nVIDIA BIOS EDITING&FLASHING...THE EASY WAY

Dec 15, 2002, 12:14 PM

Ok Kiddies here we go !!

Bios flashing in general has become VERY simple for most types of hardware now.

Motherboards and graphics cards can also be done in a windows
enviroment.
This in most cases depends on the manufacturer of the hardware.
MSI has a thing called LIVE UPDATE that looks at your hardware
and if an update is available for your product does the job in seconds.....hassle free.

In the case of nVidia we have alot of third party programms,bios images etc.

Here is a simple step by step way to flash your vidcard.

BEWARE !!!....A BAD FLASH MAY RESULT IN A NON-FUNCTIONAL CARD.
DO NOT FLASH YOUR CARD UNLESS YOU ARE SURE OF THE METHOD AND HAVE HALF DECENT KNOWLEDGE IN THESE MATERS.

What we need:
nVidia Bios editor
Nvflash (latest version)
One bootable floppy disc.

Step one:
Open Nvidia Bios editor
Now if you want to edit your bios you can simply "read" from Memory" and very carefully fix the required settings.
Once you are done simply save to the floppy(the bootable Floppy)
with a simple name like "newbios.rom"
But before you go on also read again without editing this time and save it also to the disc as your BACKUP bios .

Now you have a Bootable floppy with the new image ready to be used but you need one more thing on there.
You need a Flashing utility.
This is where nVFlash comes in.
Simply copy that also to the Floppy and your ready to go.

Now simply reboot and hopefully have your Motherboard bios set to boot from floppy(first boot device).
If not enter the Bios and set this up.
Once you bootup and floppy is seen it will boot into Dos and finaly
come to a Prompt.

Here simply type: nvflash newbios.rom and hit enter (dont forget the space after nvflash).
The app should start loading and come to a few points of verification where if you want to continue type YES and in a few seconds its done .

When the flashing is done you should see some data about the routine and if it found the new bios compatible and the correct size etc.
If you see these good messages you know you did a good job.

Now simply remove the floppy and reboot.

The End.

OK now a few words of caution!!

A) make sure your new image is allways the identical size as the original bios.
B) power of you PC has to be absolutely STABLE........a power out while flashing can be VERY BAD and may result in your card not working again (in alot of cases with knowhow retrievable)
C) DO NOT INTERRUPT THE PROCCESS TILL ITS DONE
D) IF YOUR NOT SURE OF THIS SIMPLY DO NOT DO IT!!!

Now some links :

Here you can get a simple proggy to make you a bootdisc

BOOT DISC MAKER

Here you can get both the BIOS EDITOR and the latest NVFLASH plus alot of ready bios images and alot of reference images (caution with third party bios images).

Ray Adams Page

The files:

NvFlash 4.15 (latest)

nVidia Bios Editor

Have fun

eurolu · Dec 15, 2002, 08:43 PM

Is this safe ?

Dec 15, 2002, 09:59 PM

Lol to be totally realistic i would say that it aint safe to walk out your front door these days....hehehe

But to your question:

Its never 100% safe or garanteed so all you can do is to try to do it right and hope you dont have any weird problems.

You could use a fresh Floppy to make sure you dont have any corrupt data etc.
And also use a UPS to avoid the power out issue.

Also disable your mobo's onboard Virus protection
Even setup default speeds on your CPU if its overclocked would make it safer.

Basiclly corrupt data or power loss are the reasons for a bad flash not to mention using the wrong bios rom but that is in the stupid category.

One more thing is if you have tweaked clocks and settings like SBA or fast Writes make sure your card can work with these settings.
But if you do screw that up you should be able to reload the
Backup bios that i recomended to be on the floppy too.

Even in the case of a bad flash there is way that may work about 99% to repair it.
All you need is a PCI vidcard to boot from and flash the card still in your agp slot.
(if you do this dont forget to bootup first without the agp card and enter the bios to setup the PCI card as you initial video card
then save and exit,shut down and install the agp again and then reboot into the flashing proccess)

Ive flashed my bios about 12 times on this card alone.

