My GTO2 didn't unlock EDIT: until now

[rxrfrx]

I got a Sapphire X800 GTO2 last week (ordered about 2 weeks ago from Page Computers, PCI-E lite retail box) and just installed it in a new box yesterday.

It's an R480 with 12 Pipes enabled, and has the same fuses as the example in the Tech Powerup article.

I used the 16-pipe ROM and flashed with Atiflash. Booted into windows and it detected the card as a new card, had to install drivers again, etc.... BUT STILL ONLY 12 PIPES ENABLED! I found a post in the TPO forums saying that some guy had this problem and he had to re-flash using Flashrom instead of Atiflash, and then it worked fine.

I tried flashing back to 12 pipes using Flashrom and then flashing to 16 again... but no luck.

100% success rate, my ass. Should I try to return the thing? 10% restocking fee if I do, and I'd have to deal with Page's super-horrible crappy service.

dammit.

EDIT:

I just ran the locutus12 boot cd and I have 16 pipes! Thank you! My current theory is that whatever FreeDOS boot environment I was using when flashing before didn't allow proper addressing of the BIOS... or something.

 

[xtknight]

You should never count on/base your plans on being able to unlock a card. It is meant as an 'if you get lucky' thing. It does not mean it is wrong Tech Powerup had a 100% success rate. If they got 5 cards and they all unlocked, their success rate is 100%. Who's to say they didn't just get a lucky batch?

I think you should just keep it, unless you are gaming at uber resolutions or settings.

 

[lifeguard1999]

Sorry it did not work out for you. You are the first one I have heard of it not working for.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

ATIFLASH doesn't unlock the pipelines! You have to use the modified FLASHROM
Link found on this page

FLASHROM works with the same commands as ATIFLASH

A:flashrom -f -p 0 newbios.bin

when you hear the bells its done

 

[rxrfrx]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
ATIFLASH doesn't unlock the pipelines! You have to use the modified FLASHROM
Link found on this page

FLASHROM works with the same commands as ATIFLASH

A:flashrom -f -p 0 newbios.bin

when you hear the bells its done

As I mentioned, I first used ATIFLASH and still got 12 pipes. I used ATIFLASH because the TechPowerUp article is really unclear and I didn't realize that it meant I should definitely use FLASHROM. (By "the modified flashrom" it means that flashrom is a modified version of Atiflash, right?)

I then read that I maybe should have used FLASHROM so I flashed back to the original ROM with FLASHROM and then flashed to the "16 pipe" ROM using "flashrom -p 0 newbios.bin".

Still only 12 pipes

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Are you using the bios linked on that same page?

I used that one, and I had to include the -f flag, if I used just the -p it gave me an error.
Did you hear the jingle when it finished flashing?

And do you have the Sapphire or the 3Dconnect?

 

[AMDCrazy]

Yeah well at least you can boot from cd rom I can't it just goes right into Windows...

 

[rxrfrx]

Yup, I used the BIOS on that original TPO article. The first time I flashed (with Atiflash) I had to use -f, but after that, it didn't need it.

 

[AMDCrazy]

Hey let me know how you were able to get it to flash please this is very frustrating.

 

[rxrfrx]

Originally posted by: AMDCrazy
Hey let me know how you were able to get it to flash please this is very frustrating.

I used a boot CD to boot up... you can try the Ultimate Boot CD, it's very reliable. Burn one CD with UBCD and another with FLASHROM and the ROM. Then, start up on the UBCD, press F6 to use a booter, press F4 for the best one, then once you're booted, swap CD's with the one that has the flash stuff on it, and flash.

Alternately, use a floppy disk. Because booting to CD is the most retarded process ever.

 

[AMDCrazy]

That's too much work can't I just do it with one disk. I have all the files on one disk.

 

[rxrfrx]

Originally posted by: AMDCrazy
That's too much work can't I just do it with one disk. I have all the files on one disk.

Yes, but that involves putting together your own boot CD. And that's a much longer answer than I'm going to give you

 

[AMDCrazy]

Well Ok thanks don't know why this is so hard to do its not llike flashing motherboard bios...Now THAT is simple.

 

[gac009]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=31&threadid=1712649&enterthread=y

this is a premade boot cd for the x800GTO2 mod

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: lifeguard1999
Sorry it did not work out for you. You are the first one I have heard of it not working for.

totally agree. MY one got modded/overclocked and its in the lan comp.

 

[Kyanzes]

Originally posted by: tuteja1986

Originally posted by: lifeguard1999
Sorry it did not work out for you. You are the first one I have heard of it not working for.

totally agree. MY one got modded/overclocked and its in the lan comp.

Someone really should replace all instances of "http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=" in the forum database to "http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=". Or it's just me and it should work using the "?id=" url?

 

[cyberfuzz]

i just used that, worked perfectly, saphire x800 gto2 now a x850xt PE after some overclocking ;P

 

[Hacp]

shady retailer maybE? They could have been running out of stock and replaced it with regular gtos .

 

[amheck]

I agree, you really don't have any right to return this card, unless they have a satisfaction guarentee or something.

 

[rxrfrx]

I was suspicious that my card was replaced with a regular GTO but ATITool says R480 core.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: rxrfrx
I was suspicious that my card was replaced with a regular GTO but ATITool says R480 core.

Glad you found a way. Now you should report in detail what you went through and what you did to fix it in the GTO^2 Sticky thread.

 

[lifeguard1999]

Congratulations on getting it unlocked. Persistence & research paid off.

 

[Zim]

Originally posted by: rxrfrx
EDIT:

I just ran the locutus12 boot cd and I have 16 pipes! Thank you! My current theory is that whatever FreeDOS boot environment I was using when flashing before didn't allow proper addressing of the BIOS... or something.

In other words, you are a fool and thus needed a fool-proof way of flashing your card! j/k

 

[xtknight]

Glad you got it working.

 

[Pocatello]

Now o/c that thing until you smell something burning