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[Solved] Updating 4850 BIOS failed

Forum Graphic & Displays : ATI - [Solved] Updating 4850 BIOS failed

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Best answer from montyuk.

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Hello,

Not going to bore you with the reasons why.

I tried to update my Gigabyte 4850 BIOS using Gigabytes Windows VGA @Bios utility. The upgrade never seemed to finish, infact I left it for an hour and it still said "Updating please wait". When I tried to close the @Bios window it suddenly responded and displayed "bios update successful" and the PC needed to be rebooted. At this stage I was doubtful of a successful outcome.

Upon restarting I got no display at all.
I've since tried the card in another PC, again a blank screen.
I flashed the CMOS on the mobo just incase it needed to be refreshed but that didnt work either.
I put an old nVidia 6x series in and the PC booted fine.

The motherboard (GA-MA790FX-DQ6) I have has 4 PCIe x16 slots (I plan to try xFire at some point).
After reading some other posts it has been suggested using a working card in the primary PCIe 16 slot and try updating the BIOS that way. However, I cant see that working as the only other cards I have are nVidia based and will the DOS utility that comes with the BIOS file itself actually detect the other card? Obviously I wont be trying the Windows version of the VGA @Bios utility again and would suggest others avoid it.

Does anyone have any experience with VGA Bios's? Also is there perhaps a key I need to press during boot...

Thanks in advance

Add a reply

ok the gist is - create a msboot disc
add the atiflash.exe and the .bin or .rom file for your video bios

create a new file called - Autoexec.bat and in it create the line
Atiflash.exe -p -f yourbios.bin (or .rom)

save and add it to the boot disc

let it run, give it a healthy 5 mins after no activity from the floppy drive

reboot...flashing doesnt take that long but id rather you restart late than too soon.

Hi,

one of my friend had a similar problem with 2x evga 8800gts : he needed to update the bios of one card to enable sli.

The dos utility is supposed to have a detection parameter and let you specify which card you want to flash.

Brad

Reply to djbrad007

As the card is useless in its state I will give it a go... Now to find a floppy disk and a floppy drive!

Reply to AGTDenton

go here - techpowerup.com

check out the rbe section in the forums, also check out their gpu bios database and see if you EXACT card is listed.

did you keep a copy of the original bios?

if you did then theres a tutorial on there on how to make a blind disk to put the original bios back using atitool which will hopefully turn your paperweight into a gpu again.

(oh and ye, i did the same to my 4870 the other day, so i know what ya going through)

everything you need is on techpowerup.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to montyuk

^ meant atiflash - its a dos program, so your still going to need that floppy drive and a msboot disk.

Reply to montyuk

bump.

I wanted to edit my 4850 bios and its useless right now....no signal, tried on other system....
you guys thing sapphire will replace it or am i screwed...?

no i need a floppy drive to make *blind disc* ??

just put yourself in my position, a $200 card is dead....it be nice to find help

Reply to alvine

montyuk wrote :

Thanks for the info, really useful!!

My card isnt listed in the bios DB and oddly the list of graphics cards that are supported by the DOS Gigabyte Flash Utility doesnt contain the card I have.

However, I will persevere with the ATi tool and see what happens. I will post my results.

Reply to AGTDenton

alvine, check out the techpowerup site, your not screwed

http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios [...] &memSize=0

look for ya bios on the above page, if its listed download it

lol im trying to find the blind guide, argle its here somewhere...

Reply to montyuk

Best answer

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to montyuk

just to correct my post quickly - autoexec.bat with the following line

atiflash -f -p 0 4870F.bin

this is to be used with just the busted card installed.

Reply to montyuk

the floppy drive approach is the easiest method i found to do this, if you dont have one try and scavenge one from an old/friends machine.

AG - theres two bios listed on the site for the gigabyte 4850
VER011.004.000.000.029193 & VER011.003.000.000.029117
its worth a shot to see if either will work..

Al - im hoping you have a dual slot or toxic as thats the ones they have on the site...give the dual slot version a go...either that or i would try the standard ATI versions, theres 3 of those to try.

the b**** is, you are not covered under warranty for video bios editing, it sucks, i had a sleepless night with that one too, but post back on your progress and we will see what we can do...

wish i could edit my posts, would be nice...

