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Vega 56 BIOS Recovery After GPU-Z Gave Corrupted Backup - Solved

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MrSnowmobiling

MrSnowmobiling

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After reading the articles about flashing Vega 56 into 64, I decided I wanted to try it. There wasn't a risk since card has dual bios and the 64 bios flashed onto my 56 just fine.

My problem though comes from this. I followed the ATIFlash guide and used GPU-Z to export the old bios. The old bios was only 64KB instead of 256!!! Now that my testing on the new 64 bios didn't improve performance, I flashed back using the GPU-Z bios. Well... since it was only 64KB, the primary bios is now bricked and card won't post.

Edit: Just before flashing back to stock, an update became available for GPU-Z and I updated. This showed more results than the previous and I did a test export and the file was indeed 256KB.

Fixing the original bios seems to be an issue though. I need to know if I can boot into windows on the secondary bios then move the switch over to the first bios and flash without getting screwed all while powered on. I tried creating a bootable flash drive with the version for ATIFlash but before even flashing the 64 bios, this method failed as that version of ATIFlash doesn't work in DOS and the one that does won't work with vega.

I need to get the latest version of ATIFlash (which supports vega) booted onto flash drive so I can recover using the steps mentioned in the forums.

Edit: If this happens to you (which it shouldn't now, just make sure you're running latest version of GPU-Z) follow the guide below:
  1. If your flash failed, after you restart your pc, it will not post. Turn PC off at this point and flip the bios switch to the second position (away from PCI bracket)
  2. Turn PC back on and it should post. You will get some weird graphical bugs initially but they go away after a few seconds on the desktop.
  3. download a stock 56 bios https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/194443/amd-rxvega56-8176-170730. The secondary or powersave bios on Vega seems to be write protected so you only need the link above.
  4. Download the latest version of ATIFlash as it supports Vega. (you should already have it since you failed your flash already
  5. Put ATIFlash in a folder (I used the desktop) and put your backup bios file in that directory to make it easy.
  6. Flip bios switch back to the corrupted one while machine still on
  7. Open CMD as administrator and navigate to the root of your ATIFlash directory (cd C:\Users\*insertusernamehere*\Desktop\*insertfoldernamehere*)
  8. Type in atiflash.exe -f -p 0 xxx.rom (substitute "0" with whatever device number your GPU is and substitute xxx with your .rom name)
  9. Press enter and pray to gaben
  10. Should take about 20 seconds and you will get some info on the screen saying old ID, new ID etc. Just sit and wait till the prompt displays restart pc for bios flash to take effect.
  11. Restart PC and you have successfully unbricked your Vega 56!
 
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Should be able to boot with the secondary bios then flip the switch to the primary for re-flashing. Worked for me when I was flashing my RX 480 to the RX 580.
 
biffzinker said:
Should be able to boot with the secondary bios then flip the switch to the primary for re-flashing. Worked for me when I was flashing my RX 480 to the RX 580.
Click to expand...
biffzinker,

Thank you for your help. I just attempted it and everything went smooth. Running on primary bios again.
Much appreciated.
 
Don't you get extra memory voltage available with 64 bios?
 
MrSnowmobiling said:
biffzinker,

Thank you for your help. I just attempted it and everything went smooth. Running on primary bios again.
Much appreciated.
Click to expand...
So ya gonna try again?
 
DeathtoGnomes said:
So ya gonna try again?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I tried again, flashing wasn't the issue, was the older GPU-Z version not exporting the full bios as a backup.

Using the same settings except changing the memory frequency in my undervolt testing nets about 4% extra performance by using the 64 bios.

HBM is very temperature sensitive though, the card really needs better cooling to achieve the higher memory clocks.
 
So ATI flash is not dos comparable and in fact Winflash?

Not to sure how I feel about flashing in a Windows environment!?
 
fullinfusion said:
So ATI flash is not dos comparable and in fact Winflash?

Not to sure how I feel about flashing in a Windows environment!?
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's not compatible with the Vega cards. The WinFlash actually freezes my computer while trying to export the bios on the card so it actually doesn't work. I just open a command prompt and run atiflash through that and have had 0 issues.
 
fullinfusion said:
I seen some guy on YouTube flashing his Vega 56 and to me it looked like winflash he was using.

Click to expand...
For some people it appears to work, for others not. If the program doesn't freeze while trying to load to export the bios, then it will work. I was having the freezing issue so opened ATIflash in cmd.
 
Okay here's a question for you.

What would happen if you booted the machine in BIOS number two then ran ATI Flash and get everything ready and just before you're about press start you flip the switch to the number one position would that work?
 
fullinfusion said:
Okay here's a question for you.

What would happen if you booted the machine in BIOS number two then ran ATI Flash and get everything ready and just before you're about press start you flip the switch to the number one position would that work?
Click to expand...
It would flash the number one position. This is the proper way to recover a failed flash with a dual bios card and is exactly what I did.

The card only uses the bios to post and some very specific programs access it after booting (For example, you wouldn't want to switch the bios switch on the card while you open GPU-Z because that might cause problems)
 
Yeah that's the same way I used to flash in Dos. But I'm more interested in you're freeze up that you would experience when you were trying to flash.

When you experienced the freeze up did it brick your card or did you just have to hit the power switch and run it through CMD?
 
fullinfusion said:
Yeah that's the same way I used to flash in Dos. But I'm more interested in you're freeze up that you would experience when you were trying to flash.

When you experienced the freeze up did it brick your card or did you just have to hit the power switch and run it through CMD?
Click to expand...
I didn't even try to flash since I couldn't even get the bios to backup. When it froze, it would peg the CPU and I would have to hard shutdown the computer.

After a few times, I gave up and tried the cmd method which worked without a problem.

