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Flashing NVIDIA 5200 FX

eyoungren

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
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Got my PCI replacement video card today. It's a PNY, so I'm to understand I may have to underclock it's memory. That's fine. But my first order of business is to flash it.

I've got the link to the correct ROM to flash (thanks Intell) and my general concept of the idea is something like this.

1. Insert PCI card in PC.
2. Boot from a Win98 boot floppy
3. Switch to the floppy that has NVFLASH and the ROM I am to use
4. Type in NVFLASH and…

This is where I get stuck. Intell says this won't work with the latest version of NVFLASH. So, where do I go to find the correct version? And what flags do I use with it.

Intell, I know you gave me a link to the actual flash process but the writer seems to have some difficulty with English and assumes that I am using an AGP card. I'm not, it's PCI.

Can anyone fill out the rest of the steps for me. The searches I find lead me to other things and it seems to be a fairly simple process, but those pages I've found seem to be well out of date.

Thanks guys, I'm just not wanting to screw this up!
 
You don't need to underclock the VRAM (at least I didn't on the same card you have). Give me a few minutes to locate the floppy I used that has the version of NVFLASH I used on it. Going from my download records, it was either version 5.136 or 4.41. I think it was 4.41. Both of the links are direct download links from techpowerup.com's mirror of them. The instructions are the same for a PCI 5200 as the AGP 5200.

After looking at the floppy, it has version 5.31 on it. Here is the full list of all the versions, http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/Utilities/BIOS_Flashing/NVIDIA/. You may have to select All Versions from the drop down menu on the upper right corner.
 
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Intell said:
You don't need to underclock the VRAM (at least I didn't on the same card you have). Give me a few minutes to locate the floppy I used that has the version of NVFLASH I used on it. Going from my download records, it was either version 5.136 or 4.41. I think it was 4.41. Both of the links are direct download links from techpowerup.com's mirror of them. The instructions are the same for a PCI 5200 as the AGP 5200.

After looking at the floppy, it has version 5.31 on it. Here is the full list of all the versions, http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/Utilities/BIOS_Flashing/NVIDIA/. You may have to select All Versions from the drop down menu on the upper right corner.
Click to expand...
Awesome! Thank you!

I am getting prepared. I will probably do this tomorrow night. My Arctic Silver also came today so I'm going to see how that goes first. Thanks again!

----------
robertdsc said:
Have you tried just installing the card and seeing if it will work?
Click to expand...
No, that would be too easy. I have to hit myself in the head with a hammer first! :D

I'll give it a go later on and see what happens!
 
Here's a general breakdown on flashing it:
Download this ROM: http://campahunta.free.fr/Downloads/ROMs/nv_hack_256MBTSOP_FX52005500_2060_agppci_64k.zip
Unzip it and rename it 5200.rom to make it easier to handle in DOS.
Put it and NVFLASH on a Windows/DOS floppy boot disc. It cannot be flashed from within Windows.
Boot from the floppy with the 5200 card installed. It does not matter if there are any other video cards or if you are using the 5200 with a monitor to do the flashing with.
Run nvflash --check to get the index of the 5200. It is likely 0.
Then type in a:\>nvflash --index=X -4 -5 -6 -j 5200.rom substituting the X for the 5200's index number.
Wait for it to finish flashing, it will beep when done.
Check for error messages, if none, power off machine, remove card, put in Mac.
Done.

There are some other things you can do when booted from the floppy. You can backup the current ROM with the -b option. Good to do if you ever plan on making the card a Windows card again. To see everything NVFLASH can do, type nvflash -h.
 
robertdsc said:
Have you tried just installing the card and seeing if it will work?
Click to expand...
Uhm…yeah.

No flash. No boot! I get chime, but black screen only. Looks like I will be flashing tomorrow.

On the up side, I know that the card fits in the slot! :eek:
 
OK…well. Flashing went fine, once I got things figured out. However, the Mac won't boot with the card in.

I can get a chime, fans spin and that's it. The processor heatsink does not even get hot. So, somewhere some process is not going off. I remove the card and the Mac boots fine

I've tried moving the PCI cards around, removing the AGP card, removing RAM, disconnecting the additional fans I installed. Nothing. Just a chime and a black screen when the 5200 card is in.

The same situation occurred when the other card went bad. Mac would not boot with the card in.

Do not know what this indicates. Usually it's the other way. Mac turns on, fans spin, but no chime and no video. But, I'm getting a chime every time. Just no booting.

Any ideas?
 
Intell said:
Have you tried reflashing it?
Click to expand...
No, not yet. I was thinking that, but after spending a bit on it last night I got frustrated enough to walk away.

I'll probably try again tonight.
 
eyoungren said:
Uhm…yeah.

No flash. No boot! I get chime, but black screen only. Looks like I will be flashing tomorrow.

