9800GT BIOS corrupted?

[BarBrawllin]

This is what my PNY 9800GT 1GB is displaying in GPU-Z 0.5.9

I actualy managed to get the motherboard to boot up with this card now after leaving the battery out of the motherboard all night and changing the graphics options in the motherboard BIOS from "auto" to "PCIE" and for some reason its working as far as windows 7 is concerned but i dont even want to attempt to test the card for stability whilst GPU-Z is displaying that corrupted BIOS string garbage. The weird thing is i tried all this before and it would never work and now it does,wtf?

Should i try to flash a new BIOS onto the card? have a look here.
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=95536

I dont know if thats related but its the same graphics card from the same manufacturer and the guy had problems getting his card to work, In the end PNY sent him a new BIOS to flash onto the card and he could use it. Do you think this is the same situation im in? My card is a refurbished one and i bought it here justbefore xmas and it worked for around a week at the start when i first built the PC then just started to act up.

I have already sent the 9800GT back to overclockers around a month ago and they tested it and said its fine. So why is it doing this in my motherboard?


I've sent overclockers details of the current situation and asked them if they think i should flash a new compatable BIOS onto the card and if so,how do i do that? All i have is windows 7 ,i dont have a USB flash drive so preferably id need a tool that works in windows to flash it.

 

[BarBrawllin]

i went into my BIOS and set the PCIe frequency to 100mhz and the card wont work. it seems i can only get the card to be detected when the PCIe/bclk frequency is 102-103mhz. When im in the BIOS im getting what i can only describe as an after image of my mouse so it will look like i have 2 mouse cursors. It doesnt leave a trail of mouse cursors it will be just one image of it "burned" onto the BIOS menu that disapears if i move my mouse cursor over the after image/ghost.

The after image just says static but disapears as i put my mouse back over it,its like a graphics glitch and im sure it was happening even with the iGPU graphics. It's happend like 3 times so far.

Right now my bclk is 102mhz and im using the 9800GT and it seems to work in windows but its still stuck in x8 mode and the BIOS version string is corrupted in GPU-Z 0.5.9 as you can see from the image above.

I've had no reply from OCUK since yesterday and dont want to do anything with the 9800GT's BIOS or anything because i dont know what the hell is wrong tbh. i want to just send it back to them and let them deal with it because all i've done is pay £600 for something thats not working since xmas/new year and its now march...... not everybody has another PC to try parts on,i dont live anywhere near anybody i know with a PC,id have to get a taxi there and back wich would cost around 15 if i was to go to my cousins house to test the graphics card and even then it proves nothing because he's on an LGA 775 system and im on an i5 so i cant try swapping the RAM or CPU. Im certainly not taking it to that big purple high street store for diagnoses because frankly i shouldnt have to,i paid for something that works not a broken PC that i have to keep pouring money into. OCUK,sort this out please havent i waited long enough and wasted enough time and money on this build as it is? Not having a go or anything,just sayin.

All the independent PC stores in this area are con artists(well they try to be but they dont fool me) so theres no way im gonna take brand new parts to one of those either,i think since i paid OCUK for every part and its not worked properly virtualy since the day i got it that they should be sorting this out for me. Am i wrong? Sombody please chime in here with an opinion on this or even a possable soloution for me to try and fix this mess. for now i've wrote off that 460 GTX in my sig and sending it back for refund i think that card has a loose solder joint(there was damage in the box no foam padding to stop the card flying around all over the place inside the box and stuff missing when i got it so they have nothing against me returning it,i bought it on that well known auction site and not from here btw),im focusing on getting the parts i bought from overclockers to work for now..

 

[RavenXXX2]

My 260 bios, card works fine.

 

[BarBrawllin]

Ahh so thats ok then,but still,my card crashes when playing games almost instantly and its not a driver issue as i've tested it on a clean install of windows and the fact that the graphics card cant even be detected by my motherboard unless the BCLK is overclocked and the graphical glitches in the BIOS that the card is causing.

I just sent this complaint via webnote if you have a read of it i think you will agree its a faulty card or at the very least not compatable with P8Z68-V motherboards.

