Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any way to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2008/04/08 22:57Okay, so I finally got to go to a friend's house and flash my GeForce 8800 GT. I flashed with an EVGA BIOS from your collection. But I have a problem. With that BIOS I get a lot of corruption on bootup, text mode and windows. The card will boot on my ASRock mainboard, but something's up. I saw elsewhere someone with a similar problem that solved it by copying the correct memory timings to the updated BIOS. Could that be related to my problem?
If so, how do I go about changing them on the EVGA BIOS so they're exactly right where they should be? By the way, here's the original BIOS from my card. Just realised I also wanted to ask if this could be a power issue? I have a 550W power supply with a 12V rail of 18Amps, and no PCI Express connector. Also forgot to say that flashing the original BIOS clears any corruption and I can go into Windows without any problem. That's why I ask about the power, so if you can get back to me on that one. XFX GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Alpha Dog Edition - Memory : 512MB - Bus Type : PCI Express
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ticholo
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any way to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2008/04/09 19:29While waiting for your response I decided to look into a few other BIOS files from your site, to see if I could learn something. I couldn't find out anything that would get me closer to making the EVGA BIOS or another work, but after a few BIOS's I noticed my BIOS has a different product number in NiBiTor. All the other BIOS files from different vendors, including an NVIDIA BIOS, have the same product number that is not the one on my card.
I'm guessing, and I don't know how relevant this product number may be, that my card's design is not an NVIDIA reference design or something of the sort, and that's why I'm not having any luck with another BIOS. Or maybe I am, since I haven't fried it yet! If this is nowhere near correct, just delete this post.
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any way to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2008/04/09 23:42Good, so you tried with the newer EVGA BIOS, having a version as of 62.92.24.x or higher? In that case it could be that it are indeed the memory timings that are not so correct and then we need to find a way to change these. Now the way that is done is a bit tricky as you need to find out from each BIOS, the actual TimingSet that is used. So you can do that with NiBiTor when you use the auto select timingset function, that should give you the TimingSet index that the BIOS is using in relation to your card. This means you have to do it twice once with the original BIOS and once with the EVGA BIOS, and only than we can tweak the timings...
The product number can change, and that is entirely up to the manufacturer, and most of the time it changes when some brands are changing the memory chips, like from Samsung chips to Qimonda chips... Though it could also be some kind of small board layout redesign. But that should not give BIOS issues as such. And on the power supply, I doubt that would be an issue although 18Amps is the minimum though you would see that certainly in games when they would just go blank after some time of gaming.
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ticholo
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any way to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2008/04/10 03:10Thanks for responding. Yes, the EVGA BIOS is version 62.92.24.00.01, so it does boot on my ASRock motherboard. And apparently I have been thinking correctly about the memory timings. My only problem is that with the EVGA BIOS I can get into Windows, but when I try to read the BIOS with NiBiTor, or get it to read the TimingSset, the PC just crashes. That's on my friend's PC, not mine, but I doubt it would make a difference. Well, I'll give it a few more tries with NiBiTor and I'll get back to you.
Okay, so it was the driver that was preventing me from going into Windows. Uninstalled, and got in with the EVGA BIOS. Fired up NiBiTor and found out that BIOS is using TimingSet1. Changed that to the TimingSet2 from the original BIOS, as NiBiTor reports that as the active one in the originla BIOS, but no luck. Corruption gets even worse. I can barely read anything in DOS, and I didn't even dare to try Windows. Somehow I feel this is linked to my theory about the board design.
If only I had gotten the other XFX card with the same clocks that they claim has a BIOS resolving this issue... Oh well. I'll wait for your take on this before I decide to do anything else. And if for nothing else, thanks for all the support up to here.
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any way to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2008/04/10 18:17ticholo wrote: Okay, so it was the driver that was preventing me from going into Windows. Uninstalled, and got in with the EVGA BIOS. Fired up NiBiTor and found out that BIOS is using TimingSet1. Changed that to the TimingSet2 from the original BIOS, as NiBiTor reports that as the active one in the originla BIOS, but no luck. Now I need to be sure, cause what do you mean with changed to TimingSet2? Cause you can't change the active TimingSet really, on the EVGA BIOS the only active TimingSet is as you check TimingSet1, so what you need to do is copy and paste the values of your original BIOS TimingSet2 to the EVGA BIOS into the TimingSet1. Cause the TimingSet1 will always be used by the EVGA BIOS and that can't be changed, you can only adapt the values within TimingSet1 to match your original TimingSet2 values. Then you save and flash again to see if it makes a difference, cause at that moment the memory timings should no longer be the cause of the corruptions...
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ticholo
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any way to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2008/04/10 19:17Yes, I changed the values on TimingSet1 on the EVGA BIOS to the values on TimingSet2 on my original BIOS. And the result was as I described.
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any way to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2008/04/10 22:23ticholo wrote: Yes, I changed the values on TimingSet1 on the EVGA BIOS to the values on TimingSet2 on my original BIOS. And the result was as I described. Okay, that is good, than I didn't say a thing and the explanation is for those who might want to do something similar. Then again, I don't know what else can be done unless trying every BIOS of other brands on our site that is of version 62.92.24.x or newer...
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ticholo
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any way to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2008/04/10 23:24Right now I'm more inclined to just throw some money at this problem and change my motherboard. I'll see if I can find one within my budget in the coming weeks. Anyway, thanks for all the help. If I decide to try some other BIOS I'll post the results.
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WeedMan
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any way to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2008/04/16 18:53Hi guys, can someone point me in the direction of a BIOS download that will fix a GeForce 8800 GT 512MB back to a Gen1 to solve some compatibility issues. I was using an ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA and needed to revert back to a Gen1 BIOS to make my XpertVision GeForce 8800 GT 512MB compatible with it. I now have an ASUS P5K mainboard and was told to update the GeForce 8800 GT BIOS to fix a blank screen problem I was having on reboots. It didn't work and I need the Gen1 BIOS back...
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Mavke
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Re:GeForce 8800 GT, and any way to edit out PCI Express 2.0? - 2008/04/17 22:41WeedMan wrote: Hi guys, can someone point me in the direction of a BIOS download that will fix a GeForce 8800 GT 512MB back to a Gen1 to solve some compatibility issues. I was using an ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA and needed to revert back to a Gen1 BIOS to make my XpertVision GeForce 8800 GT 512MB compatible with it. Well I hate to do this but your thread you made was completely in line with this one and the answer has been given already several times on this thread where I moved your post. On this thread you can find the newest BIOS's which don't required any Gen1 change which was lowering the card somehow, though NVIDIA has found a better fix for it. So you should use any BIOS newer than 62.92.24.x and that will fix the PCI Express compatibility.
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NiBiTor v4.5a
