i think there is a great difference where you buy it!!

greetz

Indeed, if u bought it at Tones or any other store with same reputation. They are forced to take the product back and give u what u paid for.

Atleast i think it is.

Buying used stuff however is a little trickier.

You can identify a 9800se quite easily. It has got a 9700 pcb with a floppy power connection.

Hi, flashed my Hercules 9800np to Pro. Everything went smooth. But as I feared, my CPU (XP1900+) is the main bottleneck:

non-pro:

AquaMark: 30'011
Q3: 175
UT2k3 Botmatch:48.95

pro:

AquaMark: 31'590
Q3: 179
UT2k3 Botmatch: 48.97

So, I don't know what the longterm effects will be on my RAM. So, I don't want to take the risk for a few fps more. So I flashed it back to the original. But I can recommend it if you have a fast system.

Hello Insider,

would you be interested in describing a step by step procedure of your "flashing" the non-pro experience?

it would make a great guide for others out there and as always the author will get all the credit!

This is how I flashed my Hercules 3D prophet 9800 np to Pro.

Important: You need to have Samsung (2.8, 3.0 or 3.3ns) in order to flash you're videocard correctly. Ask you're vendor or look at the labels on you're videocard. All Hercules 3D prophet 9800np cards seem to have Samsung 3.3ns memory.

Here we go:

1. Created a DOS boot disk (DOS 6.22, to be exact).

If you can't make a DOS boot disk, go to: http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm and download the Dos 6.22 Bootdisk (I used the one without the "meg disk" comment)

2. Created a second floppy disk with the Flashrom program and the 98-8004.BIN file.

To download the Flashrom program, click here (copy all three files to the disk)

To download the 9800 Pro BIOS, click here.
Remember to copy the 98-8004.BIN file to the floppy disk containing the Flashrom program.

3. I made a batch file with the command to restore the backup of my current bios.

In case I have no picture after the flash. I only have to reboot using the dos disk, change it with the flashrom disk and type "restore" or "restore.bat" (keep in mind the qwerty)

Typed command for restoring in notepad:
flashrom -p 0 original.bin ->That's a ZERO before the "original"
Stored the file on the flashrom floppy as "restore.bat"

4. Before booting my computer, I removed my videocard in the hardware device panel (my Radeon clockspeeds where at default settings)

5. Rebooted with the DOS 6.22 boot disk.

6. Once I reached the A:\ prompt, I took out the DOS disk and replaced it with the floppy containing Flashrom.

7. I made a backup of the current bios

The command for backing up your "original" BIOS is:
flashrom -s 0 original.bin (enter) ->That's a ZERO before the "original"
It will be saved on the flashrom-floppy

8. Flashing my card to Radeon 9800 Pro

At the A:\ prompt, I typed:
flashrom -p 0 98-8004.BIN ->That's a ZERO before the "original"

9. Once I received the message notifying of the successful flash, I rebooted my computer. (ctrl-alt-del) Don't press the reset button!

10. Upon loading WinXP, XP detected a "new" hardware and correctly called it "9800 Pro." WinXP automatically re-installed the Catalyst 3.5 drivers.

11. Rebooted WinXP.

12. Everything works: Core and Memory at Pro settings. I ran successful benchmarks of Q3, UT2k3 and

Aquamark without artifacts.


Note: This is just a guide, I take no responsibillity if anything goes wrong.

(With thanks to optimummind from the Rage 3D board )

try to run the other UT2k3 benchmark, as the botmatch is designed to stress the memory subsystem and your CPU, not the video card :)

http://www.madshrimps.be/gotohowto.php?howtoID=40

thanks for your great guide Insider ! :ws:

Thx :super: for putting my guide on the site. Looks nice :o

and pretty popular too! "Currently Active Users: 117" =)