ATI Radeon 9800 To FireGL X2 Hard Mod Guide Posted!

[Dashken]

Can't afford an ATI FireGL X2 workstation graphics card? Well, don't let high prices stop you from enjoying the great performance that all FireGL users are experiencing!

Earlier, we covered the soft-modding techniques, which unfortunately may not work for everyone. So today, we will take a look at how you can hard-mod your Radeon 9800-series card into a full-fledged FireGL X2 workstation card!

Link : ATI Radeon 9800 To FireGL X2 Hard Mod Guide!

[xysdf]

i have tried the hardmod on my 9800 pro 128MB.
after that i have done the bios flashing to firgl x2.

but

the firegl drivers wont install, because they tell me that they found no firegl device.
Another info: the ati drivers found no working device and so i use the forsage 5.4 drivers with "firegl x2@9800" instead.

could it be that the hardmod failed?

[DanaG]

I want to do this mod so I won't have to use really old drivers, but unfortunately, I don't know anybody who is capable of soldering such a rediculously tiny component! Anybody know where I could find someone who can do that? Just tell me the general type of business.

[xysdf]

soldering was very difficult.
the smd resistor is so tiny that after i soldered him out of the first position i had great problems to see him again.
after that i tried to test him with a multimeter to get his ohm value. so i have those tiny needles --->[=]<--- around him.
it was like this: i was able to see a value on the multimeter, but ................... after that i gave to much pressure to the needles that the smd resistor just rotates somewhere in the air, and belive me even if i looked in this moment right to the resistor (i only felt it) i wouldnt have seen where he makes his "salto mortale" around me.
this moment was a great change of my day mood. i think before i felt like i had no geat challenge , i have good soldering skills (even if it was my first try of doing smd soldering), and my heart was beating like a one from a buddha ,
but after i realized what happened my heart was near my knee ball i think and was beating like a diesel engine.
yes, aaaa like a diesel engine.
but for a certain moment i thought that if i stay cool i would find him immediately,
but that was only for a certain moment.
so i began fo search with my eyes, ....5min....10min.....(while not moving to keep the posibilities to a minimum)....15min and i found him ( i think the mathematical possibility to find him with the dirty of my room was 1:200000000 minumum!)

so with this success i thought that nothing can stop me from soldering that tiny monster. ya, the shitty proundness of the thought.
this was the most difficult part. i think i spent 20 minutes on it.
it is so difficult to hold that tiny think down, while soldering one end.

bla bla bla, so what i am goint to tell is: it is not easy, so grab a buddha out there (with a maximum of 2 heart beats per minute, who does not make any extra motion, neither from thought or phisical) who has great smd soldering skills.

[xysdf]

2nd try to solder. and i think now i made it right because i i had the chanche to messure it with a multimeter
but
the firegl driver wont install

[DanaG]

After the hard part of soldering (I could never manage that tiny component) you have to modify the device ID in the BIOS file. If you want to keep TV out, I imagine you'd have to mod the stock Radeon BIOS (using something like RaBiT) Device ID, rather than flashing a true FireGL bios.

Now, how do I solder that? Waah, it's tooooooo smallll!

[xysdf]

one day after my first try(who wasnt successfully) i think i tried it 6 more times.
What happened:
1st try : as i told in the previous reply
2nd try: same as 1st try but a second time
3rd try: i connected the tiny smd resistor to small wires to the connection points(that i have the can messure with my multimeter if i connected the smd correctly[ -> i messured the right resitance])
4th try: i tried it with the wires a second try but i shot the resistor -> so i searched for an replacement and found it on a old SCSI adapter(it was a bit bigger ) and connected it with the wire method to the connections.
5th try:i found that i killed the resistor near the orginal one (right from him) and replaced it with the wire method.
6th .7,8th.???.try: i tried different connections with the resistors.

so and here is my study of my tries:

before everything the adapter ID was: 4e48

1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th try:

i think in all tryes the resistance for the pipelines(right one) was killed becouse everytime i got an ID beginning with 41xx
so the position of the right resistance changes the first two letters no matter which BIOS
in this tries the driver wont install

other tries:

From windows you can see the right ID (which you gave by the BIOS)but i think it was in the flashrom program, there you can see two ID´s. one is the id given by the BIOS and one is the ID given by the resistors.
with my fast changeable solution i tried different ways.
as in your tutorial:
you need a hardmod to change the second ID to xx48 that the card identifies as a FireGl x2

but
but
but

mine has now all two ID´s at this value: 4e48 => FireGl X2
and i can install the drivers without any problems
but i have no FireGl features!!


(the smiley´s should be sarcasm, and aaaah sorry for my bad english)

[Adrian Wong]

Have you tried testing its performance?

[Max_87]

The driver doesn't install properly? I think it's the bios these bios are most probably modded bios, try to get the original ones and give it a try again.

[xysdf]

@Adrian Wong
yes, for my case( i work with XSI ) the render time was a bit faster but the working in wireframe or shaded mode was not so good as before (this is the thing i need more than rendering, ans so i use it as before as a 9800pro).

@Max_87
i used the Tyan FireGL x2 bios for 128MB cards from your page