VisionTek 3870 bios question

[DeViL_909]

I ready the sticky on the bios flash and I have a quick question. Does it matter what brand card you flash? Would like to flash a bios that will dynamically adjust the fan speed and remove oc limit. Can anyone link me to this bios and let me know if the brand of card matters?

Oh and why does my overdrive have the Mem locked at 1170 MHZ? It says 1170 on both sides of the slider

[DeViL_909]

little update. I tried to winflash the new bios onto the card but get a system ID missmatch. What is going on?

[gibletzor]

That's a good question. I get this error as well on my Sapphire 3870, and I haven't been able to find an answer anywhere yet.

[DeViL_909]

Yea so far google has failed me

[ghost_recon88]

Just make sure the BIOS you are flashing to uses the same kind of RAM chips that are on your card. At least that worked back in the 9800 Pro days.

[DeViL_909]

It is I checked that already. The only thing I don't get is why there is not a "force" option on the new flash utility. Maybe that has something to do with it. Anyone else seen this or had the same experience?

[Sentential]

If you're looking for a solid BIOS that has the ability to use CCC this is by far the nicest one Ive found:

http://www.iax-tech.com/video/3800biosmod/03.htm

[ghost_recon88]

It is I checked that already. The only thing I don't get is why there is not a "force" option on the new flash utility. Maybe that has something to do with it. Anyone else seen this or had the same experience?

last I checked using the prompt "-f" without the quotes enable the force flash.

[DeViL_909]

Does that bios also fix the fan?

[Sentential]

Does that bios also fix the fan?

No idea, frankly I took matters into my own hands and simply used rivatuner to fix my fan rate at 80%

[gibletzor]

Sweet I got it to work on my Sapphire card using the guide for ATIflash in the link Sent gave. w00t!

I used the Extreme PC XXX BIOS in this thread here (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=542620).

[Jizzzared]

Gibletzor, could you put up a link to that guide? Thanks.

[gibletzor]

If you're looking for a solid BIOS that has the ability to use CCC this is by far the nicest one Ive found:

http://www.iax-tech.com/video/3800biosmod/03.htm

It's in the link Sent posted there.

[xtreme404]

I have a visiontek as well. There are so many posts and bios versions out now. Can anyone point out the best one to go with at the moment?

Thanks!!!

[()nslaught]

Is flashing the BIOS on a video card esentially exactly the same as doing it on a motherboard? I feel as though a video card is somewhat different and is a little more costly.

[Pinky]

I have a visiontek as well. There are so many posts and bios versions out now. Can anyone point out the best one to go with at the moment?

Thanks!!!

I came across this thread looking for a similar suggestion...

[Pinky]

I'm going to try this tonight...

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33912408

**edit: using the 3870fanfix.bin file from above and ati winflash utility I successfully applied the new BIOS :D.

First I uninstalled everything ATI related (no reboot needed, you'll need to reboot after flashing anyway). I copied the winflash2002 folder to someplace easy to navigate to (C:\winflash2002), copied the 3870fanfix.bin file to the winflash2002 folder, then from a command prompt ran the following command:

c:\winflash2002\atiwinflash -p 0 3870fanfix.bin -f

-p is for targeting the device to flash
0 (zero) is the device number
-f forces to flash despite the system id mismatch

[()nslaught]

I'm going to try this tonight...

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33912408

**edit: using the 3870fanfix.bin file from above and ati winflash utility I successfully applied the new BIOS :D.

First I uninstalled everything ATI related (no reboot needed, you'll need to reboot after flashing anyway). I copied the winflash2002 folder to someplace easy to navigate to (C:\winflash2002), copied the 3870fanfix.bin file to the winflash2002 folder, then from a command prompt ran the following command:

c:\winflash2002\atiwinflash -p 0 3870fanfix.bin -f

-p is for targeting the device to flash
0 (zero) is the device number
-f forces to flash despite the system id mismatch

Did you do this in Windows itself or did you have to boot up with the Windows CD to get the command prompt. If you can do this from Windows, I will probably do that same since I am tired of hitting F9 and F190 to slow down and speed up with Rivatuner!!

[Pinky]

Did you do this in Windows itself or did you have to boot up with the Windows CD to get the command prompt. If you can do this from Windows, I will probably do that same since I am tired of hitting F9 and F190 to slow down and speed up with Rivatuner!!

This was using winflash, a windows based flasher. You can't do the C:\... command as I typed it exactly. You'll need to navigate to the folder winflash is in, then run the atwinflash command from there. It can't find the bios bin file unless you're executing the flash utility from the same folder. Basically you need to cd.. cd.. a few times, then cd foldername until you're in the winflash2002 folder, then run the command: atiwinflash -p 0 3870fanfix.bin -f

I ended up going back to the stock bios. The flashed one had the fans running more often/faster, so it's intended for higher clocks. My memory will clock some more but my core only goes 10mhz before crashing the test. I'm just accepting that the card I have isn't a good oc'er. Apparently the new stock BIOS work fine for controlling the fans (previously an issue). If you want to try my bios you're welcome to it. PM me your email address.

[Mathis]

I know this thread is old, but flashing the bios on the visiontek is easy if you use the instructions from HouseRat in the 3870/50 sticky. I had never done it before and with the help of a floppy drive installed only for this purpose I had no trouble at all using atiflash utility. Command is "atiflash -f -p 0 filename", but make sure to save your old bios first with "atiflash -s 0 filename". Not taking the credit by any means for that, but it is really simple and straight forward.

On another note, flashing the BIOS for these cards has never been useful for me. They overheat/artifact more and the custom bios just doesn't give me the warm and fuzzy feeling on a day-to-day basis. Just my opinion.