Blind Flashing and You

[shadowstryker16]

i hate to triple post but heres how it went for me i tried ocing my card (7900gs) a couple days after i got it from dell using the program at stormlifter site....well i didnt know that using that program on an new bios would make my screen go blank....it has a back light and the numlock key comes on....i made a bootable flash drive and put the latest nvflash on it but i dont know what to use as the rom in the autoexc file and beyond that i dont know even if its working

[zzpulp]

Originally Posted by shadowstryker16

what rom file do i copy into the autoexc file?.....i have a geforce go7900gs (dell e1705).... any sugestions?

This depends on your card's version which you will not be able to find out by the conventional methods listed here anymore. I will explain how to find out in an autoexec. Actually, rethinking this, I'm guessing the rom's on stormlifter's iso were rev0 roms. You need to find a rev1 rom which you can find in the "Unlocked Nvidia ....." thread that is also stickied here.

Originally Posted by shadowstryker16

it now beeps every time i press y is that a good or a bad thing?

I'm not quite sure I understand you. How many beeps and do you mean when you are using nvflash?

Originally Posted by shadowstryker16

i hate to triple post but heres how it went for me i tried ocing my card (7900gs) a couple days after i got it from dell using the program at stormlifter site....well i didnt know that using that program on an new bios would make my screen go blank....it has a back light and the numlock key comes on....i made a bootable flash drive and put the latest nvflash on it but i dont know what to use as the rom in the autoexc file and beyond that i dont know even if its working

You can triple post in any thread I create, it won't bother me. Alternatively, you can just edit your post to include new information. That works as long as you don't want people to see from the forum index that you have added new info.

Anyway, if you haven't already, read my first post. This contains all the information I'd say that you need to know. Everything else, I can walk you through. Here's the autoexec I recommend you use if you are using the version of nvflash I included.

(By now, you should have the rom that you need to use for your rev1 card)

dir > output1.txt
nvflash --list > output2.txt
nvflash -4 -5 -6 -A -y [insert_rom_name_here].rom > output3.txt

Only one of these commands is necessary to flash the card. Everything else is just for debugging purposes. If you are welcomed by a fixed card after flashing and rebooting then good. If not, post the contents of output[1-3].txt here

[Dalefog]

Thanks!
I have read your threat and tested and tried all night!
No Gain! BUT: A testrun of NvFlash Boot-CD 5.31 -a-y just BLINFFLASHED and by that killed my gf4 PciE-Card on my Desktop!!!

I won`t give it up! But I have some questions please:

First config and my action before crash:

Dell Precision M90 NB with Nvidia Quadro FX 2500m
Rev. on the card :"Rev.2" but same, old Bios number like in the bios povided here.

Started a DOS version from UltimateBootCD (EMM386 and a lot of drivers)
Started nvflash from the iso (5.31) with nvflash 2500muo.rom

5sec of action, old bios is deleted... -than a blue line (5cm) on bottom of the screen appeared and a little funny charater turned on the upper right corner, the keys just responded with beeb sound.

I pushed the power button!

BLANK!

Tried Boot CD and USB-stick with different roms and NvFlash. No reaction! CD turns 5 sec, no lights, overnight - no reaction, but fan turns after a while.



Q:
Whas that the normal flashing behavior? (beep, line ,etc)
Why could the mainboard suffer from that?
Could I get a PCMCIA adapter to flash my internal card?



Thanks for everythink!

[Dalefog]

After some research: Boot with POWER + Fn, > LED Code: "FLASH, FLASH, BRIGHT" > system halts because of faulty GraphicCard.

I think this prevents the booting and execution of USB-Drive NVFlash routine.

I have never found a method to disable that system halt. Is there a key-combination to force boot?

[zzpulp]

I was in a similar situation with a 7800GTX. The system did not want to post but I could force it to about 10% of the time just by continually booting. I could tell when it posted because I had set the XPS led's to turn on when the system booted for diagnostic purposes. These led's turn on before the other system led's (numlock namely).

If you could get a PCMCIA card then I suppose you could leave the "broken" card out and boot it up, then plug the broken card in and try nvflash --list. Going through the trouble of getting the card may not be worth it though because I think they are rare and expensive.

Trouble is that when I had a card that didn't post anymore, it was not even recognized by nvflash anymore. It could tell it was a 7800 GTX but it complained about some initialization error I believe.

And not to be rude, but it is your choice what you tell Dell if you choose that route. I am not gonna coach you on how to reclaim undeserving warranty.

