badmojo wrote on 2023-05-29, 21:56:

Hello friends, […]
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Hello friends,

UNIVBE doesn't detect my "new" Diamond Viper V770, which was a disappointment given the TNT2 chipset is listed in the compatible chipset list. I'm wondering if this is because it's Diamond's version of the firmware and UNIVBE is looking for the Nvidia reference firmware... or something?

So I'm trying to find the relevant utility to flash this card, and the latest reference firmware too if possible. From what I read, Nvidia's tool doesn't work with the Diamond, so I need "DFLASH" to do the job. So far I've had no luck finding it to download - the wayback machine dug up this for me:

http://www.angelfire.com/tn/PlanetMinako/tools/dflash122.zip

But the file itself wasn't captured. I'm wondering if anyone has this utility please?

Thanks.

Hopefully this might work for your V770...there's a copy of DFLASH in this bios update for the Viper V550 - https://ftp.zx.net.nz/pub/archive/ftp.dyu.edu … 50/195cbios.exe

Thankyou for this! I'll give it a try and report back - now I need to find the latest reference BIOS.

It could all go horribly wrong 😂

That version of dflash only supports NV4 (TNT), not the NV5 of the V770 (TNT2). This is turning in to a real challenge! Apparently Diamond used a non-standard EPROM, which is why tools that work with most other TNT2 don't work here.

There's a detail guide on how to flash a V770 here: https://www.romulus2.com/articles/guides/nvid … a/nvidbios3.htm (this is where I got the first link from), so this means that a version of dflash did exist for the V770. So it must be somewhere on the interwebs!

I'm not giving up yet, I needs my UNIVBE! I need to improve my forensic searching skills by the looks of things.

badmojo wrote on 2023-05-30, 22:10:

That version of dflash only supports NV4 (TNT), not the NV5 of the V770 (TNT2). This is turning in to a real challenge! Apparently Diamond used a non-standard EPROM, which is why tools that work with most other TNT2 don't work here.

There's a detail guide on how to flash a V770 here: https://www.romulus2.com/articles/guides/nvid … a/nvidbios3.htm (this is where I got the first link from), so this means that a version of dflash did exist for the V770. So it must be somewhere on the interwebs!

I'm not giving up yet, I needs my UNIVBE! I need to improve my forensic searching skills by the looks of things.

Yeah, suspected that might be the case based on searches but thought it was worth a shot anyway 🙁 ...odd how Diamond felt the need to release an NV5-aware version of dflash when there didn't appear to have been any updates issued for those particular cards!

I did find a few other links to dflash122.zip on archive.org but sadly all dead - this could turn out to be a tough ask.

According to the reference inside the file this is v1.22

I found it on this page: https://web.archive.org/web/20000829081911/ht … 0/bios/bios.htm

Brilliant vetz thankyou! This is indeed the correct version and seems to work correctly with my card. Now I just need to find the right BIOS to flash it with, I'll let you know how it goes.

Well the good news is that I was able to flash the BIOS using the version of dflash attached by vetz above. There's a very useful list of BIOS roms here: http://www.x86-secret.com/articles/nvbios.htm#TnT2

But the bad news is that UniVBE still doesn't see my card - I'd assumed that UniVBE's detection routine would rely on the BIOS information, but either I'm wrong or the card vendor / type it's looking for is not specified in the latest Nvidia BIOS. I tried both the 'Pro' and standard TNT2 BIOSes listed (my card's a Pro). Both flashed fine and seem to work perfectly, but no dice on the detection.

So I'm not sure where this leaves me, I'll have a look around and see if I can find some information about how UniVBE detects cards. There's a tool available which lets you edit the BIOS details if it comes to that - this tool only works with the Nvidia BIOS, not the Diamond BIOS, so this wasn't a complete waste of time.

Thanks again for the help PC Hoarder Patrol and vetz 👍