How Asus authorized service can tell that bios has been modified on RX580?

[peteris-apse]

I had 10 asus RX580 cards. And of course all the bioses where modified and flashed for known reason.

Cards where fine, not the best, not worst, just fans started to fail soon. So I RMAed them all one by one. At the beginning I received new cards in place but later I made mistake, flashed wrong bios and warranty was voided. So I know why.  Recently I sent again 2 cards to same service center and this time i flashed exactly same BIOS file I had from one of the cards saved before. And I had warranty voided for both cards again.

So - do they really have a proof that bios was modified or are they playing me? Are they storing SN in bios or is there some kind of checksum that changes if BIOS has been rewritten? There is chance that I have been mistaken and I saved BIOS from card that I have been modified before OR... All cards came in 2 batches, maybe BIOS files where a little different for each batch.

But, to avoid that I have been just trolled and they can not actually proof bios reflash case - what are my chances? I have actually asked to service center to show me some kind of log file of some kind of software which they might use in case to check bios reflash event. Waiting for answer.

[DrG]

There are simple methods and complicated methods to determine if the BIOS has been modified. Many newer cards store the date of the flash file on the flash, so unless you can set your system time to the date of the original flash properly they can see it was modified. They did not check this in the past but now I know of at least 3 companies doing this. There are other methods as well, I'm too lazy to exlpain.

I live close to the RMA service centers and have a couple friends who work for 2 of the video card companies. Unfortunately they're within their rights to refuse warranty since the card was used outside of its stated parameters (unless its a mining card).

[Metroid]

If they have the card they will know if it was modified and to know if it was or not is very simple, just need a device that reads bios files and see if there was a modification in which for them compromised the ability of the gpu to work properly for the warranty they stated it to be. For example, they give warranty of 3 years for a bios settings, you go there and modify the bios in order to make the product to give 20% more performance, they can justify that 20% performance increase as why the card stopped worked, inside the pcb there are various components that were placed there to work only at stock, 20% more or overclocking make those components to work 20% harder, 20% more heat and that makes it at least 100% or 200% more prone to fail which in turn the 3 years warranty is outside the scope, reason why they give mining cards 3 months warranty.

The only way to circumvent this is to have a device that reads bios files too and if the card dies, you can take out the bios, change it to how it was, put it back and return it and hope for the best. I dont think there is a counter on the bios file logging how many times or if the bios file was modified, what they do there is compare original bios of that  model to the bios you sent them, if it matches then no modification was done.

The question is if gpu bios can be taken out, many motherboard bios can of many vendors, not sure about gpu bios and also depends of the manufacture and how they did it.

[philipma1957]

This is why flashing cards is stupid.

So the card had a three year warranty.

You lost it .

I have said over and over and over don’t flash bios.

Don’t over clock

Don’t run fans at 100%.


I have been through about 450 GPUs.

Only six or seven  RMAS. Everyone was honored.

So my cards last three or more years.

Now of course you lose on power and has by not using best bios.

But if your power deal is good it does not matter.

Sorry for your loss due to,flashing.

[hell_slayer]

I'm not sure whether the authorized service can determine the date of the latest BIOS flashing, but they can accurately determine that BIOS was changed by comparing checksums with the original one. If you get into a situation when the card was flashed with a modified BIOS, then it broke and you cannot flash it back with factory firmware, then you can be absolutely sure that the service center will detect it

[swogerino]

I have managed some good amount of mining rigs with many of them being Rx580.I have noticed only one thing and that is Rx580 Sapphire Nitro+ are the only cards worth buying for mining,in fact I have yet to see one failing because no one has failed with modified Bios running almost 31 mhs and at 80% fan in a relatively warm environment.
Sorry for your loss.

[Metroid]

I have managed some good amount of mining rigs with many of them being Rx580.I have noticed only one thing and that is Rx580 Sapphire Nitro+ are the only cards worth buying for mining,in fact I have yet to see one failing because no one has failed with modified Bios running almost 31 mhs and at 80% fan in a relatively warm environment.
Sorry for your loss.

Sapphire amd or evga nvidia, avoid all others like plague. Leave fans maximum 85% and if they stop, replacing them is okay, sapphire fans are $8 each, evga fans are around $10. If I had a 3 years warranty and knew they would not honor if I modified bios, I would not take the risk, thing is, 3 years have not yet passed, mining started heavily only in 2017, so if you bought a gpu before july 2017 which at that time mining was not included as a misuse yet, then, all warrants should have been honored regardless of anything but as greedy as they are some manufactures will not honor it at all, so avoid them in the future.

[babos8383]

if the device is stitched, the warranty may be denied. I had that with a map RX580 same story was, just said that menano software.

[Michail9090]

you have flashed the device with official firmware, without boost on mining, then they can not refuse warranty service

[Metroid]

you have flashed the device with official firmware, without boost on mining, then they can not refuse warranty service

Those people are devils, due to the management and pressure, they are probably assuming all the gpus they receive were misused for mining. If they check a capacitor and determine that capacitor died because overclocking, they can just refuse warranty. They have all the power. Only way is to sue them if you think you are right that they should honor it.

[PassThePopcorn]

you have flashed the device with official firmware, without boost on mining, then they can not refuse warranty service

Those people are devils, due to the management and pressure, they are probably assuming all the gpus they receive were misused for mining. If they check a capacitor and determine that capacitor died because overclocking, they can just refuse warranty. They have all the power. Only way is to sue them if you think you are right that they should honor it.

