need some help from ATI gurus plz...

[wol-va-rine]

I flashed my XFX5850 to the ASUS bios yesterday and thought I had bricked the card, but the card is recognized so I'm guessing it's salvageable...

here's a rundown of what transpired...

1. I flashed my XFX5850 with ASUS bios, it completed without any errors, but my computer wouldn't output video (all the motherboard lights were on, the 5850 fan was spinning, but no video output)...

2. I put my 4890 in and it booted up fine, I browsed the web a little and then decided to try to "fix" things...

3. I then took the 4890 out, put my 4850 in the 1st PCIE slot (I couldn't find a 2nd set of PCIE cables for my HX620 so I couldn't use my 4890 at the same time as my 5850 as both need 2 PCIE connectors, while the 4850 needed only 1 and I had a 4 pin molex adapter) and the 5850 in the 2nd PCIE slot...

4. both cards were recognized with the -i command (adapter 0: RV770 and adapter 1: Cypress), I then flashed the 5850 bios back to the XFX bios, it completed without error...

5.put 5850 back in by itself and again (same as 1.) it wouldn't display video...

6. put the 4890 back in and now my computer wouldn't boot, video was displayed, but it would freeze on the win 7 "starting windows" splash screen, I even left the room for a while (1 hour) and when I came back, still no progress from the splash screen...

then...
6a. I tried loading "normal start up", that didn't work...
6b. I tried loading "last known good configuration", that didn't work...
6c. I tried a windows repair, that completed and didn't work...
6d. I booted into safe mode, that DID work and I did a system restore (I had a restore point from 2 days ago), that didn't work...

7. put 5850 back in and again, no video output at all...

8. put 4890 back in and still the same splash screen problem, just a note, it didn't technically "freeze" on the splash screen any of the times, I could see the win 7 logo "pulsing" or whatever it is that it does, it just go any further than that point...

9. I put my 4850 back in and it booted up, but the video drivers didn't load, the screen was definitely not 1920x1080, so I rebooted...

10. after the reboot the video drivers were loaded and the screen was back to 1920x1080, and [h]ere I am...

any suggestions...?

 

[wol-va-rine]

problem solved, I guess my 5850 doesn't like anything but the official bios for that specific card, once I matched up the model number with one of the six XFX 5850 bioses on TPU it flashed fine and came back to life...

 

[Ebernanut]

Did you ever try reinstalling the drivers?

 

[Nauseous]

there any reason to run the other bios?

 

[wol-va-rine]

Did you ever try reinstalling the drivers?

a driver issue wouldn't cause it to not output video to the monitor...

there any reason to run the other bios?

I usually try to flash my cards to the ASUS bioses, they sometimes allow you to OC a bit higher, and temps really aren't an issue with the 5850...

 

[Ebernanut]

I guess I overlooked the "no video output at all" part, the comment about the 4890 only working in safe mode was made me think of drivers. Also it is a good idea to reinstall the drivers when you flash a new BIOS to a card and I didn't see you mention doing that.

But yeah I agree if you weren't even seeing the post screen it's not a driver issue, I wonder if the original BIOS uses different IDs for the outputs.

 

[wol-va-rine]

I guess I overlooked the "no video output at all" part, the comment about the 4890 only working in safe mode was made me think of drivers. Also it is a good idea to reinstall the drivers when you flash a new BIOS to a card and I didn't see you mention doing that.

But yeah I agree if you weren't even seeing the post screen it's not a driver issue, I wonder if the original BIOS uses different IDs for the outputs.

I tried a few different bioses and none but the original one worked, also, I've never reinstalled drivers after a bios flash, but then again I never uninstall and reinstall drivers when switching video cards either, never even use driver sweeper, I guess I'm just lucky when it comes to drivers...