ATI 5850 Bad BIOS Flash (ATIflash no adapter found)

[OneMoar]

It was simply being used, but one day it did not start .. NO POST, no beep, nothing...
it is doing the same in my pc too...


No overclocking, but it is an OC card by the manufacturer you know...
Powercolor 5850 pcs+

One interesting thing I saw... there are white dots on the backside of the card...is it sign of overheat ... unfortunately it is over the 2 years of warranty period... no rma possible

try the bake trick ?

 

[Frogger]

can you show the spots on the image?
if you put the card in your 2nd slot can you access the card with atiflash? if so will the -ai switch work?
with the card in 2nd slot try to hook up a crossfire bridge and see if ccc will try to enable crossfire
if all else fails you could try a 'bake'

 

[Corgo77]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_5850_PCS_Plus/images/back_full.jpg
can you show the spots on the image?
if you put the card in your 2nd slot can you access the card with atiflash? if so will the -ai switch work?
with the card in 2nd slot try to hook up a crossfire bridge and see if ccc will try to enable crossfire
if all else fails you could try a 'bake'

Here are the pictures...

what do you think?

Well baking sounds interesting, but as far as I know, such baking (is called curing in pcb manufacturing), are OK for the board it self, but can damage the mounted capacitors, etc...


Yes the card is accessible by atiflash, and it still has the original bios on it, just to test I wrote it again, but everything went well...

Crossfire sounds interesting... I will try.

 

[OneMoar]

that just looks like dirt lol

 

[Frogger]

those "spots" are just left over for when powercolor "washed" the board after making it . you can see them on the pic i posted too

Did you try All the outputs on the card, hdmi, displayport they use different parts of the card than the dvi

 

[Corgo77]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_5850_PCS_Plus/images/back_full.jpg
can you show the spots on the image?
if you put the card in your 2nd slot can you access the card with atiflash? if so will the -ai switch work?
with the card in 2nd slot try to hook up a crossfire bridge and see if ccc will try to enable crossfire
if all else fails you could try a 'bake'

if the card is in the 2nd slot, and I am using an old PCI vga... then yes I can access it with atiflash..

If I put my old radeon 3870 into Slot1, it does not boot ...
So with Crossfire its the same ... no boot ...

 

[Frogger]

if the card is in the 2nd slot, and I am using an old PCI vga... then yes I can access it with atiflash..QUOTE]

so what info do you get with the -ai switch?

 

[Corgo77]

if the card is in the 2nd slot, and I am using an old PCI vga... then yes I can access it with atiflash..QUOTE]

so what info do you get with the -ai switch?

Well everything looks fine.
I could upload the bios from Powercolor support too, but that did not make the card working ...

I can make a screenshot tomorrow ...

 

[Frogger]

I supect that the TMDS links in the core are screwed = no output That would make the card unfixable

 

[Corgo77]

I supect that the TMDS links in the core are screwed = no output That would make the card unfixable

Are you sure?
Isnt it already output related?

So the current status is:

the card can be seen by the system, as I could flash the bios... no issue.
But it does not post ... means, as I made a research, for POST, you need to have two things:
- existence of vga card .... I think this is OK, no beeping from the MOBO
- vga card memory ... here is somehow the issue ...

 

[Frogger]

It was simply being used, but one day it did not start .. NO POST, no beep, nothing...

if the card just stopped without showing mem problems then you can assume is not mem related
if you put another 5850 in slot 1[using this card as your output] & the PCS in slot 2 + a crossfire bridge & the rig won't boot then you prob have a bad TMDS link.. because these links are needed for the cards to "talk" to each other... if they can't & we know that card 1 works and we know that card 2 won't post alone.. then the bad link on #2 is stopping the crossfire from working & the rig from booting
it is possible that the up6219 buck controller is bad but not likely these are pretty tough
I would bake the card..... at this point what have you got to lose it's already DEAD

 

[Corgo77]

if the card just stopped without showing mem problems then you can assume is not mem related
if you put another 5850 in slot 1[using this card as your output] & the PCS in slot 2 + a crossfire bridge & the rig won't boot then you prob have a bad TMDS link.. because these links are needed for the cards to "talk" to each other... if they can't & we know that card 1 works and we know that card 2 won't post alone.. then the bad link on #2 is stopping the crossfire from working & the rig from booting
it is possible that the up6219 buck controller is bad but not likely these are pretty tough
I would bake the card..... at this point what have you got to lose it's already DEAD

How about GPU reballing?
Can it cause such a symptom?

 

[Aquinus]

Flashing the wrong bios could kill your card. I have a mobo where I flashed the wrong revision of the motherboard and it bricked. MSI sent me a new BIOS chip, but even using that didn't work. Now, I understand that a mobo isn't a video card, but mis-controlling components on a video card can also be catastrophic.

 

[Corgo77]

Flashing the wrong bios could kill your card. I have a mobo where I flashed the wrong revision of the motherboard and it bricked. MSI sent me a new BIOS chip, but even using that didn't work. Now, I understand that a mobo isn't a video card, but mis-controlling components on a video card can also be catastrophic.

No worries m8, the bios is OK.
I never touched it, neither my friend... I got an official bios from PowerColor which I believe would never kill the card.

The next step is, why it does not boot?
If I remember well, the system checks if a vga card exists .... otherwise would make beeps... but in my case there is no beep.
Then the card itself should check the vgarams, and report an OK status towards the mobo... probably here is the issue...

The question is how to solve it

 

[Aquinus]

No worries m8, the bios is OK.
I never touched it, neither my friend... I got an official bios from PowerColor which I believe would never kill the card.

The next step is, why it does not boot?
If I remember well, the system checks if a vga card exists .... otherwise would make beeps... but in my case there is no beep.
Then the card itself should check the vgarams, and report an OK status towards the mobo... probably here is the issue...

