Radeon HD 6950 shader unlock instructions

[marksoccer105]

It is what I used and was successful, just be careful when OCing. Take your time with small increments and test.

Great! Thanks for the quick reply. I'll post an update when I get the card.

 

[ppercutt]

Hello,

I purchased the same HiS HD6950 as mentioned in a few previous posts, and when I flashed, it gave the error, but I used the command prop to unlock it and flash it.

Now when I try to start the computer it doesn't do anything (brick).

What are my options to fix it?

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161372


Its frustrating to get the exact same model as others, and they are successful and have it not work.

 

[bystander]

If you don't have a dual BIOS switch and you cannot boot up from the card, remove the card from your system, install it in a 2nd PCIe slot and install a working card in the first slot. You can then boot up from the first card. After you boot up, you can install the drivers for the 1st video card but not for the one that you just attempted to modify the BIOS on. Do not reboot if requested. Now follow steps 10-13 using the "original.bin" BIOS you saved and using "1" in place of "0" for the commands you type. The "1" is so that the 2nd card is flashed and not the 1st card which is not the one you wish to flash. Be very careful to use "1"s and not "0"s this time, because the card is no longer in the 1st PCIe slot.

 

[marksoccer105]

Great! Thanks for the quick reply. I'll post an update when I get the card.

Thanks for the advice bystander! I was unable to flash the bios in Windows with winflash, so I used a DOS USB boot disk and flashed the modified bios. All 1536 shaders are recognized and I was able to overclock the card in MSI Afterburner to 940 MHz core and 1375 MHz without any sweat. My 3D Mark Vantage GPU score is 23456 and my 3D Mark 11 score is P5836. The fans are super quiet and the max temp I have seen so far is 67C while idle temps are around 47C.

 

[bystander]

Thanks for the advice bystander! I was unable to flash the bios in Windows with winflash, so I used a DOS USB boot disk and flashed the modified bios. All 1536 shaders are recognized and I was able to overclock the card in MSI Afterburner to 940 MHz core and 1375 MHz without any sweat. My 3D Mark Vantage GPU score is 23456 and my 3D Mark 11 score is P5836. The fans are super quiet and the max temp I have seen so far is 67C while idle temps are around 47C.

Very nice. I haven't seen much success lately with the MSI R6950 Twin Frozr II's. Good to see there are still some good results.

 

[ppercutt]

Oh, the hours I've spent trying to fix my card...

Thank you for the reply bystander, but nothing is ever easy it seems.

--------
My current problem:

I have my old video card in the 1st slot. I have the HiS HD 6950 (Model H6950QNT2G2M) in the second slot.

I can only boot the computer in safe mode - if I try to boot normally it gets to the windows loading screen and freezes.

So I went into safe mode, and uninstalled the card per your suggestion, but when I boot normally again, it automatically installs the 6950 drivers, which freezes my computer again. I turned off automatic install and I can boot normal into windows with the 6950 in the slot, but GPUZ doesn't see it - so I can't tell what bios version it is.

When I follow steps 10-13, there is no prompt after the flash to restart - so I turned off the computer and moved the card back into the 1st slot. No boot.

I can't check the bios version without GPUZ in normal mode AND with the system seeing it, so I don't even know if it flashed properly or just closed the screen.

1. Have system see card in safe mode or
2. Have system in normal mode with it uninstalled - unlockrom 1 and flashed correct bios from techpower's site, the bios version for the specific card I have (http/www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/100666/HIS.HD6950.2048.110330.html) - but it doesn't work

Now when the system sees it in safe mode:

I log onto administrator, run cmd prompt as admin - and when I type in the command prompt "atiwinflash -unlockrom 1" this is what I get:

"Due to Microsoft Vista Enhanced Security Features, this Application requires the user to be in Administrator mode." I'm already admin running in admin mode. wtf

I'm beyond frustrated with my card - I know I messed it up, but this is unreal the hours I've spent trying to "unflash" it and get it back to stock.

 

[bystander]

I am sorry for your difficulty, but I do have one last suggestion. Make a boot disk with a flash drive and install the software needed on it. This method will not install any drivers to the card and should remove admin issues too.

