Bought a bricked GPU and revived it - How to and Results

[Figo]

Hey folks, this is the GPU i recently posted about - I bought it bricked for around a fiver (basically shipping charges) and managed to unbrick it through a bootable DOS drive.

Since then, I've flashed one of the BIOS to a 6970 wheras the other has been restored to a working 6950 bios.

Decided to run a little comparison on the two.

Hopefully the GPU reflashing guide will be of help to someone too.

 

[Poneros]

Excellent project & videos mate, well done!

 

[Figo]

Cheers really enjoyed it, always a good feeling being able to snag someone's rubbish and turn it into a working piece of hardware

 

[Vale]

Thumbs up from me, your videos are quality. 10/10 Figo.

 

[RevBillyG]

Nice work. Subbed to your channel

 

[Figo]

thanks folks

 

[Bantu]

This is very cool and it's always wonderful to see these things actually being fixed than going to landfill /wherever WEEE goes

 

[Erik13]

Clean and nice explanation

 

[Greebo]

I remember years ago bricking my gfx card with a failed bios upgrade.

Had to go to a mates pc, make a bootable dos drive and then bring it back and boot to a blank screen and keep my fingers crossed.

Seemed like forever before it finished and it all was fixed.

 

[Vale]

Yes I often wonder weather it's worth buying graphics cards off the online auction site, when they say 'fan spins but no output to monitor'. Bios flash could unbrick it OR it could be something more serious.

 

[Figo]

Yes I often wonder weather it's worth buying graphics cards off the online auction site, when they say 'fan spins but no output to monitor'. Bios flash could unbrick it OR it could be something more serious.

Yeah i've been toying with that myself recently.

Could end up with a gem, or could end up with a melon

Theres also a few online at the moment that only have 1 fan working... easy enough to replace but the price of replacement fans can be astronomical!

 

[Vale]

Guy wanted £45 for an R9 290 with the fan PCB connector faulty, fans would not spin. Thought about getting a 2 pin to molex connector and wiring the fans constant via molex but wasn't sure if it was worth doing. So I gave it a swerve, could have been sweet for £45 though.

 

[Jumper118]

You that is one of the best pcb and vrm controllers on a hd6950. That card should overclock like a monster with water cooling and some voltage.

 

[Figo]

You that is one of the best pcb and vrm controllers on a hd6950. That card should overclock like a monster with water cooling and some voltage.

I bought a reference 6970 to mess around with. I'm actually getting slightly better performance and overclocks with the reflashed 6950/70 ..

 

[Figo]

Guy wanted £45 for an R9 290 with the fan PCB connector faulty, fans would not spin. Thought about getting a 2 pin to molex connector and wiring the fans constant via molex but wasn't sure if it was worth doing. So I gave it a swerve, could have been sweet for £45 though.

Sure there would be some way of controlling those fans from a motherboard fan connection.. Not elegant if your wire-phobic... But could be an interesting project