X800 Pro VIVO to XT PE Bios Mod

[djbbenn]

I recommend the modified one, becuase a lot of people have problems with the Atiflash not enabling the extra 4 pipes. The modified one was designed for this mod. But if Atitflash works, sure use it, but if it doesn't use the modified one.

-Dan

 

[Cally]

You need to make the disk bootable. After that just put the bios, and the flashrom on the disk. You have to rename the bios fiel to 8 letters or less. So call it it "newbios.bin" for example. Use the modified flashrom, the ATI one preserves pipes settings so it wont enable the extra pipes. Make sure you save the orginal bios.

-Dan

That helps a great deal thank you.

 

[Zoors]

Not having great luck with the longevity of the AC coolers I am buying the Zalman VF 700 CU next week. I have had 2 AC silencers "wear" out on me. One started making noise upon bootup and the other just plain got too noisy and finally quit running. I thought this time out I would try a different approach to cooliing. The cost is aobut the same for either product.

Great, then maybe you could post your temps and clocks?
I have not decided yet =)

Oh, and the fan does change speed. Its so damn quiet that I didnt hear any difference.
Its controlled by pulse width modulation from the X800, and that explains it. There is a third wire on the stock fan, and I guess its for measuring rpm's. On 9800 silencer its just 2 wires.

And I saw the problem with noisy rev 1 of Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer.
My opinion is that they should replace all sold products, asit is a factory defect.- They used a wrong component in the fan, that didnt "survive its duty". The component, a capacitor, job was to just reduce noise, and as it blew, it didnt do its job. So on rev 2 silencers, it has a higher voltage rating.
AC is responsible for that, and Im surprised that people take that sh**.

ANyway the methode to hear the fan speed change is to gently touch the fan with the very tip of your fingerip. Then you can hear the fan frequency louder.

Would be nice to see what your new Zalman does about temps. My CPU all cupper Zalman "flower" heatsink is a total success in my system. But AC is a much quieter solution, I think with th encapsulated fan. Did u know that the police buys Eurocopters because their rear rotots are encapsulated the same way? And the reason is that those choppers gives MUCH lower noise.

 

[Zoors]

Club3D X800PRO (only flashmodded to Sapphire X800XTPE)

Idle at X800PRO clocks 475/450 (no 3D view): 42/35 degrees with stockfan at 80%

and running at X800PRO clocks 475/450 with
3D View and 277fpsAVG after about 5 minutes 77/48 degrees with stockfan at 100%

and running at X800XTPE clocks 520/560 with
3D View and 329 fpsAVG[/B] after about 5 minutes 84/51 degrees with stockfan at 100%

This test was a flashed Club3D X800PRO with stockfan, using the sapphire bin.

Now, I also moved over the old Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer for the previous 9800Pro card.
Heres the temp results, and I added an OC value, just to show the temps of that:
(old values and temp gain in paranthesis)


Club3D X800PRO (only flashmodded to Sapphire X800XTPE) with old AC VGA Silencer (9800)

Idle at X800PRO clocks 475/450 (no 3D view): 35/34 (42/35 gain=7/1) degrees with AC VGA Silencer at 80%

and running at X800PRO clocks 475/450 with
3D View and 287 (277, gain=10) fpsAVG after about 5 minutes 63/52 (77/48, gain=14/-4) degrees with AC VGA Silencer at 100%

and running at X800XTPE clocks 520/560 with
3D View and 345 (329, gain=16) fpsAVG after about 5 minutes 67/55 (84/51, gain=17/-4) degrees with AC VGA Silencer at 100%

(and running at OC clocks 550/580 with
3D View and 362 fpsAVG after about 5 minutes 68/56 degrees with AC VGA Silencer at 100%
(However... here the computer frooze. Clearly indicating that a Voltage mod is required. Temp is obvioulsy not the problem.)


Conclusion. The stock fan is about 4 degrees better for environment temp. However this diff is neglectable. The old 9800 Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer really does its job. In any case, a voltage mod is required to go higher than the XTPE defaults. I am altough very grateful for coming so far so easy. Next step is to buy the correct silencer and do the Voltage mod for the GPU.

3DMark03 Benchmark: 12341 3DMark03 result

 

[Unregistered]

Does this work with PCI-E models too?