Download the bios from this page: http/www.vortez.net/articles_pages/msi_r6950_twin_froz_iii_power_edition_unlocking,1.html

But rather than flashing the bios they give you, put your backed up bios on the flash drive and install that bios instead. You'll have to search for instructions to create a boot drive to make this work.

 

[ppercutt]

So I tried something new:

I got out my old motherboard/cpu/ram -

Installed old video card into the first slot, and the HiS HD6950 into the 2nd slot.

Now I'm in windows 7, running normal, with GPUZ working at it can see the new card even with it "Disabled" in Device Manager. (If I enable it, I get a BSOD.)

Now GPUZ tells me my Bios Version: 011.003.000.000.029117

But that doesn't tell me which .bin file its using (the 6970 bios I used before I knew about the new one you posted) or the one I downloaded from techpower that is the exact BIOS listed for my card (link above, but the HiS HD6950 iceQ X Turbo).

How can I find out which BIOS is running on the card with the number given to me by GPUZ (or is there another application that I can use to identify the BIOS version in the .bin file with the BIOS version shown as currently on the card)?

 

[ppercutt]

The saga continues:

So we last left off with my old motherboard somehow able to have the new card in the 2nd slot be active and read by GPUZ.

Bystander suggested making a bootable USB Flash drive, and I followed the instructions perfectly, and it worked, sort of.

I was able to boot into MS-DOS Win 98, and placed "atiflash" and the correct bios version on the flash drive.

I used atiflash to unlock and flashed the correct bios, I even took a picure with my camera phone to prove that it was successful, the whole old/new, reboot the PC prompt cause its finished.

So I boot into windows 7, load up GPUZ, and sure enough, GPUZ says its back to normal (has shader count, GPU Clock is running, everything that was blank before is now working again). Sweet, right?

So I remove the old video card from the 1st slot, and place the new HD6950 into it, everything's hooked up, boot up the computer. And it starts to boot, then dies, then starts to boot, and dies... over and over.

So I go, hmm, place the old video card back into slot 1, and new video card back into slot 2. Same problem, the PC won't boot... even with the new card in the 2nd slot.

So I removed the new card from slot 2, and left the old in slot 1.. and it booted right up.

So frustrated again, I decide its time to try my new motherboard/ram/cpu.. slot 1 is old video card, slot 2 is new... remember, this failed over and over again on the old motherboard.

And it worked again. Now I can boot into windows 7 in normal mode, have the card active, and see it in GPUZ (recall, before I could only boot into safe mode with the new card in slot 2, and GPUZ won't work in safe mode).

But I see something's wrong.. the GPU clock reads 625 Mhz where its supposed to be 840. So I downloaded the latest drivers from Ati, and installed them, now it shows 840, everything matches perfectly to the previous poster's picture of what his original HIS HD6950 icqQ X Turbo. In fact, time to take a picture of it using GPUZ. I'll update when the next problem arises.. for now I'm just going to reboot windows 7 with both cards in the slot and see what it does. (I'm learning baby steps.. this being hour 16 or so working on this.)

 

[bystander]

Great to see you got it back to normal. If you do find the new card continues to have issues, I'd go ahead and RMA it. Now that you have the original bios in there, they have no reason to believe you tampered with the card, and who knows, maybe it was a bad card to begin with. Hopefully everything runs good from now on.

 

[ppercutt]

Next puzzle,

So I'm back to "normal" now. I placed the new card into the first slot with the new mobo/ram/cpu and its working again just like brand new.

So I decide to start over again at step 1.

I followed every instruction to the letter. Every last one. Doesn't work, starts to flash, but never completes the process.

But I have this handy usb flash that's bootable and has atiflash on it...

So I move the modded.bin file onto the usb, and try booting from usb on my new mobo.. and it won't boot.

Turns out if you want to boot from usb on a asrock z68 extreme4 gen3 - you need to put the flash drive in the "USB 2.0" slots at the top of the mobo.. the USB 3.0 slots won't work (the mobo BIOS doesn't recognize there is a usb drive in them).

So I move the flash drive into the usb 2.0 spot. Boot from usb, use atiflash to unlock the new card.. and use modded.bin to flash the card.

