Turn X800 Pro into X800 XT PE with Bios Flash

[MegaWorks]

Thanks MegaWorks for "helping people void their warranties since January 2004" Haha, no but seriously you rock.

 

[MegaWorks]

Originally posted by: alteredNate

WOW. OK, problem fixed. Sheesh I'm an idiot. I was following instructions from the techpowerup site, however I forgot that I was using the integrated flashrom floppy creator linked to from the original post of this thread. So of course that wasn't the *modded* version. I switched it, re-flashed, and voila! 16 pipes. I need to READ more carefully! heh heh. it's all those feelings of excitement mixed with "I'm doing something bad" and "I'm getting something much better than what I paid for" and "holy $#|+ what if I fry my card!!!"

SWEET! :thumbsup:

Anyway, thanks again for the help!

:beer:

 

[MegaWorks]

Originally posted by: Alaxan
My Sapphire card does not have ramsinks on it and it is running fine at 501.75/526.50. I will be installing either a vga waterblock though or possibly the thermaltake vga cooler kit soon. using ATITool you can increase the fan speeds on the chip itself and it keeps things a bit cooler as well.

Get the Silencer 4 instead of the Thermaltake VGA cooler.

 

[Alaxan]

Originally posted by: MegaWorks

Originally posted by: Alaxan
My Sapphire card does not have ramsinks on it and it is running fine at 501.75/526.50. I will be installing either a vga waterblock though or possibly the thermaltake vga cooler kit soon. using ATITool you can increase the fan speeds on the chip itself and it keeps things a bit cooler as well.

Get the Silencer 4 instead of the Thermaltake VGA cooler.

Cool I will look into that. Until then I am curious if possibly adding on some Arctic Silver thermal paste may help? Is it worth my time? Or should I just wait until I can get the silencer?

 

[MegaWorks]

Originally posted by: Alaxan

Originally posted by: MegaWorks

Originally posted by: Alaxan
My Sapphire card does not have ramsinks on it and it is running fine at 501.75/526.50. I will be installing either a vga waterblock though or possibly the thermaltake vga cooler kit soon. using ATITool you can increase the fan speeds on the chip itself and it keeps things a bit cooler as well.

Get the Silencer 4 instead of the Thermaltake VGA cooler.

Cool I will look into that. Until then I am curious if possibly adding on some Arctic Silver thermal paste may help? Is it worth my time? Or should I just wait until I can get the silencer?

Get everything first then do the installation.

 

[Alaxan]

Originally posted by: MegaWorks

Originally posted by: Alaxan

Originally posted by: MegaWorks

Originally posted by: Alaxan
My Sapphire card does not have ramsinks on it and it is running fine at 501.75/526.50. I will be installing either a vga waterblock though or possibly the thermaltake vga cooler kit soon. using ATITool you can increase the fan speeds on the chip itself and it keeps things a bit cooler as well.

Get the Silencer 4 instead of the Thermaltake VGA cooler.

Cool I will look into that. Until then I am curious if possibly adding on some Arctic Silver thermal paste may help? Is it worth my time? Or should I just wait until I can get the silencer?

Get everything first then do the installation.

I had thought to wait, but was curious if it would help right now. Best I can clock is 501/526 without overheating. It will be another month or two before I can pick up the Silencer 4. Thanks Mega... You Rawk!

*edited* I just did a minor OC to the CPU. Am running now at 2.67GHz. Ran a test on 3DMark05 and scored a 5650. Cannot wait till I can handle a bit more OC on the card itself.

 

[guei38]

Alright, I seriously need some help. Followed the instructions exactly until I got to the point where I had to type in the line to Flashrom to create a backup of my BIOS. Fine. Problem was, nothing I typed registered in the computer. That's when I realize that well, DOS doesn't support wireless keyboards, so I plug in a wired one, and still nothing. So I restart the computer......and nothing. No matter what I do, no video shows up now. Apparantly, flashrom has wiped my BIOS without my even asking it to...and I need help on getting my x800 back. Any ideas on how to go about doing this? I'm thinking of using a PCI video card (by setting PCI priority in motherboard BIOS), and flashing it from there. Think that'll work?

