How to get a R8500 Retail with an OEM ? It possible...

M

Mikestewart

New member
Hey everybody, it's my first post here !

Ok, I saw that on ati.fr.st (french article) : http://atifrst.nexenservices.com/index.php3?article=8

You have to download :

- the Radeon 8500 Retail Bios http://www.ifrance.com/numa001/RAD8500R.zip
- the Flash Utility http://www.ifrance.com/numa001/flashutility.zip

Make a bootable floppy with the retail bios and the flash utility on it. Boot your PC, then type :

1) To make a backup of your actual bios :

flashrom -s 0 biosle.ROM 256

( You have to type "biosle" )

2) To flash your bios with the retail bios :

flashrom -p 0 rad8500r.ROM 128

When you've finished, reboot your computer and it's done ! Your OEM is now running at 275/550 !

As I only have a Radeon SDR I have not tested that but the ati.fr.st guy says it works very well. Actually he has overclocked his R8500 OEM @ 300/600 !!! (default is 250/500).

P.S.: Excuse my English ! :)
 
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This really works? There was a thread in the tech support forum where they tried it with no luck, but I think it ended up that the bios they had was an OEM one... I'd try it but I Don't have a floppy drive, nor do I feel like making a bootable cd :) maybe later
 
Before flashing, Manu (it's his name) couldn't overclock the memory over 540 Mhz. After flashing, he gets 300/600 Mhz. It works !!!
 
SanGreal said:
I get "55AA Not found in rom file" or something and it stops :(
Click to expand...

Same exact thing here. I have no problem backing up the bios, but then when I go to do the second line to flash it, I get that same problem and a red line saying "Error FL010" or something like that I forget, and the Error is blinking and then it says something like Press 1 to continue... bummer...

Is there some kind of Read-Only protection that ATi put on the BIOS?

There must be something else that guy did to flash it... :confused:
 
Mike, need yr valued and reliable advice. Pls help. I am desparatedly need 275/275. I want framerate. I am just too disappointed with my OEM 8500Le 250/250.
 
You're not going to get that much more fps from the extra 25mhz. People are reporting neglible performance increases.

L.
 
Ok, I get the AA50 or whatever error too.

Apparently it works on some cards in france (someone posted on their forum).

I guess we'll have to wait for a flash-util that has 100% Radeon support (wich this one hasn't)
If you run 'flashrom /i 0' it shows adapter information:

Adapter 0
bn 01
dn 00
dID 514C
asic Rage6
Flash -
ID A500
(or something like that)

You can see that the 'flash' information is left blank. This indicates that the flashutil is not 'compatible' with the BIOS or unable to do his job or whatever.
 
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Ok, I just tried again with the different first line, and I got the same results. I would think that the problem lies in the second line, seeing as the first line is just the backup of the current bios, and the second line is the actual replacing of it with the retail bios. Is it possible that it is supposed to be 256 instead of 128 at the end of the second line?

If that guy in France did it, then i'm sure that we are just doing something wrong. I doubt that France got OEM cards with different BIOS setups than our OEM's. :confused:
 
Baseline said:
If that guy in France did it, then i'm sure that we are just doing something wrong. I doubt that France got OEM cards with different BIOS setups than our OEM's. :confused:
Click to expand...

Unless there's a PAL and an NTSC BIOS.
 
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