2900 XT bios question

[mrhuggles]

i have a sapphire HD 2900 XT 1gb gddr4 with vivo, my only real problems with it are, the vivo crashes the computer in drivers above 7.5 [and 7.5 has weird aspect ratio problems] and i get a litte corruption in ragnarok online,

i noticed that on this page http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/index.php?page=1&architecture=ATI&manufacturer=Sapphire&model=2900+XT&interface=&memSize=1024
there are 2 bioses for that card that are different, i was wondering if anyone had experience with both of them and knew if there were any real differences, i have the newer one, was wondering if it would be safe to try the older one on my card

[mrhuggles]

i am wondering, even tho i have a sapphire card, would it be ok to flash other brands bios's on there? maybe, the bios from the ATI branded cards

[Fahim]

If your is a reference card, then you can flash it with other vendor's card. If you want, I still have the bios from both my Sapphire and HIS 2900 XT BIOS.

[AsRock]

i have a sapphire HD 2900 XT 1gb gddr4 with vivo, my only real problems with it are, the vivo crashes the computer in drivers above 7.5 [and 7.5 has weird aspect ratio problems] and i get a litte corruption in ragnarok online,

i noticed that on this page http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/index.php?page=1&architecture=ATI&manufacturer=Sapphire&model=2900+XT&interface=&memSize=1024
there are 2 bioses for that card that are different, i was wondering if anyone had experience with both of them and knew if there were any real differences, i have the newer one, was wondering if it would be safe to try the older one on my card

Why not just save your BIOS?. And tweek that one ?..

I used winflash2002 and RBE both available from TPU

WinFlash
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1019/Winflash_2.0.0.7.html

RBE
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1037/.html

Both of these programs are newer than the ones i used.

[mrhuggles]

well i have some issues with it that have nothing to do with clockings, like the VIVO [video in] crashing in drivers above 7.5 with sound enabled, or like with sound dissabled or useing the 7.5 drivers the screen is streched [the video in i mean]

i dont know what the cause of those problems is, but i was thinking it might be the bios version, since other people report no problems, i have no overheating or 3d problems really just that.

[AsRock]

well i have some issues with it that have nothing to do with clockings, like the VIVO [video in] crashing in drivers above 7.5 with sound enabled, or like with sound dissabled or useing the 7.5 drivers the screen is streched [the video in i mean]

i dont know what the cause of those problems is, but i was thinking it might be the bios version, since other people report no problems, i have no overheating or 3d problems really just that.

Opps sorry bad reply my bad.. Under a lot of stress lately.

Anyways you tried Driver Cleaner ?..

[mrhuggles]

i hear ya, re: stress

ive reinstalled the os freshly, countless times, its not a problem that can be solved with cleaning anything, altho its like, well the story goes, ATI knows about the problem, and ATI released a fix [something about their media player] so they will tell you to get an updated version of that, and itl fix the crashing problem, but then you download that and when you install it it does some things and then exists out of the installer, they know about that too!!!! they say that it happens when you are useing a third party card, instid of a built by ati card, and they said they arnt going to fix that, ever... they even say that, no updated versions of that program or something like that, anyhow... hmm i should grab some links to all that stuff later and post them here, so anyways, well the thing is, my card has the bios settings set to built by ati anyways blah, so im thinking maybe if nothing else, a different bios version or something? kinda clueless, at this point ive almost completely written off any hope of working video in [svideo/composite] it would be awesome to watch tv on my desktop but meh [note: wow it happens in xp and vista both lol]

also: it works if the audio drivers are completely uninstalled [which is why i originaly thought it was a conflict with my onboard audio] im kind of exausted on things to try. im not even listing 10% of the things ive tried here, not much point, ive been on google for half a year trying to fix it :P

[AsRock]

which vivo version you using ?.. let me try it on my 2900. Just to see if it crashes

[mrhuggles]

i dont understand a vivo version, from what i read vivo just stands for "video in video out" i am unaware of a program, but if there is a program, i do not have it, i had just been useing other programs like, media player classic, or like MSN messenger can try to use it as a webcam :P i have tried quite a few programs, they crash if the audio drivers are installed :? i wonder if it could be a conflict

[AsRock]

Ahh ok, thought there might be a VIVO Player as i am sure there is one called that.. I find K-Lite good which is were you got Media Classic from ?.

[mrhuggles]

i use the one that comes with CCCP [comunity codec something pack or something]

[AsRock]

Well i have all ways used k Lite and BS Player which i believe is adware based now but old version does what i need.

[mrhuggles]

maybe its becuase i have one of the 2900 XT cards with 1gb of gddr4

[mrhuggles]

well, i went ahead and tried other bioses and that didnt help at all,.... i guess maybe it is infact cuz i have a gddr4 version or something weird like that :(

[AsRock]

Any chance of some pics ?..

[mrhuggles]

pics of my computer having haulted?

i moved to vista, so my ragnarok online problems are gone [better drivers in vista] and i tried useing other bioses for other cards, that didnt work, im not seeing anyone with a gddr4 version saying their video in doesnt crash their computer, and the only other person i saw with one said that it was crashing his computer, so i am left to assume that there is a good chance that the gddr4 versions crash when vivo is used?, by crash i mean full crash, altho since i moved to vista, after the compute reboots it gives some kind of memory dump [xp haulted no chance of a dump] altho the dump doesnt really help me at all. i would paste it here but i doubt anyone here could make any sense of it anyways?

[AsRock]

pics of my computer having haulted?