A fan flew off an ASUS card and they denied warranty on it claiming physical damage.

MSI on the other hand RMA'd tons of cards, they knew what the cards were being used for and honored every RMA sent, when they didn't have replacement cards they sent a check for the amount originally paid. A month later they continued RMAing the same cards (they got restocked). On some of the RMA's they even did an upgrade.

They took back one that caught fire and the s/n burned off.
They took many back that had broken, non working or fans that flew off.
They took back ones that just didn't give any output.

ASUS lost a customer from the way they handled just one RMA and MSI gained one for life from all that they did. I also dislike EVGA for their RMA's, they denied a warranty because of a screwdriver scratch on the psu case even though the components on the inside quite literally blew up, the scratch happened when removing or putting the psu into the case.

I go out of my way to tell people to not buy ASUS, they make a good product but have crap support.

To those that want to know, the fan flew off of it because of a bad bearing, it also did not mine 24/7 like other cards.

[philipma1957]

MSI has been very good.

Evga has been spotty.

Asus never had gear die.

Asrock on mobos slow.

Biostar on mobos slow.

Since I never overclock always under clock

Since I never bios.

RMA's have been far and few.

Most always honored.

Not sure  maybe an ASRock mobo was denied one time.

[peteris-apse]

Weirdest thing is that one gpu went through warranty and another one did not. I asked for clarification what exactly is wrong with my bios and when ill receive this card I will check if I have confused something.

[stomachgrowls]

you have flashed the device with official firmware, without boost on mining, then they can not refuse warranty service

Those people are devils, due to the management and pressure, they are probably assuming all the gpus they receive were misused for mining. If they check a capacitor and determine that capacitor died because overclocking, they can just refuse warranty. They have all the power. Only way is to sue them if you think you are right that they should honor it.

There's nothing you can do anything about it but to keep quiet yet you wont know on what kind of reasoning for you to fight.

When they caught you out on modding on first warranty submission of cards then the rest would have the same impression and thought that all of your cards
were used for mining.

We do think that even reflashing the stock bios cant be detected but they do.

[adaseb]

I think the reason why your warranty was denied was for 2 reasons, first one is you seem to own too many GPUs to be labelled a Renderer/Gamer, so you are most likely are miner. If you RMA more than 2 GPUs, there is a 99% you are a miner especially if its the same model of GPU. Since most gamers own is max 2 GPUs for Crossfire.

Second is when you forgot to flash back the original BIOS on that GPU. They probably put it in your file that "Might be a miner".

I don't think there is a way to check if it was flashed, because sometimes you are allowed to flash the bios when the manufacteur releases a bios on their website. So flashing a BIOS is not always a way to void the warranty.

[cikusa]

I had 10 asus RX580 cards. And of course all the bioses where modified and flashed for known reason.

Cards where fine, not the best, not worst, just fans started to fail soon. So I RMAed them all one by one. At the beginning I received new cards in place but later I made mistake, flashed wrong bios and warranty was voided. So I know why.  Recently I sent again 2 cards to same service center and this time i flashed exactly same BIOS file I had from one of the cards saved before. And I had warranty voided for both cards again.

So - do they really have a proof that bios was modified or are they playing me? Are they storing SN in bios or is there some kind of checksum that changes if BIOS has been rewritten? There is chance that I have been mistaken and I saved BIOS from card that I have been modified before OR... All cards came in 2 batches, maybe BIOS files where a little different for each batch.

But, to avoid that I have been just trolled and they can not actually proof bios reflash case - what are my chances? I have actually asked to service center to show me some kind of log file of some kind of software which they might use in case to check bios reflash event. Waiting for answer.

Let's put it this way, u are pretty much right about that they have some kind of SN in bios, but it is called a little bit different, it is called PPID, and Asus use it to detect any kinda of bios change on card or any kind of modification of bios in any way, when u are here, send me a message and i will explain u what can u do about it.

[peteris-apse]

Yes, I received confirmation, that this is PPID that does not match between BIOS data and label on card.

[cikusa]

There is acually a way to fix it

[sxemini]

This is why flashing cards is stupid.

So the card had a three year warranty.

You lost it .

I have said over and over and over don’t flash bios.

Don’t over clock

Don’t run fans at 100%.


I have been through about 450 GPUs.

Only six or seven  RMAS. Everyone was honored.

So my cards last three or more years.

Now of course you lose on power and has by not using best bios.

But if your power deal is good it does not matter.

Sorry for your loss due to,flashing.

And how will you get good hashrates? AMD Polaris without bios mod?

Make the right settings in bios and you never must RMA a card. In 3 years 1 RMA and this with bios mods and overclocking. We still mining with 150 Cards. Warranty on polaris is 2 years so it is stupid if some don´t flash the cards, because they will running longer than 2 years easily.

[adaseb]

Why do some manufacteur's list BIOS's to download and flash on their website then.

Take a look at this,
https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Graphics-Cards/ROG-STRIX-RX570-O4G-GAMING/HelpDesk_Download/

Scroll and find

Version - 2017/05/09
1.42 MBytes

Quiet BIOS for ROG-STRIX-RX570



Since its listed on their website you obviously are allowed to flash the bios, and most people save a backup so they flash back the original bios instead anything goes wrong.

So I don't think its right for them to void warranties due to a simple bios flash.