[colecampbell666]

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles//overclocking/vidcard/34/5

That link above has been my computing life for the last week. Apparently you can update a Radeon 9550 Pro to a 9600 Pro, but I haven't seen one.

I got all of the required tools; compatible BIOS, FlashRom, etc. and since my USB stick had died I decided to use a floppy to flash my BIOS. The floppy worked fine in Windows; formatting, copying, reading; but in bootup;
I/O ERROR - PLEASE REPLACE DISK AND PRESS ANY KEY
I/O ERROR - PLEASE REPLACE DISK AND PRESS ANY KEY
I/O ERROR - PLEASE REPLACE DISK AND PRESS ANY KEY
I/O ERROR - PLEASE REPLACE DISK AND PRESS ANY KEY
And so on...

I tried to make a CD but couldn't find a set of comprehensible instructions.

Just yesterday for the big C I got a new flash drive, a 2 Gb Crucial Gizmo Jr. I followed the instructions to the letter for flashing; formatted it with the HP USB Disk tool, made it a DOS boot disk, copied DOS files and the flashing tools and selected it as the boot device in my BIOS. It sees the stick all right, It displays some text to that effect, but it doesn't do a damn with it during bootup. It says that it may be recognized as an HDD or Floppy, so I selected every single thing on my BIOS list, unplugged my HDDs etc., still no dice. The instructions to create a partition don't make sense to me, so that's out of the question.

Can anyone help me flash my GPU BIOS?

[Ashrak]

iiii dont think so m8t 


youd need an exact modle core AND memory to get it to work that way

[colecampbell666]

The 9550 is the exact same card as the 9600, but they underclocked the core and memory to sell it for less.

[CP5670]

That does not necessarily mean that it was picked out of the same batch. It may have been binned as a 9550 precisely because the chip couldn't hit 9600 speeds. Even if it can, there is no reason to flash the BIOS. You can easily change the speeds through software.

To be honest, I don't know why you're spending so much time with this. No amount of overclocking is going to make that card acceptable in modern games.

[colecampbell666]

It will with FS2 and Empire Earth 2 and HL2.

[CP5670]

I suppose you would get some benefit in those games. But still, it wouldn't be all that significant. I thought you were getting a brand new setup soon anyway?

If you're intent on pushing that card up though, just do it in software as I said.

[colecampbell666]

I'm saving my money. My dad said that he'd pay half of what I make so I need 500$. You seem to have experience with these things - If I bought a 750$ PC on NCIX (With the price before price match being about 1100$) would I be able to sell it on Kijiji for 800-900$? What I'd ideally like to do is then buy a 900$ PC and sell it for X amount more, and work my way up to 1200-1400$ for a lasting PC.

[CP5670]

I had to google that to find out what it was. You're better off sticking with ebay since it's more well known.

There are people who run businesses selling custom built PCs on ebay like this, but I'm not sure how much profit they typically make. It depends on what you buy. As for reselling just the hardware, you generally have to take advantage of some market situation to get a decent profit. The 8800GTs are one option right now. If you have a good deal of patience, you can try buying the $220 8800GTs at Best Buy (using the coupons floating around the internet). You have to keep calling up all the Best Buys in your area every few days to check their stock (their online inventory is not accurate) and be ready to go out and buy some at short notice, as they tend to sell out within just a few hours of getting new stock. I think there are many Best Buys in Canada, although I'm not certain. At the moment, these cards are hard enough to come by that you can make at least $70 or so on each one on ebay.

[Hellstryker]

If you get an 8800 GTS, make sure its the model (G92) with 512 MB of RAM. Beats the GTX for HALF THE PRICE! Cant go wrong there m8

[CP5670]

The GT is a better deal if you can get in on that Best Buy price. It does take some effort to acquire one though. My brother was calling BBs daily for over a week before he found one in stock.

[jr2]

Make sure your floppy disk has no bad sectors (look for "bad sectors" in the format report).  Then, make sure you have the correct MS-DOS for the job.  Just copying the boot files won't work.  You need them in a specific order.  So, go to www.bootdisk.com and download the appropriate DOS version boot disk, and create the boot disk (if in doubt, go for MS-DOS 6.22, I'd say).  Then, delete all files on the floppy except (you'll need "view hidden file types" on):

IO.SYS
MSDOS.SYS
COMMAND.COM

Then, put the appropriate files for your GFX flash util in.  If the GFX flash util has a disk image included, try Roadkil's Diskimg program to create it.  (He also has several other good utils.)

If your GFX flashing util has its own disk image creator, then I don't know what to tell you, because it should work.  You could try extracting the files / image and then doing it manually.  :/  Well, let me know if it works.

[Harbinger of DOOM]

HARHARHAR, PHEAR MY RADEON 9600!!!

[MP-Ryan]

*raises eyebrow*

Cole.  Go download ATI Tray Tools and clock-up your card.  Leave the BIOS alone - if you don't know what you're doing and aren't careful, that's a good way to relegate a functioning card to the garbage bin.

