You use a voodoo3 without extra cooling? Mad bruh.

I figured that at least in BIOS it would be fine.
I'll get a second case fan that blows directly onto it soon, but now I am not sure if I have to mod the cooler as well or if my card is just faulty

All Voodoo 3 should work with original passive cooling. Including Voodoo 3 3500.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

All Voodoo 3 should work with original passive cooling. Including Voodoo 3 3500.

I generally agree. The chip gets very hot though so I understand this might seem troubling at first.

What's the rest of the setup, Moer? (Including motherboard revision if known.) And what BIOS? Normally a single long beep isn't VGA related. Edit: Nonsense, with later Award BIOS a repeated long beep indicates video or memory problems.

Edit2: If the motherboard is in fact the GA-6BXC Rev 2.0 you need to short JP12 and JP13 so enough power is supplied to the Voodoo. Otherwise the AGP VRM will overheat. This is a known issue with Gigabyte boards. The jumpers are a workaround bypassing the VRM and supplying 3.3V directly from the PSU IIRC.

Thank you for the answers!
My current setup is:
-GIGABYTE GA-6BXC Rev.2
-SB16 CT2940
-3DFX Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
-Via Ezra C3-800MHz 800AMHz
-3x Compaq 128MB, PC133, SDRAM, 133 MHz RAM
-be quiet! STRAIGHT POWER 11 PC Netzteil ATX 450W (24A on the 5V line)
-1x Noctua NF-S12A FLX; with a second one underway

Before powering on, I read through the MB manual and set the Voodoo3 jumpers as it should. But this does still sound like a probable cause to me. Maybe I should check if the correct voltage actually arrives?
I was aware about Voodoo's heat issues before, but this really seems fishy to me
EDIT: Is it possible that a BIOS setting overrides the jumper?

I've never actively cooled my Voodoo 3... just the heatsink that came with it. I've never had a problem with it.

Moer wrote:

-Via Ezra C3-800MHz 800AMHz

I must admit I really wasn't thinking of that one. 😁
Since to my knowledge there's no VID pin combination setting Vcore to 1,35V on Slot1 could it be you're simply overvolting your processor making the system unstable? Have you tried a regular Slot1 CPU?

Moer wrote:

Before powering on, I read through the MB manual and set the Voodoo3 jumpers as it should. But this does still sound like a probable cause to me. Maybe I should check if the correct voltage actually arrives?
I was aware about Voodoo's heat issues before, but this really seems fishy to me
EDIT: Is it possible that a BIOS setting overrides the jumper?

AFAIK the jumpers are hard wired so there's no override. They should pass power from the ATX connector right through to the AGP slot.

If using original passive heatsink then the case should be well ventilated. Otherwise I recommend putting some small fan on the card. Voodoos are 20 y.o. and to extend it's life it would be wise to cool it well.

While all Voodoos SHOULD work fine with stock cooling, please feel free to improve on it or at least make sure a case fan is blowing fresh air over it. Their chips are meant to handle the heat, but the PCB really isn't.

It WILL damage the PCB eventually. This is especially true with the PCI versions where they stupidly used 3.3v regulators that get up to 170+F within seconds, and used very weak heatsinks on them without any thermal paste or pads.

Over the years, this heat will discolor the PCB and eventually cause the layers to separate or warp, or become brittle.

Thank you again for the answers.
The CPU converter board I am using (MS6905 Ver2) should automatically use the right voltage; at least in theory. Unfortunately I don't have another processor on hand to test this. But if I can't solve the problem I will just downgrade, since DOS gaming and Adlib tracker was the reason I built it in the first place. Win98 would just be a nice extra.
I do have a second case fan that should be coming soon and will be directly blowing onto the card. If possible I would like to avoid modding the card, but this could definitely be an option too.
I just thought that it really shouldn't overheat without any substantial workload, so I want to get to the bottom of this problem ... somehow ':)
Testing this out makes me really uncomfortable. Letting a card overheat is obviously not a good thing. But watching the temps seems also not possible

Moer wrote:

The CPU converter board I am using (MS6905 Ver2) should automatically use the right voltage; at least in theory.

