ATI BIOS FLASHING Guide

[V2-V3]

ATi HD 4870 BIOS flashing guide to ASUS ATi HD 4870 TOP BIOS

Default clocks for 4870 are 750MHz / 900MHz while the ASUS TOP bios is 815MHz / 925MHz and the ASUS BIOS has fixed the annoying low fan speed bug in other 4870 bios's

WARNING ----- THIS IS NOT THE FLASHING GUIDE FOR THE 4870x2 DO NOT FLASH YOUR 4870x2 WITH THIS 4870 BIOS------ WARNING

Things you will need:

to read MY Guide over HERE (http://nexgenoverclocking.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82:4870-bios-flashing-guide&catid=37:bios-flashing-and-modifications&Itemid=49)
An ATI 4870 Video Card
A USB Thumb Stick
The ASUS TOP BIOS 128kb .ROM
This BIOS FLASHING tool Package DOWNLOAD HERE (http://rapidshare.com/files/134654365/4870_bios_flash_-_ultimate.rar.html)
and as always, some good ole free time :)

[DrNip]

Sweet! Nice thread.

[Chuchnit]

Sweet bro! Keep 'em coming

[Kal-EL]

Kudos Guruman :D

[2chesapeakes]

I have used ATI flash and RBE to flash my 4870x2's. One thing to remember withh the x2's is there are 2 bios's for the x2's.

[V2-V3]

yup master and slave bios, when i first flashed my card to the top bios i flashed the bios backwards master to slave and slave to master :)

needless to say it didnt work!

had to re flash through DOS with the correct bios :)

[Jeffro64]

yup master and slave bios, when i first flashed my card to the top bios i flashed the bios backwards master to slave and slave to master :)

needless to say it didnt work!

had to re flash through DOS with the correct bios :)


Well... It was sounding pretty easy until I got to this post LOL!

I have 2 4870 x2's that I will need to do... What do I expect when I go to flash them and what is the correct way? I hate working in DOS!!:argh:

[Jeffro64]

Also.... In the instructions it says to go to the link and download the ASUS top bios which is a .bin file, and then it says to go to the link and download the RAR package which contains the asus.rom.

So are the asus.rom and the asus top bios.bin the same thing, or will I need them both?


EDIT: I did everything it says to do for preparing the USB flash drive, all files are on there and I hit F8 to boot from the USB drive. It then takes me to a black screen with a blinking cursor but thats all it does... I can't type anything and it just sits there and blinks? Anyone have any input on this?

[Jeffro64]

bump :D

[Chuchnit]

bump :D

V2-V3 gets busy from time to time. PM hellcamino, he's done this before

[Jeffro64]

I talked to him last night and we think they may be the same just one in .bin and one in .rom, but I didn't find the USB problem until tonight.

I'll be glad when I learn some of this stuff and i'm not such a pain in the arse LOL.

[Jeffro64]

Hmmmm, just tried it again and nothing. Tried all kinds of different settings in the bios even to get the USB to boot and do something. No matter what I do all I ever get is that black screen with a blinking cursor. If I try to type anything it does one of two things... either goes into booting windows or just does nothing at all.

[Kal-EL]

Crud, wish I could help Jeff, until I get around to this myself, I have no clue.

[Jeffro64]

Yeah it's weird.... I prepared the USB stick just the way it says, did it again 2 more times just to make sure I didn't miss anything and all the files are on there. It just won't do anything but sit there with a blinking cursor... Maybe it's the board or something just isn't supported with this setup.

[Kal-EL]

How long are you waiting when it's just blinky?

[Jeffro64]

Sometimes I wait a little while and sometimes I just start trying to type in the commands...either way it just sit's there and blinks LOL.

[Jeffro64]

Wonder if it would work from a floppy drive?

[Kal-EL]

I'm wondering if you just gotta wait longer.

[Jeffro64]

See..... that's one thing I don't know. Is it supposed to just pop something up or do I have to type the command in to start it running? But i've tried just letting it sit there and nothing happens.

[2chesapeakes]

I used a floppy as a boot disk once it boots into dos I then insert the disk with ATI flash and the bioses. It has not failed me yet. If I get a chance this weekend I will play around and let you know what I usually do.

[Jeffro64]

Got it figured out.... My ASUS board didn't like the USB thumb drive I was using. I switched to another and it worked just fine.

As for flashing the cards well that's another story.... thought I had bricked them both LOL. I did one before noticing that this thread was for a 4870... not a 4870 x2, so needless to say it didn't work. So I got the other card out and was going to put the stock bios's back on the other card which was now put in the second PCIe slot... All went well so I thought. Now I discovered that neither card was working!

Long story short... when I had both cards hooked up, ATIFlash put the second card as 0 and 1... the first card was 2 and 3, so everything was ass backwards and not only the cards but master and slave. So after pulling my hair out and going to Fry's to get a PCI card... then figuring out how everything was ass backwards I now have both cards back to stock up and running fine.