And have flashed a few asus cards too.

Allthough to be totaly honest i did feck up a Matrox millenium a few years ago.(i had a power out)

Moe Szyslak · Dec 15, 2002, 11:17 PM

I have tried to flash my GForce 2 MX 200 but I get a EEPROM error.
What can I do to solve this?
I dont think my card is sub-branded.Is there anyway to find out if it is?
I seem to have lost the box it came in.

Thanks in advance

Dec 15, 2002, 11:35 PM

Bios flashing is brand/make specific.

Just having the name Gf2 mx200 is not information enough to find the proper rom file.

You cant even try to flash a card if your not 1000% sure about your cards identity.

Look on the card itself for serial numbers,model numbers etc.

If possible get us a detail photo of each side so we can help you find out what it is.

There is a bios setting that may be causing the error but im not going to tell you unless your sure that you have the correct info.

Im just protecting you thats all.

Madgoat1979 · Dec 15, 2002, 11:42 PM

Yes, if the bios you are trying to flash does not meet the criteria for the cards SubVendor ID and SubDevice ID.... the flash util wont let you flash the card..... it will tell you eeprom error, cuz the eeprom doesnt match up....

make sure your card is flashable first off, and also you have the right bios to flash to it.....

MadGoat

Desert_Siege · Dec 16, 2002, 09:00 AM

I ran in to the EEPROM error (unrecognized EEPROM) with a Jaton 3D Force2 MX400 and no flashing tool (NVFlash or WFFlash I think it was) will flash that card because it does not recognize the EEPROM on the card and doesn't know how to flash it. It never gets far enough to check the BIOS image matching because it errors out on the EEPROM check. I finally gave up because I couldn't find a flashing utility that would work on the card, but it mysteriously started working in my daughters machine. It would not boot before I tried to flash it, just gave a blue screen error on boot C0000415 Unknown Hardware failure. Works fine now, so I don't think I am going to worry too much with flashing a new BIOS too it, but I wish you luck. I have flashed the BIOS on my Ti4400 (VisionTek) 3 times with NVFlash and currently have it set to default at Ti4600 speeds so I don't need software overclockers. Maybe someone here can shed some light on the EEPROM error and why some fail the check, but I never found a solution.

Moe Szyslak · Dec 16, 2002, 12:19 PM

Thanks for the replys.
Im going to try to find the box if I can and also Ill wrtie down all I can about it, serial no's etc.
Will get back to you

Hog54 · Dec 16, 2002, 01:30 PM

Is there any advantage to flashing my vid cards bios if theres nothing wrong with it?

Dec 16, 2002, 05:11 PM

NO need to flash the card unless it had some bugs and the company itself realesed a new bios to correct it.

The only reason for flashing it in other cases is to fiddle with its default settings like setting the clocks to a higher value (a safe one not extreme) so you dont need a tweaking utility all the time.

Or in some cases to disable the AGP bootup screen that slows your boot times a bit etc.

Even to enable cetrain settings like (fast writes,sideband addressing etc) but only if your sure that your system supports these functions.

For someone that is new to the game its too much of a risk
to even try this so like i said above DONT DO IT IF YOUR NOT SURE.

Someone PMed me earlier and said that he used a third party
bios that when he was done had set his clocks to default values way below those the he originaly had.
And for the last time i WARN you all.

THE SAME CHIPSET DOES NOT MAKE THE CARDS THE SAME.
(exmpl: a GF4 4200ti by MSI is not the same as a GF4 4200ti by PixelView)

Louie6666 · Dec 17, 2002, 04:55 PM

OK guy's I have quite a bit of experience, with these. you can recover from bad flash's (I thought I killed my little GF2) it was in non booting condition, all you have to do is make sure you have pci vga card handy, plug the bugger in with your GF in the agp slot & monitor connected to PCI graphics card, reflash (if needed use the force switch, feel the force luke) & your back up & running.

