Geforce 2 ultra bios flashing?

Today is the first Iveheard about it. I know my card is on very outdated bios, becuase it was bought when the ultras practicly just came out. I went to a bios flashing file sectionof some page, and was completly lost! What tweak flashing utility do you recomend? The site had to many! also what bios version perfomes best, the newest ones? My 3dmark2k1 scores have always seemed poor I am hoping that a bios flash might help it become closer to par with the other ultras

I would suggest reading all the tutorials on BIOS flashing and dumping, BIOS modding, using VGABIOS (before actually trying to flash your card with an Nvidia reference BIOS) etc...basically familiarize yourself with as much info as possible before actually attempting to flash (one mistake and your card can become UNUSABLE).

Zoiah has put together tutorials regarding all the above, at his site...I would definitely give them a read.

Zoiah's site @ M3dzone

P.S.
What is the brand of your GeForce2 Ultra?
Before flashing with a reference BIOS, you might want to check the manufacturer's site and see if they have an updated BIOS available for your board.

Its a visiontek with TV out, and I will go check out the site, thanks.

No bios on the visiontek site, just the regular 12.41 whql drivers. I am a little lost at to what bios version to use. If I have a geforce 2 ultra, which is basically a pimped out GTS, I could use the geforce 2 GTS drivers right? Just change the memory and core timings? Also sounds like VGABIOS is the bios flashing utility most pople are using. So unless you guys tell me something I will flash using VGABIOS to version NV20, thanks.

Here are a bunch of bioses and a very good flash utility I have been using. If you remember the steps taken to flash the card you can do even do it with no video. This is very good if you goof up the bios.

The Stuff

If the link doesn't work copy it to your browser. If it doesn't work then I can email it to you.

Check out this page...

The *.rom file you're going to need is probably one of these three, depending on what TV decoder your card uses (the ul in the below files stands for ultra)...

g2ulbt.rom........for Brooktree decoders
g2ulch.rom........for Chrontel decoders
g2ulph.rom........for Phillips decoders

Remember to use "dumpbios" first to save your existing BIOS image to disk, should you have to recover it later.

Get Vgabios.exe, the dos loader, and nvflash.exe from M3dzone. Choose and download the above bios' to test if you are unsure which one is right.

Copy Vgabios, the dos loader, the *.rom files (or file) and nvflash to a bootable floppy disk.

Reboot to drive A:

Using vgabios.exe to test a bios:

Type:
vgabios -fname of bios.rom

Example: vgabios -fg2ulbt.rom

Test each bios until you find one that does not corrupt the text in dos. If the screen becomes corrupted, no problem, just reboot and the on chip bios will take over again.

When you find a good bios, use nvflash.exe to write the bios into the physical bios chip. Make absolutely sure you have tested it first. If the power goes out during flashing, it will hose the video card (corrupt the program on the physical bios chip). This will make the card unusable. Proceed at your own risk.

Using nvflash.exe to flash your bios:

Type:

nvflash -fname of bios.rom

Example:

nvflash -fg2ulbt.rom

Be careful and always test first with vgabios.exe

Is there any real purpose to update my video bios? Any new features/fixes?

I'll probably end up doing it, I just want to know if there is an advantage to it.

Well its just that I have a real kick *** system and I am getting 4000 in 3dmark2k1, I should be geting 6k plus. Ive done everything but updating the bios. Updating the mobo bios actually got me some extra points to I think. Plus I know for sure my bios are way outdated, like the bios from when they first came out, and so I tink it might help my score.

Big thanks to redduc for the very thorigh explanation!!! Bender thanks for the link also! Great stuff I should be back in 30 min or so I am guessing and hopefully on some better bios!!