Help!!!

 

[Azsen]

Ok, put in a PCI video card and plug in a PS2 keyboard if you've got one. Then try flashing the card again from there. Yep, and set PCI priority in motherboard BIOS so that boots first.

What have you got on the floppy disk? Did it create a backup of the BIOS okay? You can always download a copy of your BIOS again from Techpowerup.

 

[guei38]

Yeah, I'll need to download the normal BIOS again, as i couldn't even back it up without the keyboard access. Thing is, when I've got the PCI and the AGP card at the same time, will the AGP card still be card 0? Or do I change the command line command to 1?

 

[Squally Leonharty]

Simply use the -i parameter of the flash tool to find out what number your card is.

 

[guei38]

YES!!! I'm so farking happy! The card is saved! Sometimes, we forget to appreciate the good old PCI and PS/2 things...
Now that I've actually got a PS/2 keyboard plugged in, I'll try the softmod again.

 

[Alaxan]

The fan on my Sapphire card is dying? Ok here is the deal. Since I ran the mod to the card the fan has been workin govertime a good bit. ATITool took over for a short while in the fan control to keep the temps down as well as could be, but low and behold I opened up Generals to play for a short while and the system locked out on me. (This was only turned on for about 2-3minutes. I have run full tests repeatedly with 3DMark05 to ensure stability for three hours or so, before this incident) As the game came up I heard a ticking sound gradually getting faster from the Case. I thought maybe with all of the moving around a wire may be hitting a fan somewhere. No dice the fan on the Sapphire card is making the noise once it is ramped up.

I underclocked the system back down to a Pro chip and same thing as the fan runs up it begins ticking. I feel as though I have triggered a timed bomb that is ready to go off in here. I am going to be getting a VGA cooler tomorrow and I know the Silencer4 was recommended by Mega here, but I am curious why that over something (gawdy yes) but seemingly effective enough like the TT Giant III? Is it basically a noise issue or do they really compare head to head in a cooling aspect.

*note* the biggest reason I am questioning, is because the TT inclused heatsinks for the ram on front and back and has the dual heatpipes as well, opposed to what appears to me to be a more basic GPU cooling solution?

***edtied*** ok I have come to discover this is not the video fan. Whew.... now I have NO idea what this noise is. It sounds like a thin wire rubbing against a fan or a fan hitting an edge, but I have stopped each fan individually and the noise is still present.. more searching for now, but it was not the Sapphire fan!

 

[MegaWorks]

Originally posted by: Alaxan
The fan on my Sapphire card is dying? Ok here is the deal. Since I ran the mod to the card the fan has been workin govertime a good bit. ATITool took over for a short while in the fan control to keep the temps down as well as could be, but low and behold I opened up Generals to play for a short while and the system locked out on me. (This was only turned on for about 2-3minutes. I have run full tests repeatedly with 3DMark05 to ensure stability for three hours or so, before this incident) As the game came up I heard a ticking sound gradually getting faster from the Case. I thought maybe with all of the moving around a wire may be hitting a fan somewhere. No dice the fan on the Sapphire card is making the noise once it is ramped up.

I underclocked the system back down to a Pro chip and same thing as the fan runs up it begins ticking. I feel as though I have triggered a timed bomb that is ready to go off in here. I am going to be getting a VGA cooler tomorrow and I know the Silencer4 was recommended by Mega here, but I am curious why that over something (gawdy yes) but seemingly effective enough like the TT Giant III? Is it basically a noise issue or do they really compare head to head in a cooling aspect.

*note* the biggest reason I am questioning, is because the TT inclused heatsinks for the ram on front and back and has the dual heatpipes as well, opposed to what appears to me to be a more basic GPU cooling solution?

***edtied*** ok I have come to discover this is not the video fan. Whew.... now I have NO idea what this noise is. It sounds like a thin wire rubbing against a fan or a fan hitting an edge, but I have stopped each fan individually and the noise is still present.. more searching for now, but it was not the Sapphire fan!

It might be your CPU heatsink fan or case fans.

