Guide to Video BIOS flashing

[W1zzard]

Introduction

The video is BIOS is a small piece of code (typically <64 KB), which is stored inside a small chip on your video card. When the VGA card receives power, the BIOS is loaded into system memory and immediately executed by the CPU.

On startup, the BIOS initializes the video card:

• Initialize the GPU
• Detect number of memory chips, chip size, access mode
• Enable memory access and set proper timings
• Detect if external devices (analog VGA, DVI, TV-out) are connected and enable them
• Set core and memory clock
• Enable power management
• Set fan speed (if supported by the board)

After these tasks are completed, the display will turn on and display what's happening next - usually the motherboard's POST screen.

Once you boot into Windows, the display driver takes over all video functions and the BIOS is no longer used. However, it remains accessible for execution. Actually, manufacturers like ATI added a handful of functions which can be invoked from within Windows, for example to change power management settings on a mobile GPU.

Why flash the BIOS?

Originally, the video BIOS was stored in a ROM (Read Only Memory) and could not be replaced. Nowadays it is located in a flash memory chip (that's why it's called 'flashing').
The reason for this move was that like every other piece of software, the BIOS had programming errors, or an issue was detected in the hardware for which a workaround had to be found. So the manufacturers just gave out an updated BIOS to a customer to fix the issue.

The more interesting use is to mod cards. For example, on the X800 Pro VIVO you can unlock additional pipelines by changing the BIOS. How so? Inside the BIOS is a small block of information which tells the GPU how many pipelines it should run at. If you replace the original BIOS with a BIOS which tells the GPU "16 Pipelines!" .. well, then you are running 16 pipelines.

Another good use is to change the default clocks of the card. As you remember from above, the BIOS sets the core and memory clock. On the last page of this article we will cover the different BIOS editors and their use.

Sometimes a new BIOS increases performance as well. However, my personal experience is that this difference is rather small. However, if you do upgrade your video BIOS for this reason, make sure you run benchmarks before and after.

Required Tools

You will need the BIOS which you want to flash on the card. A good place to search is our ATI BIOS Collection.

Next, you will need a flashing utility. A list of ATI flashing utilities can be found at the end of the ATI BIOS page.

[todo: add table with utils here]

How to boot into DOS

BIOS flashing is a very low-level process. A complex operating system like Windows only interferes with this. The hardware abstraction layer of Windows does not allow direct access to the hardware, except for system drivers. Also multitasking poses a risk. During flashing the BIOS chip wants a new piece of data every certain timeframe. What if Windows now switches execution to another process and puts your flashing on-hold? *poof* BIOS code inside flash is bad. If this is not detected, your card will be unusable. Even worse, what if Windows crashes during flashing? Good luck trying a reboot with only 50% of BIOS code.

Video card manufacturers have recently released Windows utilities which can flash from within Windows. Still, the more reliable method to flash a BIOS by booting into DOS.

The most common ways to boot into DOS are (in no particular order):

• Floppy
• CD/DVD
• USB stick
• HDD Partition with DOS installed
• bypass startup files on Windows 9x

Making a bootable floppy

On Windows XP and up this is very easy.

• Insert floppy into floppy drive
• Open My Computer
• Right click on floppy drive
• Select "Format..."
• Put a checkmark to "Create an MS-DOS startup disk"
• Click on "Start"

Alternative
If you have an older version of Windows you can download the bootable floppy image XP creates here. Use WinImage to copy it on your disk.

• Download and install WinImage
• Open the downloaded floppy.ima file
• Insert floppy into floppy drive
• Click on "Write Disk". When using a brand-new floppy, click "Format and write disk".

Now that you have a bootable floppy, you will have to put the appropriate flashing utility and the BIOS on the disk. You do this by just copying the files onto the floppy.

Booting from the floppy

On many systems the default boot order does not check the floppy drives. To enable this, you go into your motherboard BIOS and find an option "First boot device" or similar. Change it to "Floppy", exit and save. Now the system should boot from your floppy.

Making a bootable CD/DVD

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...+a+bootable+cd

Booting from the CD/DVD

On many systems the default boot order does not check the CD-ROM. To enable this, you go into your motherboard BIOS and find an option "First boot device" or similar. Change it to "CDROM", exit and save. Now the system should boot from your floppy.



If you have a SCSI drive, you will have to enable the adapter's own BIOS (option ist often called 'enable host bios') and also select the drive as Bootup LUN.

