8500le flash failed now no display, need help

[snowbug]

I just flashed my 8500le with 8500 bios using the famous flashradeon8500.zip package. during the flash, it reported an error with a message like "empty poll after erase bulk, press [1] to continue" (can't remember exactly the words). I pressed "1" and the screen reports succeded. I reboot the machine, now there is no display (the monitor does not receive any signal from the card and is in sleep mode). I can still boot with the flash disk but I can't do any thing as there is no display.

What should I do to fix this? Helps please, thanks!

 

[DieHardware]

Originally posted by: snowbug
I just flashed my 8500le with 8500 bios using the famous flashradeon8500.zip package. during the flash, it reported an error with a message like "empty poll after erase bulk, press [1] to continue" (can't remember exactly the words). I pressed "1" and the screen reports succeded. I reboot the machine, now there is no display (the monitor does not receive any signal from the card and is in sleep mode). I can still boot with the flash disk but I can't do any thing as there is no display.

What should I do to fix this? Helps please, thanks!

I'd connect the monitor to a PCI videocard(leave the 8500 in place), and re-flash the 8500 with the correct BIOS.

 

[squidman]

yup. or clear cmos.

 

[snowbug]

I put in a PCI card (also ati) and set the pci to be the primary card. now at least i got a display. (thanks for the advice)

I just used the atiflash.exe -i to check the cards's bios and it displays:

ATI Flash Utility V1.3

adapter bn dn dID asic flash ID flash type remap lock romsize
======= == == ==== =============== ===== ==== ============== ===== ==== =======
0* 01 40 5144 Rage6/6X - 031F AT49F512 no yes 0x10000
1 03 00 514C Rage6/6X - - ST M25P05 - yes 0x10000

Note: * - Active/boot-up device.

Since I set the PCI as the active display card, the first line is my PCI ATI card, and the second line is the AGP one (with the problem).

It seems that both cards are locked. Is that the reason I wasn't able to flash it previously? How to unlock it?

Thanks

 

[Harabecw]

why not try atiflash?

 

[snowbug]

when I use:
atiflash -p 1 xxxx.bin

I got an error message:
Serial ROM
The VGA BIOS file does not match with VGA card!

And then the atiflash simply exits.

What is the problem?

 

[Harabecw]

IIRC, you may have to force it. (is the -p already forcing it? heh I forgot)

 

[snowbug]

Originally posted by: Harabecw
IIRC, you may have to force it. (is the -p already forcing it? heh I forgot)

It's "-f" for forcing it, but I tried it and it doesn't work

The error message is "time out: poll rom idle after bulk erase".
A search from the google suggests that the atiflash.exe I used is too new and I should use a older version. Does anyone know anything about this?

 

[xSauronx]

good luck
i tried flashing one and ruined it
multiple tries, multiple bios

try rage3d.com forums, seems alot of people there have done it successfully

 

[BFG10K]

Flash it back using a PCI card and next time don't play with it.

Flashing the BIOS has no benefits at all unless you're trying to do mods or overclocks, in which case you're simply asking for trouble.

 

[snowbug]

I went to the rage3d forum and found the solution for the unable-to-flash problem - thanks for the helps. Basically, I need the latest flashrom utility and it has to be flashed with a PCI video card installed or it will fail.

However, I got a new problem now. I posted a message at the rage3d forum and haven't got any response so far. Since anandtech is my favorite place, I hope you guys can offer some helps as I have no clue what I should do now:

After I flashed the bios okay, I boot the machine but the display is scrambled now, like what you see when you set the screen resolution to something the video card does not support in windows - here is a photo. I tried different bios and all of them act the same.
I then did a "flashrom -s" to export the bios in the card and it can be opened with the radedit without any problem - it looks like the bios is flashed okay.

My MB is asus a7n8x deluxe.

Any possible reasons that might cause this problem?

 

[rogue1979]

Somehow you've got the wrong bios version, try a different one. There is a difference in ram timings as well as a big difference between tsop and bga bios versions.

 

[snowbug]

Originally posted by: rogue1979
Somehow you've got the wrong bios version, try a different one. There is a difference in ram timings as well as a big difference between tsop and bga bios versions.

When I download bios, none of them mentioned anything about tsop or bga , I'll keep searching (since I am so stupid that I didn't bother to backup the original bios, d**n). Mine is tsop memory modules. Is there any place you know that have the tsop bios I can download? Or how do I tell if a bios is for tsop or bga?

I bought it from newegg (link), if someone also bought this card, could you be very kind and send me the bios file?

Another question is: are the bios of 64M card and 128M card different?

Thanks!

 

[rogue1979]

You got the 250/200 LE, it has really slow ram chips. Any 250/250 bios will be much too fast for the LE you have, and scramble the video. A 64 or 128MB bios should work, try to find the correct Sapphire bios for it.

 

[snowbug]

Originally posted by: rogue1979
You got the 250/200 LE, it has really slow ram chips. Any 250/250 bios will be much too fast for the LE you have, and scramble the video. A 64 or 128MB bios should work, try to find the correct Sapphire bios for it.

Thanks for the help. I will try the 8500 64 bios tonight and post the result here.