Another Botched BIOS on a G400DH

[Venturer]

Ohhh thanks!
Finally i uploaded it! I just changed the original serial number in the PINS, with ABC12345!

[DirtFarmer]

Thanks to All for the help. I'll do some work on my card tonight, see if I can salvage it or else just edit the MAX speciman Venturer kindly uploaded.

Thanks Again.

[Peter Aragon]

I bet these recent reports of failing bios'es are part of a big complot that was created out of the evil minds of sales and marketing staff that will render all cards useless the moment the new card is announced, and they are now conducting some field tests on innocent G400 users to see if the remote time bomb mechanism works

I could also have watched too much episodes of the X-Files hehehe

[Venturer]

If you want to change my "MAX" PINS to the "plain" G400DH 32MB version simply edit it and change that values:

-Only for G400DH 32mb (not 16MB SH version)

10 2 0x300

38 1 75
39 1 75
40 1 75
41 1 75
42 1 75
43 1 75

61 4 0x24045491

65 1 126
66 1 63

71 4 0x24045491

75 1 126
76 1 63

81 4 0x24045491

Also change the MAX subsys ID from 217D102B to
2179102B for G400DH 32MB

Then go to DOS "PURE MODE" and use that syntax:
PROGBIOS -i auto -s pins.txt -k

PROGBIOS must me in the same folder of Matrox's BIOSes

Hope it will work!

[DirtFarmer]

No luck so far, can't seem to whip the bios into shape.

using ATI PCI mach64 adapter with G400DH.
editted max PINS settings as Venturer suggested
booting clean dos, using progbios command as above.
Receiving the following error:

------
WARNING: Invalid pins offset...Matrox G400 AGP
VGA Disabled - BIOS

The file version is: V2.1
The Eprom version is:
If youwant to proceed, press Y/N: Y

Updating Eprom Bios to V2.1

-WARNING: The PIN's structure file is invalid
------

Any other suggestions before I RMA it to Matrox??

[Venturer]

Mmmm too bad!
Seems some PINS values are invalid! Are you sure you have edited all values i wrote, correctly?

Try to flash pins.txt as it is, without changes i suggested (DO NOT EDIT IT)! If it works your G400 should be recognized as a MAX!
Try to do that!

[Venturer]

What version of progbios did you used?

Let me know if the flashing process works correctly!
If it works, DO NOT USE YOUR G400 (even it s a Vanilla) WITH MAX settings because your card may be damaged permanently due to the passive heatsink (without fan)!

[DirtFarmer]

Originally posted by Venturer
Mmmm too bad!
Seems some PINS values are invalid! Are you sure you have edited all values i wrote, correctly?

Try to flash pins.txt as it is, without changes i suggested (DO NOT EDIT IT)! If it works your G400 should be recognized as a MAX!
Try to do that!

Yup, had tried that already, same error.

Not too sure what version of progbios i'm using. It's the one from the 2.07 bios package. Should I be trying an older one?? Louie at Matrox Tech Support told me they don't have the base BIN available for my card and recommended R.M.A. I found another thread which had Haig was being a more helpful with a Murcer named Tilson. I'm gonna try use some of this info.

Thanks again for your assistance, Venturer, I'm gonna try one more evening of this.

[DirtFarmer]

SUCCESS



One G400DH revived from the darkness.

The MURC just one-upped the Matrox Tech Support Dept., actually used links and Ideas from both.

I'm going to get this card fired up in my main system and test to make sure the editted MAX PINS file is OK then I'll upload it.

Thanks again.

So, Ant, what type of disclaimer needs to be posted regarding the use of the PINS data downloaded from this site? Anybody brave enough to add adapter resurection procedures to the FAQ? Actually GBM's site was also most useful.

Cheers

[Haig]

...told me they don't have the base BIN available for my card and recommended R.M.A.

He recommended our recovery file first and if that didn't help, he recommended an rma

[DirtFarmer]

Originally posted by Haig
...told me they don't have the base BIN available for my card and recommended R.M.A.

He recommended our recovery file first and if that didn't help, he recommended an rma

I stand corrected.
My G400 reserrected.
Haig, for President.
ELECTED

Cheers, Alan.

[Haig]

Cheers

[DirtFarmer]

Boot Floppy to read pins.

I just made an image of a boot floppy that reads PINS and writes to floppy >MYPINS.TXT

Tested on G400DH32 (which detects as MAX in windows, with Vanilla Performance ) and G200 Marvel.

The disk image was made with winimage which you will find here:

http://www.winimage.com/download.htm

and you can download the image file here:
ftp://matrox:rules@ftp.exdirtfarmer....om/getpins.imz

Use winimage to extract the image file to floppy. It will boot to bare windows 98 dos prompt and execute:
progbios -d <'mypins.txt

remove diskette/reboot after you get back to the A: prompt.
you now have a backup of your PINS. I'm sure most already have one, but if you don't GET ONE.

No this disk is not a recovery tool, but it is a quick and easy way to grab a copy of your PINS. Use at your own risk.

I'm also attempting to attach PINS file which worked with a G400 DH 32MB, G4+MDHA32G , It detects as a MAX but the timings are for a Standard G400.

[Venturer]

Very impressive!!!!!
Glad it works!

As for the PINS data:
Haig why doesn't the staff support allow to send PINS to the users that need to recover their video BIOS?
Come on, PINS are an industrial secret for the Gxxx video cards anymore!

[Haig]

Haig why doesn't the staff support allow to send PINS to the users that need to recover their video BIOS?

1 - How do I know it wasn't damaged from overclocking or trying to tweak something from our bios?

2 - What if the client doesn't change the serial # in the pins?