Something I'd like to mention, but don't want any comebacks if it goes tit's up for you is: drum roll please!

My abit siluro GF2MX bios update was only upto version 3.11.0124
& I noticed a Nvidia Quadro MXR Reference bios had version 3.11.0137 so I made a note of my device codes from nvidia bios editor (using read from memory) then loaded up the nvidia ref bios modded it with my device codes, mem & core speeds (currently 200/220) & flashed it on, this was 6 months ago now & not a hicup since and not bad performance for GF2mx, if I wanted to go hole hog I would do resistor trick, but I don't feel need as RivaTuner has its quadro mod & i use that

I MIGHT ADD MY CARD OBVIOUSLY KEPT TO THE REFRENCE DESIGN SO I COULD GET AWAY WITH THIS YOU PROBABLY WON'T BE SO LUCKY BE CAREFUL..AS GREEKRAGE SAY IF YOUR NOT SURE DON'T DO IT! I'm a bit of a nutter with my hardware, & do things on a whim, sometimes! But there is no way in hell I would advise anyone to carry out this procedure, unless they don't mind losing a card

Moe Szyslak · Dec 18, 2002, 07:57 PM

Right I have finally got round to getting some info on my card.
I couldnt find the box but I wrote down all the info from the card itself.

Sticker on back (Serial?) E852-0201-00138569258

On one chip: HOLTEK HT27C512 - 70
A022K1601 - 2

On another chip: AMS 1084CM 0051

These numbers are not on the memory chips they are found on the others.
I have figured out that Holtek is the sub manufacturer(Holtek Microelectronics Inc.), I seem to recall that name on the box.
So I have found the Sub Vendor ID in the BIOS Editor and its 12C3
So I saved the BIOS as this and tried to flash again but still get the EEPROM error.
Im not sure what the Sub Device ID is, its set to 0000.
Whether this is causing the error im not sure.

If anyone can help I would be very grateful.
Thanks in advance.

EDIT UPDATE:: I found two vendors in the BIOS editor HOLTEK Microelectronics Inc (12C3) and Holtek (9412).
Tried both but still the error.
Im getting the feeling that this card doesn't want to update!!

Madgoat1979 · Dec 18, 2002, 08:18 PM

HT27C512 is the eeprom chip,

Dr@gonZ · Dec 23, 2002, 08:37 PM

Siluro GF2 MX200 & MX400(and T) latest bios version is 3.11.01.48
Oh yeah i flash mine but the only problem i had was it say error rom size incorrect......everything fine

Louie6666 · Dec 25, 2002, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dr@gonZ
Siluro GF2 MX200 & MX400(and T) latest bios version is 3.11.01.48
Oh yeah i flash mine but the only problem i had was it say error rom size incorrect......everything fine

Where did you dig those up, maybe I have to take a peek

Dr@gonZ · Jan 24, 2003, 02:13 PM

go to abit site for download bios update

daos · Feb 17, 2003, 01:07 AM

im trying to flash my Ati Sapphire9700pro and i cannot seem to find any BIOS editing programs and any "how to's" to do it. can any of you guys help me?

~~Sourcer_2002~~ · Mar 31, 2003, 05:10 PM

So Louie you tweaked bios for a GF2 MX400? If i may ask could be so kind as to send them me?

Louie6666 · Apr 28, 2003, 07:56 PM

will do matey..but u will have to wait a while my rig's are elsewhere at the moment & haven't got internet at my new place yet!!!!arh the pain of it

AJCrowley · May 1, 2003, 05:43 AM

As a chronic tweaker, I've been after doing this for a while, but have been unable to find any updated BIOS images for my card (VisionTek ti4600). Are there simply no updates for this card, or am I just not looking in the right places? Does a BIOS upgrade ever result in noticeable performance improvements? I've not come across any bugs with my card (at least none that I knew were directly attributable to the card), so is an update recommended?

Thanks,

AJC

eternalcomputer · May 1, 2003, 12:15 PM

I have discovered a rather safe way to upgrade or overclock your VGA in WinXP:

Note: It is very important that you first test your VGA card for the ability to overclock via CoolBit because every card differs and each person's hardware differs.

