Another successful x800 pro to XT mod - here's how

WuTangClam said:
This might sound like a silly question, but have you been using the gigabyte flashing tool to flash or flashrom? The gigabyte tool is the key to unlocking the disabled pipes.
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Not a silly question, forgot to state that.

GVF11 states "This is an ATi Card"

I had to use -f to force it.

So that means that Powercolor is using ATi as an OEM for their cards.

So that means it's probably laser cut.

are the traces too small to bridge with tiny bit of solder?

-Ed
 
The Powercolor ones were the ones that had 100% success rate, correct? I thought they weren't laser cut?
 
Well, then my Powercolor card would make it no longer 100% success rate. :(

-Ed
 
Did you first flash it with the Gigabyte BIOS and then back to the retail ATI XT:pE BIOS? I am a little worried now since I myself just placed an order for a Power color VIVO card from Gameve.
 
Your probably doing it wrong. Have you removed the heatsink to verify the laser cut? Everyone that I have seen with failures has done the bios flash incorrectly...They always state this is an ATi card (no matter who made it). If it flashed then you were successful. Use ati tool to verify 16 pipes are enabled....
 
Could someone post a link to the gigabyte 800xt pe bios please or send it to me? all the previous links are dead. thanks

its ok i found it.
 
:confused: I bought this off newegg awhile back, and i've tried to research it myself, but I'm still stumped if this is the VIVO model. It obviously has video in video out capabilities, yet it doesn't say wheather or not it's the actual vivo model. The user feedback has people saying that it can be modded to an XT with 16 pipelines, and people saying it can't. I figured you guys would know :D

btw here is what i bought:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-364&depa=0
 
CleanSlate said:
Sounds like this would work on non-vivo cards if someone would go into the xt-pe bios roms and take out the vivo coding...

~Adam
Click to expand...

Not at all. On most non-VIVO cards, there is a laser cut that does not allow enabling the plus four pipes just with a BIOS flash. Also, non-VIVO cards are equipped with 2 ns RAM, whereas (current) VIVO and XT cards come with faster 1.6 ns RAM.
 
rene mauricio said:
Did you first flash it with the Gigabyte BIOS and then back to the retail ATI XT:pE BIOS? I am a little worried now since I myself just placed an order for a Power color VIVO card from Gameve.
Click to expand...

I flashed it in every conceivable order. Never worked. It just recognized it at a higher default speed. (520/560 rather than 425/475). But it always listed 12 pipelines nonethe less. Damn. What a waste.

Well, I'll have to upgrade the cooler and overclock. It does so nicely, but needs better cooling.
-Ed
 
W1zzard said:
yep .. only works on vivo cards and you cant go back to 12p
Click to expand...

Why can't you go back to 12 pipes? So if it fails you are screwed eh? That sucks...
 
No, you can go back. Use the gigabyte flashing tool to go back to your original bios and you're back to 12.
 
gsboriqua said:
I don't believe it will disable the 4 pipes. Just puts you back to x800 pro speeds and id.
Click to expand...

Wrong. I've done it and the 12 pipes were restored.
 
gsboriqua said:
Thats not a VIVO :(
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That is a VIVO. I purchased the same card and have it running @ 506 /1012 w/ 16 pipes. I can't push it any higher until I get my VGA Silencer 4 in, but that shouldnt be a problem.

edit: Nevermind, apparently that isn't the VIVO. Wild, didnt even think Sapphire had a non VIVO pro.
 
hyperchao said:
I haven't heard anything about success rate with the HIS Excalibur Radeon X800 Pro IceQ II. Does anyone know if this works well?

Link to card
Click to expand...

I have some good news and some bad news. The good is that many people report success, i.e. stable XT speeds and 16 pipes after the mod. THe bad is that I, and some others, are not so lucky. The 16 pipes are enabled but this card generates artifacts unless the RAM speed is set to the standard pro speed, even though the RAM chips are all 1.6 ns... I've tried about six bioses, pro and XT, and nothing helped. The core, however, seems OK at 550 Mhz.
 
I just tried this an x800 VIVO card and the flash worked just fine.

all 16 pipelines are enabled and it seems to be okay but for some reason the fan on the cooler never speeds up.

is this normal or should the fan speed up when the card gets hotter?
 
You can configure ATITool (the newest version) to dynamically increase the fan speed as temps increase. I don't think it will automatically do it.
 
ozziegn said:
I just tried W1zzard's method and it worked like a charm.
Click to expand...

Did you figure out your fan speed issue. Mine is water cooled so I can't confirm if thats an issue. Ive done alot of flashes and have noticed that most cards run into the 75C+ region but seemed stable. There is a bios editor out there but I will need to redownload it to see if there is an option for setting the fan speeds. Or maybe W1zzard might know of a way to set it in the bios to 100%, rather than depending on ATi Tool to do it.
 
