How to recover ATI Radeon HD 4870 from bad BIOS flash

[enobhsiw]

I had purchased a ati sapphire 4870 512mb GDDR5 more a year ago. My system used to run fine, and had no real problems. Somewhere bout 6 months ago, i started facing problems that when i played games like UT3 or games of similar caliber, the graphic drivers would die down on me, and sometimes i would recieve an error message saying that the same had happened. I faced a similar problem when playing not-so-graphic demanding games like World of Warcraft, i would face random disconnects, and if i was multi-tasking on the pc, the system would hang or i would get a message saying my graphic drivers had stopped responding. As this became increasingly frustrating, i searched all over the internet for a solution to the problem, and finally happened to stumble across a post in a forum of someone saying that they had found a way to fix my kind of problem, and it was a patch from ATI that requires a firmware flashing to solve the problem. I tried it out and it worked like a charm, till yesterday. 2 days ago i got a hit by a really bad virus and my system had to be formatted and win xp reinstalled. I noticed that i started facing problems again with relation to my drivers. Thinking that the patch had somehow been linked with win xp, i tried to install the firmware flash again. This time i received a blue screen and i was forced to manually shut down my system. Now my graphic card wont boot up. However when i boot up the system, i see 3 led's flash for 2 seconds (d1601, d1602 and d1603).

So i tried flashing my card and another 4870(1GB) as primary and used the methods suggested and it flashed fine. It even detected my "dead" card in device manager. But when i restarted my system after trying the flashing using the atiflash, the system boots all the way to windows tries to detect my card (mind you both cards are still in, with the 1gb card still as primary), and then the screen goes all blank with a blinking cursor at the top left. So i tried booting up the system with only my "dead" card and still no display, but it does go all the way to windows.

and suggestions?

 

[purecain]

when you load up windows use safe mode... then uninstall any ati drivers.... see if that lets you in....

 

[enobhsiw]

the problem is...if i load up using any card, and as long as my ati card is plugged in as 2ndry it gives me the blank screen...but without the "dead" card it works fine. if i try booting up with my dead card alone, it still gives me no display, but i know it has gone to windows

 

[enobhsiw]

just wonderin if there was a different bios for te 512mb models and a different bios for the 1gb ones?

 

[eric84]

Similar Issue

I don't know much about computers, but from what I understand I may have the same issue as some of these posts. I have the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB, and running windows 7. It auto installed the drivers, and everything was working great for a week, and while playing a game, it started to lag real bad, then locked up. I restarted, and awhile later the same problem happened, but when I went to restart, I could get no display from it. I tried the next day, and it worked, but within an hour, the same thing happened, and since then I have not been able to get a display from it. I have an onboard vid card so I removed the radeon and the onboard works just fine. I'm hoping the card isn't burnt up, so if anyone has any info on this, that would be great. I also checked all the cables, and everything else should be compatible with it.

 

[purecain]

sounds like a psu issue eric84....

i take it your temps were ok as you havnt mentioned them...

@enobhsiw- yes the 1gb models use a differant bios... it would be very bad to flash a 1gb bios to a 512mb card and vice versa...

 

[eric84]

Ya, the temps seem fine...and I apologize for being so ignorant about computers, it has been awhile since I worked on any. What's the psu(the processor?).

 

[nortino]

eric84 - The psu is the power supply - he's saying that the problem may be your power supply isn't getting enough juice to your card.

OK, I just bought an xfx hd 1GB 4870. I had the problem with flickering on the desktop, in IE etc. Saw that XFX have a bios update that 'fixes' this. Downloaded and ran their .exe, whereupon Windows BSODs and bricks my card. Great. I've followed the instructions in this thread (and huge thanks to w1zzard and others for posting here); created a bootable USB with atiflash and the 4870.bin on it; ran this with an old pci card providing the display and installed the bios. atiflash reports success and tells me to reboot.
Now when I reboot with the 4870 I get no display at all (not even POST screen), but the PC goes into Windows (I can hear the start-up music) which is an improvement because before it wouldn't even POST with the 4870. If I put the old PCI card in, that works and when I get to the desktop the Windows plug 'n play starts telling me it's found a VGA adapter (the 4870). However, when I run the XFX CD installer it says it can't detect an XFX card.
I'm kind of out of ideas now and starting to feel sick; this is the first card I've bought for years, it's a lot of money to me and I'm very unhappy with Radeon and XFX in particular. Before I do battle with XFX to try to get them to replace it, has anyone got any ideas? I reran atiflash and it says the BIOS is already installed, so it looks like that worked. Can I try a different BIOS (e.g. an ASUS one?). Can I have fried my card?
Please help!

 

[purecain]

@nortino- sorry to hear of your problems, the good news is i doubt you will of damaged your card....

try flashing some of the other brand 'referance'bios files to the card...

let me know how you get on....

