VOGONS


First post, by 386SX

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Hello,

After two decades I still have my original (I think named Pixelview or Prolink) Geforce2 MX 32Mb original version MVGA-NVG11A Rev.2B (most around seems Rev.2E), Samsung SDRAM 50ns and without TV-out, pcb summer 2000. Unfortunately this doesn't work edit: no signal no beep sounds. This card did work a lot in the past after being used in other computers eventually ended up not working. I don't know which might be the problem, maybe capacitors even if none seems wrong outside but might be anyway. I was thinking to try flashing its bios if I find it. Do anyone have the bios for this card? edit: bios found but not solved (ram modules have the very old glue I attached useless heatsinks with but ram contacts seems ok anyway, no components missing, while not in great conditions it still should work, I changed thermal paste already and cleaned AGP contacts, I'll remove the glue too)

EDIT: I noticed removing again the heatsink that on the side of the BGA gpu points there was some thermal paste under the chip and I'm trying to clean it with pressured air and something. I'm booting it again still no signal. The gpu seems to warm up a bit without the heatsink but very slowly. That mosfet seems to be even cooler.

EDIT: incredibly I think I've found a still alive website with a supposed to be its bios in a Prolink page: I've tried different nvflash versions and it seems the vbios board firmware wasn't readable and broken. I've uploaded the found version "NV10 reference board" theorically for this card and it find the correct bios chip but even after updating the bios, it still gives no signal at boot. No sound or anything the boot anyways goes on as usual but that happens also with other broken vga. I think the GPU is warming up more now but I was expecting it to boot. I don't know if it might be a eeprom broken or something like it. I should find an empty one to be sure about this.

Thanks

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Last edited by 386SX on 2022-08-22, 08:29. Edited 5 times in total.

Reply 1 of 2, by 386SX

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I think the eeprom has problems. The nvflash utility uploaded the firmware but it can't read and save it after. It gives 0 bytes size file, and Invalid data. But it find the card as suppose to, as Geforce2 MX/MX 400 (10DE:0110) on the AGP bus.
I think I'll buy a new eeprom I don't know if I've got one of these.

I tried reading bytes from the board eeprom and gives a series of FF and after that all 00.

EDIT: I've seen some of these cards (but with a different pcb later revision while identical) has the same 32pin eeprom socket but with a 28pin Holtek eeprom installed. I've got some of these I tried to see if nvflash see it but it does not. I suppose it might need some pcb different layout for it. Meanwhile I've read a sticker under the eeprom that says "3.11.00.07.00" which is the same bios I've downloaded so at least I've found the exact version. The 28pin eeprom thing could have been interesting. Many cheap Rage cards had that eeprom to try. EDIT: because it's a one-time-flashing memory which can't be flashed again. Probably they just used these cause cheaper who knows. Anyway also the SMD components above the EPROM are different so I could not make it work anyway I suppose.

EDIT: some update with the SST eeprom: with nvflash 5.15 I sort of updated the eeprom (after I had just bought a new empty one...perfect... 🙁 ) and now it seems to read bytes into it.. but still no signal, no sound.. I noticed that the nvflash of the original manufacturer is customized with Prolink name while an old version v3.x. Now that theorically should find an existing written value inside the eeprom I might try using again the older one to flash it again maybe it use some custom way for it. But I begin to suspect the eeprom is not the problem at last. I might try to change capacitors. The GPU anyway sure get warm almost hot without the heatsink so I suppose the voltage arrive to the GPU and the power mosfet works.

EDIT: new tests and old problems... I booted again with a Virge/DX PCI card together with the Geforce2 MX on the AGP bus and in the same pure msdos situation I could read and save from the eeprom and after a while not anymore with again an empty one even without restarting.. I suppose the eeprom might have some problem anyway beside maybe not the only one. So once I'll get the new SST chip I'll try if this doesn't happen all the times which might mean something else is wrong. I tried to clean the eeprom contacts but were already ok like the socket ones. Could it be the eeprom voltage that arrive or not depending maybe on something else?

UPDATE: I changed mainboard to mix the variables here and went for a KT133 old SDRAM based board. Also I removed again the eeprom and cleaned again the contacts. Now it seems again to find values inside the eeprom and saving the file to the hard disk it seems the same size of the one downloaded. It looks like a eeprom reading problem but still no signal no sounds no boot. Interesting I've a Riva NV4 AGP 8MB from Creative that doesn't work too but that card sure gives specific beep sounds before not displaying any signal but even the official Creative Flasher seems to not find that eeprom which I suppose is really gone but soldered... This situation seems different.

Reply 2 of 2, by drosse1meyer

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I would give a re-cap a shot, I had a mx200 which was giving problems (opengl artifacts and crashing in particular), despite all the caps looking fine, after replacing them it works flawlessly.

P1: Packard Bell - 233 MMX, Voodoo1, 64 MB, ALS100+
P2-V2: Dell Dimension - 400 Mhz, Voodoo2, 256 MB
P!!! Custom: 1 Ghz, GeForce2 Pro/64MB, 384 MB