1. I use Ray Adam's Nvidia BIOS editor to collect the information from my GeForce 4 Ti4600 in WinXP then I modified "only" the GPU and DDR clockrate to my previously tested 100% stable clockspeed at 315MHz GPUand 720MHz DDR using CoolBits. Save the modified BIOS as anything you wish to call (I called mine Turbo.rom) on the same disk as the nvflash.exe disk disussed below.

2. Get the latest nvflash.exe program and you also have to find a file called dos4gw.exe from the internet if you don't have it.

3. Make a bootable WinXP-DOS Floppy by formatting it as Bootable Disk. Then copy all the nvflash.exe program, modified BIOS (Turbo.rom for my example) and dos4gw.exe in the same Bootable Floppy.

4. Restart PC and put the Bootable Floppy in. As it reads and get to DOS C:\ command, type nvflash [Your filename].rom (Turbo.rom for my case) type capital letters YES to confirm overwrite the BIOS. Note since you use the BIOS read from your original VGA card, nvflash should have no problem proceeding to ask you to type YES. If nvflash quits or meet unexpected thing, either you stop flashing or go back to step 1 and check again that you ONLY modified the clockspeed and nothing else.

5. Pray that your PC won't hang or power will not fail during the BIOS flashing which takes about 5-10 seconds.

6. That's it! Your card is now permanently overclocked at your desired speed!

BadReligionPR · May 2, 2003, 05:29 AM

OK, haven't done any of this in a while as the Nvidia BIOS site is gone (try the link in the first post and see).

Unsupported EEPROM can often be overridden with nvflash's built in commands, So can SubVendor and Subdevice. Just type nvflash to see all the parameters, I know /u was one of the sub things, /o 3 was manual override. Also some card manufacturers provide their own BIOS flashing tools, these can be quite useful.

@Moe Szyslak - Many generic GF2MX cards actually do not have EEPROMS, but rather ROMs that can only be programmed once, at the factory, or again by erasing it with UV light and manual programmer. My GF2MX400 64MB (unbranded) has one of these such BIOSes. The normal nvflash gave me the non supported EEPROM message, so I DLed all the various flashers from every manufacturer. One of them eventually let me flash, but the BIOS was never actually loaded to ROM. If you really feel compelled to use the new BIOS and are running Windows 9x, you can use a TSR BIOS loading program at startup, the Nvidia BIOS site offered one of these but I don't know where you would find it now.

JTSF · May 4, 2003, 02:22 PM

If this is the easy way then don´t dare to know the hard way...

Ray Adams homepages:
http://rayadams.r2.ru/

It seems that Bios Collection page is currently down (link mentioned before, http://www.x-bios.3dgames.ru/ )

Flashing is useful when clocking card permanently. It also enables you to change the sign-on message text & color and hidden features like SBA (Side Band Addressing).

And of course it´s possible to flash Radeons too. However I couldn´t find much information about this operation with 1min googling. Any good link suggestions about this?

