So many versions of vbios and CCC drivers for G73JH - Which one to use

I apologize in advance if my post has been beat to death but I’m still lost. I am trying to setup a G73JH-A3 that I inherited from my brother. It is pretty much in original as-received from wherever he got it condition except the system hard drive has been replaced with a new hard drive (same brand/model) and a clean copy of Windows 7 Pro w/ SP1 has been installed as well as all current Windows updates (less IE9 and MS hardware drivers). Chipset, LAN and a few other drivers have been installed. BIOS is at revision 213.

I am ready to flash the vbios and install the CCC driver package wherein lies my confusion. I have read numerous threads on the vbios update issue both in this forum and other forums and have seen references to many versions of vbios and what version of CCC driver seems to be working reliably with a particular version of vbios. Add to that, there are different versions of the ATI Flash available. Very confused now.

What seems to be working from everything I have read is: the .93v vbios, the 93vBIOS_OD vbios or the fix_od2 vbios and any CCC driver version up to 12.4. Versions 12.6 and 12.8 are questionable.

I am confused as to what vbios versions are available. I am seeing .93vbios, references to 012.020.000.032 and 012.020.000.032.0383.G730 and so on.

I am inclined to go with the following because no one seems to be having problems with this combination:

- Fix_od2 version of the 93vbios
- CCC 12.4 (whole package or driver only?)

So my questions are:

Is the Fix_od2 version of the 93vbios and CCC 12.4 the way to go?

If there is a later version of the vbios, what is it and where to find it?

What version of ATI Flash should I be using?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I would really like to get this PC set up and start having some fun with it. BTW…I will also post this on the ASUS ROG forum.

 

this place has been so barren lately, I guess I'll help ya out

I'm currently running Fix_od2 with the most recent AMD drivers and CCC

You're best off using a Dos version of ATI Flash , I used the most recent version I could find.
your going to want HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool and a flash drive to boot Dos off, ( fat32)
I'd also recommend backing up your current bios with GPU-Z before hand.

 

Already got the USB stick formatted (FAT32) from Windows 7 and bootable and ready to go. I assume you mean backing up the current vbios?

 

Yep back that up.
then

"ATIFLASH -p 0 -f fix_od2.rom"

make sure you have the ATIFLASH and the vbios on your flash drive and go for it.

 

If you can't find the fix_od2 file, i still have it somewhere.

You'll want to install the latest catalyst driver actually, all versions of CCC have been working perfectly for me since i flashed to od2.

 

there is no new CCC above 12.8 ?
what is going on , it has been 2 months

 

Wellllll...I was ready to flash the vbios. Got all of the required files on my bootable USB stick. Did the checksum on the fix_od2.rar file and it checked good.

I'm using GPU-Z to backup the original vbios but the program indicates "not responding" when I try to save the file. Also, the info displayed in GPU-Z shows "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter". I assume this is normal as this is a clean Windows 7 install and no graphic drivers have been installed yet.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Slipstream, another tool that can be used to backup Vbios is here RBE - Radeon BIOS editor the option to backup the VBIOS is "save BIOS"
Yes standard VGA is normal after clean install

 

Thanks, JOSEA.

I tried RBE and re-tried GPU-Z with negative results. GPU-Z returns the pop-up message "bios reading not supported on this device" and RBE displayed no info at all (empty fields). All I have been able to do is obtain the current bios version of the graphics chip.

This whole exercise brings up a good point, though. What value is having the backed-up vbios if the flash to the new version tanks the chip/laptop. Can't recover if I can't get a display up on the laptop, can I?

Thanks again for all the help and responses.

 

You could try using ATI flash to back up the vbios maybe. I do believe it has that feature.

 

I'd recommend installing the official drivers from AMD first, then doing it trying to back it up with gpu-z.

 

Thanks for all of the help and suggestions, guys.

I was able to use ATIFLASH to backup the original vbios (ATIFLASH -s 0 oldbios.rom) to my usb flashdrive. For whatever reason, GPU-Z and the other programs couldn't do it though I suspect it is because this is a fresh Windows 7 install and no drivers have been loaded yet.

The vbios flash went well also as I was able to boot to the desktop after the flash. I used version 3.99 of ATIFLASH and the "fix_od2 version of vbios.

I'm ready to install CCC 12.8. Do I need to do anything special with this other than click on the executable and install the whole CCC package?

Again, thanks for the help. Awesome forum this is.

 

Just click the exe and you're good to go.

Direct link to the 12.8 installer if you need it: http://www2.ati.com/Drivers/mobile/12-8_mobility_vista_win7_win8_64_dd_ccc_whql.exe.

 

I installed the CCC 12.8 package (custom install) this morning. The Download Mngr and C++ Redistributable selections were grayed out but it looks like they may have installed anyway though I would have preferred that they hadn't. I didn't have time to go look at CCC to verify version info, etc. I let the PC restart after the CCC install and touch pad works but USB mouse quit working. Maybe the restart should have been a power down/power up instead. I'll check tonight if I have time to see if the USB mouse starts working again.

Gone are the days of the simple installs I guess.

HABAGADA

 

Update on the CCC 12.8 driver install:

As has been the case in the past for me, sometimes a Restart doesn't quite get things straight after a driver install. A power down/power up cycle restored the USB port's functionality. Wired mouse now works in all ports.

Opened CCC and it reflects Ver. 12.8.

Device Manager shows the Display Adapter to be an ATI FirePro M7820. There's a thread on this forum somewhere about that I saw some time ago. I'll be looking for it today. Otherwise, I would say the vbios and system bios flash and CCC 12.8 driver install went smoothly.

Thanks everyone for the help.