[SOLVED] Need help with weird hardware problem after OC

thewonderdude · 02-28-2009, 03:31 PM

Hello to all,
İ managed to gather up a decent computer which worked fine for a month now. Q6600---P5Q Pro---3gb 800mhz ram---hd4870 1gb---700watt psu
Recently i was searching for a way to lower gpu temps and i thought of increasing the rpms of all available fans in the case to maximise airflow. i found an ATI bios program(forgot its name) and set all fans to operate at %100 and than i pressed flash the bios. In the mean time to lower my gpu temp i always use the gpu's fan at %80+ but when i start the computer the gpu's fan starts normally then when xp loads it speeds up. But when i said flash the bios(or smthing like that) the comp froze with no reaction. Then i tried restarting but the screen says no video input and after 2-3 seconds of pressing the power up button, all fans including the gpu's run at %100(incredible noise)

. i tried the cmos stuff removed the mobo battery waited for 2hrs but nothing changes. Is there something like the a reset cmos button on the gpu to restore factory settings or other solutions are welcome.
Thanks in advance.

thewonderdude · 03-02-2009, 02:41 AM

I sent it for repairs, ill keep you people informed about what happened and how they fixed it since i dont think this is a one of a kind problem.

**mattlock** · 03-02-2009, 09:36 AM

You've learned a good lesson here wonderdude. Any time you are gong to flash the BIOS, be it motherboard or video card, make sure you backup the original BIOS. If you had a backup of the BIOS you could have reflashed back to the original, but you would have needed a PCI video card to boot to so you could see what you were doing during the flash process.

Once you're back up and running, please let us know what tool you used to edit and then flash the VGA Bios. All the ones I know about are separate tools. One to edit and another to flash.

Regards,

thewonderdude · 03-02-2009, 02:07 PM

a hard lesson indeed, hopefully not costly but the thing is VGA bios is not actually modified, just the mobo bios. the mobo fan works as ordered at max rpm after 3 sec of pressing the power button but why the vga fan works at full rpm as well? Anyway the program i used to flash and modify the mobo bios is in my harddrive when its back i will right it down and since there was no install and warning of any kind ill see about my legal options if anything is damaged.

thewonderdude · 03-04-2009, 03:15 PM

Problem Solved. I plugged in my ancient 6600 to a PCI -Slot and started the computer after reflashing the mobo bios. The computer screen froze as soon as the hd4870 is recognized with the fans going psycho. It was clear then that the problem was with the graphics card which i apparently bricked. I tried flashing from windows in safe mode (thank god i took a save of bios before doing the bad flash) the computer gave an error saying no ATI hardware recognised. Then the last and only solution of booting from USB was left. i created a startup usb with dos putting in atiflash and the original bios of the graphics card. Set the usb device as primary bootable then restarted the computer and i wrote atiflash -i to see what adapters were available to flash and wonderfully(!) it showed something (noname) in adapter slot 0 and nothing else. First i thought it was the 6600 i used in PCI to get some video response but i took a chance they were 25$ anyway and wrote atiflash -p 0 bios.rom and everything was seemingly in order then it asked me to restart. When i restarted the computer welcomed me with 640x480 resolution and 4 bit color setting which didnt make any difference even if i tried to change any settings. With the joy of thinking that i destroyed two graphics cards in 1 week i tried to put in my hd 4870 for one last time to see if anything had changed. İt worked!!! For some weird reason the system as a whole felt like it was hit in the head with a baseball bat but it worked. The atiflash didnt show the primary device (NVidia 6600) and when i reflashed it actually flashed the hd4870. It was my sheer stupidity that led to all this. I guess its one of those moments where everything with the ability to communicate says dont do something when youre about to make a huge mistake but you still do it anyways.
Btw the technical people who i sent the computer to check it out returned it back to me in a couple of hours stating that the hd4870 is wasted and i should buy a new one. Thanks to a good person who knows his way around a computer and the horror of actually throwing out 300$ (made me suck the internet dry about the subject) the problem was solved.
Thank you for your attention, if you have any questions?
(im so ashamed but i used RBE(Radeon bios editor) thinking i actually changed the fan speeds of the case (ignoring the word RADEON) and when the computer was flashing i panicked and hit reset).Noones to blame but me.

**mattlock** · 03-04-2009, 10:02 PM

Glad to hear you got it all sorted. There are a few things that you can take away from this experience.

1) Never turn off a PC during the flash process.
2) It's always better to flash BIOS (MB or VGA) from DOS.
3) Always backup your original BIOS before flashing.

The reason ATIflash didn't see your 6600 is it only looks for compatible cards (ATI Cards) It can't be used to flash Nvidia products so it doesn't recognize the 6600.

Thanks for the update.