Dec 15, 2002, 12:14 PM	#1
GREEKRAGE Guest Posts: n/a	nVIDIA BIOS EDITING&FLASHING...THE EASY WAY Ok Kiddies here we go !! Bios flashing in general has become VERY simple for most types of hardware now. Motherboards and graphics cards can also be done in a windows enviroment. This in most cases depends on the manufacturer of the hardware. MSI has a thing called LIVE UPDATE that looks at your hardware and if an update is available for your product does the job in seconds.....hassle free. In the case of nVidia we have alot of third party programms,bios images etc. Here is a simple step by step way to flash your vidcard. BEWARE !!!....A BAD FLASH MAY RESULT IN A NON-FUNCTIONAL CARD. DO NOT FLASH YOUR CARD UNLESS YOU ARE SURE OF THE METHOD AND HAVE HALF DECENT KNOWLEDGE IN THESE MATERS. What we need: nVidia Bios editor Nvflash (latest version) One bootable floppy disc. Step one: Open Nvidia Bios editor Now if you want to edit your bios you can simply "read" from Memory" and very carefully fix the required settings. Once you are done simply save to the floppy(the bootable Floppy) with a simple name like "newbios.rom" But before you go on also read again without editing this time and save it also to the disc as your BACKUP bios . Now you have a Bootable floppy with the new image ready to be used but you need one more thing on there. You need a Flashing utility. This is where nVFlash comes in. Simply copy that also to the Floppy and your ready to go. Now simply reboot and hopefully have your Motherboard bios set to boot from floppy(first boot device). If not enter the Bios and set this up. Once you bootup and floppy is seen it will boot into Dos and finaly come to a Prompt. Here simply type: nvflash newbios.rom and hit enter (dont forget the space after nvflash). The app should start loading and come to a few points of verification where if you want to continue type YES and in a few seconds its done . When the flashing is done you should see some data about the routine and if it found the new bios compatible and the correct size etc. If you see these good messages you know you did a good job. Now simply remove the floppy and reboot. The End. OK now a few words of caution!! A) make sure your new image is allways the identical size as the original bios. B) power of you PC has to be absolutely STABLE........a power out while flashing can be VERY BAD and may result in your card not working again (in alot of cases with knowhow retrievable) C) DO NOT INTERRUPT THE PROCCESS TILL ITS DONE D) IF YOUR NOT SURE OF THIS SIMPLY DO NOT DO IT!!! Now some links : Here you can get a simple proggy to make you a bootdisc BOOT DISC MAKER Here you can get both the BIOS EDITOR and the latest NVFLASH plus alot of ready bios images and alot of reference images (caution with third party bios images). Ray Adams Page The files: NvFlash 4.15 (latest) nVidia Bios Editor Have fun

Dec 15, 2002, 08:43 PM	#2
eurolu True Playa Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Boston Posts: 51 Rep Power: 0	Is this safe ? __________________ Asus A7N8X Deluxe AMD Athlon XP2100+ WD 80GB Caviar w/ 8MB Buffer GeForce4 MX440 w/8xAGP SoundBlaster Live 5.1+ Lite-On 52x24x52x CDR/RW Pioneer 16x DVR-Rom 2x 256MB 400 MHZ/PC3200 DDRAM Boston Speakers w/ subwoofer Windows XP SP1 Corporate

Dec 15, 2002, 11:42 PM	#6
Madgoat1979 VTX NuTz!!! Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: AZ Posts: 763 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Sub Yes, if the bios you are trying to flash does not meet the criteria for the cards SubVendor ID and SubDevice ID.... the flash util wont let you flash the card..... it will tell you eeprom error, cuz the eeprom doesnt match up.... make sure your card is flashable first off, and also you have the right bios to flash to it..... MadGoat __________________

Dec 16, 2002, 09:00 AM	#7
Desert_Siege Professional Slacker Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: KY Posts: 274 Rep Power: 0	Sorry to give you the bad news, but.... I ran in to the EEPROM error (unrecognized EEPROM) with a Jaton 3D Force2 MX400 and no flashing tool (NVFlash or WFFlash I think it was) will flash that card because it does not recognize the EEPROM on the card and doesn't know how to flash it. It never gets far enough to check the BIOS image matching because it errors out on the EEPROM check. I finally gave up because I couldn't find a flashing utility that would work on the card, but it mysteriously started working in my daughters machine. It would not boot before I tried to flash it, just gave a blue screen error on boot C0000415 Unknown Hardware failure. Works fine now, so I don't think I am going to worry too much with flashing a new BIOS too it, but I wish you luck. I have flashed the BIOS on my Ti4400 (VisionTek) 3 times with NVFlash and currently have it set to default at Ti4600 speeds so I don't need software overclockers. Maybe someone here can shed some light on the EEPROM error and why some fail the check, but I never found a solution.

