GeForce 9800 GT blocked in Dell, some BIOS to trick system? - 2008/08/28 00:32Is it pretty much in the subject. I have a Dell PowerEdge 2900 III. It only has one 8x PCI Express slot. I got a 8x to 16x riser card to get around this hardware limitation. Dell says they don't support any video cards which is crap. So far I got a GeForce 7800 GTX to be recognized and pass the BIOS. Someone else on the net also got a GeForce 8800 GTS Fatal1ty to function. I tested a GeForce 8800 GT and it just made my system reboot after the BIOS system check. So I returend that and got a GeForce 9800 GT hoping a different chipset would get me around this problem. Again the same problem.
So my question to you is what would be the best way to BIOS hack the GeForce 9800 GT to get pass the BIOS? I know NiBiTor v4.4 supports this card. I am thinking I can tweak the advanced info to trick the BIOS and then just load up the proper drivers in Windows Server 2008. Course I haven't figured out what the BIOS is detecting to shut down the card. Right now it all seems to be trial and error. Maybe a PCI Express 2.0 interface? Any insights or into on how to get past this freeking limitation is helpful.
My System Specifications... - Dell PowerEdge 2900 III Business Server - Intel 2x Xeon 5202 Processor at 2.0GHz - Unknown 16GB ECC/Buffered Memory - Unknown 2x 174GB SAS 15k Hard Drives - EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GTX Video Card - Microsoft Windows Server 2008 64-bit
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Boiler
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Re:GeForce 9800 GT blocked in Dell, some BIOS to trick system? - 2008/08/28 02:53ady12 wrote: I tested a GeForce 8800 GT and it just made my system reboot after the BIOS system check. So I returend that and got a GeForce 9800 GT hoping a different chipset would get me around this problem. Again the same problem. Isn't the GeForce 9800 GT essentially a rebranded GeForce 8800 GT, I read some are rebrands some are not you would have to check what is on chip for revision. The revision B1 is the new 55nm with HybridPower and the revision A2 is the older 65nm design and likely the rebranded GeForce 8800 GT chip. Maybe try some other different chips, like the GeForce 9800 GTX(+), GeForce 9600 GT or even the GeForce GTX 260. The latter be my choice to try...
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ady12
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Re:GeForce 9800 GT blocked in Dell, some BIOS to trick system? - 2008/08/28 03:41Wish I had the extra money to try this out. Course I could just buy it, try it, and then return it weather it worked or not. Thanks for the suggestions. The only limitation I have is that the power plug needs to be in the back of the card since the riser card lifts it too the case cover.
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Boiler
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Re:GeForce 9800 GT blocked in Dell, some BIOS to trick system? - 2008/08/28 05:00I forbid, lol. You could try a red team card in there, plugs on top of the card. I was thinking of buying a lease return or refurb Dell, as they got lots deals available, if know where on their website. Accordingly if you do get newer cads to function, I guess your lucky yup server doesn't need much for video...
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 9800 GT blocked in Dell, some BIOS to trick system? - 2008/08/28 09:47Well I read your first post and that is what I will reply, you got a server machine which doesn't have a PCI Express 2.0 and it even hasn't got a full PCI Express x16. Why, cause it is bridged from 8x to 16x, doesn't make it working fully at 16x, but makes it a PCI Express x16 slot but only working at 8x. So forget about what you are trying with PCI Express 2.0 graphics cards they won't work. Secondly it is a server machine, and at Dell that really means server, and that isn't made for gaming meaning it will only take simple graphics cards made for it and not latest version which aren't tested and approved by Dell to work with it.
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ady12
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Re:GeForce 9800 GT blocked in Dell, some BIOS to trick system? - 2008/08/29 06:06First of all I this is not going to be a gaming machine, ECC buffered ram does not lend it's self to games but more video production which this is mainly used for. The Intel 5000x chipset does support PCI Express 16x. Dell just simply didn't put a 16x slot on the mainboard. I am not quite sure if this chipset support PCI Express 2.0. If it does then a 8x slot pratically runs at at 16x speeds. Check out this Tom's Hardware article on PCI Express scaling.
Now PCI Express 2.0 is backwards compatible for your info, but all this is really trivial. The reason for this post is to find out if there are some video card BIOS hacks that would trick the system BIOS into letting this card slide. I want to get the most powerful card for the system mainly because when I use After Effects I can take advantage of the large amounts of video memory, OpenGL and CUDA. I don't have the money or need to go with a Quadro card as I am rarely going to be using AutoCAD, Maya or Smoke for that matter.
