Help!... bricked HD4850

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remmeh

Limp Gawd
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Hi all...

So I followed the directions in this thread for flashing my HD4850 such that the idle clocks were 160/500. I extracted the bios with GPU-Z and edited with RBE. Then I flashed with ATI Winflash and restarted... and the card doesn't post.

I put in an old Nvidia 8600 GT to see if I could flash back to the old BIOS, but I start up Windows and Winflash literally doesn't run at all.

Any suggestions, or do I have to RMA this thing... Thanks.
 
winflash crashes and freezes alot for me keep trying to open it.i think its normal or something.
 
Only way you learn is when you mess something up. Give him the opportunity to learn how to fix his mistakes or else the same thing will happen in the future and he'll be back to square one again.
 
So anyone wanna tell me what I did wrong, instead of being pompous assholes?
 
pandora is right, gotta do it from DOS. Get out the windows 98 boot disk, here comes a good dose of dos.
 
Im not condoning this but in theory couldn't the manufacturer reflash it if he does RMA it?
 
why should everyone else pay for this mistake? rule #1 - never flash from any os but dos or *inix. There's what you did wrong.
 
What exactly did he do wrong? I would like to know in case I ever feel the need to flash. Nvm I guess Megaman answered my question.
 
Stop threadcrapping, and let people like Tiger or Pandora help him out, instead of acting like assholes.
 
Simple solution: if you have a PCI video card, plug it in and boot. You should be able to see things, and get into Windows. Just re-flash the card using the default flash image.

I will say this: if you reflash the card with the stock BIOS, and it still fails, I say RMA the sucker.

Sure, I know, you people want him to eat his mistake. Well, it would be one thing if he fucked the card by his own doing, but if you can't write even a stock BIOS, that's a flaw in the card itself. If the card is not %100 functional, I don't feel bad having it replaced.
 
defaultluser said:
Simple solution: if you have a PCI video card, plug it in and boot. You should be able to see things, and get into Windows. Just re-flash the card using the default flash image.
Click to expand...

uh - no windows for god sake. a clean dos boot disk with no autoexec.bat, minimal or non-existent config.sys. If you don't have a clue about what I'm talking about, you shouldn't be flashing.

because I am lazy here is a guide, but dont use the windows environment and follow my hint above.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/34
 
Mega666 said:
uh - no windows for god sake. a clean dos boot disk with no autoexec.bat, minimal or non-existent config.sys. If you don't have a clue about what I'm talking about, you shouldn't be flashing.

because I am lazy here is a guide, but dont use the windows environment and follow my hint above.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/34
Click to expand...

Chill, man, Windows or DOS, whatever. The key is to use another video card.
 
defaultluser said:
Simple solution: if you have a PCI video card, plug it in and boot. You should be able to see things, and get into Windows. Just re-flash the card using the default flash image.
Click to expand...

I'll add to this. Most people don't have a spare pci video card laying around or a floppy disk drive. You can do a blind flash. It's not as hard as you think. This is assuming you can boot from a usb drive.

Things you need
  • Bios Image

Create an autoexec.bat file with the following lines:

atiflash -p -f 0 biosname.rom

Replace biosname.rom with the name of the bios.
 
If atiflash -i returns adapter not found, you wouldn't be able to flash because not ati card is detected. Are you doing all this from DOS and not the command prompt within Windows.
 
Stop thread-crapping on him and help him.

When this happened to me on my old ATi cards, I booted with a 2MB PCI-videocard I picked up for $5. Ran ATIFlash off a 3.5" floppy and reflashed my bios properly.

If you don't know what you are doing, NEVER flash in windows. Always use a bootable USB, CD, or floppy.
 
remmeh said:
Hi all...

So I followed the directions in this thread for flashing my HD4850 such that the idle clocks were 160/500. I extracted the bios with GPU-Z and edited with RBE. Then I flashed with ATI Winflash and restarted... and the card doesn't post.

I put in an old Nvidia 8600 GT to see if I could flash back to the old BIOS, but I start up Windows and Winflash literally doesn't run at all.

Any suggestions, or do I have to RMA this thing... Thanks.
Click to expand...

