A warning to video card BIOS flashers! If your thinking about doing it, dont!!!

[Organik]

Call it BIOS flashing or firmware updating, but I fell for it and now I suffer and must tell you my situation so you don't fall in the same hole as me. If anyone has a resolve for my situation that would be a miracle.

Anyhow my video card fan was spinning at 43 percent and it was sorta annoying. But I couldn't go any lower. Soo I read I can go lower with a EVGA bios flash. So I flashed it in windows and all was good. RIght after doing this I went o Precision software and it wouldnt load,, it just wouldnt come up,, after about a 1minute it popped up and the app was visible. I knew right there the flash I did caused this. Then next thing you know my monitor is going black,, while music is still playing,, then crashes. It will just go black in idle and you cant do anything. Its done with then it crashes the OS with it. The small majority that update BIOS dont do it. ALso the biggest problem is now when I game my temp goes to 80c in 20 seconds and stays there,, while I play,, doesnt go below if any, and sometimes goes to 82c... This is with any percentage of GPU usage. Wheter 30 percent or 80 percent in game. If anyone is considering updating their video card BIOS, please don't do it, It's not worth it. Thank you

 

[Alaric]

I reflash my card with a Limited Edition BIOS from Galax for benching. While not completely risk free, I've never had a problem. It lets me hit 2265 MHz with my 1070.

 

[Organik]

Really. Well lucky you man. Cuz as I soon as I flashed the BIOS the sh*T hit the fan. I tried doing dual bios same issue,, then another weird issue.. When I go to UT pre alpha to setup a game, when I click on the menu for Custom ,,,,,, it pauses and takes a few short couple seconds to load, the other options work instantly and fast, weird. Im lgad you had no problems Alaric, but ya maybe it's EVGA's fault and yours is basically better.

I wish someone could give me some modded BIOS because all Ive used is ones from techspot powerup archive. But I also tried another one forget it was some modded bios. I don't know but all I know is when yoru game goes to 80c in a matter of 20 seconds with 60 percent GPU usage and fan spinning 100 percent,,.. Now I lose my C1E states or else I get the blank screen crash.. sux, I need a new video card,, maybe a 2080Ti , oh but I would have to sell a liver for that

Unless I buy it and never upgrade video card the rest of my life lol

 

[wagex]

depends what you are doing and making sure you have the proper bios for your card and knowing what you are doing. some cards have dual bios just for flashing overclocking bios onto them flip the switch and it reverts back to the original bios and you can go back and reflash the old one. i had to flash the factory bios on my 280x to get the thing stable and quit crashing . should have sent it back but never did feel like it. also flashed the bios on my 6950 to a 6970 the one time i had something go wrong i was able to flash them back from a bootable usb and windows nt.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Have flashed many a new GPU BIOS. Both nVidia and AMD cards, never had any issues.

 

[Johan45]

Same here I have more cards at home with modified BIOS than stock. I have even cross-flashed motherboards. The key, as has been mentioned, is research and a baseline knowledge of what you are doing. My 1080Ti lasted about 10 minutes out of the package before it got a new no-limits BIOS. That's what we do here we're overclockers.
Sucks that you had a bad experience but that doesn't mean that everyone does. That's where "Flash at your own risk!" comes from. The burden is on you if it goes amok.

 

[Blaylock]

I used to modify my own GPU BIOS' and flash them back when I was mining. If you know what you're doing it's semi safe. I say semi because any BIOS flash GPU or otherwise runs an inherent risk of borking the unit.

With that said have you flashed back to the original BIOS? (I hope you kept a copy of the original). Are your temp spikes a reflection of your fans being too low now? Is this modded BIOS overclocked with a voltage increase? Naturally you will experience higher temps with overclocks.

 

[EarthDog]

There are risks with flashing anything. That said, perhaps that is sage advice for most, however, this is OCF...we arent most.

But appreciate you again sharing your story.
https://www.overclockers.com/forums...aded-the-firmware-my-screen-goes-blank-Solved

 

[Dolk]

Card can always be recovered in safe mode, but just as long as its not a hard fault (like erased BIOS chip or something).

