Fast Way to UnBrick / Fix a GPU

Technical Skill: High

Yeah, I bricked a couple of GPUs with a bios mod.

Disclaimer: I’m sure there are many other methods but this one worked the best for me. I ended up purchasing EthOS but it was worth it for the trouble.

If you have Windows 10, the cards may appear in Device Manager, but I’ve had no success in trying to access them with AtiFlash. Also, when I installed Ubuntu on a USB drive, it won’t boot because the cards are bricked. There are probably ways around it to get Linux to boot, but it’s like sorting through trash trying to find an answer.

I’m going to give you the easiest solution that I found. I run EthOS as the operating system (OS). If you don’t have Ethos you can purchase it HERE. If you are running your rig under a different OS, you may have to put Ethos on a USB drive and boot from that. All of this requires mods in your motherboard BIOS to get it to boot.

You install the Ethos OS and choose the option to NOT load the ATI drivers. You can boot into an Ethos CLI (command line interface) and then SSH into it from another OS like Windows or a running Linux system. At that point, you will be able to see the non-working GPU and use the AtiFlash command-line utility (already installed in Ethos) to re-flash the GPU with the bad BIOS.

Restart the rig with your normal OS and you should be good to go.

© copyright 2021 h mark taylor