Sunday, November 7, 2010

XFX Issues Fix for HD 6850 High Idle Fan Speed


XFX issues a BIOS fix after some users reported their HD 6850 cards running at 70% idle fan speed.

As HD 6850 cards are flying off the store shelves, more and more users have started reporting that XFX’s version that sports a custom heatsink exhibits extremely high idle fan speeds. This makes what should be a quiet card into a howling banshee in even the best of situations.

Supposedly this issue was only found in the first round of cards sent to retailers and subsequent shipments have it fixed through a modified BIOS. But what happens if you are one of those early adopters?

Naturally, software like MSI’s Afterburner can take care of this through the use of custom fan speed profiles but there is another option. Once you register your card on XFX’s website, there will be an option in the Support section where you can download a modified BIOS file along with instructions for flashing your card. Alternately, you can call XFX’s support team and they will walk you through the process.

We are giving you a third option.

You can CLICK HERE (hosted by Hardware Canucks, scanned for viruses) to download a ZIP file that contains instructions, the BIOS file and a bootable USB thumb drive utility.

Thanks to XFX for providing us with this file.

ONLY use this BIOS if you have an XFX HD 6850 1GB with a product number of HD-685X-ZNFC

Note: Hardware Canucks is hosting this as a courtesy and does not take responsibility for the BIOS file itself. However, we have tested it on our XFX HD 6850 and can confirm it works without an issue as long as the attached instructions are followed.

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