 

[JLK03F150]

Rule ONE for flashing a video BIOS is to first save a copy of the original. Then if things go bad, which obviously can happen, you can load the original back into the card. That rule saved me a few times back in the AGP & early PCIe days.

Rule TWO is to always have have a second card on hand when flashing BIOS. Ever tried to blind flash a video card? Not fun.

 

[Blaylock]

+1

^ This man knows a thing or two, because he's seen a thing or two. #Farmers

 

[Organik]

I have Dual Bios,, I switched it and still video card behaved the same, so then I flashed that,, and still same,, so both are flashed. Im using techpowerup database of my exact card. The temp flying to 81c and how C states have to be disabled blows,, Im using extra 25 to 30 watts now since I turned off C1 ,, and ya I got the temp issue and slow menus on certain things in game. Flys to 80c without even playing for 20 seconds, and gpu usage at 60 percent.. but good thing is it stays at 80c ,, it doesn't go further up which would mean disaster.

 

[Dolk]

Ahh! Dual BIOS, this is the best thing you can have Organik!

Alright so its super easy to recover from something like this. Boot up in the working BIOS than while in windows, switch to the bad BIOS. Nothing will happen because a BIOS chip is only read during the initial bootup. Your system never talks or works with it soon after. Its literally used in the first 500ms of your bootup process and thats it.

So with the BIOS switched the bad one, flash it than reboot. Should work just fine after this. Best to do this in safemode if you can, else you should still be fine.

 

[Woomack]

I guess that BIOS flashing is safe as long as you know what are you doing

 

[Lochekey]

What program are you using to flash with?

Have you tried getting stock bios copy from the manufacturer directly?

If you are trying to flash your gpu run your entire system at stock and make sure you are in safe mode as others have suggested or disable any software that can interact with the system or gpu such as precision x, afterburner, etc.

Oh and what gpu are we talking about? Is this on your GTX 760? If so what is the exact model? I know they made a GTX 760 FTW but I never heard of an ACX version of the 760.

 

[Johan45]

I have Dual Bios,, I switched it and still video card behaved the same, so then I flashed that,, and still same,, so both are flashed.

Ahh! Dual BIOS, this is the best thing you can have Organik!

Not anymore. Both are trashed with the same messed up BIOS file

 

[deathman20]

Bios flashing is relatively safe like everyone mentioned as long as you know what your doing. You just have to be cautious with it is all. I've flashed many video card bios's back in the day, both AMD and Nvidia cards. Even made a few general gaming cards into professional cards via bios flash. Though while now editing the bios is a different story. AMD's I still think you can edit with ease at not screwing things up but Nvidia bios's are a special bread and few people actually edit them for their custom settings.

As said though having dual bios is wonderful. I love having the function on motherboards now, as I've done a few bad flashes in the past and had to get new chips. Though with video cards even with a bad flash, if you have another GPU around typically you can use that to boot so you can flash the bad card back to life.

From the sounds of it, you not only flashed both bios's but both with the same file which sadly is not cool. If there is 2 or 3 bios's on the chip, #1 or the factory default when it came to you is always the original and never touch it. Actually if I flash anything I backup the bios I'm flashing too, or even the whole card just to be safe. I'd try to see if you can find the original bios for the card, either via the vendors website or some other sites out there that modify bios's as they seem to have an assortment of cards bios's on hand which might help your situation.

Either way lesson learned, we've all had a screw up here or there at one point in time with tweaking our builds.

 

[Evilsizer]

even if said video card is bricked by a bad flash, you can fix this by have a backup video card plugged in. as in the two are not the same card so that when in DOS/CMD ect you can make sure the right card is being flashed with a good known or original card bios backup. just me personally never bios flash with your computer overclocked to make sure you eliminate possible problems when flashing. depending on your board, keep a cheap/old PCI video card or PCIE card to plug in. just to state the obvious plug in the monitor to the backup card so you can see what your doing.

 

[Alaric]

TechPowerUp is one place to start. https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/