this version of atiflash.

(attached images zipped with 7-zip)

toasty0 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 25, 2009, 06:40:00 pm »

I believe it should boot, there just won't be a display of the boot process. It's one of the reason you have the little diodes (green, green, red) depending on your mobo maker.

Rod ONeal · « **Reply #14 on:** January 25, 2009, 07:31:27 pm »

Thanks for your effort here, Bonk. That looks like the proper command sequence. I can't recall if the -f is supposed to be before or after the .bin file. But, I haven't a clue anyway about how to force the flash or I wouldn't need your help. lol I'll give it a go.

Thanks again!

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