BIOS Flashing

[Dawgdoc]

Somewhat silly questions here, but I really dont understand this yet...

What is the purpose of using Nibitor for flashing the GPU BIOS in general? I know what it does, but I think I am missing something.

The only benefit of actually flashing Nvidia 8800 BIOS as far as I can tell are:

1. Allows you to boot at whatever OCd clock settings you want.
2. Allows you to tighten your timings.

Other than tightening the timings, how is this different than using Rivatuner? Im pretty sure you can change the timings in Rivatuner as well but Im not personally aware of how to do it. At this point in time, I strictly use Rivatuner for my OC, and if its a 24/7 rig and not a bench rig I set Rivatuner to load at windows startup via registry key at my max stable settings.

Am I missing something? Is there some other benefit to flashing BIOS on a vid card that I am not understanding? Ive used Nibitor, played with the BIOS, but there didnt seem to be anything in there really that made me feel I needed to flash as compared to using Windows based programs.

Thanks for everyones input!

[Drinkyoghurt]

flashing your Bios will put less strain on your videocard as it boots your oc straight off the bat instead of overclocking everytime you get in windows, the same goes for mem timings.

On the 8800GT, you could even do a bios softmod, this will give you a oc boost of around 50-80mhz provided you use adequate cooling(which I bet you do ;) )

you can also put a custom message in your bootup so instead of it saying 8800GT 512MB blablabla you could make it say : Drinkyoghurt pwns.

:p

[Charr]

I flash my videocards, since it allows me to use them in other OSes aside from windows. Also allows for less overhead in Windows.

[jason4207]

As far as I know you have to flash to change the timings. I don't think you can do it form w/n Windows in real-time. Some cards let you change voltages through the BIOS as well, and some let you change the fan profile.

On the 8800GT/GTS-512 I just flash to get the extra 0.05v on the GT and/or tighten the timings on either card.

[Dawgdoc]

Hmmm......where can I learn more about GPU timings?

I was playing around with nibitor and the timings last night and it all looked greek to me :P

Timings were something like A42JO#@DSGJ. I found if I went into detailed timings I could get the real numbers, but after looking at them I realized I havnt a clue what acceptable GPU timings would be so I changed nothing.

Lets say I tighten them up too tight and I need to reflash to the original BIOS. If Ive mucked up the BIOS so badly how do I flash back to the original? I obviously allready have a stock BIOS file saved on a usb thumb drive for easy access should I need it.

Thx!

[PhysX]

you can do a blind flash, not so hard as long as you remember the steps, or just use another video card and flash it like thatl

[Shiggity]

How much risk is involved in bios flashing?

I want to do the 1.1V flash mod to my 8800GT, but I'm tapped out and have no replacement card so if something went wrong I'd be totally screwed.

[PhysX]

it either works or doesn't :)

[Shiggity]

it either works or doesn't :)

If the flash fails is the card just gone?

[Drinkyoghurt]

no, you could blind flash to the original bios, but whatever you do, do not turn off/restart your computer

[Shiggity]

no, you could blind flash to the original bios, but whatever you do, do not turn off/restart your computer

'blind' flash?

<---Never flashed anything before =D

[PhysX]

flashing your bios back to the original without having video :)

[Brolloks]

'blind' flash?

<---Never flashed anything before =D

Or you could use a cheap PCI vid card to boot up and then flash back to the original bios, always have a $15 PCI card in your collection, it is like carrying a pocket knife, never know when you gonna need it ;)

[Dawgdoc]

Ive never flashed a video card before.

Where can I read up on how to flash, how to perform a blind flash, etc....

Do I need a 2nd PCI video card? What if I have a spare PCIe one?

[Brolloks]

Ive never flashed a video card before.

Where can I read up on how to flash, how to perform a blind flash, etc....

Do I need a 2nd PCI video card? What if I have a spare PCIe one?


This is a pretty good start (LINK (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1633&page=3)) , you also need latest Nibitor (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/NVIDIA-BIOS-Editor.shtml)to read your card's bios and if you wnat to make any changes to bios, remember to save a copy of your original Bios and keep it safe on a disk.

If your flash goes wrong it is good to have a spare PCI card so you can boot up with the PCI card and flash back to the original PCI-e card's bios.

You can only use a 2nd PCI-e card is you have dual PCI-e lanes 'cause you'll need to keep the card with the defective card in it's PCI-e slot. Blind flashing is kinda risky but it can be done nonetheless.

Hope this helps :)

[jason4207]

There are instructions somewhere to make a recovery floppy that will do the blind flash for you. Just insert floppy, and turn on the power. I've never done it, though.

Flashing is intimidating at first, but once you do it once, it's a lot easier. As long as you just don't go crazy in Nibitor you should be fine. I haven't tested tighter than 1.4ns spec timings, but I think the cards boot up at much lower clocks, so if you did go too tight then I'm guessing you might still be able to boot and see video until you get to the desktop. If this is true then you'd still be able to see your POST, select floppy as boot device, and navigate DOS to do the flash.

To do a manual blind flash you just have to write down the steps. For me I press 'f8' to get to the boot selection menu, press 'enter' b/c floppy is top of the list, wait a minute or so for DOS to load, type 'nvflash [your original ROM name here].rom', wait a few seconds, press 'y', wait a minute or so, and then hit cntrl-alt-del.

[Brolloks]

There are instructions somewhere to make a recovery floppy that will do the blind flash for you. Just insert floppy, and turn on the power. I've never done it, though.

Flashing is intimidating at first, but once you do it once, it's a lot easier. As long as you just don't go crazy in Nibitor you should be fine. I haven't tested tighter than 1.4ns spec timings, but I think the cards boot up at much lower clocks, so if you did go too tight then I'm guessing you might still be able to boot and see video until you get to the desktop. If this is true then you'd still be able to see your POST, select floppy as boot device, and navigate DOS to do the flash.

To do a manual blind flash you just have to write down the steps. For me I press 'f8' to get to the boot selection menu, press 'enter' b/c floppy is top of the list, wait a minute or so for DOS to load, type 'nvflash [your original ROM name here].rom', wait a few seconds, press 'y', wait a minute or so, and then hit cntrl-alt-del.


Yeah you can probably do it blindfolded with all that modding those GT/GTS of yours....:)