UPDATE: Holy *** I actually Fixed it!
tl;dr I booted from a flash card to flash my bios back to its original settings.
After a lot of research:
You need:
A floppy, usb, or flash card
Atiflash: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2040/ATIFlash_3.89.html
A videocard to have on-board with the radeon, OR, an on-board GPU
1.Eventually I was able to get in safe mode after removing the video card and running on the on-board gpu. I had to repeatedly tap F8 during bootup to enter bios settings. I chose Onboard as the primary video adapter and started windows.
2. I created a bootable Flash sd Card using the files here: http://www.fw.hu/tnm/blog/bootable%20flash%20drive.rar
however I think you can do the same with a floppy or usb.
3. I downloaded atiflash from techpowerup.com and copied the exe. file onto the flash card.
4. I copied the backup file that was originally saved using Atiwinflash called bios.rom onto the Sd card
5. Shut down the computer. Put my Radeon 6950 Back inside the case and plugged it in. Booted and held ESC to go to Boot menu. Booted from SD Flash card
6. typed: atiflash -i to see which card was which # (which was 0 in this case)
7. typed atiflash -unlockrom 0 . Message should have appeared saying ROM UNLOCKED.
8. typed: atiflash -f -p 0 bios.rom (or whatever the name of your .rom or .bin file that was saved)
Should say new rom loaded or something like that.
9. Restarted computer into bios. chose pci-e port as primary video adapter.
10. Restarted again, plugged monitor into R6950. Felt like a genius WHOOOOT!
Ok so I got the 6950 after i heard that you can flash a 6970 bios and basically make it a 6970. I did the bios flash shown here: http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159
At first the Winflash program didn't work so I flashed it via the command prompt. Being lazy, I realized i didnt have a reference card. I dont have the version u can switch to primary or restore bios.
When I prompted to restart, I went ahead and restarted, but it didn't boot back up, it just showed no display in the monitor although the computer does power on.
First I assumed it was the power supply as I read the 6970 takes up more juice, but I read that the system requirements were 550W, which i already have.
So I took the 6950 out and tried to run it with the onboard gpu, but once again I get no display in the monitor. I thought maybe it was still trying to thead the pci e 16 slot so i put my old gt 9800 in. once again I turn computer on and get no display.
I tried holding F8 or esc to boot into bios, but my keyboard light doesnt even come on, nor does it boot into safe mode/bios. I took out my USB keyboard and put a reg one in, same thing.
Now I'm trying to trouble shoot but don't know where to turn. Do i need to reset my BIos?
I have this restricted HP system that doesn't allow me to adjust anything in the bios, so maybe there is a bricking/blockage going on between me trying to flash the bios through the command promp and the HP factory setting? For example it doesnt allow me to adjust fan speed, wattage, cpu processing, etc when I would manually go into the BIOS settings.
I Would really like to figure out how to fix this. Was planning on getting a new mobo+cpu soon but I want to figure out where the problem is originating from.
I also tried using the system restore disk, and still get no display in monitor. If my gpu failed, I can get it repalced. What's bugging me is that it still doesn't even boot up from the onboard GPU.
Phenom X4 9600
8GB DDR 2 RAM
Twin Frozr II R6950 2GB
Vista 64 bit
550 Watt PSU
tl;dr I booted from a flash card to flash my bios back to its original settings.
After a lot of research:
You need:
A floppy, usb, or flash card
Atiflash: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2040/ATIFlash_3.89.html
A videocard to have on-board with the radeon, OR, an on-board GPU
1.Eventually I was able to get in safe mode after removing the video card and running on the on-board gpu. I had to repeatedly tap F8 during bootup to enter bios settings. I chose Onboard as the primary video adapter and started windows.
2. I created a bootable Flash sd Card using the files here: http://www.fw.hu/tnm/blog/bootable%20flash%20drive.rar
however I think you can do the same with a floppy or usb.
3. I downloaded atiflash from techpowerup.com and copied the exe. file onto the flash card.
4. I copied the backup file that was originally saved using Atiwinflash called bios.rom onto the Sd card
5. Shut down the computer. Put my Radeon 6950 Back inside the case and plugged it in. Booted and held ESC to go to Boot menu. Booted from SD Flash card
6. typed: atiflash -i to see which card was which # (which was 0 in this case)
7. typed atiflash -unlockrom 0 . Message should have appeared saying ROM UNLOCKED.
8. typed: atiflash -f -p 0 bios.rom (or whatever the name of your .rom or .bin file that was saved)
Should say new rom loaded or something like that.
9. Restarted computer into bios. chose pci-e port as primary video adapter.
10. Restarted again, plugged monitor into R6950. Felt like a genius WHOOOOT!
Ok so I got the 6950 after i heard that you can flash a 6970 bios and basically make it a 6970. I did the bios flash shown here: http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159
At first the Winflash program didn't work so I flashed it via the command prompt. Being lazy, I realized i didnt have a reference card. I dont have the version u can switch to primary or restore bios.
When I prompted to restart, I went ahead and restarted, but it didn't boot back up, it just showed no display in the monitor although the computer does power on.
First I assumed it was the power supply as I read the 6970 takes up more juice, but I read that the system requirements were 550W, which i already have.
So I took the 6950 out and tried to run it with the onboard gpu, but once again I get no display in the monitor. I thought maybe it was still trying to thead the pci e 16 slot so i put my old gt 9800 in. once again I turn computer on and get no display.
I tried holding F8 or esc to boot into bios, but my keyboard light doesnt even come on, nor does it boot into safe mode/bios. I took out my USB keyboard and put a reg one in, same thing.
Now I'm trying to trouble shoot but don't know where to turn. Do i need to reset my BIos?
I have this restricted HP system that doesn't allow me to adjust anything in the bios, so maybe there is a bricking/blockage going on between me trying to flash the bios through the command promp and the HP factory setting? For example it doesnt allow me to adjust fan speed, wattage, cpu processing, etc when I would manually go into the BIOS settings.
I Would really like to figure out how to fix this. Was planning on getting a new mobo+cpu soon but I want to figure out where the problem is originating from.
I also tried using the system restore disk, and still get no display in monitor. If my gpu failed, I can get it repalced. What's bugging me is that it still doesn't even boot up from the onboard GPU.
Phenom X4 9600
8GB DDR 2 RAM
Twin Frozr II R6950 2GB
Vista 64 bit
550 Watt PSU