12 Pipe MR9800 Update Thread *** Suicide Flashers Needed ***

I'll be working on and posting various modded 9800 bioses in this thread. I'll try and post new bioses every few days as long as my work schedule allows it. I would test these myself, but I have no free time when I get home and ironically, work is the only time/place I have to research this.

*** DISCLAIMER ****
I take no responsibility nor accept any liability for damaged cards and/or laptops resulting from flashing any of the bioses I post here. Use at your own risk, but know the community will appreciate your sacrifice for the greater good.
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Here's a recap from the "help" thread:

in comparing the Mx800 and M9800 bios, here's some things to try. all offsets are taken from hex workshop.

there are 2 insertions in the 9800 bios not found in the x800 bios. maybe we should remove these.

at offset 6569 [0x000019A9]:
91 0080 0000 00D2 9FA5 0E25 03FF 0201 0303 00E0 1F00 0000 0000 0000 0000 00

at offset 12917 [0x0003275]:
90

there is 1 deletion from the 9800 bios that's in the x800 bios. maybe we should add this.

between offsets 21673 [0x000054A9] and 21674 [0x000054AA] in the 9800 bios which reads: 7601 FFFF

add: D201 D301 D401 D501 D601 from offset 22204 [0x000056BC] in the x800 bios

so that you get: 7601 D201 D301 D401 D501 D601 FFFF

it would be best to make 1 change at a time and flash and note any differences. then flash combinations of 2 changes and then flash all 3 changes at once.

here are the modded bioses. follow the correct link and let the suicide flashing begin...

http://www.angelfire.com/games5/clan_sh5/

mod1 has removed the 1st insertion
mod2 has removed the 2nd insertion
mod3 has added the only deletion

i have no idea how flashrom works so you're on your own.

to be honest i don't think the amount of code added and deleted will affect card functionality but it's the simplest place to start.

the cards should have a 1 yr warranty from dell

here's some stuff i found today. the offsets listed are for the 9800 bios. these values are responsible for the memory timings:

@ 1BA
E07FDBF1FFFFFFFF5EA20102FFFFFFFF00000000FFFFFFFF00000000FFFFFFFFE07FDBF1FFFFFFFF5E A2 @ 2F1
304800007C014A0A4A0AF80124010000FC014A0A4A0A
@ 719
F04FF04FF80123010000FC01F04FF04F4401448366655801000023
@ 103FF
08

so when doing comparative analysis between the m9800 and mx800 bios, these sections can be ignored. i've substituted these values into the mx800 bios to reduce the differences between the 2 bioses.

next i took an mx800 bios w/ 9800 timings from above and compared it to a mx800 bios w/ 9800 timings + messed up tv settings (tv init-"none", tv-"off", dvi-"on" using rabit. normal values are tv init-"ntsc", tv-"on", dvi-"off"). the offsets listed below are for the mx800 bios.

here are the values in the mx800 bios responsible for those variables. and can be ignored in comparative analysis w/ the m9800 bios

@1B9 *** NOTE *** this value is also implicated in memory timings
E07FDBF1FFFFFFFF5EA20102FFFFFFFF00000000FFFFFFFF00000000FFFFFFFFE07FDBF1FFFFFFFF5E A2
@F38
11003300000422
@C924
01000F

finally, when comparing the m9800 vs mx800 bios, these segments were 1) replacement segments 2) very large. this leads me to guess that they are involved w/ the AGP interface. these offsets are for the m9800 bios. the sections can be seen when comparing the 2 bioses using hex workshop 4.23

@B687
@E489
@E8A1
@F000

pending whack's success or failure after flashing my insertion/deletion bioses, i'll post some more. i'll start w/ the shortest replacement segments and work my way up... ie replace isolated 2 character differences in the 9800 bios with the corresponding x800 bios values. then 4 characters and so on.

if nothing changes when total replacement is complete, then we're done and 12 pipes will be proven to not be possible via bios modification. 1 guaranteed result is a dead card as one of the substitutions will inject pci-e interface code into the bios

i've asked for help from every creator of every major ati tweaking utility... mostly russians. all i wanted to know was what tools they use to interpret the bios's hexidecimal code. i never got an adequate answer or many replies in general. w1zzard from techpowerup.com has been very helpful and the maker of rivatuner said to use IDA. i've looked around but never found anything like an editor resembling that name.

so with the general lack of help and resources, i've been forced to use pattern recognition and simple trial and error techniques. whack went to flash the 7 i posted, but i haven't heard back from him.