How to fix your fake ebay or Wish 1050ti and 960 cards - A GUIDE

[siryoink]

Since this has came up on the forums numerous times, and I have been asked how to fix these cards, I am going to post a writeup for everyone here to be able to fix their own cards. This is a first version, feel free to post any questions or comments that may need clarification. Onward!

What you will need:
CH341A BIOS flasher with 8 pin clip or similar - The Chinese modifiers on these frequently cut a resistor beside the bios chip, so it can be read but not written to. NVFLASH WILL NOT WORK. You will need to either purchase a CHS341a chip flasher with clip, or resolder this resistor. Using the chip flasher is beyond the scope of this guide, but there are many Youtube videos on the topic.
Hex Editor - I recommend FlexHex but any free editor will do.
NiBiTor - Utility for editing Fermi and older card BIOS
GPU-Z - Needed to dump your current BIOS.

Background Info:
In order to fix your card, the best method is to modify your existing bios. Most of these are binned with defective RAM that has been underclocked to allow it to work. In order to get your card working, we need to know two things, the chip on the card and the hardware id of your card.

Remove the heatsink. Almost all of these cards have GF106 or GF116 chips on it them. If you have a GF116, you either have a GTS 450 v2 or a 550Ti. If you have a GF106, you either have an OEM GT440 or a GTS450. You will need to know the hardware ID for your correct card.

GT 440: 10DE 0DE0
GTS450: 10DE 0DC4
GTS450 v2: 10DE 1245
550ti: 10DE 1244

Fixing your card:

1. Dump your existing BIOS using GPU-Z.
2. Make a copy of this BIOS to work with and open it in a hex editor.
3. The first bits we need to change will be to set the soft straps to unlocked. This will prevent the card from reading whatever fake ID they have put on it and read the hardware resistors. For this, we are interested in the bits located at 00058 - 00067

In the case of my example, this looks like C3 23 FC 7F 08 48 00 00 FF FF F1 7F 00 00 02 80​

To change this to an unlocked bios, edit the following. ?? entries do not matter and can be anything: ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? FF FF FF 7F 00 00 00 80​

​

In the hex editor, original BIOS: ​

00050 E9 0C 2A 00 DE 10 39 09 C3 23 FC 7F 08 48 00 00 ​

00060 FF FF F1 7F 00 00 02 80 65 39 A5 1C E9 BA 43 E9​

​

Changed to:​

00050 E9 0C 2A 00 DE 10 39 09 C3 23 FC 7F 08 48 00 00 ​

00060 FF FF FF 7F 00 00 00 80 65 39 A5 1C E9 BA 43 E9​

​

4. Now we will modify the windows hardware ID. This is located at bits 0018C - 0018F and is in little endian format.

In the case of my card, it currently reads DE 10 82 1C​

Since this card is really a GF116 GT440, change to DE 10 E0 0D​

​

5. Now we need to fix the RAM. In almost all cases, your 4GB card will be a 1GB card.

There are two bytes we need to change. In FlexHex, use Ctrl+F to search for the Hex Bytes "A0 66 02". This will be in a different place in each BIOS, occuring between 2 - 4 times, but will be somewhere around the 07DXX area.​

In my example BIOS, we find two instances at 07DD2 and 07DF9. Change both of these to "A0 44 02".​

Original:​

07DD0 00 A0 66 02 00 90 55 02 00 90 55 02 00 90 55 02 ​

07DE0 00 90 55 02 00 90 55 02 8F 04 02 11 00 04 01 00 ​

07DF0 A0 44 02 00 90 55 02 00 A0 66 02 00 90 55 02 00​

Modified:​

07DD0 00 A0 44 02 00 90 55 02 00 90 55 02 00 90 55 02 ​

07DE0 00 90 55 02 00 90 55 02 8F 04 02 11 00 04 01 00 ​

07DF0 A0 44 02 00 90 55 02 00 A0 44 02 00 90 55 02 00​

​

6. Lastly, we need to fix the checksum of your BIOS. To do this, open the file in NiBiTor. If it gives an error on opening due to an unrecognized device id, just cancel. Go to file>Save as and save the file under a different name. NiBiTor will automatically write the correct checksum to your file.

7. Flash the modified BIOS to your card

I have attached before and after examples of modifying a fake 1050Ti I had back to a GF106 GT 440.

 

[GerKNG]

you report fraud on ebay send it back and receive a refund.

 

[W1zzard]

Well written guide, nice job!

 

[Kyjja]

Hello @siryoink , and thank you for the guide.

I'm currently woking on one of this "1050 Ti" using GF106 (see this thread). I tried your method, but step 3 leads to artifact.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Well written guide, nice job!

a guide like this (if helpful) should be stickied as it will eventually disappear with time

 

[siryoink]

Hello @siryoink , and thank you for the guide.

I'm currently woking on one of this "1050 Ti" using GF106 (see this thread). I tried your method, but step 3 leads to artifact.

If step 3 leads to artifacts, you either have a defective GPU or they have modified (physically soldered) the resistors on the card to give an incorrect reading. Some of the GTS 450 with a green heatsink/fan assembly have resistors soldered on the back of them.

