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I'm planning to buy a used Graphic card and I want to know whether the person using it had flashed the BIOS before, put a custom one and now that selling it just replaced the default BIOS again or not.
J Doez
Posted 2017-04-14T16:40:32.297
Reputation: 55
2
Graphics cards do not keep a record of what they got flashed with or when so there is no way at all to say for absolute certain that it had been reflashed or what with. They could easily save the current VBIOS, reflash it with a different (potentially damaging) version, then reflash the original.
The only way you might be able to tell is if the VBIOS version does not match the known versions that generally come with that card. A list of VBIOS versions can be found at Techpowerup VGA BIOS Database so you can see what version have been seen on a particular card, and you can see what VBIOS you have using GPU-z. The problem is that this is not foolproof and it might be that if your VBIOS is not in the database for your card then it is still correct for that card, but has not been seen before.
Again, there is no foolproof way to know whether the card has been tampered with or otherwise damaged. If in doubt you should buy from reputable sources.
Mokubai
Posted 2017-04-14T16:40:32.297
Reputation: 64 434
-2
A graphic card is an extremely complex mechanism that requires a very special operating system that can handle the highly parallel execution of multiple processors. Nobody can program for these complex mechanisms except their manufacturer, and these cards do not interest hackers because they cannot connect to the Internet.
Your only worry should be if the owner of the card did not update the firmware on the card, or the graphic driver on your computer that handles the card, to their latest version.
While Windows will have a driver that can handle your card, and this driver comes originally from the manufacturer, it is usually an older version of it. To update both firmware and driver, you should go to the manufacturer's website, Support section, and download the latest update.
If your card is made by Nvidia, the best is, at the NVIDIA Driver Downloads page, to use their scanner to suggest the best package, using "Option 2: Automatically find drivers for my NVIDIA products". This requires Internet Explorer or Java.
If you wish to verify the BIOS version of the card after it is installed in the computer, this is easily done as follows :
harrymc
Posted 2017-04-14T16:40:32.297
Reputation: 306 093
1This doesn't answer the question. – allquixotic – 2017-04-14T19:38:47.747
@allquixotic: It does if the displayed version is not the one that is supposed to be there. I agree that if the version id was trafficked, this is a lost cause. – harrymc – 2017-04-14T19:43:46.430
1The OP's question was more of a forensic one: He was asking how to detect if, say, the BIOS was flashed from version A (OEM, factory BIOS) to version B, then back to A at a later point. Your answer gives no insight into that at all. In fact, I don't know what would, unless he had a scanning electron microscope and knew exactly what to look for. – allquixotic – 2017-04-14T19:53:50.570
@allquixotic: The poster's question can be interpreted in more or less restrictive terms. For the more restrictive ones, divine intervention is probably required. I think my answer is the most that is reasonably possible for a user to do. – harrymc – 2017-04-14T19:58:40.697
@mokubai: Our opinions differ. This is a method for verifying the id of the BIOS, or what it pretends to be, so, weak as it may be, it's still an answer, and at the moment the only one. – harrymc – 2017-04-14T21:29:47.170
The wrong id would mean changed BIOS. – harrymc – 2017-04-14T21:33:40.073
3Ask them... Otherwise you have no real way of knowing. – acejavelin – 2017-04-14T17:30:05.967