Turn X800 Pro into X800 XT PE with Bios Flash

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BlackPear1

Senior member
Sep 6, 2004
687
0
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Did you flash with the XT PE bios? Those are the default clocks for that model. My card wasn't stable at XT PE speeds either, so I flashed with the 16p pro bios (475/450) and then overclocked as desired with ATITool. I have used the Sapphire XT bios (500/500) which also works fine, but out of caution I'm running 16p at pro speeds until I need more, then I can overclock.
 

EglsFly

Senior member
Feb 21, 2001
461
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A while back I had flashed my X800Pro VIVO to enable it as an XT (16 pipes & bios).
I first tried XTPE, but my card was not stable at those speeds, I then flashed it with XT bios and its been working fine.
I checked it with ATITool. It shows:
Device ID: 4A4B
Active Pipelines: 16

The only thing that bugs me is that under Device Manager, the video card shows up at the bottom of the list under group "Unknown", then there are two sub items: RADEON X800 Series, RADEON X800 Series Secondary.

I don't have a Display Adapters catagory listed, I guess because the video card is in this other catagory.

Any ideas or fixes for why its listed under Unknown and also not listed as X800XT?
 

MoRkusReX

Junior Member
Feb 10, 2005
11
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well, I understand what you are saying (both). But I mean... The default speed of my bios is 520\560, that's fine. But I changed the speed at the card settings (settings\advanced\advanced 3D\ [Omega drivers] ) and it's working great like that. so, why does it change the speed back to 520\560 whenever I restart? corrupted file or something?
 

Azsen

Member
Sep 20, 2004
176
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Use AtiTool to create a startup 2D profile that is at your cards normal speed (475, 450). When on reboot the card will run at that speed. Now if you wanted to play games or something you could make a 3D profile to use the 520/560 speeds. That loads that profile automatically when you launch a fullscreen game.

Though if your card isn't stable at XT PE speeds you should use perhaps an XT BIOS and see if it is stable with that. If not, go back to your original Pro BIOS and just keep the 16pipelines which gives a decent performance boost anyway.
 

dp004i

Golden Member
Apr 24, 2001
1,872
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Which BIOS gives you the highest OC? I'm currently using the stock ATI XT PE BIOS and was able to hit PE speeds with no problems whatsoever, but it wouldn't go much higher than that.
 

MegaWorks

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2004
3,819
1
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Originally posted by: dp004i
Which BIOS gives you the highest OC? I'm currently using the stock ATI XT PE BIOS and was able to hit PE speeds with no problems whatsoever, but it wouldn't go much higher than that.

I don't think the bios has any effects on overclocking, to me it's a hardware thing.
 

MoRkusReX

Junior Member
Feb 10, 2005
11
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two things..
1. where do i get an apropriate XT (not PE) bios? same for PRO bios (how do i keep the 16 pipes?)
2. how come dp004i is stable at PE speed and i'm not? same samsung 1.6 memory, card supposed to be the same.. am I wrong?
 

Azsen

Member
Sep 20, 2004
176
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Originally posted by: MoRkusReX
two things..
1. where do i get an apropriate XT (not PE) bios? same for PRO bios (how do i keep the 16 pipes?)
2. how come dp004i is stable at PE speed and i'm not? same samsung 1.6 memory, card supposed to be the same.. am I wrong?

1. http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/ All XTs have 16pipelines so you should keep your 16pipes.
2. Not all cards are created equal. ;)
 

MoRkusReX

Junior Member
Feb 10, 2005
11
0
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ok now it's official.. my card is dying.. why was I so greedy...? I had a nice, good looking, WORKING X800 PRO VIVO... why did I have to flash it.. when playing Farcry, after about 7 mins of gaming artifact are showing and a sec after that all the screen gets.. "artistic"... lots of purple and lines and all.. then if i wait the pc shuts itself off. I guess for some reason it's over-heating, even though I flashed it with a Sapphire X800 PRO VIVO (12 pipes) bios. that's just sucky.. I live in Israel and this means I'll have to be away from my computer for 2-3 month untill i'll get it back... If anyone here has an idea for fixing it please respond asap..,
 

MoRkusReX

Junior Member
Feb 10, 2005
11
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UPDATE: ok, so I found out that it only happens in FARCRY. I tried playing DOOM3 at ULTRA settings @1600x1200 6XAA and 16AF and it worked great (Great like not-crashing-great I mean). I left it to work for 30 mins or so and nothing. it didn't crash\showed artifacts or anything.. I also tried running 3Dmark05 few times at max settings and it worked. BUT!! that doesn't mean there is no Hardware problem. bug or corrupted game doesn't cause the pc to shut itself off. weird that it's only happening with FARCRY. It fells like FARCRY overclocks my card for some reason.. or maybe it's a memory (VRAM or regular RAM), but if that was the case why is everything else working? I'm tired.. I've been working on it all night and it 8:20AM here already... got to sleep , please respond and help me as much as you can, i'll visit here first thing when I'll wake up.. thanx..
 