Unless you know how to modify your system bios to disable the videocard test in POST then I doubt you will be able to boot (consistently at least) with that dead card.

[Dalefog]

thanks for your thoughts!
"could force it to about 10% of the time just by continually booting"
did you mean constant power on / power off switching?

@other deadflashers with no boot:
what happend to your cards?

[zzpulp]

Yes a constant on and off.

Also note that I am pretty much the only one that keeps up with this thread so I'm not sure how many responses you are going to get from other people.

[zzpulp]

Ok, I forgot another possibility. This is what I did as well. I would boot the system up with a good card and then replace the card with the faulty card (not exactly safe but whatever). Anyway, like I said, nvflash couldn't initialize my GPU so it didn't help. If nvflash still can perform operations on your card then you would be good to go.

GPU's that "should" work that I know of are:
ATI X300, X600, X1400
NVIDIA 6800, 6800 ultra, 7800 GTX, 7900 GS, 7900 GTX, 7950 GTX
Quadro 1500M, 2500M, 3500M

The cheapest options would be to get one of the ATI cards. I think someone has the X1400 for $50 to $100 shipped from the forums. And I know that someone has the X300 for around $40.

Beware that the X300, X600, 6800's, and 7800 GTX would all require you to bend the heatsink to fit it in (unless you have an extra heatsink). No big problem if you dont plan on using the card again.

[Dalefog]

Yes, that "hotswap" option was in my mind as well. But will it be worth the risk, having in mind your warning, that a card, shut down shortly after beginn of flashing process wouldn`t be recognized by NvFlash?

To reset the eprom I have read:

MVkTech.net:

"I did this before when my GeForce F5200 was wrongly flashed and didn't detect anymore...

So here is how that can be deon, locate the EEPROM chip number (starting 25Fxxxx) and find the datasheet. Locate the chip select (CS) pin and ground (GND) pin and short these pins using a tweezer before powering up. Power up the computer with the PCI video card. Remove the tweezer when you get boot up screen. Use nvFlash to check if the card is detected. If not detected, you need to redo the tweezer shortcut again."


Could that be done on new cards as well? I didn`t rip off the heatsink on mine.


The prices for the old cards are good, but the situation looks a bit different here in germany, I suppose! But I´ll check Ebay and have a look! Thanks for the list, which will help me a lot.


After all I am a bit sad about 2 facts:
I am not sure what I have done wrong! (DOS, diff. Rom-checks by nvflash and nibitor and so on...)
Many people having problems with that negative videocard-check, but you can`t find any mod. E.g.: Before changeing anything in VGA-Bios, one should modify the Sys-Bios to "halt on no errors" or any other preventive option...

[zzpulp]

Its just a Dell BIOS. They aren't exactly keen on helping out modders hence the CPU lock as well.

My problem wasn't similar to his. I booted the card just fine and could get nvflash to identify it. Just an nvflash error that prevented me from flashing it. If I could have found the datasheets for the card then I would have used the -j option.

Anyway, I know the generic layout of an EEPROM but I didn't see anything there that could help me. I dont know why he grounded chip select since there is an option in nvflash as to which card you want to flash. Nevermind, I see that he grounded it just to boot. I really cant see how thats gonna help you though. I dont think our systems boot without identifying a GPU. So I can only see the 2 GPU option working for you.

There are two different revisions of the 2500M but I believe they are compatible with each other.

Keep in mind this hotswapping may just be a waste of money if nvflash spits you the same error it did me.

[Dalefog]

Another question: How long does the flashing take normaly?

[zzpulp]

I mean normally flashing takes around 15 seconds if you had the autoexec ready and booted straight to usb.

With a corrupted EEPROM, there really is no limit. Like I said, one of my cards took 1 hour and 30 minutes to recover.

[magnese]

Thanks so much for this info it is a great post

[Dalefog]

Yes, thanks, very good thread!

After sleepless nights I want to say:




Dear Dell Users and others, flashing is dangerous, even with every measure of precaution!!! Many Dell NB and others won`t reboot with a faulty card - that means R.I.P., almost everytime.
My advice: Use software enabled OC with Rivatuner or others. If it isn`t possible at any one time, some nvidia driver later it will be! And it`s working flawless! Thank you Rivatuner 2.06!



...that`s just my personal view after all and thanks for the support that was given here...

[diefool]

I have a video card that I can boot to using usb. but when I flash... it doesn't give me a picture. even though it takes the flash, and i've tried forcing it too.

its a 7900GTX REV 00.