This article will involve flashing your video card's BIOS to that of the Radeon 9800XT which will void any warranties which you may currently have on your card. I do not take no responsibility if you kill your video card.
Let The Action Begin
Before we flash our 9800's we need to prepare ourselves with what we will need to flash the BIOS. Below is a list/link to everything you will need:
* An ATI Radeon 9800NP or Pro capable of 412MHz core clock and 365MHz (730MHz DDR) memory clock
* Flashrom v2.40 (Can be downloaded here )
* A copy of the ATi Radeon 9800XT BIOS (Can be downloaded Samsung Mem here or Hynix Mem here)
* A bootable floppy disk (Can be downloaded here )
* The desire to have a 9800XT for a fraction of the cost
Now that we know exactly what we need lets begin to flash this bad boy, shall we? Ok, you will begin by creating your bootable floppy disk and placing the extracted flashrom files (DOS4GW.exe, FLASHROM.exe, FLASHROM.rom). Once you have moved these files over to the disk you can place the BIOS file (The one you downloaded) on the disk and prepare to flash. Once you restart your PC with the floppy disk in the drive you should see "Caldera Dr.Dos 2.xx" on your screen. Once everything is loaded you are ready to flash. Before you flash however, I recommend backing up your current BIOS by typing " flashrom -s 0 original.bin" at the A:\ prompt. Your BIOS is now saved to the floppy disk and you can use this in case of a bad flash.
Now you are finally ready to flash. After the BIOS has been saved to your floppy type "flashrom -p 0 9800XT.bin". Flashrom should begin to flash your BIOS and you should see a final message saying "6xxxx of 6xxxx bytes verified". Once you see this message your 9800 is successfully flashed with the Radeon 9800XT BIOS. Now restart your system and continue to install the drivers of your choice. A word of caution, after flashing your monitor may flicker off while loading windows. This is normal and your monitor should return in the on mode within a few seconds. Also when you are installing your video drivers the same thing will take place. Do not worry people, this is normal.
If you have followed these steps you should now have a fully functional Radeon 9800XT.
If you have problems using the method above try the method below which I have tryed and tested sucessfuly
First of all take flashrom & the bios you will be flashing and put them into "C:\flashrom"
Make sure you have the bootdisk read, boot into dos, once in dos itll say "A:"
type "C: <press enter>"
then type "cd flashrom <press enter>" that will take you into "c:\flashrom"
once in there backup your bios by typing "flashrom -s 0 ORIG.BIN <press enter>" that will make a copy of your original bios and it'll put it into "C:\flashrom" as "ORIG.BIN".
after you've done that load the XT bios by typing
"flashrom -s p 9800XT.BIN <press enter> "
after you've done that it should tell you that its done and restart.
-DDR
Let The Action Begin
Before we flash our 9800's we need to prepare ourselves with what we will need to flash the BIOS. Below is a list/link to everything you will need:
* An ATI Radeon 9800NP or Pro capable of 412MHz core clock and 365MHz (730MHz DDR) memory clock
* Flashrom v2.40 (Can be downloaded here )
* A copy of the ATi Radeon 9800XT BIOS (Can be downloaded Samsung Mem here or Hynix Mem here)
* A bootable floppy disk (Can be downloaded here )
* The desire to have a 9800XT for a fraction of the cost
Now that we know exactly what we need lets begin to flash this bad boy, shall we? Ok, you will begin by creating your bootable floppy disk and placing the extracted flashrom files (DOS4GW.exe, FLASHROM.exe, FLASHROM.rom). Once you have moved these files over to the disk you can place the BIOS file (The one you downloaded) on the disk and prepare to flash. Once you restart your PC with the floppy disk in the drive you should see "Caldera Dr.Dos 2.xx" on your screen. Once everything is loaded you are ready to flash. Before you flash however, I recommend backing up your current BIOS by typing " flashrom -s 0 original.bin" at the A:\ prompt. Your BIOS is now saved to the floppy disk and you can use this in case of a bad flash.
Now you are finally ready to flash. After the BIOS has been saved to your floppy type "flashrom -p 0 9800XT.bin". Flashrom should begin to flash your BIOS and you should see a final message saying "6xxxx of 6xxxx bytes verified". Once you see this message your 9800 is successfully flashed with the Radeon 9800XT BIOS. Now restart your system and continue to install the drivers of your choice. A word of caution, after flashing your monitor may flicker off while loading windows. This is normal and your monitor should return in the on mode within a few seconds. Also when you are installing your video drivers the same thing will take place. Do not worry people, this is normal.
If you have followed these steps you should now have a fully functional Radeon 9800XT.
If you have problems using the method above try the method below which I have tryed and tested sucessfuly
First of all take flashrom & the bios you will be flashing and put them into "C:\flashrom"
Make sure you have the bootdisk read, boot into dos, once in dos itll say "A:"
type "C: <press enter>"
then type "cd flashrom <press enter>" that will take you into "c:\flashrom"
once in there backup your bios by typing "flashrom -s 0 ORIG.BIN <press enter>" that will make a copy of your original bios and it'll put it into "C:\flashrom" as "ORIG.BIN".
after you've done that load the XT bios by typing
"flashrom -s p 9800XT.BIN <press enter> "
after you've done that it should tell you that its done and restart.
-DDR
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