Voodoo2 are known to be 'tempramental', I remember having same problem years ago with my Pentium 166 MMX and using S3 Virge 2MB as 2D card.
And i did the same as you did swapping cards slot and/or resetting ESCD whenever i want to use the Voodoo2.

That the only way I could play PC port of "Blaze & Blade" at reasonable speed at my pentium 166Mhz that start showing its age.

I recall its incompatibility with certain BIOS/MB as when donate my Voodoo2 card to my friend, that card working flawlessly there.
I didn't remember what my or my friend's MB model was, but they certainly different.

It's probably a motherboard/BIOS issue. I recall trying to help someone once with a rather similar problem - Monster 3D II (Voodoo 2) 8mb would be found initially, then disappear until 3-5 reboots later when it was found again. The motherboard used was a Biostar M5ATC (ALi IV+) with a Pentium 133; when moved to an Abit BH6 (Intel 440BX) with a Celeron 300 the Monster 3D II was found in every single reboot. After two BIOS upgrades, Biostar finally admitted that the M5ATC was not compatible with 3dfx hardware. Of course there are also bum Voodoo 2 cards, but those usually don't work at all (either the PC won't boot or it won't be found).

feipoa, try the Voodoo 2 in another motherboard; if it works then it's a compatibility issue and a BIOS upgrade may or may not solve it. If the Voodoo 2 still behaves the same then it's a bum card.

It so happens that I am using a Biostar motherboard. However, the Voodoo2 had been working fine for months. The problem didn't occur until I disassembled my setup and moved the hardward into a new case. There must be some workaround for this. Do different brands of Voodoo2 cards exhibit different behaviors?

feipoa wrote:

It so happens that I am using a Biostar motherboard. However, the Voodoo2 had been working fine for months. The problem didn't occur until I disassembled my setup and moved the hardward into a new case.

I see, that's interesting.

- What model and chipset is the Biostar motherboard you're using?

- Was the BIOS updated to the latest available?

- Did you add/remove any hardware while moving everything to the new case? Is all the hardware in the same place as before?

- Did you try all PCI slots available? Is the Voodoo 2 listed in the initial boot screen (usually as "multimedia device")?

- Have you tried a BIOS hard reset (clear CMOS jumper/removing CMOS battery for a few minutes)?

feipoa wrote:

Do different brands of Voodoo2 cards exhibit different behaviors?

Not that I know - and I've tried Voodoo 2 cards from 3dfx, STB, Diamond, Orchid and Creative Labs (both 8mb and 12mb).

Also, Voodoo 1 and 2 cards don't use interrupts, only memory addresses.

Well, it looks like Voodoo2 cards can have hardware glitches. Sometimes my Voodoo2 sends the "expected Voodoo^2, none detected" error w/o any hardware/software changes. To fix it - I must re-insert the card into the same PCI slot...

MB-8433UUD. Latest BIOS. When moving a motherboard between cases, all expansion cards get removed and reinserted. They were put in the same locations. I have tried all 3 PCI slots. The Voodoo2 works on first boot-up only, then I must shuffle the cards again. I think the issue is with the BIOS and the configuration data. I don't know why this wasn't a problem before. My board has a RTC module - no seperate battery. The clear CMOS jumper has never worked well on this motherboard. I swap the RTC modules to circumvent this.

I see a lot of forum posts about this, however I cannot locate a concrete resolution.

In Windows NT 4.0, I at least get a friendly error message at boot: _GlideInitEnvironment: glide2x.dll expected Voodoo^2, none detected.

There is another vogons post concerning this, however the instructions weren't very clear. _GlideInitEnvironment:glide2x.dll expected Voodoo^2, none detected
"To fix this error completely - find registry keys created by 3dfxv2ps.dll (with Regmon). And just delete these keys after you get the error."
Which keys to delete? Do I have to delete this at every boot?

feipoa wrote:

There is another vogons post concerning this, however the instructions weren't very clear. _GlideInitEnvironment:glide2x.dll expected Voodoo^2, none detected
"To fix this error completely - find registry keys created by 3dfxv2ps.dll (with Regmon). And just delete these keys after you get the error."
Which keys to delete? Do I have to delete this at every boot?

It was my post and this post was wrong. The trouble was hardware related in my case.
Not so long ago I got a 2nd Voodoo2 for SLI and this card have generated this error in all slots. So I have replaced it to the working one.

You may get this error if you use old Win9x drivers (3.03.00 and earlier) and a fast CPU. But latest versions (3.02.02 etc) and W2k drivers work correctly on my P4 3.0E. W2k drivers work even with Core2Duo E8400. Dunno about WinNT ones...

Driver version 3.03.00 gives this error? I am using 3.03.00 in Win95c. The readme for 3.02.02 says it requires DirectX7, which is why I stuck with the older 3.03.00. Will installing DX7 and 3.02.02 correct this issue to some extent?

I still see the Voodoo2 listed in the Device Manager under MultiMedia devices. The properties tab claims it is working properly, however there is no Voodoo2 tab under Display Properties, and I get the "expected Voodoo, none detected" error when loading GLQuake.

About 3.03.00 - I will search my old posts. What I remember - 3.03.00b and 3.02.02 work ok with my P4 3.0E and WinME. But they are DX7.
Well, have found the info. It looks like 3.03.00 is speed sensitive. So - try 3.03.00b and 3.02.02.

Yes, if you get the "expected Voodoo^2, none detected" error - the card still detected by the BIOS as a Multimedia Device.

What do you mean by speed sensitive? Meaning that it needs a much faster CPU to work reliably?