"Bought this from you before xmas for £600,doesnt work since day 1. Couldnt tell it was defective becuase you sold me a PSU that was advertised wrong (said it had PCIe power cable when it didnt and didnt even have a power cable to plug into the wall socket)

Sent the graphics card back for RMA and you tested it and said its working.

I bought another much better PSU from you(OCZ ZS series 650watt) and it still doesnt work.

I got another motherboard from ******(the same model i bought from you,P8Z68-V) and it still doesnt work so i had to go back to them and get a refund from them.

I bought a new graphics card off **** and that kind of works but it has graphics corruption because it arrived in a damaged box and the postman stole cables from the box or at the very least lost them and it didnt have foam padding to stop it rattling around inside the box so thats another issue and doesnt have anything to do with this.

The fact of the matter is i have tested 3 different models of ATI graphics cards that i know for a fact work in other computers and each one of those works in my PC perfectly with no glitches 100% stable,tested them in MSI kombustor and several graphicly demanding games at the highest settings and they work perfectly.

Now have a look at this screenshot from GPU-Z

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/12/03/15/2np.png

It shows my graphics card info and as you can see the BIOS version string has corrupted DATA in it meaning that either the GPU BIOS is corrupted or the graphics card is faulty.

The graphics card displays nothing on the screen and isnt even detected by the motherboard unless i set the BCLK frequency higher than default to around 102mhz-103mhz. I've tested this over and over and have had consistent results.
At the default of 100mhz the motherboard doesnt detect it,if i set it to 103mhz it is detected then i can reduce it down to 102 and save the BIOS and it will boot back up just fine but i cant play games with it because theirs clearly somethnig wrong with either the graphics card of some other part of the system.

I've tried removing one stick of RAM and using each stick individualy,resetting the BIOS replaced the PSU tried it in another motherboard that was brand new and the same model as the one you sold me and it doesnt work. Thats more than a coincidence in my book and clearly shows the card is not working or at the very least not compatable with my motherboard.

I think im entitled to send the 9800GT back to you and have it totaly refunded and the testing fee i paid given back to me. I dont care if you say it works in your testing systems because it clearly doesnt work in my one!

I paid £7.95 to send it to you for testing and then you charged me a fee and postage to send it back here and it ended up costing as much as the 9800GT itself.

I have used your company since 2006 and spent around 5 grand and always had good service but im really really annoyed with what i've went through here and the length of time its taken for it to be fixed.

If you could please refund me for the 9800GT and the postage + testing fee i will be happy.

My plan is to buy another graphics card(from you this time and not ****) and see what happens because i previously thought the motherboard was broken but the chances of getting 2 in a row broken are pretty slim so i think the blame lies with the 9800GT. If the motherboard was faulty the other 3 ATI cards i tested wouldnt work either but they do so thats clearly not the problem.

3 other ATI cards work in the system so obviously nothing else is broken,it HAS to be the 9800GT. Maybe im unlucky and its not compatable with my motherboard but thats not my fault and i dont see why i should have to be stuck here with it when i cant use it and out of pocket for a testing fee that didnt help me one bit.

BTW the card was overheating when i got it too and i fixed it myself with new thermal paste at my own expense,i was appauled at the state of the GPU when i took the heatsink off,they stuck new silver coloured paste over old white ceramic paste without cleaning it off first and the PCB is significantly warped in my opinion.

Please do the right thing here and give me a refund so i can get another graphics card and actualy get to USE my PC for once.

Its not worked since i got it and its now March so i think i've been very patient and i've done everything possable to fix it myself. If i get a new graphics card from you and i find that i still have a fault elsewhere in the system i should be entitled to a refund,its only fair,it was not fit for purpose from day 1. I dont want the card swapped for another 9800GT i want the money back and the testing fee so i can buy a better one because i dont trust these so called "refurbished" 9800GT's anymore...

Im not having a go at you i just want my rights as a customer to be upheld in the appropriate fashion.

Thanks for your time and patience reading this.

J**** Mc******"

 

[BarBrawllin]

My 260 bios, card works fine.

BTW raven thanks for showing me that picture,im not very familiar with nvidia BIOS's so you've taught me something new today,thank you very much. BTW,i cant get my card to go into PCIe x16 mode even if i apply graphics load to the GPU so obviously somethings wrong with it.