TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

dexvx wrote:

I got an STB V2-1000, and the 3.xx drivers do not work for me. The 2.11 drivers (Creative) work fine.

That's good information. I'll definitely try that. I just need to figure out how to completely remove the 3DFX drivers to install the older ones. I tried a similar downgrade earlier and it kept trying to auto reinstall, asking for a disk, and giving rundll errors and not detecting the Voodoo in game with the older drivers installed.

Check on all three 3dfx chips the tiny little legs and see if none of them are touching and creating a short. This is the most common damage on a voodoo1 and 2 and can be fixed with a needle if the damage isn't anything extreme. It can cause image distortion like yours or sometimes the card doesn't work at all (but usually they do get detected and installed).

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

dexvx wrote:

I got an STB V2-1000, and the 3.xx drivers do not work for me. The 2.11 drivers (Creative) work fine.

That's good information. I'll definitely try that. I just need to figure out how to completely remove the 3DFX drivers to install the older ones. I tried a similar downgrade earlier and it kept trying to auto reinstall, asking for a disk, and giving rundll errors and not detecting the Voodoo in game with the older drivers installed.

Driver management is a PITA (compared to XP and beyond), but you can check via driver timestamps. Also the Creative drivers will name it '3D Blaster XXX' instead of the generic Voodoo 2. I think it will default clock it to 93 MHz, so you can set it to the standard 90 Mhz (or lower).

But as above poster mentioned, carefully physically inspect the card itself.

ODwilly wrote:

Apple imac mini laptops

Do such things truly exist?

SW-SSG wrote:

ODwilly wrote:

Apple imac mini laptops

Do such things truly exist?

I'm assuming he means 12 inch ibooks.

This Voodoo card is really pissing me off...

There were no damaged pins, and after 3 hours work getting older drivers to work the only result is that 3D games won't even launch...

If it's not working by sundown I'm throwing it away. This will be the last time I get a 3DFX card. I own 40 video cards and this, the very first 3DFX card I get, is the 3rd one I've seen fail. Pathetic, now I know why they went out of business.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

This Voodoo card is really pissing me off...

There were no damaged pins, and after 3 hours work getting older drivers to work the only result is that 3D games won't even launch...

If it's not working by sundown I'm throwing it away. This will be the last time I get a 3DFX card. I own 40 video cards and this, the very first 3DFX card I get, is the 3rd one I've seen fail. Pathetic, now I know why they went out of business.

Maybe the capacitors are bad?

Maybe there's a voltage or cooling issue?

Maybe this thread is relevant: Voodoo 1 Problem, texture glitches.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

This Voodoo card is really pissing me off...

There were no damaged pins, and after 3 hours work getting older drivers to work the only result is that 3D games won't even launch...

If it's not working by sundown I'm throwing it away. This will be the last time I get a 3DFX card. I own 40 video cards and this, the very first 3DFX card I get, is the 3rd one I've seen fail. Pathetic, now I know why they went out of business.

Just put it on eBay for $15 or $20 and people will be happy to have it either to scrap and fix other cards or try to fix it. I suspect that it has bad caps just like one of my cards that will load a driver then crash once I start a game.

Had my hands on a PowerVR PCX2 and just left it there. Stupid me 🙁. Hope to get it next weekend.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

This Voodoo card is really pissing me off...

There were no damaged pins, and after 3 hours work getting older drivers to work the only result is that 3D games won't even launch...

If it's not working by sundown I'm throwing it away. This will be the last time I get a 3DFX card. I own 40 video cards and this, the very first 3DFX card I get, is the 3rd one I've seen fail. Pathetic, now I know why they went out of business.

Going vintage means you're going to risk getting half-working or dead cards.

And the downfall of 3dfx had nothing to do with the physical quality of their cards, but rather sh1tty business decisions.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

This Voodoo card is really pissing me off...

There were no damaged pins, and after 3 hours work getting older drivers to work the only result is that 3D games won't even launch...

