Story time.

[Bonksnp]

So I have a xfx 7970 that's been solid on BAMT for a week or two. 720kh non-stop. Only problem is that it runs hot and its at stock voltage (1.175). I reeeally didn't want to mess with it, but I knew in the long run it would be worth the under volt.

So I flashed it to 1.025. Flicker, flicker, nope. Flashed to 1.050 (which is where the rest of my card are) and it would start mining then lock up. Tried a couple more times, same thing. Then I flashed to 1.125 (only other option besides stock 1.175) and started it. 560ish kh. Shit. I tried messing with my config and couldn't get past that. So since its getting late, I figured I'll just flash back to the stock bios and get it mining then mess with it later.

So I do the flash and it gives me an error and says the bios was not written. Hmmm, ok. I try the 1.125 bios again and it flashed successfully. So I try stock one more time and get the same error. Ugh. Ok, whatever I'll just let it chug at 560kh till I can mess with it again.

So I reboot with BAMT stick and NOTHING. I power off, try the winboot stick, NOTHING. Oh Shit.

So I do some googling and see that all 7970s should have that bios switch. Mine does not. Ummm, ok this is bad.

So I turn the machine on again with the winboot stick in and see that the mouse, keyboard and everything else is lighting up. Hmm. Maybe everything is still there I just can't see it?

So I let it boot blindly and wait until I figure it's at the dos prompt. I very carefully type in the atiflash command for the 1.125 bios hoping that it'll recognize it and come on magically. Hit enter and nothing. Shit. Then I remember it says something about reboot for the changes to take effect. So I did.

IT CAME BACK ON. LOL. I just laughed uncontrollably.

So now it's at least back on the 1.125 voltage and I can mess with it later. But man, I was sure I had bricked my card.

Fun times this hobby is.

 

[teh_chem]

Cool story bro (actually, I only read the title)

 

[edge929]

Yeah, that's definitely a $hit-in-the-pants moment. I've had to do blind command entries before, not fun.

 

[blade52x]

My quick one : I tried to flash a 270x bios onto a 7870, and that failed. So when flashing back, I accidentally flashed a 7870 bios onto a 7790. The 7790 was borked. I had to solder a wire to bypass the bios chip, just to get any computer to boot with it plugged in. Then while it was powered, I had to cut the wire so before flashing the card and bring it back to life.

I'm glad it happened on a 7790 as that was good practice for any possible future mishaps.

 

[oblox]

I was always under the impression even with bad bios flashes, assuming you have a working card, you can use that card to see what you are doing and reflash no worries. This is assuming that at the very least, you are flashing the appropriate bios for the card (most likely with voltage tweaks).

 

[blade52x]

I was always under the impression even with bad bios flashes, assuming you have a working card, you can use that card to see what you are doing and reflash no worries. This is assuming that at the very least, you are flashing the appropriate bios for the card (most likely with voltage tweaks).

I guess it depends on how bad the bios flash is. In my case, there is probably no single spec in a 7870 bios that matches up with the 7790. Literally everything is different between the cards : total VRAM, number of shaders, memory bus width, etc. I think the only way it could possibly get worse is if I force flashed a Nvidia bios onto an AMD card.