Everything goes well, new / old version is shown, please restart PC etc.

I restart.... boots up, sweet... go into windows 7 fine, sweet... fire up GPUZ, shaders: 1408. Damn.

Any ideas why the modded.bin with atiflash from MS-DOS prompt wouldn't work?

 

[bystander]

Did you take the original bios, and run it through the script and lace the new bios on the card?

By the name of the .bin file, I'd guess you did, and that might mean that all the shaders are either not working, or disabled in another manner other than software. Even when they weren't trying to stop this process in the past, not all cards would unlock (about 3% wouldn't) due to non-functioning shaders.

 

[ppercutt]

I'll re-run the flash using atiflash after booting into MS DOS and type out the numbers.

But yes, I saved the bios using atiwinflash as "bios.rom" then copied it and renamed it "original.bin". Then I copied original.bin into the modded folder, ran the .bat file, and then copied the "modded.bin" and placed it onto the usb drive.

I'll try some more stuff and see what I get.


Edit 1: I tried GPUZ to save the bios as original.bin and placed it into the Mod Bios folder and exectued "run.bat" but it did not create a "modded.bin" file.

Edit 2: I tried using Atiwinflash in windows 7 (not the command prompt) and loaded "modded.bin" and clicked program - after about 3-4 secs of the bar moving up, it BSOD and restarted the PC. (able to get back into windows 7)

 

[ppercutt]

K, this one gets its own post..

So I tried to restart from step one again.

When I move "original.bin" into the "Mod BIOS HD 6950" folder and run "run.bat" this error pops up:

"Could not find byte sequence in file. Press any key to continue..."

And there's no modded.bin being created.


Edit:

So I deleted *everything* and started from step 1.

Just to be sure, when I save from atiwinflash, it saves a file called "bios.rom" which I copy/paste, then rename the copied file to "original.bin"

Moved said file to the mod bios folder, and ran "run.bat" - no modded.bin is being made.. command prompt comes up, says push any key to continue, push a key, and the prompt disappears... and no "modded.bin".


Solved? I flashed back to the bios downloaded from techpower's site for my card - run.bat was able to make a new "modded.bin" file.

 

[ppercutt]

Its exactly the same: (not sure if its supposed to be)

When I boot from usb and use atiflash to flash the stock bios to the modded.bin everything is the same:


(Every line is old, then next line is new, IE:
Old SSID: 2010
New SSID: 2010 - etc)



SSID: 2010
P/N: 113-SS2G02-002
DeviceID: 6719
Product Name: Cayman Pro PCIE 2g/256B Gddr5 2xdvi/hdmi/2xmdp 840e/1280m
Bios version: 013.010.000.007.039363

Flash type: M25P10/c
20000/20000h bytes programmed
20000/20000h bytes verified

Restart system to complete VBIOS Update

C:\>


------

Again, not sure if the SSID, P/N, DeviceID, and especially the Bios version number should have changed after the "modden.bin" file was flashed.

 

[bystander]

When that happens, it is usually due to having already been altered to unlock the shaders. Did you make a copy of the bios you last flashed, the one that you were hoping would unlock the shaders?

 

[night_wolf_in]

i got XFX6950. will the procedure work with them? apparently they are the new ones (don't have dual bios).

 

[bystander]

The original post instructions has a chance with all cards, unless the manufacturer blocks it. Right now, most cards have some form of bios block, or laser cut shaders to prevent it. The only successes I've recently seen are from the HIS IceQ Turbos.

 

[r0b3412]

I have a HIS H695FN2G2M Radeon HD 6950 let me know if you get it working.

 

[BMP]

I wanted to give a big THANKS to bystander who originally posted to this thread. Your instructions were very precise and well thought out. I followed them and successfully flashed my 2 new Asus 6950 cards to unlock the missing shaders. These are new cards purchased from Newegg 10/16/11, and flashed to unlock with no problems. I had read other posts in different forums and was "on the fence" so to speak when I came across this guide. The fact that you had already hashed out the software version problems and provided concise information with links gave me the strength of will to put 2 x $300 cards at risk. Good work!