 

[bobyjo]

The temps of your vga card with the pe bios are almost identical to mine.
I flashed back to the original bios due to, I felt excessive heat.
I am led to believe that thse temps are OK, then.
I probably will go back to the pe bios.
I have replaced two fans in my case to increase air flow.
That should help. BJ

 

[Zoors]

The temps of your vga card with the pe bios are almost identical to mine.
I flashed back to the original bios due to, I felt excessive heat.
I am led to believe that thse temps are OK, then.
I probably will go back to the pe bios.
I have replaced two fans in my case to increase air flow.
That should help. BJ

I finally went and purchased an Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer 5 rev2.
I am very happy with it, as it includes memory chip cooling, that is really needed.
Heres an outprint from the log during a session of Battlefield 2, video settings on HIGH, and 1280x1024 screen resolution. The card is now max OC'd with help of ATITool, and I allways reduce -20 mhz from the "craschvalue": core 561 memory 600 (craschvalues 581/620mHz)

Note: A also did the Voltage mod. I used a 10k resistor to make my core VCore 1.45V, and used pecil to get the VMEM and the VDDQ maximum as in the text. I left the IGPU current limiting alone, as I feel comfortable at this temp level, dont want a higher Core speed now.



2005-09-25 03:55:09 Temperature: GPU: 56.6°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:55:19 Temperature: GPU: 56.5°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:55:29 Temperature: GPU: 56.5°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:55:39 Temperature: GPU: 56.4°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:55:49 Temperature: GPU: 56.1°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:55:59 Temperature: GPU: 57.4°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:56:09 Temperature: GPU: 56.5°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:56:19 Temperature: GPU: 56.6°C GPU environment: 48.0°C
2005-09-25 03:56:29 Temperature: GPU: 57.0°C GPU environment: 48.0°C



I think its just beautiful


Thanks again W1zzard, Urlyin and all you guys that made this possible.

 

[djbbenn]

Looks good Zoors.

-Dan

 

[Cally]

Good Grief what do I Do now?

I screwed up like I was afraid I would. I am not real good at these things and I was afraid I would make an error that would screw up my card this is what I did.
I get a red flashing error message That says ERROR 0FL0I file open error.
First I copied my current bios with ATI Tool and saved it both on the floppy and in a folder.
I made a bootable floppy disc, put the flashrom file and the Sapphire x800xt pe bios I needed on the disc, plus the original bios.
I changed the new bios to Sap.x800xt.bin
I rebooted the computer and the floppy kicks in. I type in flashrom.exe and it runs. Then I type in f
flashrom -p o ( that's O not zero) and sap.x800t.bin. When it stopped I got the message.
So I retried typing Flashrom -p 0 (Zero this time not O) sap.x800xt.bin
Again I got the error message. I ran dir command and see the new bios labeleld as sapx800~1Bin So like the fool I am I typed flashrom -p 0 (Zero ) sapx80~1.Bin
Still I get the error message.

The card is still in the machine and the machine is still running I have not and will not shut it down until I am sure I have corrected this problem.

Can Someone Please help me get out of this mess I made for myself? And please be very specific on what I do so I can understand it all. Thanks

*Edit* I see one thing I did was not make the bios name to 8 characters, mine is nine I will rename it then.

 

[djbbenn]

It didn't flash, flash using this command "flashrom -f -p 0 bios.bin" Put the name of your bios where it says bios.

-Dan

 

[Cally]

It didn't flash, flash using this command "flashrom -f -p 0 bios.bin" Put the name of your bios where it says bios.

-Dan

Is the O in front of the bios an O or a Zero?
Ok I renamed the new bios to s.x800xt.bin.
So this is how the line should look before I hit enter: Flashrom -f -p 0 (zero) s.x800xt.bin?

 

[djbbenn]

Yes it is zero. Try renaming the bios to like 'xt.bin", something simple.

-Dan

 

[Cally]

Yes it is zero. Try renaming the bios to like 'xt.bin", something simple.

-Dan

Ok Here are the results:
I got this message after doing the last command
Serial Rom
Bios DeviceID = 0x4A50
ASIC = 0x4A49
Exsisting SSID = 0x0002
New SSID = 0x1576
Existing Bios P/N = 113-A26107-103
New Bios P/N = 113-AA15901-101
Flashtype = ST M25P05/C
65536 of 65536 bytes verified.

I don't know if it has been said here before But you are a genius! You saved a darn fool and made him look like a hero. THANK YOU Very Much!

So I take out the floppy and reboot? I already increased the fan speed to 100% through ATI Tool for the reboot.

