DMA firmware questions, answered
The firmware questions support answers most. Reusing an image on another card, selling a card with firmware on it, expiry, reflashing after Windows updates, read speed and wrong-image flashes.
Short answer
Firmware is built against one card's DNA ID. It cannot be moved to another board. Selling a card does not transfer a usable entitlement. The image does not expire on a clock, and a Windows update does not call for a reflash. It is the identity layer only — not the cheat, and not a safety guarantee.
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One rule explains most of these answers
A custom firmware image is compiled for one board and bound to that FPGA's DNA ID. That ID is a read-only value burned in at manufacture. Almost every question below resolves from that single fact. The image cannot be moved and cannot be duplicated onto a second card. It does not care what Windows does on your second PC, and it has to be rebuilt if the card changes. Read the rule once and most of the list becomes predictable.
The questions support answers most
Short answers. Where a question has a longer version, it has its own guide in this cluster.
Can I reuse my firmware on another card?
No. The image is bound to the DNA ID of the FPGA it was built for and will not run on a different chip. A second card needs its own build, read from its own DNA.
Can I sell my card with the firmware on it?
The image physically stays in the card's flash and will still configure, because the DNA it was built against is the DNA in that chip. What does not transfer is the order, the support ticket, the replacement cover and any future rebuild. Ask support before you sell — entitlement terms belong to the order, not the board.
Should I buy a used card with firmware already on it?
Treat the firmware as having no value. You inherit an image nobody will support, bound to a DNA you cannot re-request a build against, and you inherit whatever history that profile has. Price the board alone.
Does firmware expire?
There is no timer and no licence check that stops it working. What decays is relevance: the environment it has to look ordinary to keeps changing, so a build has a useful life rather than an expiry date.
Do I need to reflash after a Windows update?
No. Firmware lives in flash on the card and Windows updates cannot touch it. What updates do touch is drivers on the second PC, so an update that appears to break firmware is usually the FTDI or USB controller driver.
Do I need to reflash after a game update?
Not for the game itself. A game patch does not reach the card. An anti-cheat driver change shipped alongside a patch can trigger a rebuild, which is a different event — check the published status for your product.
Does firmware affect read speed?
It can, because the image contains the PCIe endpoint and the DMA logic. In practice the USB path dominates. A charge-only cable, a front-panel header, a hub or a link that negotiated USB 2 costs you far more than any difference between images.
What happens if I flash the wrong image?
Usually the card stops enumerating, because the FPGA cannot configure from it. That is recoverable — reflash the correct image over JTAG. If the image is valid but built for a different board, the flash reports success and the card still does not appear.
What happens if I select the wrong FPGA part in the tool?
Normally the tool cannot open the JTAG chain, because the IDCODE does not match, and refuses to program. Do not rely on that. Read the FPGA marking on the board and select to match.
Is firmware the same thing as the cheat?
No. Firmware is what the card presents to the host and how it moves memory. The cheat or reader is software that runs on the second PC and talks to the card. Different layers, bought and updated separately.
Can I flash firmware from the game PC?
No. Flashing happens from the second PC over the card's JTAG port. The game PC only supplies slot power and enumerates the card once an image is running.
Can I keep two images and switch between them?
Switching means reflashing, because one image occupies the flash at a time. If you regularly need two profiles, say so in the order ticket rather than reflashing back and forth, since every write carries a small risk.
Can I flash firmware onto a card bought from another seller?
Only if an image exists for that exact board. Send a photo of the silkscreen and the FPGA marking before buying anything. An old listing saying 75T is not enough — PCB revision, USB bridge and flash chip all vary.
Is sending my DNA ID to support risky?
No. It is a hardware identifier programmed at manufacture with nothing about you in it. Send it in the order ticket rather than a public channel, the way you would treat a serial number.
How long does a build take?
Typically inside 24 to 48 hours. Builds move faster when the ticket already has the order ID, the DNA ID, the board photo and the game.