If it's not working by sundown I'm throwing it away. This will be the last time I get a 3DFX card. I own 40 video cards and this, the very first 3DFX card I get, is the 3rd one I've seen fail. Pathetic, now I know why they went out of business.

I have had issues with V2's in the past. As they age, they tend to get unstable.
Anyway... One way I solved an issue with a V2 "shutting down" or freezing if you like, was to install FastVoodoo 4.2 and the overclock utillity. Then I lowered the frequency by 2 or 3 mhz, and the card was stable. I did not really notice any difference regarding performance, as this was just a couple of clockspeeds lower than standard. Hope this can resolve the issue you have.

I'll likely put the card on Amibay for some stupid low amount or trade it for some other type of card. After calming down and coming to my senses I remembered that while not fully functional with the second TMU disabled it's basically just a slowed down card that can still function. This roughly translates to meaning someone with soldering skills could either repair it or use it for parts and of course there might be someone out there who has a use for a half-speed Voodoo2. Me throwing it away isn't going to do anybody any good. I honestly think its a memory issue. I did correct 1 pin on the rear chip but I dont think it was actually shorted in the first place.

If nothing else I suppose there are a fair number of games that probably don't require the second TMU to perform well enough anyways. This still makes me cautious about buying any more 3DFX products (I only have this one as I was given it for free) from the Voodoo1-2 era. These things just feel too complex to me and complexity increases the number of possible failure points so compared to say a RIVA 128 or a 3D Rage I estimate there to be up to 3x the failure points not to mention the questionable choice to use this pin system instead of BGA for the GPU. I'll likely just drop some money on a Velocity 100 for situations where GLIDE is required or highly beneficial anyways since that should still be roughly a match for V2 SLI while providing something like 1/4th the complexity.

I just think these damn things were over-engineered. Over-engineering is just as bad as under-engineering.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

I'll likely put the card on Amibay for some stupid low amount or trade it for some other type of card. After calming down and coming to my senses I remembered that while not fully functional with the second TMU disabled it's basically just a slowed down card that can still function. This roughly translates to meaning someone with soldering skills could either repair it or use it for parts and of course there might be someone out there who has a use for a half-speed Voodoo2. Me throwing it away isn't going to do anybody any good. I honestly think its a memory issue. I did correct 1 pin on the rear chip but I dont think it was actually shorted in the first place.

If nothing else I suppose there are a fair number of games that probably don't require the second TMU to perform well enough anyways. This still makes me cautious about buying any more 3DFX products (I only have this one as I was given it for free) from the Voodoo1-2 era. These things just feel too complex to me and complexity increases the number of possible failure points so compared to say a RIVA 128 or a 3D Rage I estimate there to be up to 3x the failure points not to mention the questionable choice to use this pin system instead of BGA for the GPU. I'll likely just drop some money on a Velocity 100 for situations where GLIDE is required or highly beneficial anyways since that should still be roughly a match for V2 SLI while providing something like 1/4th the complexity.

I just think these damn things were over-engineered. Over-engineering is just as bad as under-engineering.

Amazing response..... if hardware failures bothered me this much my heart would have some troubles by now....
Comes with the hobby, none of this stuff will live forever! Questioning how they are manufactured 20+ years later is just lame imho.

xplus93 wrote:

SW-SSG wrote:

ODwilly wrote:

Apple imac mini laptops

Do such things truly exist?

I'm assuming he means 12 inch ibooks.

Duh brain fart x) Powerpc based at least! One ended up being a 800mhz G3 and the other is a 1.3ghz g4 with a bad battery.

meljor wrote:

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

I'll likely put the card on Amibay for some stupid low amount or trade it for some other type of card. After calming down and coming to my senses I remembered that while not fully functional with the second TMU disabled it's basically just a slowed down card that can still function. This roughly translates to meaning someone with soldering skills could either repair it or use it for parts and of course there might be someone out there who has a use for a half-speed Voodoo2. Me throwing it away isn't going to do anybody any good. I honestly think its a memory issue. I did correct 1 pin on the rear chip but I dont think it was actually shorted in the first place.

