Flashing the Video Card BIOS

Hello,

I have recently purchased an Acer 1694 notebook, which I thought came with a X600 128mb card... instead I got an X700 64mb card. I am happier with the x700 (I've read and heard that it is of faster architechture) and also my laptop came with a faster cpu, so I'm not returning it. Anyways, I still wish to have a 128mb card, and it has come to my attention that flashing the bios of my card with the bios ATI Mobility x700 128mb card would solve my problem. I have a few questions:

1) Is this even possible? Is the hardware the same, with the BIOS types are the only difference? I don't want to mess up my system.

2) If you have the 128mb bios, pleeeeease could you give me a copy? It is fairly simple to do, there are many tutorials on how to do it (I can post one if anyone is interested in helping), and knowing how to do this could be useful down the road in case you ever have to upgrade your own video card's bios.

Thanks for your time

 

Ah, that's a question I've not heard in a while...flashing the video BIOS. I have never seen a mobile video card BIOS avaliable for download...

That is not possible to flash it to 128MB - we all wish it was though. It comes with 64MB of RAM on it (16MB x 4 chips). They are soldered to the motherboard, and not removable.

Chaz

 

Well, darn. I guess I'll just have to keep playing FarCry at low-medium quality :|
Thanks for the reply, at least now I can stop looking.

By the way, as long as this thread is here... are there any other ways of increasing video card performance? I suppose I could overclock... but is there anything else? Perhaps... hmm... I wonder if it's possible to somehow use that ''dynamic memory'' feature some cards come with, where system RAM is used by the card as well as vram. I don't think the x700 has that capability though... perhaps a well meditated bios flash could fix that

All ideas welcome! And thanks

 

Well, that's certainly a shame that you can only play it on low-med...but at least you can play it right? Not many notebooks can play far cry!

Yes, you can enable the dynamic memory (HyperMemory). Go to Driverheaven.net, and download the latest ATI Mobility Catlyst 5.10 drivers. Hypermemory is enabled automatically with those. Don't expect much of a performance boost though...but it may be smoother.

 

I supp ose it's great that I can play it...

I'll check that link out... I always thought that HyperMemory was something the actual hardware had to be capable of, though... well, nvm, I'll check it anyways.
Thanks for all the help. I appreciate it

 

Hmmm... well, I actually do remember trying that before, and I've gotten the same result this time around too. I get the message "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application". So I checked back at the ATI Mobile Catalyst site, and it says that some laptop manufacturers block new installments of the drivers, so that the laptop's stock programs don't get messed up. They had a list of supported manufacturers, but Acer is not on the list. So, basically... ARGH! I can't find the new driver on Acer's website either. Maybe I should just void the warranty, reinstall my desktop version of windows, and download some open source power monitoring software! Or something. Probably not.

Another thing... on driverheaven.net, I found this neat little program that they say will install a desktop version of catalyst onto a laptop... I'm just wondering what the point would be??

Thanks for any help, people

 

Update: The program on Driverheaven.net, called DHModtool3, installed the normal desktop version of ATI Catalyst on my laptop, and everything seems to be working normally, except that my catalyst version is now 5.10. Still no HyperMemory, though. I'm working on it!

 

If your talking about the modtool you should definately get the modtool and also get .net framework (YOU WILL NEED THIS TO RUN THE MODTOOL) Then download the catalyst 5.10 drivers, run the modtool then install the catalyst 5.10 driver and it should install no problem, hope that helps (the modtool helps you get around the problem you mentioned above)

 

Hmm... ok, I'll try getting the .net framework and will try it again later today, after school. Thanks.

However, I did find this: http://www.ati.com/technology/hypermemory.html
The x700 isn't on the list. Neither is the x800, which the x700 is based off of. Perhaps HyperMemory is available regardless, with the catalyst 5.10 driver, and this page is out of date?

 

Anything over Catalyst 5.8 enables Hypermemory automatically , there are no settings for it.

 

Oh... so how exactly does it work then? It just automatically gives me the amount of memory I need, or double my normal vram, or... I'll look it up

The .net fixed the error message, btw, so I've installed the mobility version of catalyst 5.10. Does anyone with experience with the DHModtool know what it actually does? What would the benefit be for me to use it?

Thx I'm glad I signed up for this forum, you've all helped a lot!

 

The DHMod tool modifies the drivers so that they don't recognize that you have a mobile card. So, it thinks you have a desktop card, and they install.

 

Yes, but what is the use? That was more my question.

The mobility driver is working great, btw. I just beat the Tree House level in Far Cry, and I was able to up the settings to all medium. I may be able to do more. So, something is working well!

 

Yeah - well, I guess some people want the desktop drivers...

So, medium settings is the highest you can go? What is your resolution?

 

Ok, wow. I had initially gone down to 800x600 before, on medium settings, because that's what the program recommended. I decided, though, to disbelieve the game and up the settings. So now I'm at 1024x768, on VERY HIGH quality (Far Cry), and I've only experienced a few slight drops in the fps. The most notable one was when I was in a firefight, and two grenades went off at once - I had a split second 'jag' (I dunno what else to call it) but other than that... wow. There are shadows falling on my gun! The fan's going like crazy, but... meh I was being too conservative before. Woot!

Thanks for all the help, again... the new driver has really made a difference!

 

Wow - nice to see you can play it on those settings! No problem with the help

 

Well, I've just found out that it depends on which level I'm playing
On some levels I can go full power, on others, I have to tone it down... but it's still pretty good. FarCry is one of the most graphically intense games out there right now, anyways - moreso than HL2, I've heard.

 

Yes it is - HL2 is a fairly easy game for the video card to handle. Far Cry is one of the most demanding, along with Doom 3.

I think that you are running into problems with the video memory...64MB is a bottleneck, although the HyperMemory may offer a slight advantage. The reason I think so is because, on my X700, I can run all levels of Far Cry at "Very High", 8X AF, and 1280x1024 resolution, averaging 43 FPS.

But still, for any laptop to handle Far Cry at "High" or "Very High" is quite a feat. There are not many out there that can do that.

Chaz