Sapphire 4850 Toxic screen corruption, restart/ reboot issue (Updated!)

4850toxic

[Ez a leírás magyarul is elérhető itt.]

If you’re one of those unlucky fellows who has an “unrestartable” PC caused by a very special VGA card, then this guide might just be for your needs. It’s supposed to be a quick guide, so let’s start:

I bought my 4850 Toxic a couple of month ago and since then I was looking for a solution. Since shutting down and then starting the computer did not produce the problem I figured it must be some kind of SW more precisely FW (VGA BIOS) error. So a tried a couple of BIOS released for this card with no luck.

I even tried this one (thx 2 Gr33nGecko 4 sharing) and it solved the restart error but had other problems (major instability, inability to use 3D applications at all).
Finally I was able to merge the advantages of the two bios’. Used Gr33nGecko’s file and changed the settings with TechPowerUp Radeon Bios Editor according to the [boot] settings of the original bios.

You can download my version here. (Updated at 16. Jan 2009)*

The usual disclamer: I’m not responsible for any damage you do to your hardware or software. If you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t do it or be prepared to wear the consequences.

Before you proceed forward you should check [last section of this post] whether you have all the necessary tools (or at least in reach) to recover your VGA if something goes wrong.

Here’s how to apply:

1. First you’ll need Ati Winflash, after you installed it you should restart Windows (shut down and start your computer again -hopefully the last time :) ) as Winflash tends to not start but use [one of] your CPU core[s] at 100% if Windows has been running awhile.
2. Place the downloaded bios file next to ‘ATIWinflash.exe’
3. Start command prompt and navigate to …Winflash>
4. Write: atiwinflash -s 0 backup.rom [enter] to create a backup of your current bios.
5. Write: atiwinflash -p -fp 0 w7ready.rom [enter].Keep in mind that you’re using -fp switch for force flashing bypassing bios P/N check so winflash won’t check if the bios is matches to your card (it must be used since this bios is larger -cheksum differs- than the original one).
   The 0 switch selects your primary VGA card, so if you have two Ati cards installed you should check which one you’re about to flash. [atiwinflash -i]
   
6. When Winflash has finished, restart (and this time you do restart)
7. If everything went fine, you have one less problem on your mind now.

Shit happens [the aforementioned last section]

If Winflash wasn’t able to complete flashing (error message), just use Winflash again before you reboot[!] just as before, but instead of mine use your original bios (atiwinflash -p -fp 0 backup.rom).

If you did all the steps just fine, but after reboot you don’t have video signal at all… well, keep reading.

You’ll need these for restoring your original bios:

• Motherboard supporting two or more VGA cards (SLI, CF or you can even try older PCI cards next to the yet-to-be-repaired PCI-E Toxic, if the mobo supports to use the PCI card as primary – I’ve never tried this last one, I’m not sure whether it works),
• A working VGA card,
• Bootable floppy disk, or flash drive (assuming, your mobo can boot from a flash drive/hdd. You can create a bootable flash drive by using these. [Instructions inside.])
• Not necessary, but recommended to remain calm and optimistic :) .

… and the steps of course:

1. Make the bootable media.
2. Copy Atiflash files on it. (Preferably to the drive root. Notice that it’s Atiflash without the ‘Win’ part since it’s a DOS application.)
   You probably won’t be able to use Ati Winflash, because Windows will give you BSOD once it finds the corrupt VGA card and tries to install driver for it, and because Ati Winflash won’t work under safe mode.
3. Copy the backup bios file on it, too (backup.rom).
4. Install the working VGA card to the first PCI-E slot, and the corrupt to the second. (Or you can try PCI vga card too, if so change bios settings accordingly.) Naturally connect your monitor to the working hardware.
5. Boot from the prepared boot media.
6. Check which VGA card you’re going to flash. (See details in step 7.)
7. Write: atiflash -f -newbios -p 0 backup.rom [enter].
   Again -i switch is available to identify your card. For example if you’re using another Ati card in the first slot, probably that’s card number 0 while you want to flash card number 1, in that case command line is this:
   atiflash -f -newbios -p 1 backup.rom [enter].
8. When finished, shut down the computer and start it again. (Remember, you just applied the original bios, so you’re basicly back to square one.)
9. Come back to this blog and post that the bios did not work for you. (Thank you.)
   

Once again, thanks to techPowerUp! for the applications, and the help. (Recovering part based on this quide.)

If you tried “my” bios and worked, or did not work please leave a note. Other comments are encouraged as well. (…in an appropriate manner.)
[Oh, and btw. I'm Hungarian so don't get too hung up on grammar, language-style or spelling.]

Good Luck!

*Recently discovered that Windows 7 Beta’s Experience Index determination failed with the same screen corruption and BSOD when using the previous version of “my” BIOS. Now, I think all the problems caused by the onboard memory chips. The new w7ready.rom bios has the following settings:

• Voltage: 1,12V at all modes (not the most energy efficient setting, but at least a stable one);
• GPU at 668MHz during boot, 500MHz in Battery  and High performance modes and in all UVD modes, 675MHz at Optimal performance modes;
• RAM at 1100MHz all the time. (You set them too low they fail, you set them even a little bit higher they fail…)

Now W7 Exp Rate can complete.