I will attemp it again but not tonight and hope all goes well now that I know a little more about this LOL. Oh... And yes I now have the 4870 x2 master and slave bios's thanks to Frank pointing me in the right direction.

[V2-V3]

Got it figured out.... My ASUS board didn't like the USB thumb drive I was using. I switched to another and it worked just fine.

As for flashing the cards well that's another story.... thought I had bricked them both LOL. I did one before noticing that this thread was for a 4870... not a 4870 x2, so needless to say it didn't work. So I got the other card out and was going to put the stock bios's back on the other card which was now put in the second PCIe slot... All went well so I thought. Now I discovered that neither card was working!

Long story short... when I had both cards hooked up, ATIFlash put the second card as 0 and 1... the first card was 2 and 3, so everything was ass backwards and not only the cards but master and slave. So after pulling my hair out and going to Fry's to get a PCI card... then figuring out how everything was ass backwards I now have both cards back to stock up and running fine.

I will attemp it again but not tonight and hope all goes well now that I know a little more about this LOL. Oh... And yes I now have the 4870 x2 master and slave bios's thanks to Frank pointing me in the right direction.


Jeffro,

I am very sorry i did not find your post sooner!

yes the bios in this guide is not for the 4870x2 it is only for the single GPU 4870 512MB version

you are correct, the 4870x2 has 2 BIOS chips, one Master and one Slave and they are not interchangeable!!!

and you need to know the device location on the PCI bus each bios has a unique location and if you have more than one video card.
usually if you have 2 4870x2's your locations would look like this:

(PCIE slot 1: Physical video card) Primary GPU: Master BIOS Device 0 Slave BIOS Device 1



(PCIE slot 3: Physical video card) Secondary GPU: Master BIOS Device 2 Slave BIOS Device 3

the ASUS TOP BIOS for the 4870x2 allows for 900MHz Core and 1100MHz GDDR clock frequency limits in Catalyst Control Center Overdrive Overclocking.

the Default ASUS TOP 4870x2 Clocks are 790MHz Core and 915MHz RAM

The GPU Core voltage is also higher in the top so once you flash to top you can usually get much better clocks on any cooling.

also the Memory timings are more loose with the ASUS TOP BIOS and allow for higer stable frequencies on the GDDR5 memory modules.



I will post a 4870x2 BIOS Flashing guide to assist you!

[Jeffro64]

Not a problem LOL... I had seen that this was just for the 4870 at first but got side tracked some how between the first time I read this thread and when I actually attempted this. Plus it was just me getting in a hurry yesterday LOL. :D

When I messed up the first card... I had put it in the slot 3 PCIe and thats how I flashed it back was device 2 & 3, but for some reason it messed up the card in PCIe slot 1 in the process. Anyway, I see the new 4870 x2 guide thread and will attemp it again hopefully with better results. :D Thanks for posting the new guide, i'll be looking for it!

[V2-V3]

Not a problem LOL... I had seen that this was just for the 4870 at first but got side tracked some how between the first time I read this thread and when I actually attempted this. Plus it was just me getting in a hurry yesterday LOL. :D

When I messed up the first card... I had put it in the slot 3 PCIe and thats how I flashed it back was device 2 & 3, but for some reason it messed up the card in PCIe slot 1 in the process. Anyway, I see the new 4870 x2 guide thread and will attemp it again hopefully with better results. :D Thanks for posting the new guide, i'll be looking for it!

ill get the guide posted and completed by the end of the week, keep your eyes out! once u get some free time it will be there ASAP

[Jeffro64]

Kewl thanks man!

It's weird though... when I enter the ATIFLASH -i command to see all that info my slaves are where the masters should be and my masters are in the slaves place. Same with the card locations... they are reversed. That's how I fubared my second card yesterday, because I went to flash the bios 2 & 3 and it did the card in PCIE slot 1.

Anyway.... once I had them both fixed and working again it was a good learning experience. I was glad to see that first card show video again and I had to use it to get the second card working because for some odd reason the PCI card wouldn't show video to fix the second card. But atleast the next attemp I won't be going in without knowing a little more about how it works. :D

[Kal-EL]

Jeff, I reckon ur gonna fast become our other resident Bios Flash Guru. Maybe u can throw up a detailed guide later for the rest of us noobs ;)

[hellcamino]

That particualr booboo where the primary/secondary slots get switched around seems to be a common Asus bug, my P5Q Deluxe did that until the most recent bios update.


HOWEVER...I was WELL aware of this as I was testing my hardware PRIOR to flashing it and had previously noted that the cards were ass backwards as soon as I added the second one.

[Jeffro64]

Thats right... you were telling me about that bug. Note to self.... Remember to update bios to that new release. :D

Supes... Not sure i'll be any kind of guru anytime soon, but i'm learning a lot of things along the way thats for sure!

[hellcamino]

Thats right... you were telling me about that bug. Note to self.... Remember to update bios to that new release. :D

Supes... Not sure i'll be any kind of guru anytime soon, but i'm learning a lot of things along the way thats for sure!

Learning things the hard way isn't so bad as long as you learn the first time.