I know I can change the vendor ID, and various other options in the video card BIOS to make it look like another video card. Does any one have any experience doing this? Does the system BIOS detect the right version or is it only tricked when it boots into Windows? Again any help would be great.
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 9800 GT blocked in Dell, some BIOS to trick system? - 2008/08/29 11:40ady12 wrote: The Intel 5000x chipset does support PCI Express 16x. Dell just simply didn't put a 16x slot on the mainboard. I am not quite sure if this chipset support PCI Express 2.0. If it does then a 8x slot pratically runs at at 16x speeds. My feedback remains the same and as you state Dell didn't put a full PCI Express x16 on it so you will never get the 16x as the PCI Express slot you got now is 8x only. And the scaling has nothing to do with it, we know it won't make much difference but the technology behind does make a difference and that is what is giving you the issues.
Now PCI Express 2.0 is backwards compatible for your info, but all this is really trivial. The reason for this post is to find out if there are some video card BIOS hacks that would trick the system BIOS into letting this card slide. Sorry but I am not a fool, so I do know that PCI Express 2.0 is backwards compatible but you do know that in reality that isn't always working just as it should? A lot of GeForce 8800 GT owners did have many issues with their cards not working fine on a PCI Express 1.0x slot. And again that is not really your issue. But the PCI Express x8 is the issue as the GeForce 9800 GT needs a PCI Express x16 and not like you have bridged to expand as it remains a PCI Express x8 only.
I know I can change the vendor ID, and various other options in the video card BIOS to make it look like another video card. Does any one have any experience doing this? Does the system BIOS detect the right version or is it only tricked when it boots into Windows? Again any help would be great. You can try, but I am certain that it is just a waste of time and won't work as that is not the issue. And no the BIOS doesn't let you play with the PCI Expess parameters. Again you have a server machine, and those are always quite limited to what expansion cards can be used, especially towards graphics cards. And I know what I am talking about, and I really don't think it is funny you play it like we don't, cause that is how your message is getting perceived.
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ady12
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Re:GeForce 9800 GT blocked in Dell, some BIOS to trick system? - 2008/08/30 05:08Sorry didn't mean to sound condescending in that last post, but lets clear this up as I want to get my info straight. This is an article on benchmarking I was referring to. It is a good read that should clear things up. Oviousley there will be some conflicts with backward compatibility, thats what computers do. The PCI Express 2.0 effectively doubles the bandwidth on a 8x slot! This is a fact that has been backed up by benchmarking.
Yes I know I have a server machine, yes I know the video card was going to my limitation and as is the GeForce 7800 GTX works great. It does what it needs to do. I am not even sure if it is the PCI Express 2.0 on the video card that is the culprit. I have no idea how the Dell BIOS detects the video, but that would be my guess. I will give you guys some feedback to what I find out with the tweaking I will be doing.
The card does work in the computer, it boots up you see the Dell BIOS screen, the loading of the SAS card, etc so that would tend to say that a PCI Express 2.0 card is compatible. Well some fun testing ahead of me tonight.
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 9800 GT blocked in Dell, some BIOS to trick system? - 2008/08/30 11:44ady12 wrote: It is a good read that should clear things up. Oviousley there will be some conflicts with backward compatibility, thats what computers do. The PCI Express 2.0 effectively doubles the bandwidth on a 8x slot! This is a fact that has been backed up by benchmarking. I will repeat, it has nothing to do with the bandwidth and PCI Express 2.0 slots are only x16, so what the article shows is nice and great and somehow normal, but what you will find is current only x16 wide PCI Express 2.0 slots, and if you don't have that some video card will rely on that and won't work fine without it.
The card does work in the computer, it boots up you see the Dell BIOS screen, the loading of the SAS card, etc so that would tend to say that a PCI Express 2.0 card is compatible. Well some fun testing ahead of me tonight. But you don't get past the BIOS boot, so that means at that time all the hardware is stil getting initialized and although you get the screen that is because at the start it just uses the standard VGA mode and after that the system will initiate the full graphics card functions and as far as that goes, it goes wrong there and your systems stops. So again, the GeForce 9800 GT really requires a fully PCI Express x16 slot which is what you can see as requirements set by NVIDIA and it has a reason...
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Galaxy 9800GT PCIe 512MB - Rev 01