Now you have to select 'Boot Other' / 'Add-in PCI' / 'SCSI' or similar in your motherboard BIOS.

Making a bootable USB stick

The easiest way is to use the HP USB Stick format tool. It will work with any USB stick from any manufacturer.

Use the settings "FAT" and "Create a DOS startup disk":


Extract this ZIP file and point the "using system files" location to it.

When the format is complete copy all files from that ZIP file onto the USB stick.

Additionally you need your flashing tools, just copy them onto the USB stick as well.

Booting from the USB stick

To actually boot from the USB stick you have to tell your motherboard BIOS to use it.
In your BIOS you will find an option which controls in which order boot devices are tried, or which lets you select what to try 1st, 2nd, 3rd.

We created our USB stick in HDD mode, that's why you have to select Hard Disk for the device and make sure it tries your USB "Harddisk" before your regular HDD (look for "Hard Disk Boot Priority").


On some strange motherboards the USB stick is detected as floppy so if the Hard Disk setting does not work, try the other USB- settings and ultimately try disconnecting your HDD and selecting 'Hard Disk' as first boot device.

Making a bootable DOS partition

If you plan on regularly flashing Bioses, it is a good idea to create a new HDD partition with DOS on it. The advantage is that you have more storage available, that the boot times are considerably faster and that you do not have to start searching for your floppy/CD/USB stick every time you need it.

Harddisks are split up in so called partitions, which create logical disk drives with their assigned letters. Even if you have only one C: drive, you have one big partition spanning over the whole harddisk. Unfortunately, there is no standard way to make an existing partition smaller, to accomodate space for a new partition. However, 3rd party utilities like Partition Magic or BootIt NG can do it.

In order to create a new partition you must have unallocated space of the size for the new partition.

To create a new partition, either go to Disk Management (Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management) in Windows or use the fdisk utility under DOS.



The new partition has to be created as primary, a good size is 32-64 MB. Next, you format the disk with the FAT filesystem (do not use NTFS).

Once you got the partition created and formatted, you somehow have to get the system files onto it.

[add text here how to get an operating system on the partition]

Booting from the Partition

Now with your bootable partition ready, you probably want it listed in the Windows 2000/XP boot menu. You do this by using a Windows command-line tool called BootPart.

Run it without any arguments and it will display a list of partitions on your system:



Find the right partition number in the output, in our case 2. Add it to the boot menu by typing:
bootpart partition_number image_filename displayed_name_in_bootmenu

The image filename is a file in which bootpart stores the bootsector of the partition. I like to use C:\boot.dos. So for our example we would type:
bootpart 2 c:\boot.dos DOS



I find the boot menu's default delay of 30 seconds annoying for day to day usage. That's why I set the timeout to 1 or 2 seconds (System Properties -> Advanced -> Startup & Recovery -> Settings -> Time to display the list of operating systems).
Whenever I need to boot into DOS, I press the down cursor key quickly before the boot menu comes up. Now the cursor moves down one option and the timout is stopped, so the menu is shown and I can select whatever I want to boot.

Bypassing startup files on Windows 9x

You have to press Shift+F5 when Windows is starting. The best moment to do this is when the "Verifying DMI data" message appears, right before the Windows startup screen is displayed.



This hotkey works on all versions of Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME. It does not work on Windows NT, XP and up.

ATI: DOS

These instructions apply to both atiflash and flashrom, command-line syntax is the same. When using flashrom replace "atiflash" by "flashrom".

• Download the BIOS file (ATI BIOS collection here) and put it on a bootable floppy/usb stick/CD. Check www.bootdisk.com on how to get a boot disk.
  The ATI BIOS collection has a new feature which serves you a bootable floppy image or bootable iso CD image with the BIOS you want on it. Click on "Advanced" when in the BIOS list.
  
• Download an ATI flashing utility and put it on this disk too.
  
  
• Reboot your computer with the boot disk and run atiflash -s 0 oldbios.bin to save your old BIOS just in case you might need it at a later time.
• Now run atiflash -p 0 newbios.bin Replace newbios.bin with the filename of the downloaded BIOS file.
• If you are trying to flash a BIOS for a different card then you will get a security warning that the BIOS does not match your card. If you are absolutely sure that the BIOS is compatible you can use the -f parameter to force flashing. For example atiflash -f -p 0 BIOS.bin
• Reboot your computer
• Done

ATI: Windows

To flash your BIOS from within Windows you have to use the ATI Winflash Utility, find it in our downloads section.


