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Jon
11-11-01, 04:49 PM
Thought I'd share this with those of you that have a RETAIL Radeon 64MB VIVO video card.

The file I attached below contains the files you need to flash this card to the SE version. The difference is that the clock and memory speed of the SE version is 198/198 instead of 183/183 of the regular VIVO.

Just extract the files to a floppy disk, it will be bootable as it is. Reboot back up to this disk and do the following:

1: Type at the A:\> FLASHROM.EXE -i

This gives you the device ID of where your card is located. It should be 0 if on AGP port. You will need this number as you will see in the later steps. Once you have your device ID number go to step 2:

2: Type at the A:\> FLASHROM.EXE -s 0 BACKUP.ROM

This will backup your current BIOS to the floppy with the name of BACKUP.ROM. This is very important! Once this has finished you can continue on to step 3 which is the flashing of the new BIOS.

3: Type at the A:\> FLASHROM.EXE -p 0 XXXX.ROM

XXXX.ROM is the filename of the new BIOS ROM you are flashing your card with. I have included two different version. One version is the SE version that retail Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO users will want to use to upgrade to the SE version. This filename is r64se.rom. So you would type:

A:\>FLASHROM.EXE -p r64se.rom

If you have an OEM Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO with the 166/166 clock speed you can flash with the retail version I included. Its filename is r64ddr.rom. You follow the same exact instructions other than the name of the BIOS ROM you are using.

---------------------------------------DISCLAIMER---------------------------------------

As you know, when flashing any BIOS you take on a certain risk. You are taking a risk by trying this and I take no responsibility if you screw something up. Your warranty will probably be voided after you try this. It is possible to recover from failure if you have a PCI or ISA video card handy. Just boot using that and use the same instructions to flash back to the BACKUP.ROM you BETTER have made.

I have done this myself (30 minutes ago) and works perfectly fine for me. I can tell no difference than before other than my default clock speeds on the card are now 198/198.

THE BIOSes I included are for NTSC monitors ONLY!!!! No PAL support for these which means they are typically made for US cards. If you don't know what this means then you don't need to do this.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have about this and I'll do the best I can to answer. If you think this is stupid, go away and don't bother anyone that may be interested.

Happy flashing!

thestramel
11-11-01, 11:11 PM
Sounds pretty cool. Did you do this with just stock cooling on the card? Also, couldn't the clock speed just be increased using powerstrip (but maybe flashing the BIOS is better somehow)?

Jon
11-12-01, 01:32 AM
No extra cooling...I did have it clocked at 205/205 using Powerstrip before.

You can use a software tweaker but hey, why not have it there at default?

Cisco Kid
11-12-01, 01:27 PM
Check my sig I have an SE card that I know should do 250/250(mem 500) once I get time to put my lapped blue orb on and copper ramsinks.

Do not need much more than that and powerstrip is the overclocking prog to use after you flash the older cards bios.

Cisco Kid
:)

Oni
11-12-01, 04:10 PM
I was thinking about flashing, but then I thought: "Why go to the trouble just so it'll run higher stock? It'll still overclock just the same." I'll just stick w/ RadeonTweaker @ 206/206

Kingslayer
11-12-01, 05:36 PM
THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD!!!

Not only is my Radeon up to 198/198, but my CPU's can now go to 1500 each, my ram is now PC-150, my NIC card can take a 176 Mhz FSB, my CD eject faster, My DVD player is now a 32X, my sound card plays everything fastforward, and my floppy shoots disks across the room!

Just kidding. Worked like a champ. Got 198/198 and is solid, gonna go run 3DMark2001 and see what I gained. Then I'm gonna overclock the snot outta this thing!

Thanks Jon.

Jon
11-13-01, 12:12 PM
LOL!

Glad you like the find. I don't overclock mine any but the extra little bit at the new "stock" is nice to know I have. I just hate running freakin PowerStrip for some reason...

kilacomp
11-13-01, 01:11 PM
ya thanks Jon, works perfect!

Jon
11-13-01, 03:11 PM
Most welcome!

:]

thestramel
11-13-01, 11:57 PM
Yeah. Thanks. Mine seems to be stable with no artifacting. 3dmark2001 increased a little over 100 points. Very nice. BTW, is there any way to measure the GPU temp on the Radeon?

Cisco Kid
11-14-01, 12:17 AM
Originally posted by Oni
I was thinking about flashing, but then I thought: "Why go to the trouble just so it'll run higher stock? It'll still overclock just the same." I'll just stick w/ RadeonTweaker @ 206/206

Kingslayer,

I am very curious to see what you can go to now that you have a 198/198 card. Since you have a lapped blue orb on and ramsinks I am very interested to see if you can hit 250/250, that would be awesome cause Quizno is at 246/246 stable with his mod and you can see by my sig I am at 234/234 stock no artifacting at all.

I am sure with good case ventilation and a blue orb plus ramsinks these cards will do 250/500, that will be sweet . I am hoping to break 4500 in 3dmark2001. Lets all pool our tweaking knowledge to break the 250/250 mark!!!!!!!!!

With this kinda speed I see no reason to buy a new vid card for a bit .........:D

Kingslayer
11-14-01, 01:00 PM
Ok. Did the flash and did some tests. This is where things really started going down hill.

I broke out my notes. When I first got this card I could reach about 205/205 before I started getting artifacts. At 206/206 I would get 3 artifacts, at 210/210 I would get about 250, and at 215/215 I would get about 2000+ artifacts. This would also cause some pretty interesting anomolies within 3DMark2001. Like in the Max Payne section, when he help up the Desert Eagles in each hand there would be a black band that ran from the barrels to the bottom of the screen.

I did the flash and got this thing to 198/198. Didnt forsee any artifacts because of earlier testing. Well I got these anomolies in 3DMark2001 again. This time the Dragons horns were producing the black bands that went to the top of the screen, and the pistol anomolie was there also. So I did an Artifact Test again. 2000+ artifacts at 198/198. I never used to get this at 198. I took the card up to 210/210, easily reachable before the flash, and it wouldn't even boot.

Thankfully the backup.bat worked. I went back to my stock settings of 183/183, then overclocked it back to 198/198 using Radeon Tweaker. Rebooted the machine, and ran the artifact test. 5 artifacts. Ran 3DMark2001, and it ran fine with an average score, no anomolies. Which is good because I thought my card was starting to crap out on me.

I was really hoping that the GPU and the MEM where held back by the bios, and that this new bios would unlock it. All it seems to do is overclock the card in the bios, and poorly at that. I got better results using Radeon Tweaker.

Hopefully you guys are seeing different results than I am.

trulyred
11-14-01, 03:22 PM
I got all the way to the part where i inqure about the adaptor number. It also says my card is locked..I tried flashing but with no luck so I guess Im s.o.l.:eek: After reading what kingslayer had to say maybe I'm better off not touching the card............tr

Cisco Kid
11-20-01, 02:47 PM
Here is the info for those looking with a 166/166 OEM Radeon 64 DDR vivo

Cisco Kid:D