I am using version V3.02.02 for Windows NT4.0 and it exhibits the same "expected Voodoo, none detected" problem.

When you corrected your "expected Voodoo, none detected" problem, you merely swapped out the Voodoo2 card for another one and everything worked fine? Does that imply that some of these Voodoo2 cards are faulty?

feipoa wrote:

What do you mean by speed sensitive?

If the CPU speed is too high - the driver can't initialize the card (_grSSTInit error) or freezes when you use glide.
If you downclock the CPU - it may fix this trouble. Or you can use driver versions w/o this bug. W9x 3.03.00b and 3.02.02, W2k 1.02.00.
Have found this when testing DOS glide games.

I don't think my CPU is too fast - 133 MHz, 66 MHz FSB. So all the driver version should work? Did swapping out your Voodoo2 card for a different card fix your problems?

feipoa wrote:

MB-8433UUD. Latest BIOS. When moving a motherboard between cases, all expansion cards get removed and reinserted. They were put in the same locations. I have tried all 3 PCI slots. The Voodoo2 works on first boot-up only, then I must shuffle the cards again. I think the issue is with the BIOS and the configuration data. I don't know why this wasn't a problem before. My board has a RTC module - no seperate battery. The clear CMOS jumper has never worked well on this motherboard. I swap the RTC modules to circumvent this.

Odin/Dallas RTC modules. Great, just great. I usually try to avoid dealing with motherboards that have them - they can be very temperamental (as you have found out). At least you have a safe method to deal with the clear CMOS jumper issue (there is another way of clearing the RTC CMOS RAM, but it's dangerous and only works with certain Dallas modules).

When the Biostar MB-8433UUD boots up, do you see a screen similar to this one?

This pic is from my Asus P3B-F motherboard showing all the devices found when it boots up. I marked with red lines how the two Voodoo 2 cards are identified. If your Biostar board has a PCI device listing with a similar ID then your Voodoo 2 is most likely working; if you don't see this then there's trouble - that's why I suggested trying the Voodoo 2 in another PC to see if it's faulty or not (Voodoo 2 cards do have a habit of going bad/dying quite suddenly, even if you have taken all the necessary precautions to prevent it).

My version of the base AWARD BIOS does not have such a listing. You don't get to see any of the IRQ assignments. Think back to AWARD 4.50PG.

It seems to me that if the Voodoo2 card was definitively bad, it would not work at all when swapping PCI cards around, but it does. Device Manager shows the Voodoo2 as working fine, but there is no Display Manager tab for it (nor do glide games work).

I will try the Voodoo2 card in another computer, however if the card works fine with multiple reboots, it does not help my situation.

There should be a reset pin on RTC modules; I just don't think my motherboard pulled up the right header for it. I may connect a reset switch to this to see if this helps, and if so, perhaps I can devise an automated method to clear the RTC at boot. The drawback of this is that I'll loose system time.

You sure setting a fixed INT# the Voodoo2 PCI slot won't help? There's A, B, C, D, however I never really understood the technical reason for them.

I tested the Voodoo2 card in a 430TX-based K6-III system and Win98se/W2K both found the card at every boot. So the problem remains - how to get the MB-8433UUD to see the card in Win95c/NT4 without having to shuffle the card between PCI slots.

Maybe the mobo isn't seated well and a screw is in contact with some part of the mobo it isn't supposed to. You could try to remove the mobo from the case put it ontop of a carton box and check if the problem persists.

Mobo was removed from the case long ago in the troubleshooting process.

It isn't obvious from the discussion that's why I suggested it. Still if it was working before the move to the new case it should be something you did while moving it or a problem with the new case/psu.

feipoa wrote:

My version of the base AWARD BIOS does not have such a listing. You don't get to see any of the IRQ assignments. Think back to AWARD 4.50PG.

You're right, I forgot this is a 486 motherboard. My apologies.

feipoa wrote:

It seems to me that if the Voodoo2 card was definitively bad, it would not work at all when swapping PCI cards around, but it does. Device Manager shows the Voodoo2 as working fine, but there is no Display Manager tab for it (nor do glide games work).

I will try the Voodoo2 card in another computer, however if the card works fine with multiple reboots, it does not help my situation.

feipoa wrote:

I tested the Voodoo2 card in a 430TX-based K6-III system and Win98se/W2K both found the card at every boot. So the problem remains - how to get the MB-8433UUD to see the card in Win95c/NT4 without having to shuffle the card between PCI slots.

Okay, that means the Voodoo 2 definitely works. Back to the MB-8433UUD.

feipoa wrote:

There should be a reset pin on RTC modules; I just don't think my motherboard pulled up the right header for it. I may connect a reset switch to this to see if this helps, and if so, perhaps I can devise an automated method to clear the RTC at boot. The drawback of this is that I'll loose system time.

From what I've read, pin 21 on Dallas 1287A/12887A modules is for RAM Clear; shorting pins 12 (ground) and 21 for a few seconds should reset the RTC, certainly worth trying at this point (be very careful when you do this, the RTC module can be killed easily if the wrong pins are shorted).

feipoa wrote:

You sure setting a fixed INT# the Voodoo2 PCI slot won't help? There's A, B, C, D, however I never really understood the technical reason for them.

From what I understand PCI interrupts are auto assigned by the BIOS at initial boot; since Voodoo 1/2 cards don't request one they don't get one. Because of the current issue you're having though, you can try setting a fixed INT# in the BIOS for each PCI slot and see what happens - at worst nothing will change.

This link gives an explanation of how PCI interrupts are done on a PC. It's meant for Linux users, but a lot of the information applies to Windows as well.