 

[djbbenn]

Yes you just take the floppy out and rebout. If you get a blank screen, just do a blind flash or with a PCI card so you can see, and flash your old bios back on there.

Ps: I am no genuis, I'v just done this a bunch of time, and I learnt it form W1zzard.

-Dan

 

[Cally]

Yes you just take the floppy out and rebout. If you get a blank screen, just do a blind flash or with a PCI card so you can see, and flash your old bios back on there.

Ps: I am no genuis, I'v just done this a bunch of time, and I learnt it form W1zzard.

-Dan

All I know is you helped me out and I really appreciate it. I rebooted uninstalled the drivers, booted into safe mode and used driver cleaner, rebooted and reinstalled the 5.9's. When the computer settled down I checked ATI Tool and it showed 16 pipes core running 520 memory running at 560. I checked CCC and it shows a X800XT PE card in the slot. The card temps are running 41 idle with the stock cooler on it. In 2 weeks I will install a better cooler and see what changes.
I never would have tried the mod without this forum. Modding is just not something I am even close to being good at. I get very nervous and tense when it comes down to actually doing the mod. Before that I had convinced myself I could pull it off. If I hadn't read all the positive posts by those that did the mod effortlessly I wouldn't have done it. But now WOW it is exhilarating to know that this can be done and what you have when you are finished. WOOT! Thanks again!

 

[djbbenn]

Did you try a game to make sure you have no defective pipes yet?

-Dan

 

[Cally]

Did you try a game to make sure you have no defective pipes yet?

-Dan

No not yet later tonight I will. How will I know any are defective?

 

[djbbenn]

Trust me, you'll know. But if nothing seems to be wrong, your good and you have yourself a X800XTPE.

-Dan

 

[Cally]

Trust me, you'll know. But if nothing seems to be wrong, your good and you have yourself a X800XTPE.

-Dan

I think I know what you were trying to say. I couldn't run Gothic 2 or D3 without it crashing, freezing, or artifacts.
What I did next was reflash the bios to the original one. Then I ran ATI Tool and found max core which was 510.75 & max mem which was 570.86. I don't know anything about this stuff but it seems the core is the problem not being able to reach XT PE requirements?
I played around with the core/mem settings and found the card would be stable at the normal XT speeds. I downloaded that bios and reflashed the card. I can play D3 and the other games without a hitch. I didn't get a PE out of it but I did get a XT how can I complain?

 

[BigD6997]

ive heard some sucesses with the x800 but i havnt heard any with the x850, i have the 850pro and realy want to do this but i dont want to screw it up. does this work with the powercolor x850pro?

 

[bobyjo]

I don't think there would be any problem with the X850 Vivo Pro going to the XT pe version flash.
I think you should go to the bios page and download the proper bios you need for your card.
The X850 bios is listed on the page. Just follow the same instructions as the X800.

 

[Unregistered]

But what bios do you pick? I know your supposed to match 1.6 mem with 1.6 mem but does manufacturer matter?

If i have an ASUS x800 pro vivo do I use ASUS x800 xt pe bios? This is the last step i need clarification on before i do my flashing

 

[bobyjo]

But what bios do you pick? I know your supposed to match 1.6 mem with 1.6 mem but does manufacturer matter?

If i have an ASUS x800 pro vivo do I use ASUS x800 xt pe bios? This is the last step i need clarification on before i do my flashing

That would be the best option.
Any X800 XT pe bios that matches the size of your bios will work without problems.

 

[Overfusion]

Hi i am a new italian member

I would want to buy the x850pro VIVO PCI-E by Sapphire, because in Italy I have found her to an exceptional price of 245 €.
I wanted know if will be possible to mod in X850XT PE, and if it is worthwhile to sell my X800XL to buy the X850pro Vivo@XT

Thanks!
Excuse me for my english

 

[Bull_Mastiff]

Hey guys...I have read this forum till my eyes are bleeding.
I've got a Sapphire X800 pro vivo...i used the X800 xt bios provided from this site...and the modded flash program. When i boot up im getting x800GT card recognition and card at 500/500. No real frame rate increase with ati tool..actually think its a bit lower...also getting spotted graphics in Americas Army till i turn it down to 475/450....ati still showing 12 pipes...tried uninstalling card and reinstalling...no avail...Q. Voltage in bios next step? Im at aggravatyion level 9/10...HELP ME HELP ME....IM IN NEED OF HORSEPOWER