M17xR2 - Blind VBios Flash

Believe all issues have been weeded through from this thread - thanks for everyone's PMs and help.

Still uncertain if I am planning on keeping the system or not, but it currently seems I have a functioning M17xR2, with the exception of two 5870m GPUs with bad vBIOS flashes.

I've Googled every combination I can think of regarding a vBIOS flash, but all either imply I need to buy a programmer and desolder a chip from the cards, reprogram, and resolder onto the board, or use something via Windows.

I do have a working Nvidia card I can install in the system, but was led to believe I cannot boot into Windows with one Nvidia and one ATI card installed simultaneously. That leaves me with either buying a cheap ATI card to use as primary (may not work?), or paying someone to fix the cards with the solder/programmer option. Given the cost, it would almost be a wash vs buying new cards.

Can anyone provide intel regarding a blind DOS vBIOS flash? Such a thing possible?

 

If you know someone that lives close by with an M18xR1 or M18xR2 they should be able to re-flash those bricked 5870M GPUs for you as long as their problem is strictly corrupted vBIOS. The M18x must have an unlocked BIOS to do this, as the display adapter needs to be set to SG mode so it can see the discrete GPUs while running off of the Intel HD Graphics. I've done this several times on a variety of AMD and NVIDIA MXM cards, although I have not attempted it with 5870M. I can't see any reason it would not work the same as the other GPUs.