PC Graphics

[SneezyFerret]

Hi,

I recently bought what I thought was a Firepro W7000. Tried installing the AMD drivers for it only it kept failing. Turns out it's actually a Barco MXRT 7500, which seems to be a rebadged W7000 used in the medical industry. (??)

How odd. Can I flash the bios to turn it into a FirePro W7000? Looking at the specs they seem 100% identical otherwise. It has AMD stamped all over it and "FirePro Graphics W7000" emblazoned along it, exactly like my other W7000s. The only give away is a tiny sticker on the back. The Barco Drivers only support windows 10 and I don't use that OS so they won't install...I am using Windows server 2012 R2.

[fsadough]

You can try, however at your own risk. If anything goes wrong, you can't RMA the card

[cvzone]

I am pretty sure that the barco driver is just a modified AMD driver and the card has just a modified PCIe identifier.

Have you tried to force AMD driver installation via the device manager (INF with compatible fire pro card)?

[SneezyFerret]

Yes, I've tried forcing the latest AMD drivers via a manual install...no joy. I also tried earlier ones. The other two W7000 cards I have in my workstation took the drivers no problem, yet all three were reporting in device manager as W7000. This one had some weird driver revision...9.003 or something, which I couldn't update.
I used atiflash to read the bios and there it said it was a barco.
Problem is, my mining app won't recognise this card as long as it identifies as a barco with this driver so it's a bit of a paperweight right now...
I need to reflash the bios with a stock AMD one somehow but I've hit issues trying that. I've extracted the stock AMD firepro bios, but when I try load this it gives me some sort of mismatch type ID error and the dos version where I can force a flash won't work because it needs a 32 bit OS to run...

I've got another W7000 on the way to me but it's broken and if I can't fix it I could try and desolder the bios chip on that and replace it on the barco....Are there any schematics on this card? I could use one to ID the bios chip.

Wow what a PIA this is.

[elstaci]

TechPowerUp has an UNVERIFIED FirePro W7000 BIOS to download if you want to take a chance and see if it works or not.

You can compare this BIOS to the other normal W7000 BIOS to see if they are the same or not before Flashing it to the GPU card.

But from you last comment it is possible that the Barco W7000 has been modified to use only Barco BIOSes.

Otherwise I would ask FSADOUGH and see if he can supply you with the original W7000 BIOS if it is possible to use a W7000 BIOS on a GPU card that has been modified to use Barco BIOSes.

This tech site explains how to flash your GPU card BIOS using ATI Flash: https://appuals.com/how-to-flash-the-bios-on-an-amd-gpu/

[fsadough]

I can provide you with the original W7000 VBIOS and ATIFLASH DOS tool with force option, however I need your confirmation that this will be at your own risk. If anything goes wrong, you can't RMA the card. If you agree to this I can provide you with the tool and VBIOS.

[SneezyFerret]

Hi, thanks...Will your dos version work on a 64 bit OS? The version I have does not (4.68) I have tried both a stock bios from one of my orther W7000 cards and also the unverified vbios from techpowerup. Both report system mismatch errors and to not work with amdvbflash 3.20

[fsadough]

Yes, the DOS version 4.68 should work und 64bit

Instructions to flash the BIOS using AMDVBFLASH DOS Flash Utility

• Copy the amdvbflash.exe file and the new Video BIOS for W7000 onto a DOS bootable USB-Stick
  
  
• See below how to make a DOS bootable USB Flash Drive
  http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/191416-dos-usb-boot-drive.html
  
  
• Restart your system with the bootable USB-Stick

(If you are using bootable USB-Stick please make sure USB drive is selected as primary boot disk in your BIOS settings)

• At C:\ prompt type  amdvbflash -s 0 oldbios.rom  to save the existing BIOS file of your video card
• At C:\ prompt type amdvbflash -f -p 0 newbios.rom (new primary BIOS file for W7000)
• Restart the system

[SneezyFerret]

Hey so thanks for your help! I was able to boot into dos and try the -f option, but I got the following error message:
-f option not support in external version of the tool. please refer to tool help for list of options supported.

So I checked and used the -fv option and this gave me an ssid mismatch error:
Old SSID: 3D25

New SSID: 030C

SSID mismatched.

In the help I can see there's an -mb option to modify the SSID but I'm not sure exactly how to use this option

[SneezyFerret · Accepted solution]

OK! I managed to convert it from a BARCO card to a proper AMD card! Flashing didn't get me anywhere so I got a busted W7000 for dirt cheap, desoldered themand swapped the bios chips over. It now reports correctly as a Firepro with the correct AMD drivers
For anyone who's interested, the bios chip is labelled U11 and it's the chip on the right in this picture:

BIOS U11 (W7000 BIOS chip)

[Radeon7850]

Hello fsadough, 

Could you send me the original AMD Firepro W7000 BIOS. I understand that I use the BIOS file at my own risk and in the event I make the card unusable I am solely responsible and no other party is to be held at fault.

Thank you.

Radeon

[fsadough]

There you go:

Download link https://we.tl/t-U6AFyn8JNK

1 item

h239694_C4180100_101_Gop.rom 127 KB

[Radeon7850]

Thank you fsadough. 

For information I bought the W7000 as untested stock from an IT salvage company on Ebay for £25.  I plugged it into my PC without installing the drivers and only the 2nd port worked.  I assume all ports might work/be enabled if I installed the drivers but haven't been bothered enough to do it yet.

Then I read somewhere some people were able to 'successfully' flash it with the Radeon HD 7870 BIOS presumably to make the card more game friendly albeit with all ports except 1 disabled in the process.  So I thought I'd get the original BIOS just in case installing the drivers doesn't enable all the ports or the previous owner.

Radeon

[fsadough]

Did the VBIOS I sent work?

[hakkeshu]

Hi! This forum has been very enlightening as for these Barco gpu. You gave me hope, as I purchased this barco GPU a time ago ... Please, could you upload the bios for firepro W7000 again?

[fsadough]

Please send a PM or provide your email address.

[hakkeshu]

Hi! I can´t find the PM option.... email is 

[atmosphere]

The PM option is only available for userlevel adapt III and up. So thats right!

Do remeber to remove your email after you got the mail

[hakkeshu]

Thanks a lot for all your quotes, specially @fsadough . I was able to flash the Barco MXRT-7500 to a Firepro W7000 flawlessly. It is now working and kicking. Thank you guys!