As long as you don't have a prebuilt system that validates hardware ID straps (HP, Dell, etc), you can try skipping that 3rd step. BIOS will detect it wrong, but Windows should be looking at the bit in 0018C - 0018F.

 

[anfazi54]

omg what. I never know the fake gpu can be fixed. Thank you for sharing the info

 

[GTX450FAN1]

Mine doesn't let me change the windows hardware id, otherwise I did everything that was said. Could you take a look? GF106 is original, GF106edit is the edited version from hex editor, and gts450 is the final version from nibitor. Thanks. GTS450.rom does not work at all! Unfortunately. I don't know where I went wrong.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Nice, but man that font hurts my eye's.

 

[qubit]

That you have to jump through these hoops to fix the card shows just how determined the criminals are to prevent their victims from fixing the card. Great guide.

Just that font is hard to read. Please change to the default one if you don't mind.

 

[GTX450FAN1]

That you have to jump through these hoops to fix the card shows just how determined the criminals are to prevent their victims from fixing the card. Great guide.

Just that font is hard to read. Please change to the default one if you don't mind.

The card I got is super tough to fix, no success yet. Glad to hear others had success!

 

[siryoink]

That you have to jump through these hoops to fix the card shows just how determined the criminals are to prevent their victims from fixing the card. Great guide.

Just that font is hard to read. Please change to the default one if you don't mind.

Nice, but man that font hurts my eye's.

The font is intentionally a monospace font for purposes of formatting on those lines of hex code.

Mine doesn't let me change the windows hardware id, otherwise I did everything that was said. Could you take a look? GF106 is original, GF106edit is the edited version from hex editor, and gts450 is the final version from nibitor. Thanks. GTS450.rom does not work at all! Unfortunately. I don't know where I went wrong.

When you say it does not work, does it not POST or does it still detect as a fake 1050ti in windows?

If Windows detects it incorrectly, from examining the files, step 4 in the guide hasn't been done.
at 000018C change DE 10 82 1C to DE 10 C4 0D

When you say it doesn't "let" you change it, can you clarify what happens when you try changing this?

This shouldn't prevent the card from posting, unless you're using an older Dell or Lenovo.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

The font is intentionally a monospace font for purposes of formatting on those lines of hex code.


When you say it does not work, does it not POST or does it still detect as a fake 1050ti in windows?

If Windows detects it incorrectly, from examining the files, step 4 in the guide hasn't been done.
at 000018C change DE 10 82 1C to DE 10 C4 0D

When you say it doesn't "let" you change it, can you clarify what happens when you try changing this?

This shouldn't prevent the card from posting, unless you're using an older Dell or Lenovo.

You realise I have done this before myself, and also that fonts can be changed mid point through a document then again straight after.

It's not a page of hex code is it.

 

[siryoink]

I just came across a BIOS for a GTS 450 DDR3 version that had been hacked into a fake 4GB 730.

For this type of card, under step 5, search for all instances of "20 A0 77" and change to "20 A0 55".

This will still occur somewhere in the area of 07DXX in the ROM.

 

[Hardcore Games]

while the flood of fake cards are behind us there are still a lot of them floating around

 

[zer0day777]

If step 3 leads to artifacts, you either have a defective GPU or they have modified (physically soldered) the resistors on the card to give an incorrect reading. Some of the GTS 450 with a green heatsink/fan assembly have resistors soldered on the back of them.

As long as you don't have a prebuilt system that validates hardware ID straps (HP, Dell, etc), you can try skipping that 3rd step. BIOS will detect it wrong, but Windows should be looking at the bit in 0018C - 0018F.

...why on earth would you go through this trouble to get a scamcard? It's something I find baffling about some of the mainland Chinese, the sheer level of dedication to dishonesty and deceit they have in doing business. Like wouldn't it just be easier, faster, and more lucrative to just mail a brick at that point?

while the flood of fake cards are behind us there are still a lot of them floating around

Yeah I saw someone trying to scam on craigslist. He didn't bother telling the next person it's a piece of S scamcard. So someone probably bought that and just assumed "I'll never buy a used GPU on craigslist again" not realizing it was trash shoveled here from wish or Amazon that conned the first seller.

 

[Kyjja]

Just a point about the amount of RAM (step 5) :

"A0 66 02" => 4 GB
"A0 55 02" => 2 GB
"A0 44 02" => 1 GB


Some fake cards have 2 GB.

 

[Animekenji]

Unfortunately, the ebayers selling fake cards have upped their game. A lot of them are now scratching off the markings on top of the GPU, mking it much harder to determine what you actually have, so you won't know what BIOS you have to flash to it.

 

[bura]

Since this has came up on the forums numerous times, and I have been asked how to fix these cards, I am going to post a writeup for everyone here to be able to fix their own cards. This is a first version, feel free to post any questions or comments that may need clarification. Onward!