On the up side, I know that the card fits in the slot! :eek:
Click to expand...

Strange. I can imagine the AGP slot being operating system-specific, but not the PCI slots.
 
Well…I'm giving up on this.

I have followed the instructions to the letter like five times now. Every time it asks me if I want to overwrite the firmware, I press y for yes and it indicates that it has flashed successfully. And each time I put the card in the Mac I get chime, but no boot. Just a black screen.

I put the card back in the PC and the the monitor get signal!!!

So either nothing is happening and the program is lying to me or maybe I'm flashing the wrong ROM. IDK. All I know is that it's not working.

Time to move on and find another card. Hopefully one I don't have to flash. :D

In other notes, now that I have removed the bad FW/USB card the Mac is back to booting normally, i.e., I don't have to press the power button multiple times.
 
If the PC is still giving it a usable signal, then it isn't flashed. Exactly what is the command you put into the prompt to flash the card? What are you using as a startup disk?
 
Intell said:
If the PC is still giving it a usable signal, then it isn't flashed. Exactly what is the command you put into the prompt to flash the card? What are you using as a startup disk?
Click to expand...
I've tried with a Win 98 boot disk and last night with a DOS 5.0 boot disk.

My very first issue was discovering that I needed cwsdpmi.exe or nothing would work. My second issue was dealing with the "Warning: can't open swap file c:\cwsdpmi.swp" warning (I turned it off by running cwsparam.exe).

I am booting directly from the floppy. There are no attached hard drives to the PC. Since the only drive letter available is A:\ I have simply been typing in the following (per your directions): nvflash --index=0 -4 -5 -6 -j 5200.rom

I had to use --list to get the index because I can't made heads or tails of the info that --check gives me.

Other than asking me if I really want to do this, there are no other prompts.
 
Intell said:
Do you have CWSDPMI.EXE on the floppy disc? It's required. You can download it here: http://www.dbit.com/pub/cwsdpmi/csdpmi4b.zip Unzip the file and copy the three EXEs from the BIN folder to the floppy. Make sure you use the Windows 98 startup disk. Could you post the output of the --list and --check command?
Click to expand...
Sure, I'll do it tonight. And I had those three files on the floppy disk when I used the Win98 boot disk too.
 
Intell said:
Do you have CWSDPMI.EXE on the floppy disc? It's required. You can download it here: http://www.dbit.com/pub/cwsdpmi/csdpmi4b.zip Unzip the file and copy the three EXEs from the BIN folder to the floppy. Make sure you use the Windows 98 startup disk. Could you post the output of the --list and --check command?
Click to expand...

Intell, do you have any idea about this card? It's a 256 MB card, and themacelite says that all 256MB cards have 128-bit memory, yet it only has 64 bit. The other 5200 ROMs will work for 64-bit memory, but are not for the 256MB card. I am assuming that this card is just not flashable?
 
MisterKeeks said:
Intell, do you have any idea about this card? It's a 256 MB card, and themacelite says that all 256MB cards have 128-bit memory, yet it only has 64 bit. The other 5200 ROMs will work for 64-bit memory, but are not for the 256MB card. I am assuming that this card is just not flashable?
Click to expand...

I'm going say it's a 128-bit card. I'll trust themacelite over an eBay vendor. If that one will flash, it'll be the best PCI card you can get, CoreImage, 256MB of ram, and DVI-I output.
 
I have one as well, but it's crappy 64MB AGP with dual DVI. There's a very, very few of these which do work.
 
Intell said:
I'm going say it's a 128-bit card. I'll trust themacelite over an eBay vendor. If that one will flash, it'll be the best PCI card you can get, CoreImage, 256MB of ram, and DVI-I output.
Click to expand...

You are probably correct. The only thing that bugs me is that Newegg also lists it as a 64-bit card, but that is probably where the eBay seller got his info. I will try and contact XFX support, but I am sure that they will not answer me.
 
Intell said:
You don't need to underclock the VRAM (at least I didn't on the same card you have). Give me a few minutes to locate the floppy I used that has the version of NVFLASH I used on it. Going from my download records, it was either version 5.136 or 4.41. I think it was 4.41. Both of the links are direct download links from techpowerup.com's mirror of them. The instructions are the same for a PCI 5200 as the AGP 5200.

After looking at the floppy, it has version 5.31 on it. Here is the full list of all the versions, http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/Utilities/BIOS_Flashing/NVIDIA/. You may have to select All Versions from the drop down menu on the upper right corner.
Click to expand...
I'm trying to flash a fx5200 but i think 5.31 does not exists. only 5.33 but i tried 5.13 and that was the only one so far that could see the eprom. But i've been told you need the 4.41 for the fx5200.

If anybody still has a copy of 4.41 please let me know. There is no place on the internet i could find it after searching for 2 hours.

Thank you very much!
 
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