Bios/serial number question

[Larry]

I was just wondering if there was any way to get my serial number back in to the bios. I was having problems with my card ealier (turned out to be the mobo, and not the card), and Matrox told me to wipe my bios with a utility they sent me. It wiped my bios; it also wiped my serial number. What can I do???

Larry

[Zwisch]

There are ways to do this but it's not the easiest thing to do and it is simply not worth it. You still have that information on your card and you have more chance you corrupt your BIOS by trying to restore this value than to have it right... so simply don't waste your time on this...

Z

[Larry]

alright, but I'd still like to know (for reference )

[Zwisch]

Sorry, can't do that because of my NDA...showing how to modify this small value would also let people modify bigger ones that would screw up the cards...

[Jadawin]

Just read the thread "g400 and no DOS (Hello Jadawin)". I flahed my bios with the PINS of a friend and had his serial. Now I have mine back... the serial is stored inside the PINS.

Ermm.. Zwisch: I am still looking for that little amount to change the value of the ramdac. I have a 16MBDH with 250 mhz but it now thinks I have a 300 mhz (after recovering my g400 with a 32MBDH PINS). This seems to confuse pdesk (will make my computer freeze for a short moment every 3 secs when active) but everything else workes fine...

Jadawin

[This message has been edited by Jadawin (edited 12 December 1999).]

[MarkV]

The MatroX files page has a lot of good information about the BIOS and PINS. It doesn't have the exact format of the PINS for the G400, but it should tell you enough. With the MXINFO utility (available there), the latest PROGBIOS from Matrox, and a little technical know-how to put it all together, you should be able to change any of your card-dependent parameters at will, including serial number and reported max RAMDAC speed.

Check it out here:
<a href="http://grafi.ii.pw.edu.pl/gbm/matrox/">http://grafi.ii.pw.edu.pl/gbm/matrox/</a>

But don't complain to me or the author of the MatroX files page if you ruin your board tinkering!


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Mark Veneziano

[SwAmPlAdY]

Jadawin, if you know how to change the serial #, call up matrox and ask them for a bin file of a 16m card. Edit that file with your serial # and flash it.

SwAmPy

[Larry]

Thanks for the replies...After reading the page, and looking at all the things I need, I've decided that since my card is working perfectly with a serial number (and so it should!), I think I'll just let it be. I usually try to avoid sending hardware out for repair/replacement. Today is not the day!

Thanks guys!!!