Does better firmware make me undetectable?
No, and nobody can offer that. Firmware quality reduces one specific exposure vector — how the card's identity reads on the PCIe bus. Software behaviour, input, display path and account history are outside it.
Why so many of these are really the same question
Reuse, resale, expiry and second cards are four phrasings of one thing: what the image is bound to. Reflashing after a Windows update, after a game patch and after a driver change are three phrasings of another: what firmware can and cannot be affected by. It sits in flash on a board on the other side of a PCIe slot. Almost nothing that happens in software on either machine can change it.
The three questions that are really error reports
These arrive phrased as firmware questions and are almost never firmware problems. Check the row before opening a ticket.
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| My firmware stopped working after a Windows update | A driver rollback on the second PC, usually FTDI or the USB controller | Reinstall the FTDI D3XX driver on the second PC and confirm the port negotiated USB 3. Do not reflash the card |
| My card disappeared and I did not change anything | Hung card or a seating or cable issue. The slot keeps power through a Windows restart | Full shutdown of the game PC for ten seconds, then cold boot. Then reseat, then swap the cable. Reflashing is not the first move |
| My reads are slow, is my firmware bad? | Nearly always the USB path: charge-only cable, front-panel header, hub, or a USB 2 link | Go direct to a rear USB 3 port with a data-rated cable and measure again. Only look at the image after the USB path is proven clean |
Quick reference
The facts the answers above lean on, in one place.
- Bound to
- One FPGA's DNA ID. 57 bits, factory eFUSE, read-only
- Stored in
- The SPI flash chip on the card. The FPGA loads it at every power-on
- Flashed from
- The second PC, over the card's JTAG port, with the CH347 tool
- Read from
- The second PC, over the card's data port, via the FTDI bridge
- Supported hardware
- 75T, 100T and M.2 boards, confirmed per board by support
- Build turnaround
- Typically inside 24 to 48 hours
- What it covers
- The card's identity and memory access. Not the software, the input device or the display path
Before you open a ticket
If the answer is not above, bring these. A complete first message is the difference between one reply and five.
- Your order ID
- The exact image filename you flashed and the date you flashed it
- Your card's DNA ID, copied from the tool your order instructions name
- A photo of the board including the silkscreen and the FPGA marking
- The game and anti-cheat involved
- The full tool or reader output, pasted rather than described
- Which port the cable is in, and whether the game PC has been cold-booted
Warning
The thing worth repeating
Firmware is the identity layer. A good image, a plausible donor and a correct flash remove one way of being noticed, and that is worth paying for. They do not make a setup safe, they are not a guarantee, and no tier, price or seller changes that. Everything outside the card — how you behave in game, what software you run, what your account history looks like, who you tell — stays your responsibility. That is not a disclaimer; it is the part of the picture most sales copy leaves out.
Ordering and support questions
Can I get my image again if I lose the file?
Ask in the order ticket. The build is recorded against your order and your DNA ID, which is exactly why both belong in your first message.
Does reflashing the same image fix anything?
Sometimes. It is a reasonable move after an interrupted write, because it removes any doubt about what is in the flash. It fixes nothing if the card is not enumerating for a different reason.
Why does support ask for the full tool output?
Because the line that matters is usually not the line people quote. A full output distinguishes a driver problem from a part mismatch from a genuinely failed write, and those have different fixes.
Can somebody flash it for me?
If you do not have a card yet, the DMA bundle is the order where the card arrives already flashed. For a card you already own, arrange it in the order ticket. Some customers use remote-desktop tooling so staff can do the flash after purchase — agree that in the ticket rather than assuming it is included.
Sources
Most answers here are ours. Reuse, resale, expiry and rebuild terms are our own policy, and the error rows come from tickets.
- 01AMD/Xilinx DS180, 7 Series FPGAs Data Sheet: Overview
the factory-programmed device DNA each build is bound to
docs.amd.com
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