 

[BlackPear1]

The ticking Sapphire X800 fan is an issue noted by many on various forums - my X800pro VIV0 does it too and it bothered me at first. I have read speculation that its the card's method of controlling fan speeds that makes the sound and others have noted that it doesn't quit when the fan is manually stopped. With fan set at or near 100% in ATITool, ticking should go away. That's OK if you don't mind the additional noise.

 

[Alaxan]

I beleive I found the problem. My PSU was making the noise. The sound of something rubbing against the fan, was likely a component slowly dieing within the PSU. I am ready to kill right now.... Thanks for the help tho witht he OC. I will be going back to the X800XT mod after my PSU is replaced.

 

[w00t]

will this work with the new x800pro pci-e?

 

[Belg]

I just got a Sapphire Radeon Atlantis x800 pro vivo but it has 2.0ns memory on it. Must I flash it with the x800 pro bios with 16 pipelines or can I flash it to an XT PE and set the speed to 500/500 or 520/520 or something? What can I do and what's best?

Thx in advance

 

[MegaWorks]

Originally posted by: w00t
will this work with the new x800pro pci-e?

I don't think there is a mod for the pci-e version I might be wrong but I'll look into it.

 

[MegaWorks]

Originally posted by: Belg
I just got a Sapphire Radeon Atlantis x800 pro vivo but it has 2.0ns memory on it. Must I flash it with the x800 pro bios with 16 pipelines or can I flash it to an XT PE and set the speed to 500/500 or 520/520 or something? What can I do and what's best?

Thx in advance

I don't think it's possible to do this mod with your card. The mod works only with the X800 pro 1.6ns memory card, but it could work by decreasing the the frequency of the core/memory. I say give it a try, but remember to backup your bios before doing this.

 

[kef7]

I'm probably blind but I could have sworn I read in this thread a suggested range of Serial#s for BBA X800 pro that are very likely to have the VIVO features. Does this sound familar to anyone?

Also, above the UPC is written: "Radeon X800 Pro 256mb V/VO/D"

What does the "V/VO/D" stand for?

(I have an unopened BBA X800 that I'll probably return unless I can verify it with a high degree of certainty that it will mod to a PE)

 

[Azsen]

Originally posted by: kef7Also, above the UPC is written: "Radeon X800 Pro 256mb V/VO/D"

What does the "V/VO/D" stand for?

(I have an unopened BBA X800 that I'll probably return unless I can verify it with a high degree of certainty that it will mod to a PE)

Video in/Video Out/DVI ?

You are looking for a yellow connector on the back and GC16 memory. If you have that it should be moddable.

 

[kef7]

Azsen
Thanks, but I'm really trying to determine if it has the yellow connector and 1.6memory without having to open the box.

 

[MegaWorks]

Originally posted by: kef7
Azsen
Thanks, but I'm really trying to determine if it has the yellow connector and 1.6memory without having to open the box.

Sorry kef7 but you need to open the box to know that.

 

[CrazyIvan007]

Hi!

I got today my Sapphire X800pro VIVO too

I checked the Card and it has 1.6ns RAM on Board. Patching the BIOS with the patched Flashtool worked fine (no errors) (Link).

After starting Windows i have white and colored squares all over the screen (about 50 to 100), so it seems that something screwed up!

I had before a GeForce, didn't removed their driver, installed ATITool, patched the Card and installed the latest ATI Drivers.

I tried the Sapphire X800 XT PE, the ATI X800 XT PE and even the patched X800 Pro VIVO 16p Bios, but allways the same. If i get back to the original Bios everything works fine.

Does this means that i have a screwed up Card which some of the disabled Pipelines are broken?

Regards



Matthias

 

[Azsen]

Originally posted by: CrazyIvan007I had before a GeForce, didn't removed their driver, installed ATITool, patched the Card and installed the latest ATI Drivers.

Try uninstalling all video drivers from your system, Nvidia, Ati. Some special removal tools from guru3d may help remove the nvidia ones as well. Now try reinstalling just the Ati drivers, Catalyst 4.12 if you can.

If that doesn't work, it might not be stable at XT PE speeds so you should try a lower clocked BIOS? What colour is the video card PCB?