02-28-2009, 03:31 PM	#1 (permalink)
thewonderdude Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 4 OS: xp sp3	[SOLVED] Need help with weird hardware problem after OC Hello to all, İ managed to gather up a decent computer which worked fine for a month now. Q6600---P5Q Pro---3gb 800mhz ram---hd4870 1gb---700watt psu Recently i was searching for a way to lower gpu temps and i thought of increasing the rpms of all available fans in the case to maximise airflow. i found an ATI bios program(forgot its name) and set all fans to operate at %100 and than i pressed flash the bios. In the mean time to lower my gpu temp i always use the gpu's fan at %80+ but when i start the computer the gpu's fan starts normally then when xp loads it speeds up. But when i said flash the bios(or smthing like that) the comp froze with no reaction. Then i tried restarting but the screen says no video input and after 2-3 seconds of pressing the power up button, all fans including the gpu's run at %100(incredible noise). i tried the cmos stuff removed the mobo battery waited for 2hrs but nothing changes. Is there something like the a reset cmos button on the gpu to restore factory settings or other solutions are welcome. Thanks in advance.

03-02-2009, 02:41 AM	#2 (permalink)
thewonderdude Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 4 OS: xp sp3	Re: Need help with weird hardware problem after OC I sent it for repairs, ill keep you people informed about what happened and how they fixed it since i dont think this is a one of a kind problem.

03-02-2009, 09:36 AM	#3 (permalink)
mattlock Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Ohio Posts: 4,183 OS: XP SP2, Win 7 Beta, Win 7 RC My System	Re: Need help with weird hardware problem after OC You've learned a good lesson here wonderdude. Any time you are gong to flash the BIOS, be it motherboard or video card, make sure you backup the original BIOS. If you had a backup of the BIOS you could have reflashed back to the original, but you would have needed a PCI video card to boot to so you could see what you were doing during the flash process. Once you're back up and running, please let us know what tool you used to edit and then flash the VGA Bios. All the ones I know about are separate tools. One to edit and another to flash. Regards, __________________ Matt Everest-Thermal Paste Instruction-Power Supply Info-Sensorview PSU Calculator-Speedfan-Bench Test Help TSF Fight Disease. It's Free!

03-02-2009, 02:07 PM	#4 (permalink)
thewonderdude Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 4 OS: xp sp3	Re: Need help with weird hardware problem after OC a hard lesson indeed, hopefully not costly but the thing is VGA bios is not actually modified, just the mobo bios. the mobo fan works as ordered at max rpm after 3 sec of pressing the power button but why the vga fan works at full rpm as well? Anyway the program i used to flash and modify the mobo bios is in my harddrive when its back i will right it down and since there was no install and warning of any kind ill see about my legal options if anything is damaged.

03-04-2009, 03:15 PM	#5 (permalink)
thewonderdude Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 4 OS: xp sp3	Re: Need help with weird hardware problem after OC Problem Solved. I plugged in my ancient 6600 to a PCI -Slot and started the computer after reflashing the mobo bios. The computer screen froze as soon as the hd4870 is recognized with the fans going psycho. It was clear then that the problem was with the graphics card which i apparently bricked. I tried flashing from windows in safe mode (thank god i took a save of bios before doing the bad flash) the computer gave an error saying no ATI hardware recognised. Then the last and only solution of booting from USB was left. i created a startup usb with dos putting in atiflash and the original bios of the graphics card. Set the usb device as primary bootable then restarted the computer and i wrote atiflash -i to see what adapters were available to flash and wonderfully(!) it showed something (noname) in adapter slot 0 and nothing else. First i thought it was the 6600 i used in PCI to get some video response but i took a chance they were 25$ anyway and wrote atiflash -p 0 bios.rom and everything was seemingly in order then it asked me to restart. When i restarted the computer welcomed me with 640x480 resolution and 4 bit color setting which didnt make any difference even if i tried to change any settings. With the joy of thinking that i destroyed two graphics cards in 1 week i tried to put in my hd 4870 for one last time to see if anything had changed. İt worked!!! For some weird reason the system as a whole felt like it was hit in the head with a baseball bat but it worked. The atiflash didnt show the primary device (NVidia 6600) and when i reflashed it actually flashed the hd4870. It was my sheer stupidity that led to all this. I guess its one of those moments where everything with the ability to communicate says dont do something when youre about to make a huge mistake but you still do it anyways. Btw the technical people who i sent the computer to check it out returned it back to me in a couple of hours stating that the hd4870 is wasted and i should buy a new one. Thanks to a good person who knows his way around a computer and the horror of actually throwing out 300$ (made me suck the internet dry about the subject) the problem was solved. Thank you for your attention, if you have any questions? (im so ashamed but i used RBE(Radeon bios editor) thinking i actually changed the fan speeds of the case (ignoring the word RADEON) and when the computer was flashing i panicked and hit reset).Noones to blame but me.

03-04-2009, 10:02 PM	#6 (permalink)
mattlock Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Ohio Posts: 4,183 OS: XP SP2, Win 7 Beta, Win 7 RC My System	Re: Need help with weird hardware problem after OC Glad to hear you got it all sorted. There are a few things that you can take away from this experience. 1) Never turn off a PC during the flash process. 2) It's always better to flash BIOS (MB or VGA) from DOS. 3) Always backup your original BIOS before flashing. The reason ATIflash didn't see your 6600 is it only looks for compatible cards (ATI Cards) It can't be used to flash Nvidia products so it doesn't recognize the 6600. Thanks for the update. __________________ Matt Everest-Thermal Paste Instruction-Power Supply Info-Sensorview PSU Calculator-Speedfan-Bench Test Help TSF Fight Disease. It's Free!