Hi has anyone been successful softmodding with a Gigabyte and/or MSI X800 Pro ViVo?
thanks

edit: just read some people have, next question anyone know which brand Gigabyte or MSI have a higher % success rate?

thanks
 
gsboriqua said:
Did you figure out your fan speed issue.
Click to expand...

yeah, I figured it out.

I was using an earlier version of ATi Tool that I had but it didnt have the fan speed option.

so I then got the newest version and its in there.
 
*update*

I went to Comp USA and exchanged my card for another one in hopes that the next soft mod would be successfull. I say that because my first soft mod went through but the extra 4 pipelines were damaged and I had artifact city USA.

but luckily my second card turned out flawless and I'm now sporting an XT PE in X800 clothing. the card is running 520/560 without any hitches...

but I have one question to ask the pros: at the current time I'm just using the Gigabyte BIOS that was suggested to unlock the extra pipelines and the card runs fine.

so is there or would there be any benefit from me using an official ATi XT PE BIOS on my card or should I leave it alone?
 
I have never noted any benefit from that, in fact the ATi and Gigabyte bios both appear to be identical....
 
I'm a total Noob and I had no problem what so ever following the great instructions... I got my x800pro today at compusa, had an XT just a few hours later after reading up on it.. I just wanna thank everyone for all the wonderful information that is made available in these forums... I've been getting my ass kicked all over this house for a month now trying to OC my KV8 Pro.. So this was a very welcome and pleasant surprise to have something go so well.. card is running flawless @ 520/560 43c @ idle 70-75c in game.. considering OC'n just a bit.. But right now I will enjoy!! Thanks again to everyone for the great INFO!!
 
Yo. This all sounds excellent, def going to go for one of these. Got a few questions first, which allthough I could find out with alot of reading, would be more easily answered this way :D

So whats the brand(s) with the best success rate?

As I can get a Sapphire for about £25 less than a Connect 3D, is this because Sapphires arnt seeling so well due to failures? Was also told that a friend of a friends Sapphire died after a month or 2 with this softmod, is this common?
 
Dizj said:
Yo. This all sounds excellent, def going to go for one of these. Got a few questions first, which allthough I could find out with alot of reading, would be more easily answered this way :D

So whats the brand(s) with the best success rate?

As I can get a Sapphire for about £25 less than a Connect 3D, is this because Sapphires arnt seeling so well due to failures? Was also told that a friend of a friends Sapphire died after a month or 2 with this softmod, is this common?
Click to expand...

If possible grab you a Gigabyte. I don't honestly believe one brand would be better than another. So far I have had two fail (out of 14 total), a Sapphire and a GeCube :( The ones that had the highest OC were gigabytes, but on the flip side I had a couple gigabytes that would do 520 but not 1 mhz more. So really its going to be luck of the draw, just like anything with PC hardware.....

BTW the sapphires were ATi cards with their stickers over them. I peeled off one of the sapphire stickers to find an ATi x800 Heatsink. So I wouldn't blame Sapphire for failure rates....
 
gsboriqua said:
If possible grab you a Gigabyte. I don't honestly believe one brand would be better than another. So far I have had two fail (out of 14 total), a Sapphire and a GeCube :( The ones that had the highest OC were gigabytes, but on the flip side I had a couple gigabytes that would do 520 but not 1 mhz more. So really its going to be luck of the draw, just like anything with PC hardware.....

BTW the sapphires were ATi cards with their stickers over them. I peeled off one of the sapphire stickers to find an ATi x800 Heatsink. So I wouldn't blame Sapphire for failure rates....
Click to expand...

Check out CompUSA and their X800 Pros. Read a few of the threads here about them. Best deal and success rate
 
I purchased one from CompUSa that works flawlessly to.

On another note, I have one that I purchased form newegg as a refurb,
it does not mod,non vivo, someone had already tried to mod it and did a sloppy job. Anyway, one of the capacitors or resistors fell off! The card still works fine so it seems. I would like to ask if anyoine knows what this does.Surely it is needed for something. It is the first big silver one at the top of the card where you install the mounting screw. It has these #s listed on it.
341
svp
1200
4

Thanks for the advice
 
I got my GeCube x800 Pro VIVO from Komusa 3 days ago and after making sure it could handle 520/560, I flashed it.

AWESOME, I'm now the proud owner of an x800 XT PE!

But...

Everything seemed stable and 3DMark03, Aquamark, Doom3, UT2004 all ran fine but 3DMark2001 crashes immediately.

