Bricked GPU?

[TGJ]

So I was flashing the bios on an RX 580 using amdvbflash and the flashing “failed” saying something like “could not read bios...” or something to that effect. I had saved a copy of the stock bios, however shortly after the failure Windows crashed and I’ve been stuck in a Windows restart loop trying to do the startup repair, etc. but I can’t remember the admin password for the computer so not much I can do. Talk about bad luck / timing.

Anyway, assuming I can’t restore this computer is there anything I can do with this GPU to restore / repair it?

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[FireBallex]

You can enter your bios settings and set gpu as primary display and connect display to your motherboard instead either through MOBO hdmi or vga and try to flash back to Stock, it seems like you don't have enough experience about flashing bios, better watch some YouTube videos first

[Black Hawk Mining]

you can watch this video how to recover bricked GPU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCfubRQz72E&t=850s

Usually there are two ways... 1. if your card has dual bios you can switch to other bios to be able to boot, and than when you are in windows switch back and reflash with stock vbios
2. you use another gpu. and you connect monitor to it, once in windows you reflash "dead" gpu with stock bios...

And yes probably also third solution like FireBallex suggested would work... but as far as I am aware you should not set gpu as primary display to be able to get picture through mobo. You need to set IGFX for primary display...

You can enter your bios settings and set gpu as primary display and connect display to your motherboard instead either through MOBO hdmi or vga and try to flash back to Stock, it seems like you don't have enough experience about flashing bios, better watch some YouTube videos first

[Ken_terrance]

Next time if you are ever going to flash a bios on a graphic card before buying make sure the graphic card has a dual bios switch, I only ordered for RX580s with dual bios switch on them all because anything can happen when you trying to flash a bios, anyways I hope you've learned a lesson, use youtube to recover your gpu

[fmz89]

So I was flashing the bios on an RX 580 using amdvbflash and the flashing “failed” saying something like “could not read bios...” or something to that effect. I had saved a copy of the stock bios, however shortly after the failure Windows crashed and I’ve been stuck in a Windows restart loop trying to do the startup repair, etc. but I can’t remember the admin password for the computer so not much I can do. Talk about bad luck / timing.

Anyway, assuming I can’t restore this computer is there anything I can do with this GPU to restore / repair it?

flash it again if you had igpu or other gpu, and most rx580 has 2 bioses, if nothing work need to replace Bios chipset isnt expensive anyway

as a miner you should buy steam solder and most gpu can fix with this

[batsonxl]

if you cant flash back that people told you allready you can go ahead and get ch341a it is small programmer for bios, you dont need even solder. there is small tool just plugs directly to bios chip. in 5 min you can re flash many bioses. good luck.
i had in my experience too. i bought card gigabyte rx480 GPUZ said it has hynix memory i believed it and copied straps flashed back and nothing error. card didnt post, i flashed again true ms-dos amdflash forced again error. then i opened card and surprise it has samsung memory inside i was confused how gpuz showing me hynix memory when chips are from samsung. i downloaded new bios for samsung and wholaaa working again. 

[sxemini]

you can recover every AMD card with bricked bios. In the past, i flashed and R9 280 bios on R7 270. After setting the bios chip in an default mode, i can reflash the card. There is a chip that you have to be bridged on the PCB of your GPU. If i find a description, i will post it later.

[CashbackLover]

you can recover every AMD card with bricked bios. In the past, i flashed and R9 280 bios on R7 270. After setting the bios chip in an default mode, i can reflash the card. There is a chip that you have to be bridged on the PCB of your GPU. If i find a description, i will post it later.

This isn't for newbies, I think only someone who knows how to really do this thing can or risk destroying something else, it's better to use the normal way like using onboard iGPU for display and flash back original bios

[TGJ]

you can watch this video how to recover bricked GPU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCfubRQz72E&t=850s

Usually there are two ways... 1. if your card has dual bios you can switch to other bios to be able to boot, and than when you are in windows switch back and reflash with stock vbios
2. you use another gpu. and you connect monitor to it, once in windows you reflash "dead" gpu with stock bios...

