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Blind flashing bricked 6950

What is the name of your original BIOS file.

The instructions I found say the flash command is "atiflash.exe -f -p 0 newbios.bin".

Does it make any difference if it's a rom or bin file?

Probably not, but you don't seem to be using the .exe extension in your command.

You also need to allow a few minutes for the flash to take place.
 
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From what I've read elsewhere, .rom files are fine - though most bioses I've tried have been .bin files.

I don't think the .exe extension will make any difference, since I'm not having any trouble running atiflash with my other card inserted.
 
Surveyor said:
So when you boot from the USB with the other card installed do you get the command prompt on screen or does it run atiflash automatically?
Click to expand...

It runs atiflash automatically, since I usually use an autoexec.bat - thought I have been blind typing too. I have discovered that adding >> whatever.txt creates an output log in DOS, which has solved my "can't see ****" problem. Unfortunately, I have discovered that atiflash isn't finding my graphics card. Every command I've tried so far, including "atiflash -i" results in "adapter not found".

So to summarize, DOS/atiflash is running fine. My saved bios could be fine. But atiflash won't detect my card.
 
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So I bought a cheap PCI card to use, with no luck. Atiflash in DOS simply tells me "rom not erased", though it detects the card. Atiwinflash, in windows, gives me a subsystemID mismatch, and running it through command prompt, with the unlockrom command, simply causes the "flashing" progress bar to appear for a split second, then disappear without so much as an error or any kind of message.

Is my card dead? :-( OCUK have offered to take it back and "try" to RMA it - though I don't want to send it off simply on the off chance it MIGHT get replaced, especially if it's fixable.
 
How long you had the card? If under 7 day OCUk have to refund. Good call on the screen shot

If you were willing to post i will try flashing it for you to ether a working 6970 bios or what it once was
 
a brink is not a brink you cant brick these cards perminently its impossible.
you just need to reflash a clean stock bios on it.
 
I'm sure there is some obscure way of doing it, but hours upon hours of research and trying different methods, short of hot-swapping it, haven't worked. At the end of the day, regardless of XFX's warranty policy, I haven't breached the T&Cs of OCUK (8.2: "This warranty does not apply to any defect in the goods arising from fair wear and tear, wilful damage, accident, negligence by you or any third party, use otherwise than as recommended by the Supplier), and I don't want to do anything that might give them a valid reason to refuse it.

Virus: I can't get anything to actually flash on to the card - so I could have the perfect bios (in fact, I have a backup of the initial bios it came with), but nothing wants to get it on to the card itself.
 
nawe87 said:
I'm sure there is some obscure way of doing it, but hours upon hours of research and trying different methods, short of hot-swapping it, haven't worked. At the end of the day, regardless of XFX's warranty policy, I haven't breached the T&Cs of OCUK (8.2: "This warranty does not apply to any defect in the goods arising from fair wear and tear, wilful damage, accident, negligence by you or any third party, use otherwise than as recommended by the Supplier), and I don't want to do anything that might give them a valid reason to refuse it.
Click to expand...

I wish you luck sorting it out but you can't say that flashing the BIOS was recommended by the supplier.

You chose to do it at your own risk.

Just a thought when trying to flash the card with the PCI card installed will the 6950 still be adapter 0 or would it be 1?

Can you use the command "atiflash -i" to see what the adapter numbers are?
 
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Surveyor said:
I wish you luck sorting it out but you can't say that flashing the BIOS was recommended by the supplier.

You chose to do it at your own risk.

Just a thought when trying to flash the card with the PCI card installed will the 6950 still be adapter 0 or would it be 1?

Can you use the command "atiflash -i" to see what the adapter numbers are?
Click to expand...

It was advertised as flashable, without any disclaimer - when research reveals the specific model I was sent instead is not - safely, at least. I don't think many users could reasonably be expected to have known they recieved the wrong model, since, as far as I'm aware, the only way to tell is a single digit in a code somewhere on the box (there's literally an X instead of an A), and the absence of a switch which, at a glance, actually looks like it's there. If you look at their summary on the offers page, it pretty much says "hey, you you should buy this because it's flashable".

But yeah, the adapter number is 0, as indicated by the -i command. Any other number results in "adapter not found". I'm confident I've done everything I can with atiflash. As for AtiWinflash in the cmd prompt (yes, running as administrator), I have no idea what's stopping it from working properly, and I've spent a good few hours trying to find out. For the record, even the -i command in winflash simply results in the progress bar flashing up, then disappearing without leaving any errors, messages, windows or information. Strangely, opening the GUI, it seems to see the card, and when I try to flash through there the progress bar carries on almost to the end, before giving me a subsystems ID mismatch error - like I said, I need to unlock the rom, which can only be done through the command prompt. I've even tried using Radeon Bios Editor, which fails to detect it alltogether.
 
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I'd keep researching, make sure you've got an iron clad case and log a complaint on the website.

You should make an account with the Small Claims Court website and do some reading up about what they offer, if you're 100% certain that you're in the right.

Good luck.
 
So I had one last try with an old hard drive with Vista installed, with no drivers for the current system, and atiwinflash made some progress, it unlocked the rom - but was cut short by windows automatically installing generic drivers.

I've tried uninstalling them and restarting - after which I have about 10 seconds in which I can type an atiwinflash command, let it get a few bars in, before the drivers automatically reinstall, causing it to disappear. Anyone have any idea how to prevent this from occurring in either vista or windows 7 (both home premium)?
 
Do you think it would be possible to make a disk which could automatically detect the card and flash its default bios with no user input needed?
 
Do you have a floppy disk or access to a PC with one?

download and use drdflash.exe from
http://www.bootdisk.com/
Driver Free Disk For BIOS Flashing 1 | 2 | 3 | About

You need a PC with a floppy drive to make the disk then you can burn the files onto a CD together with the ATI flash and bios rom or just use the floppy with the files added..

It only uses barebones DOS, no windows and will support a PCI card.

andy.

ONE reason I still use a floppy drive :)
 
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