The question is how to solve it

Does it actually boot? I know the display is off, but can you tell if it is booting windows or not and you just can't see the display, or is it not even getting past POST? Do you have an indicator on your board that says which phase the BIOS start-up that the motherboard is on? My P9X79 Deluxe has a number of LEDs on the motherboard labeled DRAM_LED, CPU_LED, VGA_LED and it will stay lit on which ever failed to load properly. Maybe you have something similar?

 

[Corgo77]

Does it actually boot? I know the display is off, but can you tell if it is booting windows or not and you just can't see the display, or is it not even getting past POST? Do you have an indicator on your board that says which phase the BIOS start-up that the motherboard is on? My P9X79 Deluxe has a number of LEDs on the motherboard labeled DRAM_LED, CPU_LED, VGA_LED and it will stay lit on which ever failed to load properly. Maybe you have something similar?

no post..No boot .. no display
My board does not such fancy display for errorcodes, but its clear that something is wrong with the vga card...
after turning on the pc, I can see the 3 leds flasing up once, but the second one with the single beep = OK .. never comes

 

[Frogger]

How about GPU reballing?
Can it cause such a symptom?

"GPU reballing" that's the same as reflowing witch is what baking the card would do!
Reflow the soder under the GPU chip..IF the card has bad soder points a Quick bake would fix it. I have baked 20+ cards in the past all but 1 worked fine after I still use a 8800GTX as a physics card It has been baked 3 times

THE PROCEDURE
REMOVE everything from the card onlt the naked card goes in the oven!!!!
Preheat your oven to 385F. Place four "balls" of aluminum foil on a cookie sheet. Now place your defective GPU on the cookie sheet with one of each of the four balls of aluminum foil holding up a corner of the card. Make sure if you have any plastic washers, that you set them aside.

Once the oven is fully at 385F, place the cookie sheet with the Graphics card on the middle rack of the oven and set the timer for 8 to 10.minutes.
When the 8 to 10 minutes are up, shut off the oven and crack the oven door open for about ten minutes. Then allow the card to further cool(at a slow rate) for another 20 minutes removed from the oven.
That's it. Now install your card in your rig as you normally would and enjoy your newly repaired graphics card.

why it works:
Many printed circuit boards are soldered just like the procedure outlined above. Of course in a more controlled environment. Needless to say, it's not always the best method and can lead to tiny cracks in the soldering that can't be seen by the naked eye. When we perform this methodat home, we're every so slightly melting the solder enough to repair the fine cracks.

 

[OneMoar]

"GPU reballing" that's the same as reflowing witch is what baking the card would do!
Reflow the soder under the GPU chip..IF the card has bad soder points a Quick bake would fix it. I have baked 20+ cards in the past all but 1 worked fine after I still use a 8800GTX as a physics card It has been baked 3 times

not quiet. a true reball is where they remove the chip from the PCB with specialized equipment and reapply the Teeny Tiny Balls of solder
baking is is sorta like a FAKE reflow I would use a heat-gun and make a shield out of metal or foil to protect the stuff you would wreak if you heated it caps and mofsets don't take kindly to sustained periods of heat where as if you use a heat gun with a proper shield and flux you don't heat the other stuff up as much
when the `pros re-flow something they use a special re-flow bench that uses IR and is aligned with lasers and such

 

[NFs2192]

I have an Radeon 4650 card with a bad bios and when I tried atiflash it said adapter not found will this work for that card?

 

[unknown26man]

For those of you who want to fix a issue caused by over heating

Instead of baking the card. You should use a heat gun.

So take the heatsink off the GPU cause you don't want to melt or damage that or make it noisy.

Now use your heat gun and make sure not to put it to close to the GPU these get rather hot.

If you need help refer to using guides with using a heat gun on a ps3.

If its still not working and definitely know its a solder issue you can buy a flux pen to go over the GPU board which should solve any issues.


If your ever playing around with consoles or dealing with overheated equipment I recommend you buy a heat gun and a flux pen.

 

[Aquinus]

I have an Radeon 4650 card with a bad bios and when I tried atiflash it said adapter not found will this work for that card?

Instead of baking the card. You should use a heat gun.

So take the heatsink off the GPU cause you don't want to melt or damage that or make it noisy.

Now use your heat gun and make sure not to put it to close to the GPU these get rather hot.

If you need help refer to using guides with using a heat gun on a ps3.

If its still not working and definitely know its a solder issue you can buy a flux pen to go over the GPU board which should solve any issues.


If your ever playing around with consoles or dealing with overheated equipment I recommend you buy a heat gun and a flux pen.

This thread has been dead for a month and a half. This isn't a new topic, why? Also I don't think flashing a 4650 will benefit you, so I wouldn't risk changing it to begin with.

 

[NFs2192]

Its already flashed I need to fix it

 

[Frogger]

Its already flashed I need to fix it

follow /read the PDF in post #2

 

[NFs2192]

follow /read the PDF in post #2

Tried connecting the pins 1-8 and 3-8 didn't show up in atiflash and trying to flash I get the adapter not found even when I try to force.

 

[leosmendes]

sorry to revive the topic, but I have a x1950xt, dead for more than four years, after an unsuccessful attempt to update bios. the epoch found nothing about how it recovers. Yesterday I just encontando this topic and this pdf explaining how to recover. unfortunately I could break a leg 1 of the IC. not giving me satisfied, I tried to get a donor, an old agp 9250. unfortunately with the CI of 9250 was not possible to recognize it plumb with the same vendor. I tried removing it also recognizes the completion CI, since there is a statement saying that no bios is recognized with default ati. but this was not the case. I believe that she really is dead then. anyone have any other suggestions? I used a G41MT-S2P for work leaving the onboard video as primary ...