Your performance gain from 9550 to 9600 is negligible through modification, especially considering the bottleneck is more likely with your CPU than the video card.

As for reselling an NCIX custom built; instead of conniving and reselling, save your money and buy a custom built system for yourself from memory express (http://www.memoryexpress.com) They're based in Calgary and Edmonton.

Either that, or wait for a Dell special for $600, then grab a video card and RAM from another retailer and upgrade it.  Dell is a great way to pick up a bare-bones PC for cheap that you can then upgrade to a functional gaming rig.  Just stick with Dimension and XPS lines; Inspirons are crap.

[colecampbell666]

I had to google that to find out what it was. You're better off sticking with ebay since it's more well known.

There are people who run businesses selling custom built PCs on ebay like this, but I'm not sure how much profit they typically make. It depends on what you buy. As for reselling just the hardware, you generally have to take advantage of some market situation to get a decent profit. The 8800GTs are one option right now. If you have a good deal of patience, you can try buying the $220 8800GTs at Best Buy (using the coupons floating around the internet). You have to keep calling up all the Best Buys in your area every few days to check their stock (their online inventory is not accurate) and be ready to go out and buy some at short notice, as they tend to sell out within just a few hours of getting new stock. I think there are many Best Buys in Canada, although I'm not certain. At the moment, these cards are hard enough to come by that you can make at least $70 or so on each one on ebay.

There is only one BB in my area, that may be a good idea to do what you said.

Make sure your floppy disk has no bad sectors (look for "bad sectors" in the format report).  Then, make sure you have the correct MS-DOS for the job.  Just copying the boot files won't work.  You need them in a specific order.  So, go to www.bootdisk.com and download the appropriate DOS version boot disk, and create the boot disk (if in doubt, go for MS-DOS 6.22, I'd say).  Then, delete all files on the floppy except (you'll need "view hidden file types" on):

IO.SYS
MSDOS.SYS
COMMAND.COM

Then, put the appropriate files for your GFX flash util in.  If the GFX flash util has a disk image included, try Roadkil's Diskimg program to create it.  (He also has several other good utils.)

If your GFX flashing util has its own disk image creator, then I don't know what to tell you, because it should work.  You could try extracting the files / image and then doing it manually.  :/  Well, let me know if it works.

Thanks jr. BootDisk.com has a driver free disk made for BIOS flashing.

HARHARHAR, PHEAR MY RADEON 9600!!!

*raises eyebrow*

Cole.  Go download ATI Tray Tools and clock-up your card.  Leave the BIOS alone - if you don't know what you're doing and aren't careful, that's a good way to relegate a functioning card to the garbage bin.

Your performance gain from 9550 to 9600 is negligible through modification, especially considering the bottleneck is more likely with your CPU than the video card.

As for reselling an NCIX custom built; instead of conniving and reselling, save your money and buy a custom built system for yourself from memory express (http://www.memoryexpress.com) They're based in Calgary and Edmonton.

Either that, or wait for a Dell special for $600, then grab a video card and RAM from another retailer and upgrade it.  Dell is a great way to pick up a bare-bones PC for cheap that you can then upgrade to a functional gaming rig.  Just stick with Dimension and XPS lines; Inspirons are crap.

NCIX has a price match thingy which will allow me to get the lowest price from any retailer. I can get the low prices of your site on NCIX and also the lowest prices elsewhere.

EDIT: The 8800 GT seems to only be available in the US, at least online. Would the GT be available in stores even if it wasn't on bestbuy.ca? And FutureShop seems to have them cheaper.

[Flaser]

Make a bootable CD as per instuctions on this page:

http://www.biosflash.com/e/bios-boot-cd.htm

Result:

no need to fuss with an outdated unreliable floppy disc

Warning: messing with BIOS flashes is a risque business, you better know what you're doing.

[colecampbell666]

I guess it's not really worth it. I've gotten quite a few warnings.

[Polpolion]

Cole, I'm gonna laugh when your computer explodes .

[jr2]

Well here's the deal:

If your GFX card doesn't like the BIOS it's given, it won't work.. So your pretty much screwed unless you can get the comp booted with another GFX card (PCI?) and then flash the original card again.  Maybe.  Also, if the floppy has bad sectors and / or the power gets cut while flashing, it also trashes the GFX card.

I have so far toasted 1, perhaps 2 computers by bad BIOS flashing.    I can usually get them back by hot flashing, but the newer computers have those oh-so-wonderful soldered on mini BIOS chips, and are useless.  Most have a fail safe recovery switch; mine didn't, because it's retarded.

[colecampbell666]

Cole, I'm gonna laugh when your computer explodes .

I meant warnings from other people.

@jr2: I have an old TNT for backup but I'm not going to risk it.

[Polpolion]

Cole, I'm gonna laugh when your computer explodes .

I meant warnings from other people.

I didn't read any of the posts other than the first one. It was just a general statement based on all of the computer related threads you've made.