How to fix a bad flash? Atiflash says no adapter?

darkflames

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Nov 25, 2007
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I have a dead HIS 3870 videocard that went dead after a bad flash. When i plug the card into my computer in the other pci-e slot, with my 8800gt card in main i try and run atiflash -i in dos and it cant find any adapters. So i plug the card into my other computer and use my ati xpress 200 onboard as the main video source and it still says cannot find adapter. The fan doesnt spin nor does the card generate any heat. Anyone have a suggestion?
 

Sylvanas

Diamond Member
Jan 20, 2004
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If its a bad flash it might be likely that it is not picking up the card because it cannot detect it due to the card having a faulty BIOS. You can try and blind flash it by putting your main in the first PCI_E slot and the card in question in the 2nd, usually your 2nd PCI-E slot is designated as slot 1 as your main will be slot 0- that may vary check your mobo manual. Then you want to type:

atiflash.exe -f -p 1 biosname.bin

-f is to force the flash, 1 designates the slot the card is in. Sometimes the Bios can be a .rom file in this case replace the above with biosname.rom

Hope this helps.
 

darkflames

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Nov 25, 2007
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Well im using the P5k Premium. So would i need to enalbe anything in the bios or can i put my 8800gt in the first pci-e slot and the 3870 in the other slot and try and flash it that way. So if the 3870 is in the second pci-e slot its probably going to be slot 1?
 

mpilchfamily

Diamond Member
Jun 11, 2007
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A bad flash means the card has no bios. Without a bios on the card the system has no way to ID what it has plugged in. The card's bios is what communicates with the motherboard to tell the motherboard what the card is and how to use it. Then of course the OS drivers tells the system how to use the advanced features of the card. For the most part when a bios flash goes bad on a video card you have bricked the card. Its a risk you take. I can't remember where but i have seen guides that can walk you threw recovering the bios but it doesn't always work.
 

darkflames

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Nov 25, 2007
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Well its not really a loss i just want to try and get it to work because then its pretty much a free card to me. I recieved it from someone for free since they flashed it with the wrong bios.
 

darkflames

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Nov 25, 2007
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Originally posted by: Sylvanas
If its a bad flash it might be likely that it is not picking up the card because it cannot detect it due to the card having a faulty BIOS. You can try and blind flash it by putting your main in the first PCI_E slot and the card in question in the 2nd, usually your 2nd PCI-E slot is designated as slot 1 as your main will be slot 0- that may vary check your mobo manual. Then you want to type:

atiflash.exe -f -p 1 biosname.bin

-f is to force the flash, 1 designates the slot the card is in. Sometimes the Bios can be a .rom file in this case replace the above with biosname.rom

Hope this helps.

So i tried what you said to do and it still said no adaptor. Error 0FL01
 

darkflames

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Nov 25, 2007
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Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
Hey this sounds very familiar, I'm trying to do the same on a HIS IceQ3 3870.

Yeah same exact card i have. Let me know if you find something to get it to work. Does your fan spin at all on your card or does your card generate any heat at all?
 

SparkyJJO

Lifer
May 16, 2002
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The fan comes on, not sure about heat as I didn't check. But I get the same error as you when trying to flash normally, no adapter found. I'll have to try the forced flash.
 

darkflames

Member
Nov 25, 2007
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Well at least your lucky there, my fan does not even spin. What bios are you trying to flash it to? Like can you give me a link to were you got it? I dont have the original bios.