The interface is pretty straightforward - load the BIOS image, click on program. Done.

Try closing as many programs as possible before the flash. It wouldn't be too good for your video card if your MP3 playing software messed up something with the sound card driver which displays a bluescreen and then halts the whole system.

NVIDIA: DOS

• Download the BIOS file and put it on a boot disk. Check www.bootdisk.com on how to get a boot disk.
• Download nvflash (v4.41) and put it on this disk too.
• Reboot your computer with the start diskette and run nvflash -b oldbios.bin to save your old BIOS just in case you might need it at a later time.
• Now run nvflash -f newbios.bin Replace newbios.bin with the filename of the downloaded BIOS file.
  
  
• If you are trying to flash a BIOS for a different card then you will get a security warning that the BIOS does not match your card. If you are absolutely sure that the BIOS is compatible you can use the -p and -u parameters to force flashing. For example nvflash -p -u -f BIOS.bin
• Reboot your computer
• Done

NVIDIA: Windows

WinFox

Recovering from a bad flash

Use an old PCI card to boot your system while your AGP card with the corrupted BIOS is still installed. Your system should initialize the PCI card first. If this does not happen, remove the AGP card and turn the computer on with only the PCI card, go to your BIOS Setup and change the "Init Display First" option to "PCI". Now reinstall the AGP card. Your system should boot normally with the PCI card as primary display adapter. You can now re-flash the corrupted BIOS or use another one. Make sure you are flashing the right card by using the -i (ati) or -a (nvidia) command line option.

BIOS Editors

Does this program can flash from windows, is it reliable program? Because i would not like to experiment with this programs. is it matter what kind of system (ntsc, pal...) i use and how do i know what type my card support? I have asus radeon 9600se.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Does this program can flash from windows, is it reliable program? Because i would not like to experiment with this programs. is it matter what kind of system (ntsc, pal...) i use and how do i know what type my card support? I have asus radeon 9600se.

Use ati winflash to flash from windows

hi guys, i am gonna buy a x800 pro powercolor vivo next week. do u recommend this brand?
should i use the x800 xt pe bios from powercolor for this card, or the saphire x800xt pe bios for better overclockability?

ur help is appreciated.

Andy

[Aguiar]

hi! i´ve tryed it like WIZZARD explains , put Atiflash utl 1.6 and the downloaded ...Hynix.2.8.bin in a diskette , and get the message on reboot as follows:
Rem disc/another support
Press key to reiniciate
and after pressed all Keyboard keys , displays allways the same...Frown
Please any help is wellcome...Thanks in advance.

[Urlyin]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

hi guys, i am gonna buy a x800 pro powercolor vivo next week. do u recommend this brand?
should i use the x800 xt pe bios from powercolor for this card, or the saphire x800xt pe bios for better overclockability?

ur help is appreciated.

Andy

Andy... I don't think you can say any one BIOS works better than another. I believe it's more card specific as to what BIOS works best. Some people say Sapphire others say Connect3D while I use the ATI (early version) BIOS which works and benches best for my card. So you may need to try several to find the right match ...

[Urlyin]

Originally Posted by Aguiar

hi! i´ve tryed it like WIZZARD explains , put Atiflash utl 1.6 and the downloaded ...Hynix.2.8.bin in a diskette , and get the message on reboot as follows:
Rem disc/another support
Press key to reiniciate
and after pressed all Keyboard keys , displays allways the same...Frown
Please any help is wellcome...Thanks in advance.

Aguiar... what boot method did you select under advanced? A simple way to do it is to create a bootable disk. Place the Bios and flashrom files on the disk. Boot and run the flashrom tool from the a: prompt

[Aguiar]

Urlyin Thanks ... but i´m really messed up with the boot metod.I´ve followed the "www.bootdisk.com" link and came up with crossed eyes,"...need 6 blank disk..." my god must be mistaken everithing.Meanwhile go search more info.

[Urlyin]

Originally Posted by Aguiar

Urlyin Thanks ... but i´m really messed up with the boot metod.I´ve followed the "www.bootdisk.com" link and came up with crossed eyes,"...need 6 blank disk..." my god must be mistaken everithing.Meanwhile go search more info.