 

[nortino]

Well I'm a happy bunny; got home from work today and followed your advice purecain. I can't find an XFX .bin file with the bios for an HD 4870 1GB, so I looked on the VGA bios database, and downloaded the sapphire version for the card (chose this cos it looked more recent than some of the others). Copied this onto my bootable USB, booted from that into DOS, used atiflash to flash the sapphire bios onto my card . . . at this point I had to use the -f flag to force it which made me a bit nervous. Rebooted the machine and to my relief and happiness it's working perfectly. Wonderfully, the original problem I had which started all of this off - namely the flickering on the desktop - appears to be fixed too. I'm very happy.
Thanks so much purecain, w1zzard and everyone else on this thread for your help, please know there are lurkers out there who really appreciate it
To anyone else who has reflashed a bios and still not getting any joy, it's probably worth trying a couple of different ones before you give up.

 

[purecain]

now you can mod your bios... my old 4870's are fine @ 820mhz core...

with a voltage bump you could get 840+

its a pleasure to of been assistance nortino....

 

[enobhsiw]

bahh...i was so happy that ATI helped me solve my problem, that i forgot to post here.
Well, ATI helped me fix my issue. I was asked to make a bootable Memory Stick. I then had to put the "correct" bios into it. I got a 4750 HD from a m8, set it as primary graphic and my dead one as secondary, and then flashed my dead card. Worked like a charm.

 

[shivaa]

XFX 9500GT bios update problem

i was tried to update the bios on my xfx 9500gt graphics card... using 95udf*.exe after i reboot the system display clashed? what would be the solution? can anyone help me to recover the bios?

 

[DomagojX]

i have 2 4870, can anyone say how can i get know which one gpu is which number...because one card is death and i'm trying to flash original bios but when I in DOS put command atiflash -i i become this????
http://www.imagesforme.com/show.php/716063_DSC00910.JPG
plizzz help

 

[P4-630]

now you can mod your bios... my old 4870's are fine @ 820mhz core...

with a voltage bump you could get 840+

its a pleasure to of been assistance nortino....

I get a stable 882MHz, maybe I could have reached a stable 900+ with overvolting but my card does not support overvolting. If I set the core to 903 it will crash with 3dm Vantage.

 

[Schattiz]

Hey,
When I load your bios in RBE v1.22 it says:
"YOU HAVE NOT CONNECTED ONE OF YOUR VIDEO CARD POWER CONNECTORS TO THE POWER SUPPLY. PLEASE REFER TO THE 'GETTING STARTED GUIDE' FOR PROPER HARDWARE INSTALLATION."
But when I save the bios I'm using now with GPU-Z v0.3.6 and then loads it up in RBE it says nothing.
What's up with that?

My bios is from 07/20/09 22:33, is there any need for me to update?
XFX 4870 512MB HD-487A-YWFC

Thanks.
/Schattiz

 

[Carmina]

After cleaning, the reference HD4870 512MB, failed test post.

Flashing the BIOS does not help.

The system is defined as ->

Help raise the graphics card.

 

[zahodun]

Hello. Help please. I have to reflash the bios video card ATI 4870 with a DOS utility Atiflash. Then, as it should be restarted comp, but he did not see the video card. I went again to the boot CD (there Dos installed). Launched again DOS, ran Atiflash to learn whether he sees the adapter, but after the team atiflash-i, I wrote a PC that he found the video card. In windsurfing It lets GPU-Z also found nothing.
I pierced card on another computer. There are 2 slots PCIe, so I'm stuck in a single slot card Nvidia and ATI 4870 in the other (the one that had to be flashed). Launched a drive prepared with DOS, Atiflash, old and new bios map. Before the firmware to check the adapter via the command Doce atiflash-i. After that flashed card with the number I was given. Rebooted. That's all. PC will not turn from this vidyuhi. Pull it it works again, install it again worth it. I then installed this card in another PC with built-in video card. Zavilas machine. I was delighted, but it is too early. I ran this drive starting with DOS and atiflash. Then, as before, decided to check what video cards it sees. But unfortunately he did not see anything. I ran Windows and there ran GPU-Z, but there was only one video card (which is built into the mother of Intel). Tried to run Atiwinflash, but because of it I hang Windows (Windows XP SP3). Immediately arises at all. Tried on another PC running Atiwinflash, and there is the same story (Windows 7). So that's a story. Can any more ideas will be. After all, can not be that it was impossible to rewrite the bios on the video card.

Wrote this:
atiflash-p-f 0 <newbios>
instead of zero've tried everything. All the time wrote "Adapter not found. ERROR 0FL01"


Thanks in advance for all the help.
Please help as restore the bios now.

 

[Jonathna bell]

Hi Can anyone help me with my 4870?? I have tried all the above, when I type atiflash all I get is adapter not found!!!
anyone in a position to fix it for me, in this season of good will to all men!!

 

[purecain]

if you have two 16xpci-e slots... the first (top) slot is 0 the second 1 and so on...

if your card wont boot after flash, you probably used the wrong bios.... reflash with original bios

the adapter not found... could be a dead pcie slot or dead card...

 

[Jonathna bell]

Hi Purecain,
I have heard of this solution before, I dont have a duel PCI E unfortunatly so I am unable to try it

 

[rascal27]

OMG good to be here......get such a huge information

 

[purecain]

wow... old thread...