MegaWorks

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2004
3,819
1
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Originally posted by: MoRkusReX
UPDATE: ok, so I found out that it only happens in FARCRY. I tried playing DOOM3 at ULTRA settings @1600x1200 6XAA and 16AF and it worked great (Great like not-crashing-great I mean). I left it to work for 30 mins or so and nothing. it didn't crash\showed artifacts or anything.. I also tried running 3Dmark05 few times at max settings and it worked. BUT!! that doesn't mean there is no Hardware problem. bug or corrupted game doesn't cause the pc to shut itself off. weird that it's only happening with FARCRY. It fells like FARCRY overclocks my card for some reason.. or maybe it's a memory (VRAM or regular RAM), but if that was the case why is everything else working? I'm tired.. I've been working on it all night and it 8:20AM here already... got to sleep , please respond and help me as much as you can, i'll visit here first thing when I'll wake up.. thanx..

Well, MoRkusReX you said you only have this problem with Far Cry so I guess it's a driver problem! Do you have the latest ATI drivers (5.2) installed? If that does help then maybe you should try lowering your clock rate to (500/500), to test if it's stable at this speed.
 

MoRkusReX

Junior Member
Feb 10, 2005
11
0
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it's not a drivers issue and it's already running with pro bios.. meaning 12 pipes, 475\450. driver issues usually don't make blocks,lines and etc.. that's defenitly a hardware issue. anyway, as u can imagine, I sat on my comuters for hours and hours and besides 5 hours to relax a bit at a night club last nite..where I made out with about 6 girls i think not remembering any of their names.. :) .. anyway, back to subject. It happened after about 30 mins running 3DMARK05 at 1280X1024 so now i was 99% sure it's a heat problem. I opened my case (both sides) and put infront of my X800 a big house fan and FARCRY ran stable at 1600X1200 for 30 mins or so.. (I exited, didnt crash). So now I am sure it's a heating problem ..I don't really know what happened when I used the XT PE bios that made my card less stable at high temps. Maybe it did something to the fan, moving slower maybe.. I ordered a Zalman ZM80D-HP . hope it'll do the job. For the meantime, I'm using the modified PRO bios with 16 pipes and when I need to play I turn on the big fan.. :) thank for the help.
 

Azsen

Member
Sep 20, 2004
176
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I found when I had the Zalman ZM80D-HP on it made the temps like 20C higher than the stock cooler. Get the AtiSilencer.
 

MoRkusReX

Junior Member
Feb 10, 2005
11
0
0
Originally posted by: Azsen
I found when I had the Zalman ZM80D-HP on it made the temps like 20C higher than the stock cooler. Get the AtiSilencer.

what?!? the doesn't make much sence bro.. what fan did you use? are you sure the heatsink was well-placed?
 

Azsen

Member
Sep 20, 2004
176
0
0
Originally posted by: MoRkusReX
Originally posted by: Azsen
I found when I had the Zalman ZM80D-HP on it made the temps like 20C higher than the stock cooler. Get the AtiSilencer.

what?!? the doesn't make much sence bro.. what fan did you use? are you sure the heatsink was well-placed?
Was using the ZM-OP1 fan with it and applied Arctic Silver 5. Idle temps were like 70C and load 92C. The fan was only on quiet mode, but if you put it in normal mode it sounds like a rocket engine. Even in normal mode, it only dropped the load temperature about 2C.

Everything was installed properly, and I've done it a few times before with my 9800pro. I even have a friend who installed it many times with his x800 pro vivo to try and get the temperatures right. Still higher than the stock cooler.
 

