ATI 9700 Pro AIW dead after BIOS flash, HELP!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Philburg2
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Philburg2

I really did it this time...

So I was looking up new drivers for KOTOR2 on omega's site cause I heard
they handled KOTOR best. Well I also came across their collection of BIOS'.
I saw there was a newer one then mine and said 'screw it, ill upgrade'.
Well things didn't go as planned, I run the program as instructed, reboot,
and bam, no post, no nothing.

I figure either the command I entered "atiflash -p -f 0 9700.bin" wasn't
correct, or because I had an AIW and its for a regular card (didn't think of
it at the time).

And so here I am. What can I do? Since the machine won't post with a dead
card, I cannot blindly reflash it. I didn't back up my old BIOS (idiot),
where can I find one?

I have an idea of using a machine with onboard video, then running the
command, would that work, or would the onboard get flashed therefore
destroying another machine?

Any help PLEASE!
-Phil
 
And so here I am. What can I do? Since the machine won't post with a
dead card, I cannot blindly reflash it. I didn't back up my old BIOS
(idiot), where can I find one?

I have an idea of using a machine with onboard video, then running the
command, would that work, or would the onboard get flashed therefore
destroying another machine?

Any help PLEASE!
Click to expand...

You need to pick up or borrow a PCI video card to do this. Basically any
kind will do. The plain vanilla XP generic VGA driver will pick it up and
run it. Boot with the PCI and dead 9700 Pro card installed. Then reflash the
9700 Pro BIOS with the correct one. You can get this from here....
http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/

General rule: Don't flash any video card unless you have the ability to boot
from another non-AGP card restore the original BIOS, which you should have
on hand before you flash.
 
Use a bud's machine or go to a library and download the correct BIOS (as
Augustus suggests) to a boot floppy ( format a floppy with the system
files). Then boot your machine from the floppy and flash the BIOS. Good luck
and *never* flash a BIOS for kicks <s>.
 
Ed Forsythe said:
Use a bud's machine or go to a library and download the correct BIOS (as
Augustus suggests) to a boot floppy ( format a floppy with the system
files). Then boot your machine from the floppy and flash the BIOS. Good
luck and *never* flash a BIOS for kicks <s>.
Click to expand...

No matter what he's still going to need a functioning video card in the
system to flash his non-functioning 9700 AIW card. So there's not much point
in using someone elses machine to get that BIOS. He can do it on his own
when he boots up with a PCI card.
 
Thanks for the advice. I did some research and figured out that is exactly
what I needed to do.

I can get ahold of a PCI card tomorrow and I used that exact site to dig up
2 BIOS' to try. Im not sure which one to use, I'll have to look up what
speed these ram chips are.

On a side note, would using an onboard video card instead of the PCI card
work? Just theoretically.
-Phil
 
You could also use a bud;'s machine...make a dos boot floppy and put
the ati flasher and bios commands in an autoexec.bat file on the
floppy...that way you may be able to flash in the blind! <without a
pci card>
 
That would work except I honestly don't think most machines will post with a
dead card. I know mine doesn't.
 
Philburg2 said:
Thanks for the advice. I did some research and figured out that is
exactly what I needed to do.

I can get ahold of a PCI card tomorrow and I used that exact site to dig
up 2 BIOS' to try. Im not sure which one to use, I'll have to look up
what speed these ram chips are.

On a side note, would using an onboard video card instead of the PCI card
work? Just theoretically.
Click to expand...

With onboard AGP enabled in the BIOS, most m/b's will not see the AGP card
at all, resources are not allocated.
 
You are probably correct, most will not even post without live
video...had a mental lapse!!! I had used the "trick in conjunction
with an MSI MB whose Bios AND video bios were bad (I suspect the owner
was fooling around) I used the emergency Bios recover feature in
conjunction with the autoexec trick (both on the floppy) and got
lucky!
 
Thanks for all your help, I got her up and running again with what is
hopefully the right bios. I checked the Samsung website and after a half
hour found the ram timings for the model I had. Seemed to work fine.

Well we all learn from our mistakes, and I think I won't be updating BIOS'
without the official manufacturer's BIOS in the future. Although even that
hasn't always worked, God damn ASUS killed a board of mine with a shit
update once....

But again, thanks for the advice!
-Phil
 
Flashing BIOS's is something I definitely consider in the "if it ain't broke
...." catagory and have never considered "hopefully" marginal increase in
performance to justify it.
 
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