Ok I can not get nvflash to work so I am going to go over what I did step by step maybe someobody can tell me what I did wrong. Ok I downloaded dos version 7.X from bootdisk.com and wrote the dos boatable flopy. I downloaded the 3 roms, vgabios.zip and nvflash.zip. I then extracted the nvflash.exe and the cgabios.exe to the floppy, and I put the .roms on the floppy as well. Backed up my old bios with biosdump and rebooted. I get to the a prompt, and I test the first bios, eww wierd lines. I test the second bios, beutiful,everything looking good. Just to be sure I test the third bios, and got the same lines, so I now know that the Chrontel decoder is for me. Ok so now I type

nvflash -fg2ulbt.rom

and it gives me this error msg (it didnt copy anything and the card is fine, but it just didnt load the bios). tried again and did the same thing. I get this error msg saying

Stub exec Failed:
dos4gw.exe
No such file or directory

Now this is where I am lost. Why is it doing this, do I need to use a different version of dos? Perhaps version 4? Would a windows 98 floppy be ok? I dont want to screw this up so I am not going to try expiermenting with different versions of dos unless you guys tell me to. Let me know where I went wrong please!

You said that the Chrontel *.rom file (g2ulch.rom) was the one that worked without causing screen degradation...in your post you mention that you tried flashing with "g2ulbt.rom" (which is the Brooktree *.rom). Make sure you flash with the correct type *.rom (using nvflash).

The files you need to have on the disk (or in a folder of your choice within Windows...preferably "vbios" (without the quotes), are...

dos4gw.exe......the DOS loader
g2ulbt.rom
g2ulch.rom
g2ulph.rom
nvflash.exe
vgabios.exe

If you install the files to the folder "vbios", cd to that folder from the prompt and run the vgabios and nvflash programs from there.

One other thing...after flashing with an Nvidia BIOS, you can only use the Nvidia reference drivers. You won't be able to use the manufacturer's drivers anymore. After a successful flash, check your display properties in Windows for the new BIOS version.

Thanks again for the information again!!! Also is it ok that I have all the files in just the a:\ or do I need them in the folder like you said "vbios" becuase when I did it it was all in just the root directory.

You can have all the files on your boot disk, or if you prefer...in a seperate folder (I always call the folder "vbios", you can call it whatever you like). I like to have the files in their own folder with a short filename.

Ok the dirty work is done and the bios have flashed successfully! The bad news is there is hardly any difference, about 50points higher in 3dmark2k1. My bug with the 12.90 drivers not having tweaking options is still there as well I am seriusly runing out of ideas as to why my ultra is 2000 points under the average on 3dmark2k1. I am still scoring barly above 4k, and the average is well over 6k. If someone could shed some light here it would be really apreciated, I really want to get my ultra performing the way that it should! I have tried many drivers, and also made sure to uninstall the old ones right, and that alone got me a few hundred free 3dmark2k1 points. I flashed the motherboards bios. Installed via 4in1 drivers. Flashed the video cards bios. Tweaked the card... even overclocked but it didnt gain much noticable difference. Tweaked the mobo bios. Is there anything else that somone can do? I am out of ideas! Here is my setup!

Epox 8kha mobo
amd 1.4ghz athlon
geforce 2 ultra
2 256mb pc2100 micron ddr, runing at fastest setings mobo will allow, the ram scores 630/850 in sisoft sandra not overclocked, overclocked it gets 650/911 at 150mhz fsb.
IBM Deskstar 75gxp 30gb harddrive.... 36mb sec transfer rates, its one of the fastest ide harddrives out there, except the 60gxp
Cheap creative labs 52x cd-rom
Cheap sound blaster pc128 soundcard... (soon gunna be replaced by a turtle beach santa cruz)
Dlink network card

My system is pretty top of the line except the cheap soundcard, and so I can not figure out why it isnt performing like it for the life of me. Please give me sme sugestions. Also would it mater that my geforce 2 ultra is one of the like originals when they first came out? Slower access ram posibly? Visiontek says its 4ns on there site, and i upgraded the bios to a newer reference one, but still low scores. Also big thanks to rudduc900 for all the help!

What OS are you using? And what do you mean the average is over 6000 points? The highest I found was 5325

I MUST OF BEEN TRIPING !!! The avg score is 4300 LOL! Man I am only 250 points off then, not 2500!! HAHAHA!!!! Oh boy this makes me day!!! !!! !!!!!

I'm glad it worked for you.

I'm not sure what drivers you're using, but I would suggest the 12.90's (non WQHL). They work awesome with the Nvidia reference BIOS and a GeForce2, at least for me.

BTW...What BIOS version did you flash to?