And yes probably also third solution like FireBallex suggested would work... but as far as I am aware you should not set gpu as primary display to be able to get picture through mobo. You need to set IGFX for primary display...

You can enter your bios settings and set gpu as primary display and connect display to your motherboard instead either through MOBO hdmi or vga and try to flash back to Stock, it seems like you don't have enough experience about flashing bios, better watch some YouTube videos first

No dual bios so trying #2. I’ve set the MB bios to boot to integrated graphics, however when I put in the bricked GPU the computer freezes just before startup. I’ve tried with a good GPU and the bricked GPU plugged into the MB together (in separate PCIE slots) with the same result. Any ideas how to get past this? Can a person plug in a GPU after Windows has loaded or is that a bad idea?

[batsonxl]

it is bad idea dont do that.
make sure working gpu plug into 1st 16x slot. then bricked gpu to 2nd 16x slot. if that doesnt help use riser for bricked gpu even that dont help order ch341a from amazon or aliexpress for 7-12$

[TGJ]

it is bad idea dont do that.
make sure working gpu plug into 1st 16x slot. then bricked gpu to 2nd 16x slot. if that doesnt help use riser for bricked gpu even that dont help order ch341a from amazon or aliexpress for 7-12$

I’ve got it to start now with the good gpu in slot 1 and the bricked gpu on a riser. However gpuz or amdvbflash do not see the bricked card. I actually just ordered a ch341a programmer from Amazon but I’m wondering if the 1 to 8 pin jump on the bios chip would work to get the computer to at least see the gpu?

[adaseb]

it is bad idea dont do that.
make sure working gpu plug into 1st 16x slot. then bricked gpu to 2nd 16x slot. if that doesnt help use riser for bricked gpu even that dont help order ch341a from amazon or aliexpress for 7-12$

I’ve got it to start now with the good gpu in slot 1 and the bricked gpu on a riser. However gpuz or amdvbflash do not see the bricked card. I actually just ordered a ch341a programmer from Amazon but I’m wondering if the 1 to 8 pin jump on the bios chip would work to get the computer to at least see the gpu?

Yes it puts it in some type of "debug" or "programming" mode. However if I recall you can only flash it that way in MS-DOS. I think I tried in Windows but it didn't work. Only way was to get some Win98 Boot disk and run the atiflash software from there.

If you shorted the pins and nothing is detected in atiwinflash, then most likely you didn't short it correctly, your finger moved or there is a bad connection. So keep trying different wires, paperclips, etc and one of them should work. Took a while for me the first time but this trick actually does work. You don't need the programmer from Amazon. A failed flash is very simple to fix.

[TGJ]

Well I was able to revive the GPU  .  To close the loop on this here is what I did:

1. I tried the 1 to 8 pin jump on the bios chip.  I wasn't sure if I was supposed to jump the 1 to 8 or 1 to 5 so I tried both multiple times while the GPU was connected with a riser.  Each time I would hold the wire in place and turn on the computer.  I would then run "amdvbflash -i" from a command prompt but each time the GPU was not found.

2. Not expecting it to work, I plugged the GPU directly into the MB in a PCIE x16 slot and it booted up (which was different because in the past it froze while booting up).  I ran GPUZ but it didn't show the GPU.  I then opened a cmd window, used "cd" to navigate to the folder that contains the amdvbflash program and again ran "amdvbflash -i"... and to my surprise I saw the GPU.  I almost couldn't believe it.

3. Next I flashed the original bios using the "amdvbflash - p" command and it updated successfully.  I restarted the computer and the GPU then appeared in GPUZ.

4. I plugged the GPU back into a mining rig on its own and sure enough it started hashing again.

Thanks to everyone for the tips and help on this, it was definitely a learning experience.  I have bios modded many cards in the past but this was the first time this happened to me.  I am going to leave this card alone and not attempt to mod it again, just happy that it is back to it's original state.

A couple other takeaways:
- It goes without saying to save the original bios before doing any mods, however if you are saving the stock bioses on a Windows machine I would recommend also saving to a memory stick in the event the Windows machine becomes corrupted.
- Use the command line to flash your cards rather than the Windows application as there is less chance of issues occurring.

[batsonxl]

it happens to all, glad you solved.