Dec 16, 2002, 01:30 PM	#9
Hog54 HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: May 2002 Location: Boston Posts: 164 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Is there any advantage to flashing my vid cards bios if theres nothing wrong with it? __________________ AMD PHENOM II 965 BE ASUS M3N72-D 4 GIGs GSKILL PC-8500 EVGA GTX460 SC 1GB WINDOWS 7 X64 Ultimate

Dec 15, 2002, 09:59 PM	#3
GREEKRAGE Guest Posts: n/a	Lol to be totally realistic i would say that it aint safe to walk out your front door these days....hehehe But to your question: Its never 100% safe or garanteed so all you can do is to try to do it right and hope you dont have any weird problems. You could use a fresh Floppy to make sure you dont have any corrupt data etc. And also use a UPS to avoid the power out issue. Also disable your mobo's onboard Virus protection Even setup default speeds on your CPU if its overclocked would make it safer. Basiclly corrupt data or power loss are the reasons for a bad flash not to mention using the wrong bios rom but that is in the stupid category. One more thing is if you have tweaked clocks and settings like SBA or fast Writes make sure your card can work with these settings. But if you do screw that up you should be able to reload the Backup bios that i recomended to be on the floppy too. Even in the case of a bad flash there is way that may work about 99% to repair it. All you need is a PCI vidcard to boot from and flash the card still in your agp slot. (if you do this dont forget to bootup first without the agp card and enter the bios to setup the PCI card as you initial video card then save and exit,shut down and install the agp again and then reboot into the flashing proccess) Ive flashed my bios about 12 times on this card alone. And have flashed a few asus cards too. Allthough to be totaly honest i did feck up a Matrox millenium a few years ago.(i had a power out)

Dec 15, 2002, 11:17 PM	#4
Moe Szyslak DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 23 Rep Power: 0	I have tried to flash my GForce 2 MX 200 but I get a EEPROM error. What can I do to solve this? I dont think my card is sub-branded.Is there anyway to find out if it is? I seem to have lost the box it came in. Thanks in advance

Dec 15, 2002, 11:35 PM	#5
GREEKRAGE Guest Posts: n/a	Bios flashing is brand/make specific. Just having the name Gf2 mx200 is not information enough to find the proper rom file. You cant even try to flash a card if your not 1000% sure about your cards identity. Look on the card itself for serial numbers,model numbers etc. If possible get us a detail photo of each side so we can help you find out what it is. There is a bios setting that may be causing the error but im not going to tell you unless your sure that you have the correct info. Im just protecting you thats all.

Dec 16, 2002, 12:19 PM	#8
Moe Szyslak DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 23 Rep Power: 0	Thanks for the replys. Im going to try to find the box if I can and also Ill wrtie down all I can about it, serial no's etc. Will get back to you

Dec 16, 2002, 05:11 PM	#10
GREEKRAGE Guest Posts: n/a	NO need to flash the card unless it had some bugs and the company itself realesed a new bios to correct it. The only reason for flashing it in other cases is to fiddle with its default settings like setting the clocks to a higher value (a safe one not extreme) so you dont need a tweaking utility all the time. Or in some cases to disable the AGP bootup screen that slows your boot times a bit etc. Even to enable cetrain settings like (fast writes,sideband addressing etc) but only if your sure that your system supports these functions. For someone that is new to the game its too much of a risk to even try this so like i said above DONT DO IT IF YOUR NOT SURE. Someone PMed me earlier and said that he used a third party bios that when he was done had set his clocks to default values way below those the he originaly had. And for the last time i WARN you all. THE SAME CHIPSET DOES NOT MAKE THE CARDS THE SAME. (exmpl: a GF4 4200ti by MSI is not the same as a GF4 4200ti by PixelView)

