VOGONS


First post, by watson

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Sorry for the clickbait title, here are the pictures: https://imgur.com/a/hf6Duoi

I'm wondering what this resistor is for and whether it was added by the previous owner or at the factory (it would be easiest to determine if someone has the same card).
The soldering is very good, there is no flux residue or burn marks on the PCB (the other side of the resistor is soldered to a via).
When measuring across the resistor, I get a resistance of 200 ohms (I realize that might not be the actual resistance).
The resistor sits right above the AGP slot when the card is inserted.

The only hi-res pictures online are of the VTP variant of the card (VGA museum) which isn't quite the same.

Could this be some sort of voltage mod? I don't think the BIOS has been modded and the card is running at 300/275 MHz. There seem to be no missing components in the area.
The card seems to be running perfectly with driver versions 45.23 (installed by Windows XP) and 71.89. The only problem I've encountered is that trying to install the latest driver (93.71) consistently leads to a black screen and reboot.

As a side note, I've been quite impressed by this supposed piece of trash. It runs San Andreas at 720p/lowest settings with an almost locked 25 FPS. I tried 1080p as well and I got 15-20 FPS which is seriously impressive (I would have easily considered it playable back in the day).
Sure, at the time it probably wasn't the best choice, but even with DX7 you were able to run (or at the very least start up) games such as Far Cry, HL2, Doom 3, Halo, Vice City, San Andreas, NFS Underground 1/2 and Most Wanted.
Performance wise, I think this card is way more than just a beefed up GeForce 2 MX.

Reply 1 of 5, by chrismeyer6

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Yeah I don't think that's a factory setup with that resistor. I have a geforce 4 mx460 in my socket A XP rig and I personally love the card. It definitely preforms better than most people give it credit for. It's on par with a geforce 2ti and not far from a ultra

Reply 2 of 5, by shamino

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If I'm seeing it correctly then it looks like that resistor is connected to the 9th finger from the edge of the PCB.
If that's correct, then according to this:
http://old.pinouts.ru/Slots/agp_pinout.shtml

[EDIT: removing incorrect nonsense that I posted here]

Last edited by shamino on 2018-07-18, 11:33. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 3 of 5, by watson

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chrismeyer6 wrote:

Yeah I don't think that's a factory setup with that resistor.

Certainly not something I've seen before.

shamino wrote:

If I'm seeing it correctly then it looks like that resistor is connected to the 9th finger from the edge of the PCB.

That is correct, but wouldn't that make it pin A9 according to the AGP slot picture (side A because it's on the back of the card and 9 because we're counting from the left)?
Pin A9 is Vcc 3.3. The trace from the other side of the resistor would then lead to pin A7 which is RST#. If # means active low, then the resistor is just pulling up the RST line (preventing the card from being reset?).

What I don't understand is why there would be a capacitor in series with the RST line (it blocks DC, right?) and why anyone would do this mod themselves.

Reply 4 of 5, by watson

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Sorry for double posting, but I think the mystery has been at least partially solved (see second to last picture): https://www.ebay.com/itm/AGP-card-MSI-Nvidia- … 60/131161236767

Obviously the PCB color isn't the same, but it is the same card.
Definitely one of the weirder things I've seen on a card that was mass produced, but at least I don't have to worry about it anymore.

And please, do not pay $80 for this card.

Reply 5 of 5, by shamino

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watson wrote:
Certainly not something I've seen before. […]
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chrismeyer6 wrote:

Yeah I don't think that's a factory setup with that resistor.

Certainly not something I've seen before.

shamino wrote:

If I'm seeing it correctly then it looks like that resistor is connected to the 9th finger from the edge of the PCB.

That is correct, but wouldn't that make it pin A9 according to the AGP slot picture (side A because it's on the back of the card and 9 because we're counting from the left)?

Pin A9 is Vcc 3.3. The trace from the other side of the resistor would then lead to pin A7 which is RST#. If # means active low, then the resistor is just pulling up the RST line (preventing the card from being reset?).

Whoops, yeah I had the wrong pin. I didn't look at the diagram carefully enough.

What I don't understand is why there would be a capacitor in series with the RST line (it blocks DC, right?) and why anyone would do this mod themselves.

The cap should allow short transients to pass through but not a sustained DC voltage. Between that and the pullup resistor, it seems they were trying to massage the RST signal in some way.