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How to: Softmod your 9800NP/Pro into XT.

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DDR-PIII

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Joined
Feb 16, 2002
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6p6
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
 
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I slapped an R9800 BIOS on my soft-modded R9500np...works fine, but it didn't really gain more that 1% in before and after benches, nor did it help my overclocking....

However, that means that SOME R9700 and SOME R9800 BIOS' are compatable:)

(It took about 1 dozen BIOS' before I found one that worked!)
 
not sure what exactly happens, but i'm guessing it just won't display anything...... then all you do is get another gfx card and reflash it
 
DDR-PIII said:
*An ATI Radeon 9800NP or Pro capable of 412MHz core clock and 365MHz (730MHz DDR) memory clock

So that means the card should be OC'ed to these speeds, tested and only then flashed? Or you know the list of the specific brands that would easily do the flash? (saphire for ex.)

P.S. Don't own one of those yet, thinking of buying one tho, but deciding on this ATI or Nvidia FX5900 flashed to 5950U. And great thread btw! :D
 
All lcards are different, but yeah, if it's tested at those speeds, and stable "soild" with no crashes or the like, and not artifacts:) then i would do the flash.

What happens if you do the flash and it dosent work ? ok I'll tell you :) I did the flash on a friends 9800Pro, i did the steps ;) but for some reason after it booted it there were atrifacts and checkers, so i wass like *sigh*, hes was all "MY CARD, MYCARD" i told him not to worry, i knew my way to flash the bios on the crad and so i did that ;), i went back into windows, checked the bios that i used and just tryed a different one :) and that worked well :)
 
I tried flashing my HIS 9800Pro to HIS 9800XT but all i got was Artifacts and Lines on my monitor, so i gues i should try another bios.

hmm which to choose..
 
thats what i thought. Weird though, I would not think that was desirable since in mobo situations it is better to run your dimms on tighter timings than with a couple more fsb. Guess it is different in agp land?
 
just outa interest shouldent this thread be called (How to: Hardmod your 9800NP/Pro into XT) because as far as i know a softmod is where u use software to adjust you card, but this involves flashing your card.
 
Just flashed my Powercolor 9800 Pro with the latest one for the Powercolor 128MB series. Worked like a charm...even though the PC's are slightly underclocked in the memory...mine took to the XT memory speeds without any issues...no artifacts and no tears using the highest graphic settings with AA 8x on CoD and 2001...using the latest Omega drivers...

Sweet little mod I will say...gotta love spending 125.00 for a 9800XT :D
 
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