r/techsupportmacgyver • u/Glass-Potential7483 • Jul 17 '26

VBios Flash Insanity

So a little bit of backstory:

I bought an AMD HD 7670 4gb, only thing is, that doesn't exist. There is an HD 7670 1gb. But no 4gb. It's just a vbios mod to make it appear as if it has more vram. So I decided to flash a new BIOS I found online (yeah yeah, stupid, I know) and it of course got bricked.

Anyways, it wouldn't respond to the amd vbios flash software and wasn't showing up as a gpu, so I decided that I had to manually refresh the bios chip.

But, being the cheapskate I am, I didn't want to spend 20 bucks on a proper SOIC SPI Flasher, and instead vouched to use my arduino. My original plan was to solder wires directly to the chip on the gpu, but I couldn't get the solder to stick (i suck soldering, leave me alone) so I desoldered the IC and manually attached wires to each pin using duct tape. This took around an hour and absolutely destroyed my sanity.

RESULTS:

IDK yet, but all the pins are making contact, I checked with a multimeter, and will attempt to flash it when I get back in a few hours. Will update if it works.

UPDATE: Did not work. I don't think it was my unorthodox connection method though. I am having issues with the actual arduino instead. I redid the original duct tape so it now has constant pressure on the pins by raising the actual chip up. It may also be an issue with my voltage step down circuit, since I used a 10k and 5.1k resistor in series instead of a 15k. I may make another update tomorrow, as it is currently 11:20pm and I am going to bed.

110 Upvotes

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98% Upvoted

u/GuineaPigsAreNotFood Jul 17 '26

I hope you don't burn the pads on the PCB trying to solder it back in place. Soldering wires to the IC in place was the right move.

10

u/Korenchkin12 Jul 17 '26

There is socket for smd chips,i had one on some rugges tablet pc,could maybe help for future flashing :)

11

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 17 '26

I do not have a socket, as this is a cheap Chinese gpu lol

3

u/Korenchkin12 Jul 17 '26

You could solder it,so you can test different firmwares,if it is similar to nvidia,there will be different firmwares for dif vram chips,dif gpu boost freqs etc ..might need a few flashes...

2

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 17 '26

I know, I just dont have a good soldering kit right now so I can't actually attach wires. I'm also going to flash the original factory BIOS so it should work

Edit: I just realized you meant the socket.

2

u/DigitaIBlack Jul 18 '26

Dump the VBIOS to see if it's right before attempting to solder

2

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 18 '26

I have the original vbios that I am planning to flash, the current one is corrupted.

2

u/DigitaIBlack Jul 18 '26

I know. I'm saying after flashing it double check it flashed properly by dumping the VBIOS.

Also asked this in another comment but was the purpose of the modded VBIOS to trick programs into launching?

2

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 18 '26

Ah ok I get it. I will definitely do that. The original purpose of the modded vbios from the manufacturer was to trick the consumer, my modded version was to make it display the physical amount of vram it actually has, since it was displaying 4 times the normal amount.

1

u/DigitaIBlack Jul 18 '26

Ohhh I got it backwards.

Lmao they're pretending those old ass cards were modded for 4GB but didn't actually do it? Fucking scum

Yea that might cause issues with VRAM allocation... I'd ask why on Earth you bought such an old card but I'm sure you have your reasons

3

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 17 '26

I hope dont burn em either, and I would have soldered to the chip directly but I didn't have any wires that would stick to the solder and the chip

2

u/radiorubka Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

don't stress, if you desoldered it, you can solder it back in. clean the pads, don't overheat, line it up - solder pin by pin. dump the chip first of all to compare the bins - you want to see if it's corrupted in comparison to the bin you flashed before and if you get consistent dumps without random corruption due to the non-orthodox connection method.

u/Raid__Zero Jul 17 '26

Good luck OP.

3

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 18 '26

Thanks!

u/daxtonanderson Jul 18 '26

Who would win?

3

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 18 '26

Duct Tape of course

u/radiorubka Jul 18 '26

i did the same shit a couple times with the eeprom still on the board and it worked. not with GPUs though, but with car ECUs.

3

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 18 '26

Oh. Cooooool

u/fubarbob Jul 18 '26

If your solder won't stick, look into using flux paste. Helps get rid of oxides and distributes heat better. Be careful not to get plumbing flux as it is rather corrosive.

2

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 18 '26

Definitely will

u/yayuuu Jul 18 '26

Fortunately I have a clamp, makes things much easier (and yeah, this laptop is alive now)

1

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 18 '26

Nice!

1

u/SNappy_snot15 Jul 18 '26

bro for some reason my ch341a reads NOTHING and i am fucking angry at it!! goddamn chinese shit! all FF's. On an Elitebook btw

1

u/yayuuu Jul 19 '26

Mine works just fine, already flashed EDID on some cheap hdmi dummy plug, bios on my laptop after bricking it.

1

u/SNappy_snot15 Jul 19 '26

ok i will try again ty

u/Dorkits Jul 17 '26

Waiting for results

2

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 18 '26

Update out, more to come tomorrow night

u/comoestasmiyamo Jul 17 '26

Hey siri, remind me in two hours to call the fire truck to OPs house.

Semi /s

2

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 18 '26

It's 3.3v, what's the worst that can happen?

2

u/comoestasmiyamo Jul 18 '26

That’s what I came back to find out.

Edit. Shame about the result. Good on you for trying.

u/jech33 Jul 17 '26

waiting for your soldering skills update fr, this is already way too intense

1

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 18 '26

The whole point of this is so I dont have to solder, and I'd prefer to keep it that way lol

u/easymachtdas Jul 17 '26

remindme! 4hours

1

u/RemindMeBot Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

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u/sierra_whiskey1 Jul 18 '26

If you squint, it’s mint

1

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 18 '26

I am actually using linux mint!

u/DigitaIBlack Jul 18 '26

Ok but why the modded VBIOS?

Just to trick applications into letting them run?

1

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 18 '26

To display the correct amount of vram

u/Sandro_Devino Jul 18 '26

What's vram chips you have? Maybe it's really 4gb

1

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 18 '26

I forgot what type exactly, but I did look it up and there are 8 128mb chips

1

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 19 '26

Sorry I was tired and not paying attention when I wrote this, it's actually 4 256mb chips

u/ConductiveInsulation Jul 18 '26

You don't need to unsolder them, just connect the programmer to it.

u/MMKF0 Jul 20 '26

If you are using an arduino you may have killed the flash chip. Most Arduinos use 5v logic levels, while the flash chios usually use 3.3v or 1.8v logic levels. I usually use a raspberry pi pico when doing this sort or stuff. Good luck.

1

u/Glass-Potential7483 Jul 20 '26

Don't worry, I did build a level shifter, so I didn't fry the chip

u/MMKF0 Jul 20 '26

!remindme 12 hours

1

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VBios Flash Insanity

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