Dec 17, 2002, 04:55 PM	#11
Louie6666 Just One Sick-Lizard Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Bristol, UK Posts: 502 Rep Power: 0	OK guy's I have quite a bit of experience, with these. you can recover from bad flash's (I thought I killed my little GF2) it was in non booting condition, all you have to do is make sure you have pci vga card handy, plug the bugger in with your GF in the agp slot & monitor connected to PCI graphics card, reflash (if needed use the force switch, feel the force luke) & your back up & running. Something I'd like to mention, but don't want any comebacks if it goes tit's up for you is: drum roll please! My abit siluro GF2MX bios update was only upto version 3.11.0124 & I noticed a Nvidia Quadro MXR Reference bios had version 3.11.0137 so I made a note of my device codes from nvidia bios editor (using read from memory) then loaded up the nvidia ref bios modded it with my device codes, mem & core speeds (currently 200/220) & flashed it on, this was 6 months ago now & not a hicup since and not bad performance for GF2mx, if I wanted to go hole hog I would do resistor trick, but I don't feel need as RivaTuner has its quadro mod & i use that I MIGHT ADD MY CARD OBVIOUSLY KEPT TO THE REFRENCE DESIGN SO I COULD GET AWAY WITH THIS YOU PROBABLY WON'T BE SO LUCKY BE CAREFUL..AS GREEKRAGE SAY IF YOUR NOT SURE DON'T DO IT! I'm a bit of a nutter with my hardware, & do things on a whim, sometimes! But there is no way in hell I would advise anyone to carry out this procedure, unless they don't mind losing a card __________________ Last edited by Louie6666; Dec 17, 2002 at 05:06 PM.

Dec 18, 2002, 07:57 PM	#12
Moe Szyslak DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 23 Rep Power: 0	Right I have finally got round to getting some info on my card. I couldnt find the box but I wrote down all the info from the card itself. Sticker on back (Serial?) E852-0201-00138569258 On one chip: HOLTEK HT27C512 - 70 A022K1601 - 2 On another chip: AMS 1084CM 0051 These numbers are not on the memory chips they are found on the others. I have figured out that Holtek is the sub manufacturer(Holtek Microelectronics Inc.), I seem to recall that name on the box. So I have found the Sub Vendor ID in the BIOS Editor and its 12C3 So I saved the BIOS as this and tried to flash again but still get the EEPROM error. Im not sure what the Sub Device ID is, its set to 0000. Whether this is causing the error im not sure. If anyone can help I would be very grateful. Thanks in advance. EDIT UPDATE:: I found two vendors in the BIOS editor HOLTEK Microelectronics Inc (12C3) and Holtek (9412). Tried both but still the error. Im getting the feeling that this card doesn't want to update!! Last edited by Moe Szyslak; Dec 18, 2002 at 08:13 PM.

Dec 18, 2002, 08:18 PM	#13
Madgoat1979 VTX NuTz!!! Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: AZ Posts: 763 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	HT27C512 is the eeprom chip, __________________

Dec 23, 2002, 08:37 PM	#14
Dr@gonZ DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 13 Rep Power: 0	Siluro GF2 MX200 & MX400(and T) latest bios version is 3.11.01.48 Oh yeah i flash mine but the only problem i had was it say error rom size incorrect......everything fine

Jan 24, 2003, 02:13 PM	#16
Dr@gonZ DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 13 Rep Power: 0	go to abit site for download bios update

Feb 17, 2003, 01:07 AM	#17
daos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Baton Rouge, LA Posts: 29 Rep Power: 0	im trying to flash my Ati Sapphire9700pro and i cannot seem to find any BIOS editing programs and any "how to's" to do it. can any of you guys help me? __________________ whatever...

Mar 31, 2003, 05:10 PM	#18
~~Sourcer_2002~~ BANNED Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Indiana , USA Posts: 2,677 Rep Power: 0	So Louie you tweaked bios for a GF2 MX400? If i may ask could be so kind as to send them me?

