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Software Support => GroovyMAME => Topic started by: Foxhole on June 18, 2019, 12:55:19 pm

Title: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Foxhole on June 18, 2019, 12:55:19 pm
Just tried to patch an XFX HD7970 with atom-15, and got the "Hook not possible. Not enough blank space below 0xFFFF."
i've included the bios and the logs in a zip file.
Is there a chance to make this bios work, Calamity?
Or am i out of luck?
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Calamity on June 18, 2019, 04:37:37 pm
Unfortunately your BIOS lacks enough space to hold the patch, it's short by just about 100 bytes! There's nothing that can be done I'm afraid, aside of trying a BIOS from a different vendor that matches the exact memory, voltage, etc. parameters, it's a risky business.
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Foxhole on June 19, 2019, 03:48:32 am
Quote from: Calamity on June 18, 2019, 04:37:37 pm
Unfortunately your BIOS lacks enough space to hold the patch, it's short by just about 100 bytes! There's nothing that can be done I'm afraid, aside of trying a BIOS from a different vendor that matches the exact memory, voltage, etc. parameters, it's a risky business.
Well, i've looked up this https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/?manufacturer=XFX&model=HD+7970 (https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/?manufacturer=XFX&model=HD+7970)
and for some reason, all the bios i found were 128kb while mine is 256kb.
This one seems the closest to my card: https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/125439/xfx-hd7970-3072-120521 (https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/125439/xfx-hd7970-3072-120521)
But it's still a 128kb bios.
I'm willing to take the risk, but do you think there's a chance it'll work?
Edit: seems like the difference is in the revision, my card is rev 3.2 while this one is 3.1.
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Calamity on June 19, 2019, 04:27:48 am
Don't worry about the bios size, it seems that by default the tool dumps 256 Kb although the second part of the file is empty, so yours is 128 Kb too.

What I'd do is to try and flash the unpatched bios from techpowerup first, then if it works try flashing the patched one. I haven't checked whether the memory size and everything else matches!
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Foxhole on June 19, 2019, 04:48:01 am
I was a bit hasty and decided to just patch the new bios and flash it. It seems to work  :cheers:
I did make sure that everything matches, core clock, memory size and speed and etc.
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Calamity on June 19, 2019, 05:40:03 am
Congratulations!  ;)
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Foxhole on June 19, 2019, 06:13:43 am
I think i spoke too soon.  :(
After installing crtemudriver I'm getting BSOD. System_service_exception. The culprit file is atikmdag.sys.
Reinstalling the original bios seems to fix the issue. :/
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Calamity on June 19, 2019, 06:16:16 am
Try applying ATI patcher over CRT Emudriver: https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-AMD-ATI-Pixel-Clock-Patcher

It removes bios signature check, which seems to be required by newer cards.
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Foxhole on June 19, 2019, 06:23:04 am
Now that you mention it, when installing the new bios with ati flasher in cmd, it did say something about unsigned vbios.
Will give this a try.
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Foxhole on June 19, 2019, 06:32:27 am
No go. Still BSOD. Same fault.
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Calamity on June 19, 2019, 06:37:11 am
Which version of the driver?
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Calamity on June 19, 2019, 06:42:12 am
Also, if you have dual bios you may need to flash both. There was a thread of an user with dual bios somewhere.
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Foxhole on June 19, 2019, 06:46:55 am
Tried 12 and the latest 18. Both suffer from the same issue.
By the way, i'd like to mention another thing. Drivers 16 and 18 seem to be much slower with resolutions.
Even arcadeosd takes longer to open with those drivers. Windows 7 x64.
On windows 10 it's even worse.
Edit: Definitely not a dual bios, on my older card, HD 7850, I had the dual bios. It required changing the switch that is on the card. This one is definitely a single bios.
I think the new bios is not 100% compatible maybe, because even when trying to go the bios setup (Press del etc) The screen will go blank.
I thought this is due to uefi or something.   
I'm gonna try installing the new bios without atom-15. Let's see if that makes a difference.
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Foxhole on June 19, 2019, 07:14:41 am
New bios + drivers = BSOD
New Bios + Ati Patcher + Drivers = BSOD
this time the new bios was completely unpatched and still causing the bsod.
I'm gonna try different bios.
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Foxhole on June 19, 2019, 10:24:26 am
After a long day of trying out many bios', some worked to some extent, some bsod, it doesn't seem like i can get this damn card to work with a patched bios or any other bios.
For the time being, i'm throwing in the towel.
Now, to a different issue, lol, drivers 16 and 18 seem to query or change resolution much much slower than with drivers 12.6, even arcadeosd takes a few seconds more on these drivers. Is there a way to fix this? I'm using windows 7 X64, Tried with these 2 gpu cards: HD 7850 and HD 7970.
Even if there's only one modeline available it's still noticeably slower.
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: Calamity on June 19, 2019, 11:27:04 am
Arcade OSD takes 3 seconds to boot here on my end. The overhead comes from custom mode listing. Newer dlls are slower. The price of progress I guess.
Title: Re: Atom-15 XFX HD7970, Hook not possible
Post by: krick on June 21, 2019, 07:34:27 pm
Interesting observation about the switching speed.

For my Radeon HD 7750 (GCN) I can choose from three drivers.  Is there any appreciable difference or reason (other than switching speed) to choose one over the other?  i.e. is newer always better?