If you're running XP just put a blank disk in the floppy drive select My Computer. right click on the A: drive and select Format, in format there is a selection to create a bootable disk. Create the disk and copy the flashrom files and the Bios file you plan to use. Rename the BIOS file to 8 characters with the same file extention of .bin and then you should be ready to boot from the floppy...
At the a: prompt type flashrom -f -p 0 biosname.bin ( that's a zero not the letter O )

good luck

[Aguiar]

Urlyin many thanks...Man i run yours precious instructions,everything cool until i receive this $#")?(/ message...
SERIAL ROM
"newbios.bin" file open error (newbios.bin is the name i gave to new bios to flash)
ERROR 0FL01 : press ´1´to continue
I´ve noticed that when i download the file it became a "AVG file update" and not a .bin,
could that be the problem.If it is i don´t know what program of mine is doing that.
Plesase if you fill i´m getting too bore for you SAY IT...bye

[Urlyin]

Not sure where AVG file came from ... I think the first thing you should do is backup the BIOS that's on the card now using .... flashrom -s 0 oldbios.bin .... Try to download the BIOS file again...

[Aguiar]

this time managed it with .bin file bios but get same error, "ERROR 0FL01"
I,ve backuped it for the 1st time,but thanks for reminding it.Go to search for "ERROR 0FL01" meaning.Later tell you something ;».

[Aguiar]

tried "about" anything could get from several flashrom commands (-i;-f -p;...)and allways get open file error "ERROR 0FL01".Noticed at flashrom -i that serial rom is locked ,could that be a reason for the error?

[Urlyin]

whenever I've gotton that error it was because I spelled the bios name incorrect. Make sure your Bios name is 8 characters or less. type it in flashrom -f -p 0 bios.bin
with the bios.bin being the name of the bios you are flashing with...

[Aguiar]

Hullo Urlyin , all clear.The mistake was really bad renaming the file,`cause i was puting the ".bin" in the "name of the file,eg."newbios.bin" instead of "newbios" .bin.Now i managed evrything all the way.But...you know what???I bealive that i ruined my VGA
by OC it.Now i can´t run it in 3D...a lot of wrong images when i run any game or benchmark suite.I think it whas the memories that fade away...´cause i bealive it happens before the flashing bios...I´m steel in warranty time and i´ll try to change it ...wish me luck and thanks for your´s marvelous helps...May i make you my masterGURU for ever...EHEHEH!bye i´ll keep in toutch.

[Borg]

Excellent

[Aguiar]

hello felas.Here i am back in busines with new 9800SE. .Starting all over again,but carefull and smooth as is necessary.Tell you about later.bye

[Urlyin]

Originally Posted by Aguiar

hello felas.Here i am back in busines with new 9800SE. .Starting all over again,but carefull and smooth as is necessary.Tell you about later.bye

Very well Aguiar ... let us know how you make out

Hello i have GeForce4Ti4200 and i've managed to erase the EEPROM/Firmware from it. And now that i've tried with pci-
vga card at PCI and my geforce at AGP booting up with bootdisk and nvflash ver.5.10 setting up the new BIOS, it
woun't update.

Just when i type "nvflash -f 4.28.20.16.bin" (which should be the correct function) it just gets the functionlist from the
nvflash.exe.

And when just typing "nvflash 4.28.20.16.bin" it types back
NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.10)

Error: Firmware image filename must have a *.rom or *.nvr extension

[Nergal]

open the bios with RADedit(? or something to edit a bios with in windows)
save it then as 4.28.20.16.ROM !

try again, it will work

Hey guys i need some advice please

Ok I have downloaded the 9800pro bios which I needed but I need to make a bootable Cd cos I don’t have a Floppy drive But how do I make the GeCube.9800PRO.128.Samsung28.bin into a ISO? This is really confusing me and hoe some one can help me out here

I would really appreciate it thanks

Also DO i need to make the GeCube.9800PRO.128.Samsung28.bin into a ISO?

[Dedodido]

no :P

the .bin file is the file extention that the computer uses for ISO image files, so as far as I know it already is an ISO image.

i try adn use the program, i get in and everything but when i try and see what adapters i have, (atiflash -p 0 atix800.bin) it says there is no 0 adapter. and when i try and look for the information it gives me another error. i dont know hwo to fix it. im going to try and use the flashrom.

update*
my adapter says its locked, so i force it. then when i do that it gives me this sound, do de di. and i reboot go back into windows and check atitool, everything is still the same. what do i do?