  1. Open CMD as administrator and navigate to the root of your ATIFlash directory (cd C:\Users\*insertusernamehere*\Desktop\*insertfoldernamehere*)
  2. Type in atiflash.exe -f -p 0 xxx.rom (substitute "0" with whatever device number your GPU is and substitute xxx with your .rom name)
 
Hey thank you very much I do appreciate it I'll let you know here in a day or two once I get around home and I'll try the Flash and if it works great if not I'll follow your guide and run a the flash through CMD.

Edit.. I was looking through the bios database and found the MSI RX Vega 64 so I think I'm going to try and install it , may as well since I've got the same card ...MSI RX 56 hopefully it doesn't give any problems..

Kind of weird that AMD produced these reference cards and handed them out to the vendors which slots whatever stickers they wanted on them but yet they have different ball strings, I wonder why that is?
 
Last edited:
20170918-182848.png

Current bios^
And this is the bios I'm going to try, thoughts?

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/194822/msi-rxvega64-8176-170728
 
Actually I don't even know the limits on the HBM. I only spent about 5 hours testing the card benchmarking, gaming, testing non-public beta drivers. So it was getting pretty late by this time so I just shut the machine off and haven't touched it since.

I'll be home later in the week though and I'll have three days to test and see what it'll actually do before the Flash.
 
MrSnowmobiling said:
It would flash the number one position. This is the proper way to recover a failed flash with a dual bios card and is exactly what I did.

The card only uses the bios to post and some very specific programs access it after booting (For example, you wouldn't want to switch the bios switch on the card while you open GPU-Z because that might cause problems)
Click to expand...

Ive switched my card then opened gpuz to see the uefi and csm bios. No lockups
 
We're not comparing apples to apples here.

I use dos to flash but if Vega could be flashed in Dos then I wouldn't have any concerns.

My only concern and question was if you're using winflash can you flip the switch from the good bios to the bad one and actually flash through windows and not have it lock up. Like the OP said not all systems will freeze during the Flash, so I'll see after I run some more tests and see what this card will actually clock out to before I even consider flashing.
 
MrSnowmobiling said:
Should work fine. I have a PowerColor card so I flashed the 64 PowerColor one on and haven't had any issue other than just wattman being annoying. Is 900MHz your limit for HBM clock or can you go higher?
Click to expand...
What do you mean Wattman giving you issues? If you let me know I can pass it on to the Vanguard team leader in the bug triage and hopefully have an answer by the end of the week, if not the beginning of next week, and if they plan on making any changes to the overclocking in the driver itself with people flashing the BIOS ;)
 
MrSnowmobiling said:
After reading the articles about flashing Vega 56 into 64, I decided I wanted to try it. There wasn't a risk since card has dual bios and the 64 bios flashed onto my 56 just fine.

My problem though comes from this. I followed the ATIFlash guide and used GPU-Z to export the old bios. The old bios was only 64KB instead of 256!!! Now that my testing on the new 64 bios didn't improve performance, I flashed back using the GPU-Z bios. Well... since it was only 64KB, the primary bios is now bricked and card won't post.

Edit: Just before flashing back to stock, an update became available for GPU-Z and I updated. This showed more results than the previous and I did a test export and the file was indeed 256KB.

Fixing the original bios seems to be an issue though. I need to know if I can boot into windows on the secondary bios then move the switch over to the first bios and flash without getting screwed all while powered on. I tried creating a bootable flash drive with the version for ATIFlash but before even flashing the 64 bios, this method failed as that version of ATIFlash doesn't work in DOS and the one that does won't work with vega.

I need to get the latest version of ATIFlash (which supports vega) booted onto flash drive so I can recover using the steps mentioned in the forums.

Edit: If this happens to you (which it shouldn't now, just make sure you're running latest version of GPU-Z) follow the guide below:
  1. If your flash failed, after you restart your pc, it will not post. Turn PC off at this point and flip the bios switch to the second position (away from PCI bracket)
  2. Turn PC back on and it should post. You will get some weird graphical bugs initially but they go away after a few seconds on the desktop.
  3. download a stock 56 bios https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/194443/amd-rxvega56-8176-170730. The secondary or powersave bios on Vega seems to be write protected so you only need the link above.
  4. Download the latest version of ATIFlash as it supports Vega. (you should already have it since you failed your flash already
  5. Put ATIFlash in a folder (I used the desktop) and put your backup bios file in that directory to make it easy.
  6. Flip bios switch back to the corrupted one while machine still on
  7. Open CMD as administrator and navigate to the root of your ATIFlash directory (cd C:\Users\*insertusernamehere*\Desktop\*insertfoldernamehere*)
  8. Type in atiflash.exe -f -p 0 xxx.rom (substitute "0" with whatever device number your GPU is and substitute xxx with your .rom name)
  9. Press enter and pray to gaben
  10. Should take about 20 seconds and you will get some info on the screen saying old ID, new ID etc. Just sit and wait till the prompt displays restart pc for bios flash to take effect.
  11. Restart PC and you have successfully unbricked your Vega 56!
Click to expand...
First, congrats! Second, when the secondary bios could be used and ur pc could be turned on with it, I wonder why not just use the GPU-Z to export the secondary bios of ur own Vega56 and then just flash it back using ATIFlash? After all, it is from the manufacturer of ur card. That's what I did and it worked.
 
glennl said:
First, congrats! Second, when the secondary bios could be used and ur pc could be turned on with it, I wonder why not just use the GPU-Z to export the secondary bios of ur own Vega56 and then just flash it back using ATIFlash? After all, it is from the manufacturer of ur card. That's what I did and it worked.
Click to expand...
I don't think ATI flash is from ATI..

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think it's third-party software. And the o p stated that the issue was GPU Z related and wasn't supporting Vega at the time.

And welcome to TPU :)
 
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