No the corruption you seeing on screen.

[mrhuggles]

sorry i cant anymore, im not in XP anymore, but i can tell you it was just little black squares [or transparent would really be how to describe that] ive seen other ppl with the exact same problem, and on a 2600 XT, so that doesnt suprize me, i think that all of the 2x00 series cards have that same problem, atleast in ragnarok online, no big deal, moving to vista fixes it.

[CrackerJack]

sorry i cant anymore, im not in XP anymore, but i can tell you it was just little black squares [or transparent would really be how to describe that] ive seen other ppl with the exact same problem, and on a 2600 XT, so that doesnt suprize me, i think that all of the 2x00 series cards have that same problem, atleast in ragnarok online, no big deal, moving to vista fixes it.

you are right, but theres one other thing too. This might br just be my card 2900gt. In vista x64 i can only run at 2d clocks. Vista x32, Win XP and Win XP x64 runs both like it should. The only way i can get both clocks to work in vista x64 is to use the default drivers. odd, yes i know. And another thing to I can do 850/1200 in vista x64 and x32, but with XP x32 and 64 i can't. Won't boot-up. The highest i can do in XP is 800/1000 stable.

[AsRock]

sorry i cant anymore, im not in XP anymore, but i can tell you it was just little black squares [or transparent would really be how to describe that] ive seen other ppl with the exact same problem, and on a 2600 XT, so that doesnt suprize me, i think that all of the 2x00 series cards have that same problem, atleast in ragnarok online, no big deal, moving to vista fixes it.

Ahh You get these on the desktop ? and you wipe them away right by opening another window ?..


If so i had these about 3 months just started appearing. Don't think it's the drivers due to you getting them on LATER versions.

I changed my PSU soon after and resited the v card and i realized later that they were all gone. If my 7900GT was a thicker PCB so all pins were not connecting right i don't know but it's NEVER done it on this computer which has never had my 7900GT in it.

Maybe try getting the v card to sit different in the slot like when you put the card in lift the card up a little ( be carefull ) and tighten the screw. Was either that or the better PSU that fixed mine.

[mrhuggles]

dont worry about graphical corruption in ragnarok online in winxp [not vista] its a known confermed documented problem with the drivers in xp being a little buggy, its just that little squares in the textures get turned transparent so you see the black background in the game. and it happens in ALL 2900 and 2600 series cards in windows xp, its only due to crappyness of the drivers.

btw, a 2900 GT getting 800/1000 ? wow my 2900 XT only defaults to like, 743/999

im sorry man i shouldnt be so rude, its just that people always make strong assumptions about it, and its a 100% confermed and documented bug, i have been hopeing they would fix it for a really long time cuz i like winxp, but i just gave up and moved to vista, i couldnt wait any longer, atleast its not as bad as it was earlier in the drivers, well the thing is ragnarok online is sensitive to crappy drivers prolly cuz the oldschool sorta not such a good idea style of codeing, plus my only real problems with it are only with the video in really. like everything else, especialy in vista, is absolutely perfect, it scores good in benchmarks, and it has zero across the board graphical odditys i only spoke up about the bug incase anyone had figured anything out about how to fix it

[CrackerJack]

dont worry about graphical corruption in ragnarok online in winxp [not vista] its a known confermed documented problem with the drivers in xp being a little buggy, its just that little squares in the textures get turned transparent so you see the black background in the game. and it happens in ALL 2900 and 2600 series cards in windows xp, its only due to crappyness of the drivers.

btw, a 2900 GT getting 800/1000 ? wow my 2900 XT only defaults to like, 743/999

im sorry man i shouldnt be so rude, its just that people always make strong assumptions about it, and its a 100% confermed and documented bug, i have been hopeing they would fix it for a really long time cuz i like winxp, but i just gave up and moved to vista, i couldnt wait any longer, atleast its not as bad as it was earlier in the drivers, well the thing is ragnarok online is sensitive to crappy drivers prolly cuz the oldschool sorta not such a good idea style of codeing, plus my only real problems with it are only with the video in really. like everything else, especialy in vista, is absolutely perfect, it scores good in benchmarks, and it has zero across the board graphical odditys i only spoke up about the bug incase anyone had figured anything out about how to fix it


the only thing i like about xp is the driver can handle crossfire and more the 4gb of ram. Vista doesn't!!! Just because there not offical crossfire drivers out yet for 2900gt. There for, for me to use crossfire i have to take out 2gb. If I want to benchmark 3dmark01-06. Now vantage is a different story. I have to install the hotfix. Do that cause me to loose my crossfire. Which makes my score suck even more. :o I know the 2900gt can do better in benchmark. It's not always the card that's slow, IT'S THE STUPID DRIVERS. I agree with 100% ATI drivers are not the best. :banghead:

2900gt
800/1000 1.2v XP x64 72c
850/1100 1.2v Vista x64 55c
800/1200 1.2v Vista x64 Benchmark :D 62c

Windows will not start with the clocks speeds higher than 800/1000. That's totally a driver issue. An my temps are more off.

[AsRock]

2900gt
800/1000 1.2v XP x64 72c
850/1100 1.2v Vista x64 55c
800/1200 1.2v Vista x64 Benchmark :D 62c

Windows will not start with the clocks speeds higher than 800/1000. That's totally a driver issue. An my temps are more off.

Maybe it's only with the 1GB ones as mine boots just fine

[mrhuggles]

i think there are alot of disfunctional things about the 1gb cards.