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Help overclocking reference 7970

How do I flash back to the old bios. Do I just boot from the memory stick and type:

atiflash -f -p 0 oldbios.bin

Or is it:

atiflash -f -p 0 oldbios.rom
 
It depends it saved as, it should be on the usb stick or within windows.

Untick 'Hide extensions for known file types' within 'folder options' and it will tell you whether it's .rom or .bin.



There might be something else at fault outwith your 7970 that's causing a lock out of voltage adjustment.

For example, I have just added a 7950 to my 7970 and went CrossFireX.

In my very battered and bruised W7, @stock speeds, it's all fine, oc'ing however, I have to drop the core on the 7970 to 950 with 1400MHz on the vram if I want to match speeds with the 7950.

I installed W8 onto an old HD-that's on it's last legs and works when it feels like it, however, put the clocks to 1010Mhz-1500Mhz and it doesn't skip a beat.

That's telling me that I have mucked about too much within windows, in turn causing a detrimental effect with overclocking.

Upon showing 'ghost' devices in Device manager, I had 8 different 69 series drivers(because I used various modded bios), 3 various Nvidia drivers, and 5 different 79 series drivers.:eek:



Your really not going to be able to tell the difference in game and I wouldn't return it if it was mine as the expense starts to mount up with return postage-in your case, for the second time if you indeed do choose to send it back.
 
Besides 'ATIFlash.exe' and the 'Tahiti.rom' GHz bios the only other file is 'OLDBIOS.BIN', but I'm not sure if I can flash with that because it's a different filetype. I'm assuming I need a .rom of the original bios?
 
I'll be amazed if they've locked the voltage on the MSI 7970 OC. That's a reference card, its just not cricket.
 
I'll be amazed if they've locked the voltage on the MSI 7970 OC. That's a reference card, its just not cricket.

They can't have. I just can't see it. The first thing they are advertising on their own sight is 'OVERVOLTAGE SUPPORT'.

I think I might need to try to official MSI drivers so I'm going to flash back to original bios, install those drivers, and test it out in AB again.
 
They can't have. I just can't see it. The first thing they are advertising on their own sight is 'OVERVOLTAGE SUPPORT'.

I think I might need to try to official MSI drivers so I'm going to flash back to original bios, install those drivers, and test it out in AB again.

You don't need to, just flick the switch.:D
 
Okay, just tried to flash back to original bios on position 1. It failed :(

First time I typed 'atiwinflash -p 0 OLDBIOS.BIN' and got an 0FL01 error straight away.

Then I tried 'atiwinflash -f -p 0 OLDBIOS.BIN' and it did it's thing for a minute, but then I got a load of text and another 0FL01 error and a message saying 'ROM not erased'.

I tried to re-boot but just got a blank screen. I heard the Windows boot up sound and did a hard shut-down. Switched back to position 2 and it booted fine, but I'd like to be able to restore the position 1 bios if possible so a little help would be appreciated.
 
Okay, just tried to flash back to original bios on position 1. It failed :(

First time I typed 'atiwinflash -p 0 OLDBIOS.BIN' and got an 0FL01 error straight away.

Then I tried 'atiwinflash -f -p 0 OLDBIOS.BIN' and it did it's thing for a minute, but then I got a load of text and another 0FL01 error and a message saying 'ROM not erased'.

I tried to re-boot but just got a blank screen. I heard the Windows boot up sound and did a hard shut-down. Switched back to position 2 and it booted fine, but I'd like to be able to restore the position 1 bios if possible so a little help would be appreciated.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/q35kod

Boot to dos and type

atiflash -f -p 0 tahiti.rom
 
Thanks Matt. Just to clarify, I want to boot into dos using the position 2 bios, switch back to position 1 when I'm in dos, and then flash with 'atiflash -f -p 0 tahiti.rom'?

Start your pc with the working bios switch. Boot into dos, once at dos flick the switch to the faulty bios and flash. :)

Done it myself a few times to recover myself when i tried to flash the Ghz edition bios from windows. :D
 
Tried flashing again. Same thing. Here's a picture I took:

IMG_0148_1.jpg
 
Didn't work. It seemed to flash fine in DOS but when I tried to reboot I got a blank screen.

Hmm that doesn't make sense. Try again but this time flick the bios switch to the faulty bios the second your pc beeps. Then try the flash again.
 
Mine doesn't beep. I could try switching when my the 'Asus' screen displays.

I'm getting a bit worried about this now though. Don't want to bork second bios too :eek:
 
Mine doesn't beep. I could try switching when my the 'Asus' screen displays.

I'm getting a bit worried about this now though. Don't want to bork second bios too :eek:

As long as you have one working bios you should be ok. Not sure why its not working tbh.

I take it you dont have a speaker front panel led connector on your bios if you have no beep? It shouldn't make a difference though imo.

I think im out of suggestions as to why that wont work im afraid mate.
 
Hah! Finally fixed it... I think.

So I posted on the MSI forum and one of the MSI people there told me to use the official MSI drivers instead of the latest ATI betas. I did that and now in AB when I adjust voltage it actually is reflected in the voltage monitor.

I tried to confirm it was taking effect by doing a bench in heaven at 1.2v and 1170. Nothing I've done before has let me pass a bench of Heaven at that core, but it just passed so I'm pretty confident it's working now.

If anyone's got any advice regarding flashing my borked bios back, I'd appreciate it though, because I'd like a backup.
 
I might try the ghz edition flash. Just to confirm, I start the pc in dos then switch the switch to position 2 then flash? Is that the correct procedure?

Might as well give it a try. Best overclock I have had using stock bios on my reference is 1185/ 1575@ 1.214 volts using trixx although I will have to check gpu-z to see if volts are actually changing. Been a bit scared to go higher than 1.214v although temps are fine due to accelero xtreme cooler - which I would highly recommend by the way.
 
I might try the ghz edition flash. Just to confirm, I start the pc in dos then switch the switch to position 2 then flash? Is that the correct procedure?

Might as well give it a try. Best overclock I have had using stock bios on my reference is 1185/ 1575@ 1.214 volts using trixx although I will have to check gpu-z to see if volts are actually changing. Been a bit scared to go higher than 1.214v although temps are fine due to accelero xtreme cooler - which I would highly recommend by the way.

You don't need to worry about switching the bios in DOS if you've got two working bios'. Just power-off your PC, switch bios to position 1 (if you're using an MSI OC version) then boot to your memory stick or whatever and flash it.

If something goes wrong you've always got bios 2 as a back-up. However, check before you flash anything that both of your bios' are working properly. Also bear in mind that this is a risky process. I now have only 1 working bios because it wasn't possible to flash bios 1 back to its original state.
 
Something strange that I've noticed since trying to flash back with Matt's bios is that my idle clocks are now lower than what they were before. My clocks now idle at 300/150 whereas before I'm sure they were 500 and something.

Or maybe a driver update changed that, because I have updated drivers a few times over the past week.

I can't figure it out. Af first I thought that maybe when I tried to flash my GHz bios back to the original bios that for some reason it flashed to the wrong position on my card, but that wouldn't explain why the GHz bios will no longer boot.

This is very strange. Kind of wish I never bothered with flashing in the first place. I'm also noticing the occasional flicker on the desktop too, which is annoying :(
 
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