GTX 580's successful Bios flash
- Thread starter Spesh
- Start date
Spesh
New Member
Yes I used Nibitor, then flashed the cards using nvflash.exe in DOS via a USB stick. I'll post the method below incase anyone else is interested.
Ok first I'll just say that I take no responsibility for people potentially bricking their cards. It shouldn't happen as the flashing process is done outside of Windows and is fairly safe. Please also note that I have only tested this on Windows 7 64bit.
Right, now that's out of the way.......
1) You will need to download the following:
- Nibitor
- HP USB bootdisk format tool
- Windows 98 boot files
- The latest version of Nvflash
Google should be your friend here
2) Back up your old Bios
- Open GPU-Z and to the right of the Bios version tab, there is a button that you can click to save your original Bios to file.
- Once saved to file you will need to open it in Nibitor and save it as a .rom file so that it can be flashed to the card should things go wrong. You should also have a spare GPU to hand incase things do go wrong and you need to flash the card back.
3) Creating the bootable disk
- Use a USB stick for this and open the HP USB bootdisk format tool.
- Select FAT32 as the file system and "create DOS startup disk using DOS system files located at" (This will be the path where you saved the Win98 boot files).
-Now you need to copy both your tweaked version of the Bios (make sure it is a .rom file) and the original version to the USB stick along with nvflash.exe and CWSDPMI.exe from the nvflash folder.
- Remove the file HIMEM.sys from the USB stick otherwise it will cause a DPMI error message later on.
- Make sure that you write down the file name of your old Bios and your tweaked Bios as you will need to know these later. Save them as two totally different names so you don't get confused. Once this is complete, you should be ready to start the flashing process.
Note - I found that doing a standard format and just copying the boot files across also worked
4) Flashing the GPU
- Reboot with the USB stick connected to the machine and select "boot from USB device" upon startup. You will briefly see the old Win98 startup screen (this took me back), followed by a DOS screen.
- Keep pressing enter until you see the following command line (this will be a recurring command line if you continue to press enter):
C:/
- At this stage you will need to enter the following command to begin flashing the card/s, leaving spaces as appropriate:
C:/nvflash.exe -4 -5 -6 BIOS.rom
- Then hit enter. Note that BIOS.rom is just an example. You will need to change it to whatever you named your tweaked Bios.
- The system will pause for a few seconds and then after reading the Bios will tell you that it has found a compatible GF110 chip and ask you if you would like to continue to flash (enter) or quit (q)
- Hit enter and the flashing process should begin. Upon finishing flashing the first card (which takes a few seconds) you should receive a message saying "flash successful". If you have any additional GPU's installed in other slots, then they will be automatically recognized and you just have to hit "enter" to flash or "Q" to quit.
- Once you have flashed all your cards hit "ctrl+alt+del" to restart your machine and that should be a job well done.
- Open Afterburner and experiment with your cards new capabilities.
I think I've covered everything there. If I've left anything out, or people have any problems then give me a shout and I'll do my best to help.
Ok first I'll just say that I take no responsibility for people potentially bricking their cards. It shouldn't happen as the flashing process is done outside of Windows and is fairly safe. Please also note that I have only tested this on Windows 7 64bit.
Right, now that's out of the way.......
1) You will need to download the following:
- Nibitor
- HP USB bootdisk format tool
- Windows 98 boot files
- The latest version of Nvflash
Google should be your friend here
2) Back up your old Bios
- Open GPU-Z and to the right of the Bios version tab, there is a button that you can click to save your original Bios to file.
- Once saved to file you will need to open it in Nibitor and save it as a .rom file so that it can be flashed to the card should things go wrong. You should also have a spare GPU to hand incase things do go wrong and you need to flash the card back.
3) Creating the bootable disk
- Use a USB stick for this and open the HP USB bootdisk format tool.
- Select FAT32 as the file system and "create DOS startup disk using DOS system files located at" (This will be the path where you saved the Win98 boot files).
-Now you need to copy both your tweaked version of the Bios (make sure it is a .rom file) and the original version to the USB stick along with nvflash.exe and CWSDPMI.exe from the nvflash folder.
- Remove the file HIMEM.sys from the USB stick otherwise it will cause a DPMI error message later on.
- Make sure that you write down the file name of your old Bios and your tweaked Bios as you will need to know these later. Save them as two totally different names so you don't get confused. Once this is complete, you should be ready to start the flashing process.
Note - I found that doing a standard format and just copying the boot files across also worked
4) Flashing the GPU
- Reboot with the USB stick connected to the machine and select "boot from USB device" upon startup. You will briefly see the old Win98 startup screen (this took me back), followed by a DOS screen.
- Keep pressing enter until you see the following command line (this will be a recurring command line if you continue to press enter):
C:/
- At this stage you will need to enter the following command to begin flashing the card/s, leaving spaces as appropriate:
C:/nvflash.exe -4 -5 -6 BIOS.rom
- Then hit enter. Note that BIOS.rom is just an example. You will need to change it to whatever you named your tweaked Bios.
- The system will pause for a few seconds and then after reading the Bios will tell you that it has found a compatible GF110 chip and ask you if you would like to continue to flash (enter) or quit (q)
- Hit enter and the flashing process should begin. Upon finishing flashing the first card (which takes a few seconds) you should receive a message saying "flash successful". If you have any additional GPU's installed in other slots, then they will be automatically recognized and you just have to hit "enter" to flash or "Q" to quit.
- Once you have flashed all your cards hit "ctrl+alt+del" to restart your machine and that should be a job well done.
- Open Afterburner and experiment with your cards new capabilities.
I think I've covered everything there. If I've left anything out, or people have any problems then give me a shout and I'll do my best to help.
If I had a better CPU like a 2600k or 980x etc I'd be over 20k