Apr 28, 2003, 07:56 PM	#19
Louie6666 Just One Sick-Lizard Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Bristol, UK Posts: 502 Rep Power: 0	will do matey..but u will have to wait a while my rig's are elsewhere at the moment & haven't got internet at my new place yet!!!!arh the pain of it __________________

May 1, 2003, 05:43 AM	#20
AJCrowley DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 14 Rep Power: 0	As a chronic tweaker, I've been after doing this for a while, but have been unable to find any updated BIOS images for my card (VisionTek ti4600). Are there simply no updates for this card, or am I just not looking in the right places? Does a BIOS upgrade ever result in noticeable performance improvements? I've not come across any bugs with my card (at least none that I knew were directly attributable to the card), so is an update recommended? Thanks, AJC

May 1, 2003, 12:15 PM	#21
eternalcomputer DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 11 Rep Power: 0	I have discovered a rather safe way to upgrade or overclock your VGA in WinXP: Note: It is very important that you first test your VGA card for the ability to overclock via CoolBit because every card differs and each person's hardware differs. 1. I use Ray Adam's Nvidia BIOS editor to collect the information from my GeForce 4 Ti4600 in WinXP then I modified "only" the GPU and DDR clockrate to my previously tested 100% stable clockspeed at 315MHz GPUand 720MHz DDR using CoolBits. Save the modified BIOS as anything you wish to call (I called mine Turbo.rom) on the same disk as the nvflash.exe disk disussed below. 2. Get the latest nvflash.exe program and you also have to find a file called dos4gw.exe from the internet if you don't have it. 3. Make a bootable WinXP-DOS Floppy by formatting it as Bootable Disk. Then copy all the nvflash.exe program, modified BIOS (Turbo.rom for my example) and dos4gw.exe in the same Bootable Floppy. 4. Restart PC and put the Bootable Floppy in. As it reads and get to DOS C:\ command, type nvflash [Your filename].rom (Turbo.rom for my case) type capital letters YES to confirm overwrite the BIOS. Note since you use the BIOS read from your original VGA card, nvflash should have no problem proceeding to ask you to type YES. If nvflash quits or meet unexpected thing, either you stop flashing or go back to step 1 and check again that you ONLY modified the clockspeed and nothing else. 5. Pray that your PC won't hang or power will not fail during the BIOS flashing which takes about 5-10 seconds. 6. That's it! Your card is now permanently overclocked at your desired speed! __________________ [color=red]I love ATI[/color] [color=orange]I love ATI[/color] [color=yellow]I love ATI[/color] [color=green]I love ATI[/color] [color=blue]I love ATI[/color] [color=purple]I love ATI[/color]

May 2, 2003, 05:29 AM	#22
BadReligionPR DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 38 Rep Power: 0	OK, haven't done any of this in a while as the Nvidia BIOS site is gone (try the link in the first post and see). Unsupported EEPROM can often be overridden with nvflash's built in commands, So can SubVendor and Subdevice. Just type nvflash to see all the parameters, I know /u was one of the sub things, /o 3 was manual override. Also some card manufacturers provide their own BIOS flashing tools, these can be quite useful. @Moe Szyslak - Many generic GF2MX cards actually do not have EEPROMS, but rather ROMs that can only be programmed once, at the factory, or again by erasing it with UV light and manual programmer. My GF2MX400 64MB (unbranded) has one of these such BIOSes. The normal nvflash gave me the non supported EEPROM message, so I DLed all the various flashers from every manufacturer. One of them eventually let me flash, but the BIOS was never actually loaded to ROM. If you really feel compelled to use the new BIOS and are running Windows 9x, you can use a TSR BIOS loading program at startup, the Nvidia BIOS site offered one of these but I don't know where you would find it now. __________________ BRPR

May 4, 2003, 02:22 PM	#23
JTSF DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Finland Posts: 22 Rep Power: 0	If this is the easy way then don´t dare to know the hard way... Ray Adams homepages: http://rayadams.r2.ru/ It seems that Bios Collection page is currently down (link mentioned before, http://www.x-bios.3dgames.ru/ ) Flashing is useful when clocking card permanently. It also enables you to change the sign-on message text & color and hidden features like SBA (Side Band Addressing). And of course it´s possible to flash Radeons too. However I couldn´t find much information about this operation with 1min googling. Any good link suggestions about this?