It appears my memory is not up to snuff. I flashed back to x800 Pro w/16Pipes and ran ATI Tool again letting the memory run longer and it appears it wanted to step back to 554.

I'm hoping it's just a heat issue. My card (according to Overdrive) idles at 44C and gets on up to 60C+ under load.

Does anyone know of a way other than Overdrive to see the card temperature?

I'm going to get a Silencer 4 when Frozen gets them back in stock or I can find them elsewhere for less than Neweggs $55 (not knockin' em for trying to make a buck but I can wait).

Does anyone have any recommendations for cooling the memory other than the Silencer 4? Even if it involves watercooling.
 
WarlordBB said:
I got my GeCube x800 Pro VIVO from Komusa 3 days ago and after making sure it could handle 520/560, I flashed it.

AWESOME, I'm now the proud owner of an x800 XT PE!

But...

Everything seemed stable and 3DMark03, Aquamark, Doom3, UT2004 all ran fine but 3DMark2001 crashes immediately.

It appears my memory is not up to snuff. I flashed back to x800 Pro w/16Pipes and ran ATI Tool again letting the memory run longer and it appears it wanted to step back to 554.

I'm hoping it's just a heat issue. My card (according to Overdrive) idles at 44C and gets on up to 60C+ under load.

Does anyone know of a way other than Overdrive to see the card temperature?

I'm going to get a Silencer 4 when Frozen gets them back in stock or I can find them elsewhere for less than Neweggs $55 (not knockin' em for trying to make a buck but I can wait).

Does anyone have any recommendations for cooling the memory other than the Silencer 4? Even if it involves watercooling.
Click to expand...

I have the Silencer 4, but I havent really had any luck pushing my modded X800pro past 520/520. I wouldn't invest in it just to try to get a few mhz on your video card. I think it may be hit and miss on how high you can push a modded Pro.
 
Sapphire X800 Pro ViVo --> XT PE

however, the first time I flashed it, I used the ATI XT PE bios, and after the reboot my motherboard screamed at me "System Failed VGA Test"... that wasn't cool

thankfully CompUSA has a great return policy and they ignore the 15% restocking fee :D (i'm talking about getting a PCI card to fix my X800... not returning the x800)

tried flashing with the Sapphire XT bios and no problems.
 
So what happened? You flashed it with the XT PE BIOS but it didnt work.. So u booted it up and went back to the old drivers? Yeh?
 
WarlordBB said:
Does anyone know of a way other than Overdrive to see the card temperature?


Does anyone have any recommendations for cooling the memory other than the Silencer 4? Even if it involves watercooling.
Click to expand...


ATi Tool will let you read temps

I would just slap some Vantec Iceberg heatsinks on there. They are pretty cheap and will get the job done to push you over the edge (554-560)
 
WarlordBB said:
I got my GeCube x800 Pro VIVO from Komusa 3 days ago and after making sure it could handle 520/560, I flashed it.
Click to expand...

I am about to buy an x800pro from compusa, once i install it, how do i make sure it can handle 520/560 before flashing it? what program should i use and what exact things to you do to get it to OC?
 
Taiguy said:
Sapphire X800 Pro ViVo --> XT PE

however, the first time I flashed it, I used the ATI XT PE bios, and after the reboot my motherboard screamed at me "System Failed VGA Test"... that wasn't cool

thankfully CompUSA has a great return policy and they ignore the 15% restocking fee :D (i'm talking about getting a PCI card to fix my X800... not returning the x800)

tried flashing with the Sapphire XT bios and no problems.
Click to expand...

i dont understand... :p U managed to flash it to XT PE on the second try? Or did u just restore it to a pro again :p

I ordered a sapphire x800pro VIVO today, and im thinkin about doing the mod. Is it worth the risk?

If the flash fails, i can reflash it to a 12pipe again, right? And in worst case i will need a pci-card to reflash it..? Is there any chance of messing it up permanently? :p

Or should i withdraw the order, pay $30 more and get a powercolor instead?

xscuse the bad english, im from sweden ;)
 
You can go back to 12 pipes by using the Gigabyte flashing tool instead of the ATi flashing tool and vice versa. In fact, you can take step 2 out of the process and not use the ATi flashing tool at all. The only difference I notice between the two flashing processes is that the Gigabyte one activates and disables the amount of pipes while ATi doesn't, and the ATi tool plays a song when you're done flashing. Very little risk involved with this softmod.

To clarify, using Gigabyte tool with ATi x800pro bios = 12 pipes

Using Gigabyte tool with ATi x800 xt bios = 16 pipes

Wam bam thank you mam. I have flashed back and forth at least a dozen times so I should know :D
 
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