Blind Flashing and You

[GenTarkin1]

yeahp even took out the hdd =( nothing....this is so weird a card would die like this from a good flash and ROM Based on its original rom =(

[Danksy]

just need to say thanks for gettin me through the longest 3 hours in my life
zzpulp
you are a dude

[zzpulp]

np, hope this wont be your one and only post on these forums

[poida]

Oh, i better say Hi... Hi
Its a Dell Inspiron 8500 no lights but power.... doing the dell FN button test showed as
OFF...Flashing....ON
I'd love to fix this...

Poida

[zzpulp]

Yeah I took for granted that your system supported booting from usb...why exactly do you think that you have to blind flash your card? You never mentioned flashing it with a bad bios in the first place.
Anyway, in closing, I apologize for the mess...I was seriously working on it yesterday but went to sleep...I am planning to separate the normal case to the technical cases

[poida]

Hi
Thought blind flashing would be the only way of getting the old girl going again. It took it it was the only way as the screens lifeless lights are blank and even using cd wont fire up more than 2 seconds...
If you know of another way would be really appreciated

Poida

[zzpulp]

Well first and foremost I just want to confirm that you flashed your card with a and thats why you are having these problems...So please tell me the answer to that....
If thats the case, you could still try to use the cd method but if you do then just wait until tomorrow because I am determined to redoing this guide today

[poida]

Thanks
My dell 8500 has run perfectly from day one, i had a usb problem with a multi hub and found a fix for that on the dell site. Whilst there came across a reccommended bios update for the Nvidia Geforce4 4200 go, so dived in and downloaded it. It hung for about 20 minutes so turned off and restarted. Thats when it went dead.
Tried all dell fixes, swapping ram, pulling drives out etc. Tried all the support from this thread, tried the usb method, cd method, with hard drive out, CD out etc.
Nothing seems to work...
The FN button post test shows the 3 lights as
OFF.....Flashing.........ON, confirming it the video card
When turning the machine the power light comes on, the CD starts spinning and stops, no other lights or noises come on. When trying the USB key method the usb light is on but shows no activity.

If it wasnt for being directed to this thread, i thought she was dead and gone but saw someone said a bios upgrade error rarely kills the Card.

Thanks and i will sit here waiting...

Poida

[yolda]

i think i will use it, but i dont know if it will work, y pressed cntrl alt supr to stop the flash (it was a very bad bad bad idea) after realiying i was using the worng bios version. Now my laptop wont even boot up

[zzpulp]

Yeah you would have been fine had you not restarted. Anyway, just let me know if I can help. Use the nvflash I attached here and make a flash drive bootable and remove the HD and any media from cd drive, etc. Don't have any other usb storage devices attached. If you use "nvflash -4 -5 -6 -A -y [good].rom" then you should be able to recover it. I assume you flashed a rev1 with a rev0/gtx bios?

[yolda]

yes i did, now the laptop wont boot at all... lmao i am gona cry the card was new and everything was working fine, now i have to wait about a month again (this time without the laptop working at all) if i cant fix it. Is there a way to do a remote flash? flash the card from a network or so?

[zzpulp]

What kind of rom on what kind of card made this happen?
Pretty sure your card has to be booted to flash it...that way nvflash can run its preliminaries that identify your card before allowing the flash.
Anyway, this point is a little moot I suppose as in my experiences; If a card does not boot consistently, its not salvagable.
There is no guarantee, however, that your card is not booting consistently; it may just be really slow. I'd try one overnighter and if it isnt working in the morning then kiss it goodbye.

[yolda]

thats just sad, the motherboard wont boot because the card is corrupt, i would need a sli system, or something like that to boot up and then flash it.

[zzpulp]

damn you mean you're not getting any power at all? I assumed you meant the bios was just not initiating.

[yolda]

i get one led on, the power led, the cd starts up but then no response from the laptop, cntrl alt del doesnt work and neither do the numblock buttons and leds. i tried rmeoving the memory modules and internal battery, but no luck, your guide says to wait for the numlock led to flash, but mine isnt :´(...
2 weeks without my laptop is just too much. i guess i will try other ways tomorrow.