MoRkusReX

Junior Member
Feb 10, 2005
11
0
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Ok , thanks for telling me that before I bought it.. :) Ok I'm 99% sure i'll get the ATI SILENCER 4 , am I making good choice here?... Or should I get the - Zalman VF700-Cu ? same price for both.. I know this is not a Cooling solution forum but since I got this problem as a result of flashing I think it's importnant we'll discuss it here.. (I'll discuss, you'll help :) anyway, since I relized it's a heat problem.. and that the card is working like it should besides that.. the only conclusion I can think of is that the Fan doesn't work harder when it should.. It should speed the RPM when the temp goes high and maybe mine stopped functioning like that (what is it called?.. "Dynamic"?) .. is there a way to check that?
 

imported_Mullet

Junior Member
Feb 23, 2005
4
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Hey guys, u guys are great, got my X800pro to X800XT PE running at 535/585 clock speeds and 16 pipes :) went to an Artic cooler and greatly reduced temp...playing Call of duty for about 3 hours+ with stock cooler would hit 78C and end up restarting comp..after the cooler upgrade gets 45C max... Benchmark with 3dmark05 is 4878 Cant say it enough...u guys are ausome
-Josh
 

MegaWorks

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2004
3,819
1
0
Originally posted by: Mullet
Hey guys, u guys are great, got my X800pro to X800XT PE running at 535/585 clock speeds and 16 pipes :) went to an Artic cooler and greatly reduced temp...playing Call of duty for about 3 hours+ with stock cooler would hit 78C and end up restarting comp..after the cooler upgrade gets 45C max... Benchmark with 3dmark05 is 4878 Cant say it enough...u guys are ausome
-Josh

:beer: :)
 

Calavera

Junior Member
Mar 6, 2005
2
0
0
I've flashed my card and unlocked the pipelines - thankyou very much.
BUT I've had major instability issues because I don't think I have the ram I need, you said something about 1.6ns samsung, I overlooked that bit and don't unstand it - can someone explain that part.
But anyway until I cash out on some cooling equipment I want to flash back to my old X800. I followed the instructions and have my backup disk but I'm worried about flashing back.
Do I just boot up with the backup bios in and type flashrom-s 0 backup.bin ?
Is that all I need to do or do I need to flash something else - I'm worried about mucking things up, thanks.
 

Smason

Junior Member
Mar 6, 2005
1
0
0
i ran ati tool to check out my information and i noticed that it said I had 16 active pipelines under the settings tab, yet i haven't done any flashing to the card. does that mean the 16 pipes are already opened? or are they still unlocked in the bios? do i still have to do the flash to get the 16 pipelines? thanks for any help.....

the card is the Powercolor X800pro w/vivo
 

tocap

Junior Member
Mar 9, 2005
2
0
0
Hello,
I have a X800 256 pro(ATI tool).Not a vivo.I followed the instructions that you provided and it dosent seem to work?When i flash and install the XT bios and restart the comp the v-c bios stays the same.Is there something iam doing wrong?Please help.


PS:the reasion iam looking to do this because i tried 3 different drivers and OC/tools and they dont improve my fps when playing games.Also i have a ATI silencer 4 attached.


Thank you
 

Zoio

Junior Member
Mar 11, 2005
2
0
0
Hey guys, I got a ATi X800pro retail edition. its currently watercooled and clocked at 560/1120. I was wondering if its possible to flash it with a XT bios without a hardmod. and if so could someone advice me to a bios :). thanks
 

MegaWorks

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2004
3,819
1
0
Originally posted by: Calavera
I've flashed my card and unlocked the pipelines - thankyou very much.
BUT I've had major instability issues because I don't think I have the ram I need, you said something about 1.6ns samsung, I overlooked that bit and don't unstand it - can someone explain that part.
But anyway until I cash out on some cooling equipment I want to flash back to my old X800. I followed the instructions and have my backup disk but I'm worried about flashing back.
Do I just boot up with the backup bios in and type flashrom-s 0 backup.bin ?
Is that all I need to do or do I need to flash something else - I'm worried about mucking things up, thanks.

Yes just type flashrom-s 0 backup.bin and you're set.
 

MegaWorks

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2004
3,819
1
0
Originally posted by: Smason
i ran ati tool to check out my information and i noticed that it said I had 16 active pipelines under the settings tab, yet i haven't done any flashing to the card. does that mean the 16 pipes are already opened? or are they still unlocked in the bios? do i still have to do the flash to get the 16 pipelines? thanks for any help.....

the card is the Powercolor X800pro w/vivo

You have 16 pipes!!!!!! Have you done some tests to prove your claim?
 

MegaWorks

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2004
3,819
1
0
Originally posted by: tocap
Hello,
I have a X800 256 pro(ATI tool).Not a vivo.I followed the instructions that you provided and it dosent seem to work?When i flash and install the XT bios and restart the comp the v-c bios stays the same.Is there something iam doing wrong?Please help.


PS:the reasion iam looking to do this because i tried 3 different drivers and OC/tools and they dont improve my fps when playing games.Also i have a ATI silencer 4 attached.


Thank you

tocap,

You can't mod your card with this mod because it's not a VIVO, this mod only works with X800 Pro VIVO sorry!