If nothing else I suppose there are a fair number of games that probably don't require the second TMU to perform well enough anyways. This still makes me cautious about buying any more 3DFX products (I only have this one as I was given it for free) from the Voodoo1-2 era. These things just feel too complex to me and complexity increases the number of possible failure points so compared to say a RIVA 128 or a 3D Rage I estimate there to be up to 3x the failure points not to mention the questionable choice to use this pin system instead of BGA for the GPU. I'll likely just drop some money on a Velocity 100 for situations where GLIDE is required or highly beneficial anyways since that should still be roughly a match for V2 SLI while providing something like 1/4th the complexity.

I just think these damn things were over-engineered. Over-engineering is just as bad as under-engineering.

Amazing response..... if hardware failures bothered me this much my heart would have some troubles by now....
Comes with the hobby, none of this stuff will live forever! Questioning how they are manufactured 20+ years later is just lame imho.

Really? I bet you ask the same questions about your car every time it breaks down.

Anywho, if the show of intellectual superiority​ is over I finally have something to report on the ELSA Erazor X I got. It seems to work fine. It's amazing how much of a step up this is from the TNT2 Ultra it replaced. I still haven't tested the Dell GeForce256. I'm not even opening the antistatic bag until I have some sort of cooling solution on hand.

ODwilly wrote:

Duh brain fart x) Powerpc based at least! One ended up being a 800mhz G3 and the other is a 1.3ghz g4 with a bad battery.

I've got one of those G4s myself. If the G3 works you may want to open it up and repaste it. The late G3 ibooks have GPU issues. Just had to toss a 900mhz because the mobo was dead and the case was in too poor of condition to be worth saving.

meljor wrote:

Amazing response..... if hardware failures bothered me this much my heart would have some troubles by now....
Comes with the hobby, none of this stuff will live forever! Questioning how they are manufactured 20+ years later is just lame imho.

My question is, how does a person deal with real life if a busted V2 results in spazz out?

badmojo wrote:

meljor wrote:

Amazing response..... if hardware failures bothered me this much my heart would have some troubles by now....
Comes with the hobby, none of this stuff will live forever! Questioning how they are manufactured 20+ years later is just lame imho.

My question is, how does a person deal with real life if a busted V2 results in spazz out?

Im not sure that exactly qualifys as a spazz out for me. That was more so me getting pissed off and responding to someone judging me as "lame" in a manor I deemed suitable. Either way I don't think this forum is the correct place for this discussion.

did you try anything like fastvoodoo? or kool smoky's drivers? Some times they can fix a problem like this.

xplus93 wrote:

ODwilly wrote:

Duh brain fart x) Powerpc based at least! One ended up being a 800mhz G3 and the other is a 1.3ghz g4 with a bad battery.

I've got one of those G4s myself. If the G3 works you may want to open it up and repaste it. The late G3 ibooks have GPU issues. Just had to toss a 900mhz because the mobo was dead and the case was in too poor of condition to be worth saving.

The G3 works great, it is a later white dual usb G3. Great condition overall! The G4 on the otherhand is in rather rough shape, took the keyboard off to reveal that it was re-certified by apple at one point. Going to start off by trying a different battery with the G4, then a different charger, then go from there. If nothing else I have a friend that loves G4 Ibooks that will take it off my hands for parts 😀

Some of you may remember my misadventure when I bought a GA-6VTXE only to find the caps had blown & leaked & the northbridge was fried: CPU Frequency ratio for SL6BY Tualatin 1.4/133?

I've now managed to find a replacement of the same model and (I haven't run it yet) on inspection at least, it looks to be in far better condition - no bulging or blown caps of any kind - and no suspicious stains on any of the other chips 😵 I shall hope to get it running this evening and will post pics if succesful 😅

Interestingly, the AGP connector on this version doesn't have the black plastic surround that I was expecting it should have. Is this a potential issue/cause for concern? I don't see why not in theory as plenty of other models ive seen never have one..