Blitz Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 well heres my deal i took an alienware m17x-r1 and upgraded it from the q9000, and 260m gtx's to the q9200, and 2 280gtx's now ive changed out the motherboard and upped it to an i7 740qm, and 2 5870's and i think i got 2 mastercards now i've read that flashing the bios fixes the issues but i flash and nothing happens i've also tried old drivers new drives etc.. i tried the windows 98 dos manual flash and it says already been flashed, now i'm stuck and i cant seem to figure this out am i sol whats the issue? i've also bought another crossfire cable so i know thats not the issue, and i am in bios a02 if i go up to a10 it has the black screen of no post, now i am a master at taking this apart and i'm not a computer idiot this just has me completely stumped, i'm also going to attach the ccc message and gpu-z bios information. And i've also examinded the pins on both crossfire connectors and the card connectors please help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder StamatisX Posted June 17, 2011 Founder Share Posted June 17, 2011 Flashing the BIOS wont solve the CFX issue simply because you have 2 master GPU cards. You need to have a master and a slave card for CFX to work. What you can do is to make a bootable DOS disk and use atiflash in order to flash your secondary GPU with the proper VBIOS (from a slave GPU card).How to create a bootable USB key 1. Download the HP USB Key Utility2. Download the Windows 98 system files3. Install the HP USB Key Utility4. Launch the HP USB Key Utility and do the following:- Insert your USB thumb drive.- Select File system as “FAT32″- Select Format Option as “Create a DOS bootable Disk…”- Checkmark the box that says, “Quick Format”- Locate the directory you extracted the Win98 files.- Format the USB key using the the Win98 files.Download atiflash and the BIOS1.rom (don't copy the zip file, you need the BIOS1.rom file) and copy them to the bootable usb keyatiflashBIOS1.zip (it is the VBIOS of my secondary GPU)boot from the usb key and typeatiflash -p 1 BIOS1.romreboot and you are done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 thanks for the quick responce i tried that with the other bios and the results are the same says its already flashed which has me confused it won't flash it for some reason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder StamatisX Posted June 18, 2011 Founder Share Posted June 18, 2011 you mean VBIOS right? cause BIOS refers to the motherboard and VBIOS to the GPU (just to make sure we are on the same page here).Btw, I tried to get the same message with you but I can't, no matter how many times I tried, atiflash always allowed me to flash the same VBIOS to the GPU (both of them).Another thing you might want to try is to remove the master card (the one on the left) and place the other card in its position. Then boot with the usb key and flash the card with the attached slave VBIOS on my previous post. Then put the cards back and see if it will do the trick. (after removing the secondary GPU, you may want to upgrade your BIOS to A10 first and then proceed with the swap)The last thing you can do is to send back the secondary GPU and replace it with the proper slave card Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 Yes vbios sorry typing in a hurry i can try that and see if it'll flash it i'm just wondering why it has that message.. i'll let you know after i do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 Well i took the other card out put it in the primary slot tried again and got the same results but i took a picture of it to show what its doing now i'm just stuck and not sure now what to do hence my problem like it wont flash correctly to make it a slave card Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder StamatisX Posted June 18, 2011 Founder Share Posted June 18, 2011 could you try atiflash -fa -p 0 bios1.romoratiflash -f -p 0 bios1.rom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 sure can its doing 74 updates so give me about 10 mins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder StamatisX Posted June 18, 2011 Founder Share Posted June 18, 2011 remember to change the -p 0 to -p 1 in case you have set the second card back to its place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 appears like it didn't change anything at all unless you sent me the master bios maybe.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder StamatisX Posted June 18, 2011 Founder Share Posted June 18, 2011 you shouldn't see any change at all, but just in caseBIOS0.zipThis is the master VBIOS, bios0.rom, so now you have both of them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 see thats where i'm confused because if you change the bios shouldn't the bios change numbers? so the computer knows which one is which? thats my loss and it doesn't appear to change anything as far as crossfire goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder StamatisX Posted June 18, 2011 Founder Share Posted June 18, 2011 you must not see any changes, the VBIOS version is the same, the DeviceID is the same... if you see different values you should be worried cause that means the file is corrupted. Remember, you are not upgrading the VBIOS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 o ok well there both flashed but still no crossfire i'm going to check my cables and see if thats the culprit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 well i update from a02 to a10 and i get the black screen of no post take out a card and it works fine now i'm taking it back to a02 but alienware tech support isn't opened today? and both cards are flashed with the bios you gave me, i'm changing the cables out after the bios update but the frustration level is rising hopefully this can be fixed or figured out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder StamatisX Posted June 18, 2011 Founder Share Posted June 18, 2011 wait, you flashed both cards with the same VBIOS? if yes then that's why it doesn't work, you need to flash the first card (master, the one on the left, atiflash -p 0) with the BIOS0.rom and the secondary (slave, the one on the right, atiflash -p 1) with the BIOS1.romWorst case scenario, you request a secondary card that is indeed a slave card and you wont have to deal with VBIOS flashes etc.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 no i flashed only the master with bios0 and only the slave with bios1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 (edited) now when i flash and it says restart do i want to just push the power button on and off or type a command? btw thanks for you help you've been great so far. Edited June 18, 2011 by Blitz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder StamatisX Posted June 18, 2011 Founder Share Posted June 18, 2011 you can use the power button or press CTRL-ALT-DEL. The button will power it off, the key combo will restart, it's up to you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 well changed out the cable and still nothing i also did ctrl alt delete restart and i get the same results as the picture above so maybe i could have just a broken crossfire connector? but as a test if i put the slave into the master slot should it boot up like normal or is it windows causing the issue of not detecting the correct card? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 ATI Radeon mobility 1GB HD5870 Laptop VGA NN4MG | eBayis that a slave card? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder StamatisX Posted June 18, 2011 Founder Share Posted June 18, 2011 You can always try to reinstall catalyst just to make sure it is not a driver issue, if that doesn't solve your problem I would suggest you to contact Dell and tell them to send you a new proper secondary GPU (tell them to make sure about it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 problem is i have no warrenty this computer was orginally a m17x-r1 with a q9000 and dual 260's now its an r2 with a i7 740qm and the attempted dual 5870's, which it does play all games ive thrown at it quite well like metro2033 with average of 70 fps, so it does work except for the crossfire which i like everything working on my computers when i have them kind of a peeve of mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder StamatisX Posted June 20, 2011 Founder Share Posted June 20, 2011 At this point, the only thing left to do is to sell your secondary card or exchange it for a slave GPU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Did you try uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers after flashing the correct vbios to each card? Like Stam suggested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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