First, I will do a bit of explaining. When a graphics card is referred to as locked, this means that the card is unable to overclock via software only. There are numerous ways to lock a card such as the BIOS stored on the card, the inf settings of the driver, or the driver itself. When people around here talk about a card being locked, they typically mean that the BIOS on the card does not allow for overclocking with their particular driver. This issue was "fixed" with unlocked roms (which you must flash to the EEPROM to be stored as the BIOS).
In general, there is no such thing as an unlocked rom. The driver is in control and it is what accesses the settings in the BIOS. So, for instance, a card with a particular rom stored on it can be "unlocked" with one driver, and "locked" for another driver. This has been evidenced recently with drivers like the 169.04 accepting the traditional "unlocked" rom to OC and other drivers such as 169.09 accepting the traditional "locked" (stock) rom to OC.
This means that if you are not able to overclock with a particular driver using an unlocked rom (and you wish not change drivers), you are going to have to flash your card back to the stock locked rom and vice versa. If this doesn't work then find another driver. The way its looking now is that all new drivers are requiring the stock roms to be used to OC again.
This thread is not implying that this is a surefire fix to your "locked" card. The other causes still exist and more causes could emerge later. For instance, maybe we will have to make a third unlocked rom in the future since no one really knows what all those bits really mean in that lock byte. If you are asking if there is an easier way then yes and no. If you want to overclock your card purely by software in windows then no, you may have to flash your card again depending on the driver. However, if you are willing to modify a rom on your own with nibitor and create a new rom to flash some (relatively) safe frequencies* directly to the card, then you would not have to worry about this.
*When finding "safe" frequencies, I recommend using an "unlocked" rom (in other words, a rom that will allow you to OC inside the OS) to find the right frequencies and then flashing these frequencies to the card.
This is really just a rewrite of this thread for this section. Thanks 007 for notifying us here.
In general, there is no such thing as an unlocked rom. The driver is in control and it is what accesses the settings in the BIOS. So, for instance, a card with a particular rom stored on it can be "unlocked" with one driver, and "locked" for another driver. This has been evidenced recently with drivers like the 169.04 accepting the traditional "unlocked" rom to OC and other drivers such as 169.09 accepting the traditional "locked" (stock) rom to OC.
This means that if you are not able to overclock with a particular driver using an unlocked rom (and you wish not change drivers), you are going to have to flash your card back to the stock locked rom and vice versa. If this doesn't work then find another driver. The way its looking now is that all new drivers are requiring the stock roms to be used to OC again.
This thread is not implying that this is a surefire fix to your "locked" card. The other causes still exist and more causes could emerge later. For instance, maybe we will have to make a third unlocked rom in the future since no one really knows what all those bits really mean in that lock byte. If you are asking if there is an easier way then yes and no. If you want to overclock your card purely by software in windows then no, you may have to flash your card again depending on the driver. However, if you are willing to modify a rom on your own with nibitor and create a new rom to flash some (relatively) safe frequencies* directly to the card, then you would not have to worry about this.
*When finding "safe" frequencies, I recommend using an "unlocked" rom (in other words, a rom that will allow you to OC inside the OS) to find the right frequencies and then flashing these frequencies to the card.
This is really just a rewrite of this thread for this section. Thanks 007 for notifying us here.
