Need help with weird hardware problem after OC

[thewonderdude]

Hello to all,
İ managed to gather up a decent computer which worked fine for a month now. Q6600---P5Q Pro---3gb 800mhz ram---hd4870 1gb---700watt psu
Recently i was searching for a way to lower gpu temps and i thought of increasing the rpms of all available fans in the case to maximise airflow. i found an ATI bios program(forgot its name) and set all fans to operate at %100 and than i pressed flash the bios. In the mean time to lower my gpu temp i always use the gpu's fan at %80+ but when i start the computer the gpu's fan starts normally then when xp loads it speeds up. But when i said flash the bios(or smthing like that) the comp froze with no reaction. Then i tried restarting but the screen says no video input and after 2-3 seconds of pressing the power up button, all fans including the gpu's run at %100(incredible noise). i tried the cmos stuff removed the mobo battery waited for 2hrs but nothing changes. Is there something like the a reset cmos button on the gpu to restore factory settings or other solutions are welcome.
Thanks in advance.

[Gizmo]

Oh my. It sounds like you've blown the flash and now you have a paperweight.

Were you flashing the video card or the motherboard?

[Áedán]

I'd agree. It sounds like the flashing of the graphics card only got as far as wiping it.

When you re-program a BIOS (on the motherboard, or on the graphics card), there isn't an undo function - you're actually overwriting the code that initialises and operates bits of hardware.

The old trick was to use a PCI graphics card to get video, and a copy of the correct graphics card BIOS in order to reprogram the dead video card. Otherwise it's a return to manufacturer to get the graphics card reprogrammed.

[thewonderdude]

i just changed the fan speed of the cpu fan just to tryThe thing i dont understand is, if its so dangerous why were there no warnings while using the program and why is my graphics card's fan working at %100 and is not responding. I never changed anything on it. How could just changing the fan speed have such catastrophic consequences. i just dont understand. I did all the steps of resetting bios by CMOS, but no results so i sent it for repairs. So in your opinion, did i lose the whole system or just the graphics card.

[MUff1N]

Hi thewonderdude & Welcome to the AOA forums.
The members that posted the above posts are Very Knowledgeable & know tons about this stuff and I have to agree with them on this.

Unfortunately you just made your graphics card a Very Expensive Paperweight.

Next time BEFORE you decide to try anything like this Post on the AOA forum to find out if this is a good or bad idea.
This will save you hours of wasted time not to mention Save your HW before damage is done to it...
You could have use a number of applications to control the fan on your ATi card without doing anything with the bios at all.

[ThunderRd]

Originally Posted by thewonderdude

i just changed the fan speed of the cpu fan just to tryThe thing i dont understand is, if its so dangerous why were there no warnings while using the program and why is my graphics card's fan working at %100 and is not responding.

The fan control profile is written directly into the BIOS on many cards. In other words, there are sensors that detect the core temperature, and the card changes its fan speed in relation to the temp, hotter=faster. The trigger points of this profile are stored in the BIOS, and can be changed on some cards by a flashing tool like NbitOr. However, not all cards can be modded this way. Do some reading on low-level and driver-level fan control; there's not enough space here.

Were you sure your card was in the group that could be?

As for the dangers involved, it is *usually* made quite clear that a firmware flash of any kind has inherent dangers. That could be to a mainboard, vid card, cell phone, modem, or whatever. Make sure that you have a good power source, too. For instance, flashing your BIOS in a thunderstorm out in God's country isn't a good idea - if that power line *happens* to go down.

[ccperf721p]

If you have a PCI video card you can flash the factory bios back to the card and still have something on the monitor, if not you can always flash in the dark.

Google blind flashing ati card and it should pop up some decent enough hits

[ccperf721p]

Here's a how to using a usb flash drive just in case.
Overclock.net - Overclocking.net - View Single Post - How to blind flash a GPU?

[booman]

Good luck finding a PCI video card. I'm having problems getting ahold of one.
So there is still a way to rescue the card?
If he can get video with a PCI card, does he flash it again with the original firmware?

[thewonderdude]

Problem Solved. I plugged in my ancient 6600 to a PCI -Slot and started the computer after reflashing the mobo bios. The computer screen froze as soon as the hd4870 is recognized with the fans going psycho. It was clear then that the problem was with the graphics card which i apparently bricked. I tried flashing from windows in safe mode (thank god i took a save of bios before doing the bad flash) the computer gave an error saying no ATI hardware recognised. Then the last and only solution of booting from USB was left. i created a startup usb with dos putting in atiflash and the original bios of the graphics card. Set the usb device as primary bootable then restarted the computer and i wrote atiflash -i to see what adapters were available to flash and wonderfully(!) it showed something (noname) in adapter slot 0 and nothing else. First i thought it was the 6600 i used in PCI to get some video response but i took a chance they were 25$ anyway and wrote atiflash -p 0 bios.rom and everything was seemingly in order then it asked me to restart. When i restarted the computer welcomed me with 640x480 resolution and 4 bit color setting which didnt make any difference even if i tried to change any settings. With the joy of thinking that i destroyed two graphics cards in 1 week i tried to put in my hd 4870 for one last time to see if anything had changed. İt worked!!! For some weird reason the system as a whole felt like it was hit in the head with a baseball bat but it worked. The atiflash didnt show the primary device (NVidia 6600) and when i reflashed it actually flashed the hd4870. It was my sheer stupidity that led to all this. I guess its one of those moments where everything with the ability to communicate says dont do something when youre about to make a huge mistake but you still do it anyways.
Btw the technical people who i sent the computer to check it out returned it back to me in a couple of hours stating that the hd4870 is wasted and i should buy a new one. Thanks to a good person who knows his way around a computer and the horror of actually throwing out 300$ (made me suck the internet dry about the subject) the problem was solved.
Thank you for your attention, if you have any questions?
(im so ashamed but i used RBE(Radeon bios editor) thinking i actually changed the fan speeds of the case (ignoring the word RADEON) and when the computer was flashing i panicked and hit reset).Noones to blame but me.:banghe ad:

[booman]

Awsome news! Great job!
Thanks for the detailed explanation too