What you will need:
CH341A BIOS flasher with 8 pin clip or similar - The Chinese modifiers on these frequently cut a resistor beside the bios chip, so it can be read but not written to. NVFLASH WILL NOT WORK. You will need to either purchase a CHS341a chip flasher with clip, or resolder this resistor. Using the chip flasher is beyond the scope of this guide, but there are many Youtube videos on the topic.
Hex Editor - I recommend FlexHex but any free editor will do.
NiBiTor - Utility for editing Fermi and older card BIOS
GPU-Z - Needed to dump your current BIOS.

Background Info:
In order to fix your card, the best method is to modify your existing bios. Most of these are binned with defective RAM that has been underclocked to allow it to work. In order to get your card working, we need to know two things, the chip on the card and the hardware id of your card.

Remove the heatsink. Almost all of these cards have GF106 or GF116 chips on it them. If you have a GF116, you either have a GTS 450 v2 or a 550Ti. If you have a GF106, you either have an OEM GT440 or a GTS450. You will need to know the hardware ID for your correct card.

GT 440: 10DE 0DE0
GTS450: 10DE 0DC4
GTS450 v2: 10DE 1245
550ti: 10DE 1244

Fixing your card:

1. Dump your existing BIOS using GPU-Z.
2. Make a copy of this BIOS to work with and open it in a hex editor.
3. The first bits we need to change will be to set the soft straps to unlocked. This will prevent the card from reading whatever fake ID they have put on it and read the hardware resistors. For this, we are interested in the bits located at 00058 - 00067

In the case of my example, this looks like C3 23 FC 7F 08 48 00 00 FF FF F1 7F 00 00 02 80​

To change this to an unlocked bios, edit the following. ?? entries do not matter and can be anything: ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? FF FF FF 7F 00 00 00 80​

​

In the hex editor, original BIOS: ​

00050 E9 0C 2A 00 DE 10 39 09 C3 23 FC 7F 08 48 00 00 ​

00060 FF FF F1 7F 00 00 02 80 65 39 A5 1C E9 BA 43 E9​

​

Changed to:​

00050 E9 0C 2A 00 DE 10 39 09 C3 23 FC 7F 08 48 00 00 ​

00060 FF FF FF 7F 00 00 00 80 65 39 A5 1C E9 BA 43 E9​

​

4. Now we will modify the windows hardware ID. This is located at bits 0018C - 0018F and is in little endian format.

In the case of my card, it currently reads DE 10 82 1C​

Since this card is really a GF116 GT440, change to DE 10 E0 0D​

​

5. Now we need to fix the RAM. In almost all cases, your 4GB card will be a 1GB card.

There are two bytes we need to change. In FlexHex, use Ctrl+F to search for the Hex Bytes "A0 66 02". This will be in a different place in each BIOS, occuring between 2 - 4 times, but will be somewhere around the 07DXX area.​

In my example BIOS, we find two instances at 07DD2 and 07DF9. Change both of these to "A0 44 02".​

Original:​

07DD0 00 A0 66 02 00 90 55 02 00 90 55 02 00 90 55 02 ​

07DE0 00 90 55 02 00 90 55 02 8F 04 02 11 00 04 01 00 ​

07DF0 A0 44 02 00 90 55 02 00 A0 66 02 00 90 55 02 00​

Modified:​

07DD0 00 A0 44 02 00 90 55 02 00 90 55 02 00 90 55 02 ​

07DE0 00 90 55 02 00 90 55 02 8F 04 02 11 00 04 01 00 ​

07DF0 A0 44 02 00 90 55 02 00 A0 44 02 00 90 55 02 00​

​

6. Lastly, we need to fix the checksum of your BIOS. To do this, open the file in NiBiTor. If it gives an error on opening due to an unrecognized device id, just cancel. Go to file>Save as and save the file under a different name. NiBiTor will automatically write the correct checksum to your file.

7. Flash the modified BIOS to your card

I have attached before and after examples of modifying a fake 1050Ti I had back to a GF106 GT 440.

I did everything what you said but it doesn't work for me. Can you modify bios for my card?

 

[siryoink]

I did everything what you said but it doesn't work for me. Can you modify bios for my card?

Will need photos of the RAM chips and GPU core, as well as a copy of the original bios dumped with GPU-Z or ch341a software. What programmer device do you have to flash back to the card in the event it fails?

 

[P4-630]

a guide like this (if helpful) should be stickied as it will eventually disappear with time

People can find it by googling...

 

[bura]

Will need photos of the RAM chips and GPU core, as well as a copy of the original bios dumped with GPU-Z or ch341a software. What programmer device do you have to flash back to the card in the event it fails?

Will need photos of the RAM chips and GPU core, as well as a copy of the original bios dumped with GPU-Z or ch341a software. What programmer device do you have to flash back to the card in the event it fails?

Thanks for reply, GPU chip ID is 'GF116-400-A1' GTX 550ti and hynix memory and ID is 'H5GQ1H24AFR-T0C'

Will need photos of the RAM chips and GPU core, as well as a copy of the original bios dumped with GPU-Z or ch341a software. What programmer device do you have to flash back to the card in the event it fails?

Here is the bios