Grab a USB stick and follow the directions on this website to make it bootable.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles//overclocking/vidcard/34/5

Then download ATIFLASH and a 4850 BIOS from this website and store them on the USB stick. I'd recommend you download the BIOS for your card otherwise you might need to add the "-f" parameter below.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1123/ATIFlash_3.60.html

http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...er=&model=HD+4850&interface=PCI-E&memSize=512

If you can't install 2 PCIE cards on your mobo find someone who can and then when you boot off the USB stick run "atiflash -ai" to determine the id number of the ATI card.

Then type "atiflash -p IDNUMBERFROMABOVE BIOSYOUDOWNLOADED.BIN"

If you get an error message about vender add the "-f" parameter.

Don't flash in Windows. Hope that helps. :)
 
buy another 4850 because you want to crossfire and fix your card. :)
 
Psychor said:
Grab a USB stick and follow the directions on this website to make it bootable.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles//overclocking/vidcard/34/5

Then download ATIFLASH and a 4850 BIOS from this website and store them on the USB stick. I'd recommend you download the BIOS for your card otherwise you might need to add the "-f" parameter below.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1123/ATIFlash_3.60.html

http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...er=&model=HD+4850&interface=PCI-E&memSize=512

If you can't install 2 PCIE cards on your mobo find someone who can and then when you boot off the USB stick run "atiflash -ai" to determine the id number of the ATI card.

Then type "atiflash -p IDNUMBERFROMABOVE BIOSYOUDOWNLOADED.BIN"

If you get an error message about vender add the "-f" parameter.

Don't flash in Windows. Hope that helps. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks, I won't flash in Windows ever again. Unfortunately, 2-3 posts up, I mention that atiflash can't find the card.
 
remmeh said:
Thanks, I won't flash in Windows ever again. .
Click to expand...


or don't ever flash at all.. it's easy to mess things up when flashing bios. may i ask why you were flashing your new card? not sure if i read it on your thread or not. good luck.
 
Pkirk618 said:
buy another 4850 because you want to crossfire and fix your card. :)
Click to expand...

Yes, steal from a store and screw over the next person who accidentally buys the bricked card. Good advice.
 
Mega666 said:
yeah, and making sure you flash the right card too. do you flash your motherboard from windows too?
Click to expand...

Yes, because if it fails or screws up I can try again as long as I don't reboot. If your system is instable enough to crash in windows you probably don't need to be risking a flash anyway. If it ends up bricked I can always hotflash (or call and ask the maker to mail me a bios chip, usually free)... if my video card ends up bricked I just pop in the geforce 2 and try again.
 
dealmaster said:
Yes, steal from a store and screw over the next person who accidentally buys the bricked card. Good advice.
Click to expand...

err.. I don't think he was advocating stealing. To me, that reads like he is suggesting that the OP buy an additional 4850 to use for the purpose of fixing his existing card and then run the two cards in crossfire :)
 
brysig228 said:
or don't ever flash at all.. it's easy to mess things up when flashing bios. may i ask why you were flashing your new card? not sure if i read it on your thread or not. good luck.
Click to expand...

Was trying to set idle clocks for core/mem to 160/500.

Pkirk618 said:
buy another 4850 because you want to crossfire and fix your card. :)
Click to expand...

Heh, was thinking about that...

Would booting into Windows from an nvidia card (instead of an ATI card) make Winflash not even run at all?
 
i only flash things from windows anymore never messed up yet O_O
 
remmeh said:
Would booting into Windows from an nvidia card (instead of an ATI card) make Winflash not even run at all?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure but you shouldn't even be in Windows if you're trying to fix your card. Majority of the advice given were meant to be done in DOS. If you can't find your ATI card in DOS with either programs, then there's something else wrong besides a bad flash.
 
any luck yet with that vid card ?

cuz u know u can always make a keychain out of that GPU :)
 
I was going to flash my card to se the idle clocks right, but I'm worried now. Also, the latest Sapphire BIOS at http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/16834/Sapphire.HD4850.512.080602.html still shows 500 MHz for idle instead of 160 MHz. Can I just use another one like the MSI BIOS instead? The information looks almost identical but there are some small differences.

I normally don't flash videocards, but this time I think it can really reduce power consumption and increase the life span of the card - 160 MHz is more than enough for 2D/Aero stuff. My mobo has integrated X1200 graphics, so as long as the card doesn't die completely, I can re-flash the old BIOS using that.
 
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