Reply to montyuk

Get a and old PCI card, very old method, but works!. If you dont have a floppy you can use a bootable pendrive or a bootable cd with dos. Here is a little program taht makes a bootable floppy http://www.filewatcher.com/m/boot9 [...] 8.0.0.html

Reply to vladtepes

Montyuk you are a legend!!!

Got my card working again! ATiFlash plus a backup of the original BIOS that thankfully I took as a precaution.
I am trying to give you credit but the page isnt responding so I'll try again later.

I am going to get hold of an old PCI card if this were to ever happen again on a 1 slot PCIe mobo.

Reply to AGTDenton

And just to add I managed to do away with a Floppy Disk and Drive by using the Ultimate Boot CD and a USB stick.

Reply to AGTDenton

im very pleased it worked!

if you installed any of your nvidia cards whilst this was going on, just remember to use drive sweeper in safe mode to remove any remnants.

hmm wonder how alvines getting on with his..?

Reply to montyuk

montyuk wrote :

add the atiflash.exe and the .bin or .rom file for your video bios

If anyone like me has a Gigabyte card and downloaded or backed up via the Gigabyte utility then files with the extension .F1/.F2 etc... work as well.

Let us know how you get on Alvine as these tips have worked perfectly for me.

Reply to AGTDenton

Hello AGTDenton, I have backup of my original Gigybyte 4850 512Mb Bios. I have the same problem as you, black screen and nothing and a lot of dirty words My mail is bubucci@seznam.cz ICQ 285-334-577

Reply to Anonymous

I have the same problem and i tried to fix it but when i type atiflash -i it says i have no adapter. can anyone help me?

Reply to Anonymous

hmmm read up a bit

>>>atiflash -f -p 0 4870F.bin
>>>this is to be used with just the busted card installed.

what card do you have? what did you do? did you make a backup of the original bios?
try using the above with the original bin/rom/f file and using the floppy disc with the autoexec.bat file in it and see what happens.

Reply to montyuk

Yea, i did i try using that atiflash -f -p 0 bios.rom and i have 4850 r485zl-512h. all it says was that adapter not found and btw i cant use the other method the autoexec.bat if i do it freeze at the loading screen of window 98. or could u guide me properly?

Reply to Anonymous

Windows 98???

Personally I'd recommend getting yourself a copy of the Ultimate Boot CD and booting into the FreeDOS utility provided with it, this is what I used and it worked a treat, you can then run the AtiFlash utility from a USB drive (must be inserted before you boot the PC in order for freeDOS to recognise it).
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

I think Windows 98 is your problem here.

HTH

Reply to AGTDenton

Thank, i try this out

Reply to Anonymous

srry, i cannot try that right now as i am capped. could anyone help me in getting a proper dos and which to choose between fat or fat32

Reply to Anonymous

If you have a Floppy Disk then you can create a boot disk from within Windows 98.

Follow these instructions. I havnt used Windows 98 for so long i cant even remember how to do it.
http://www.bootdisk.com/readme.htm#howto

Reply to AGTDenton

i only got a usb and cd which one should i use ???

Reply to Anonymous

I'd go for booting off a CD
http://www.bootdisks.us/ms-dos/5/m [...] mages.html

If you have the Windows 98 CD I just remembered you can actually boot into dos from that.

Reply to AGTDenton

Hey guys,

Does the solution applies even if the computer won't even post when the card is plugged in?

Message quoted 1 times

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AMD Phenom II X4 720 @ 3.0 | Gigabyte MA790GP-UD4H | G.Skill 4GB Pi Black PC6400 | Sapphire HD4850 | WD Caviar Black 1 TB
Reply to xsever

xsever wrote :

Hey guys,

Does the solution applies even if the computer won't even post when the card is plugged in?

It's possible that the mobo BIOS doesnt like the graphics card in a non working state and therefore fails to POST.

You will need a spare working graphics card in order to fix this problem.

Reply to AGTDenton

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[Solved] Updating 4850 BIOS failed

Forum Graphic & Displays : ATI - [Solved] Updating 4850 BIOS failed