The adaptor can either override the CPU VID pr pass it through. I'm really not that confident in the motherboard actually supplying 1.35V though. Isn't there a hardware monitoring tab in the BIOS? This should tell you CPU Vcore.

I downclocked my system to 100MHz*6
The system seems more stable now. The heatsink still gets hot in BIOS, but it ran for 30min now without overheating.
It only worries me, if it will still handle well when actually using it for actual 3D games instead of just BIOS
EDIT: I cannot find the CPU VCore in the BIOS

Moer wrote:

I downclocked my system to 100MHz*6 The system seems more stable now. The heatsink still gets hot in BIOS, but it ran for 30min […]
Show full quote

I downclocked my system to 100MHz*6
The system seems more stable now. The heatsink still gets hot in BIOS, but it ran for 30min now without overheating.
It only worries me, if it will still handle well when actually using it for actual 3D games instead of just BIOS
EDIT: I cannot find the CPU VCore in the BIOS

By now I'm pretty convinced the board is overvolting the CPU causing instability. I would suggest getting a regular PIII and seeing what happens with that. Maybe there's no hardware monitoring with this board, this wasn't standard with Slot 1.
The V3 heatsinks all get hot without active cooling. It's not really an issue but active cooling doesn't hurt either. Cooler ICs live longer. 😉

I will get a PIII when I find a good deal to investigate this issue further, but I found another possible cause:
It seems that with the full 800MHz speed (133MHz * 6), the AGP Bus was clocked at 89Hz, which could explain the overheating. Still if anyone could confirm that the card runs hot even without being under any stress, I would be relived 😊

Moer wrote:

I will get a PIII when I find a good deal to investigate this issue further, but I found another possible cause:
It seems that with the full 800MHz speed (133MHz * 6), the AGP Bus was clocked at 89Hz, which could explain the overheating. Still if anyone could confirm that the card runs hot even without being under any stress, I would be relived 😊

Overclocking the AGP bus was pretty normal with the 440BX and V3 cards were known to be very tolerant to that. Still at least chipset and graphics card were running out of spec, maybe the CPU too, so I won't rule out you found the issue. 😀
The cards definitely run hot in idle. When there's no air flow on the heat sink you couldn''t touch it even in 2D after a couple of minutes. Still it won't hurt to get some air flow on that card - for peace of mind if nothing else. 😉

Edit: Oh and I'm really curious about my Vcore theory so if you ever get another CPU keep us posted. 😀

Yes, I will keep you posted and edit this post when I get another processor.
I am curious as well 😉
Thank you all for your help. Hopefully this will be the end of this problem

DNSDies wrote:

While all Voodoos SHOULD work fine with stock cooling, please feel free to improve on it or at least make sure a case fan is blowing fresh air over it. Their chips are meant to handle the heat, but the PCB really isn't.

It WILL damage the PCB eventually. This is especially true with the PCI versions where they stupidly used 3.3v regulators that get up to 170+F within seconds, and used very weak heatsinks on them without any thermal paste or pads.

Over the years, this heat will discolor the PCB and eventually cause the layers to separate or warp, or become brittle.

My creative Banshee already has this discoloration but no too much.

I should post pics of my PCI Voodoo3 3000.
the green PCB near the VRM is notably brown, and the conformal coating is brittle at the edges.

I recently replaced it with a higher-rated Texas Instruments VRM and added an additional heatsink to the other side of the card, so it's actually not so hot anymore.

DNSDies wrote:

I should post pics of my PCI Voodoo3 3000.
the green PCB near the VRM is notably brown, and the conformal coating is brittle at the edges.

I recently replaced it with a higher-rated Texas Instruments VRM and added an additional heatsink to the other side of the card, so it's actually not so hot anymore.

Yep, there exist numerous V3 models that have that distinctive discoloring going on around the VRMs. Most of them do still work however.... It's only when you look at the discoloration in a funny way where the Voodoo gets pissed off and craps its pants.