A770 PG 16G RGB issues

Hello everyone!

I have an Asrock Intel Arc A770 PG 16GO card that I purchased in May 2024. The RGB on it died after a Polychrome update back in July. I had it installed in a family member's computer and a few months back they decided to do some updates. The RGB on it was working fine up to that point.

After they installed Polychrome RGB Sync v1.0.50, the RGB on the card stopped working. Polychrome itself hangs on installation unless the ASRISP process is terminated 3 times. I messaged Asrock support and the tech (Eric) suggested trying to roll back to a previous version. I tried to roll back to v1.0.41, but it was unsuccessful. Same results. I suspect v1.0.50 corrupted/wiped the RGB controller on the card. I have tried installing it in a different PC with the same results (RGB on card is still dead).

I have already done the standard "unplug the PC, hold power button for 10 minutes" (not seconds. Minutes) to see if that helped. Still dark.
I have tried installing the card in 2 other computers. Still dark.

I did some troubleshooting using AsrISP.exe and here are the results I got:

Running ASRISP.exe /I 0 /INFO returns nothing but the header information and the warning message.
Running ASRISP.exe /I 1 /INFO returns this:
=================================================================
              ASRock ISP Tool v1.1.0 Built: 20240729
        (C)2019 ASRock Incorporation. All Rights Reserved
=================================================================
WARNING! PLEASE DON'T STOP THIS PROGRAM DURING FIRMWARE UPDATING.

[COLOR=YELLOW][ Configuration ][/COLOR]
Program Interface ...... I2C

[COLOR=YELLOW][ Chip - Current][/COLOR]
FW Version ............. 0x00000000
FW Release ............. 0x00000000
FW Feature ............. 0x00000000
HW Version ............. 0x00000000
Device ID .............. 0x00000000
Flash Mode ............. Unknown (0x00)
Config0 : Config1 ...... 0x00000000 : 0x77A29898

Process Time                      [ 0.015 seconds ]

Running ASRISP.exe /I 2 /INFO returns:
=================================================================
              ASRock ISP Tool v1.1.0 Built: 20240729
        (C)2019 ASRock Incorporation. All Rights Reserved
=================================================================
WARNING! PLEASE DON'T STOP THIS PROGRAM DURING FIRMWARE UPDATING.
Can't find adapter

[COLOR=YELLOW][ Configuration ][/COLOR]
Program Interface ...... I2C

[COLOR=YELLOW][ Chip - Current][/COLOR]
FW Version ............. 0x00000000
FW Release ............. 0x00000000
FW Feature ............. 0x00000000
HW Version ............. 0x00000000
Device ID .............. 0x00000000
Flash Mode ............. Unknown (0x00)
Config0 : Config1 ...... 0x00000000 : 0x77A29898

Process Time                      [ 0.017 seconds ]
Running ASRISP.exe /I 3 /INFO returns same as 2
Running ASRISP.exe /I 4 /INFO freezes the program. If I terminate "Asrock In-System Programmer" from task manager, suddenly Polychrome appears, and even shows the A770 as present, but changing settings doesn't do anything for the RGB. Still dark.

ASRISP.exe /I 1 /INFO /BS 0 Successfully resets the chip, and the config fields are filled with random information, but everything else is all 0's and Unknown (0x00)
ASRISP.exe /I 1 /INFO /BS 1 Fails Jump to LDROM
ASRISP.exe /I 1 /INFO /BS 2 Fails Jump to APROM

These same commands on Interface 4 cause ASRISP to hang. Anything on Interface 4 causes it to hang. I only include that information because Interface 4 is also the only interface that shows the Display Controller with the correct ID of 60101849.

Attempting to manually update the APROM or LDROM through interface 1 results in:
Update APROM                      [ Fail (0xE1) ]
Attempting to manually update the APROM or LDROM through interface 4 results in ASRISP hanging and must be terminated through task manager.
It also displays this:

C:\Program Files (x86)\ASRock Utility\ASRRGBLED\ASRISP>asrisp.exe /I 4 /INFO /UA APROM_VGA_210209_B465.bin
=================================================================
              ASRock ISP Tool v1.1.0 Built: 20240729
        (C)2019 ASRock Incorporation. All Rights Reserved
=================================================================
WARNING! PLEASE DON'T STOP THIS PROGRAM DURING FIRMWARE UPDATING.

[COLOR=YELLOW][ Configuration ][/COLOR]
Program Interface ...... SPB_I2C
Display Controller ..... 60101849
APROM file size ........ 17632 bytes (0x44E0)
APROM file checksum .... B465

[COLOR=YELLOW][ Chip - Current][/COLOR]

This is where it hangs. No further information appears in the cmd window. I left it there for 12 hours just to see if it was being slow, but nope. Had to terminate the process in task manager.

System Specs:
Mainboard - Asus X870 AYW GAMING WIFI W
Processor - AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
RAM - 32GB Corsair DDR5 6000
PSU - Corsair rm1200x Shift
Operating System - Windows 11.

Sorry about the info dump. I'm not really sure where to go from here. I have also attempted all of the commands I have previously listed with the /FORCE switch and that did not help. I like this card and I honestly don't know how long the warranty is good for. Dead RGB isn't a deal breaker since the card still works, although I would prefer it work, because I like shiny. Is there another way to force flash the chip?

I also have an Asrock 9070 XT that I love, and now I know that I should NEVER update that software. I have it in Link mode and it works wonderfully.

Any information at all would be helpful. Thank you for your time.

Not yet, unfortunately.

This card uses a Nuvoton NUC121ZC2AE microcontroller for the RGB effects. From everything I can tell, the chip is either dead, or it had it's config wiped. Reading through Nuvoton's website, those chips need special hardware (that I don't have) to initialize them before they can have firmware flashed via In-System Programming.

I figure I have four options.

Option 1) Find a junk Asrock A770 for parts, and use my hot air station to steal the RGB chip. (Not worth it. Even broken A770s are selling on ebay for $100+, and my microsoldering skills are poor at best)
Option 2) Buy a Nu-Link2 Pro for $200-$300... and learn how to use it. (Not worth it. The fix is more than the card.)
Option 3) Disconnect the RGB connector from the GPU and make a patch cable that connects it directly to my RGB controller. (Possible. It looks like that uses a standard JST connector. I would have to test if it is RGB or ARGB)
Option 4) Leave it as it is. The A770 PG 16GB is still a pretty solid card and my wife can still game on it. She uses the card for BG3, Cyberpunk, Helldivers, and such with no problems.

Tempted to disassemble it and give the shroud/backplate a paint job though. Everything else in her case is white and purple. The design of the card looks great, but the dark colors clash with her build.

If Intel Releases the B770 this year, and Asrock sticks with the new Steel Legend design they used on the B580 and 9070 XT, I'll probably get another Asrock card and put this one in my media server to function as a transcoding workhorse. It won't need pretty RGB in that server anyways.