UPDATE:

So I pulled the card out, and put inside of another computer, and tested the same games out. I was surprised, and rather relieved that it functioned with little to no problems. Both Messiah and Deus Ex boot up with no problem on this older PC, even though it isn't ideal to be playing Deus Ex on it.

I also examined the card once it was out under a lamp, and didn't see any signs of oxidization, burns, or loose/broken caps. So by all outward appearances, the card is still in pretty damn good shape!

I apologize for not listing specs earlier. Should have done that at the start, but was posting while otherwise distracted.

My Win98 machine:

- Intel D815EEA mother board
- Intel P3 1000mhz Coppermine CPU
- 2x 512 PC133 Low-Density RAM
- Ati RADEON 9550XL AGP GPU (currently)

My Win95 machine:

- Asus P5A-B rev. 1.05 mother board
- AMD K6-2 400mhz
- 64mb RAM
- Voodoo3 2000 16m PCI GPU (currently)

(before the swap)
- Cirrus Logic CL-GD5446-HC-A 1mb Video card (for 2D)
- Diamond Multimedia Voodoo1 4mb Rev-E GPU (for 3D)

I'm not entirely certain *WHY* my Voodoo3 decided to no longer play nice with the Win98 machine, but I do have *guesses*. It could be that the amount of RAM mixed with a 1ghz CPU might have been a bit much for the card, and it just now decided to give up on working with the other components. There's also possibly an issue with the PCI slots? Dunno how likely that is, since my Audigy ZX is working alright? I decided to use the AmigaMerlin 2.9 drivers, but I reverted to the official drivers afterwards when nothing changed, so if its the drivers then I'll need to look through more of them.

The Voodoo3 is remaining in the Win95 rig until further notice, though I do want to swap back to using the Cirrus Logic/Voodoo1 combination, mainly for the slower GPU since some games seem to prefer it.

On a different note:
I'm thinking I might get an AGP Voodoo card, since the motherboard listed for the Win98 machine has Universal AGP (up to 4x), but I'm curious to know who here has messed with that type of thing and if it was worth it.

Try a different LCD panel or a CRT instead. That blank pattern looks like something I've seen that an LCD could generate when not driving the panel, like it was running then just blanked out, it'll fade to that pattern after a few seconds. A properly functioning LCD would not do that though.

A video card's RAMDAC could not create that type of pattern easily, so your Voodoo 3 should be fine.

Could try different refresh rates too, perhaps there are frequencies that panel doesn't like

Thermalwrong wrote on 2024-09-07, 03:00:

Try a different LCD panel or a CRT instead. That blank pattern looks like something I've seen that an LCD could generate when not driving the panel, like it was running then just blanked out, it'll fade to that pattern after a few seconds. A properly functioning LCD would not do that though.

A video card's RAMDAC could not create that type of pattern easily, so your Voodoo 3 should be fine.

Could try different refresh rates too, perhaps there are frequencies that panel doesn't like

Would a KVM switch mess with the signal, too? I'm using a Tripp-Lite 4-port switch.

I wish I had one, I don't have a CRT. I do have a second LCD monitor, though it's a wide-screen formatted one.

Can you slow down the P3 to test out the "CPU too fast" theory? Also, might sound strange but can you try a different PSU?

UPDATE:

Switching monitors proved to stop the issue with the "screen burn-out" shown in the first pic. However, it seems I'm running into a new issue, where games are freezing about 30 seconds after boot-up. I've read that this is a typical of the card over-heating, which is strange since that doesn't happen on my older Win95 machine. It's the PCI version of the card, so it comes with a standard passive heatsink, and shouldn't need a fan.

wbahnassi wrote on 2024-09-07, 05:14:

Can you slow down the P3 to test out the "CPU too fast" theory? Also, might sound strange but can you try a different PSU?

As far as a new PSU, I'd have to order a new one. -- Where CPU clock speed is concerned, I'm not sure where to start with reducing it. The BIOS options are limited, so I can't switch off cache or adjust any settings there. Not sure if MySlomo would be the way to go.

UPDATE:

While I can't reduce the speeds on the CPU via the BIOS ( the Intel D815EEA just doesn't give you that option), I -DID- swap out the 1ghz Coppermine for a slower PIII 733mhz CPU. However, this did not change anything, and the Voodoo3 2000 seems to still prefer my Win95 K6-2 PC.

I'm tempted to get an AGP Voodoo3, and test it to see if that changes anything, but that won't be for a bit. I'm also tempted to try and remove the passive heatsink on the Voodoo3 and replace it with a fan, but the thing is practically glued on there, so I don't think I could remove it easily, if at all. I'm sort of wondering if it would act the same on another, different Socket 370 board, but I don't have a spare, and this is just a speculative guess.

I'll keep updating this thread as new things develop surrounding this issue. Know that, at the very least, the initial problem with the monitor was fixed, technically.

Orzene wrote on 2024-09-10, 03:04:

I'm also tempted to try and remove the passive heatsink on the Voodoo3 and replace it with a fan, but the thing is practically glued on there, so I don't think I could remove it easily, if at all.

I'm not a fan of removing glued heatsinks. You can still screw a fan on the heatsink and it should help.

BTW, my Voodoo3 PCI also is picky about motherboards. On one mobo, it refuses to run Glide at all. On another older mobo, it runs fine. So it seems to require something that became missing in later boards. Don't know what though.. maybe certain voltages have too little amps on newer PSUs? That's why I suggested trying a different PSU. But it's just a guess...

Orzene wrote on 2024-09-10, 03:04:

UPDATE: […]
Show full quote

UPDATE:

While I can't reduce the speeds on the CPU via the BIOS ( the Intel D815EEA just doesn't give you that option), I -DID- swap out the 1ghz Coppermine for a slower PIII 733mhz CPU. However, this did not change anything, and the Voodoo3 2000 seems to still prefer my Win95 K6-2 PC.

I'm tempted to get an AGP Voodoo3, and test it to see if that changes anything, but that won't be for a bit. I'm also tempted to try and remove the passive heatsink on the Voodoo3 and replace it with a fan, but the thing is practically glued on there, so I don't think I could remove it easily, if at all. I'm sort of wondering if it would act the same on another, different Socket 370 board, but I don't have a spare, and this is just a speculative guess.

I'll keep updating this thread as new things develop surrounding this issue. Know that, at the very least, the initial problem with the monitor was fixed, technically.

That's good news that the display issue has gone away at least 😀

For removing the heatsink, that is held in place with thermal epoxy and without a good plan to remove it (like the freezer method) there's a chance you could damage the BGA or the solder balls adhering it to the PCB, there's little benefit and I only do that if I need to do re-work type stuff on a card.
I've put a bigger heatsink on the Voodoo 3 and it doesn't make a lot of difference, lots of the heat still soaks through to the back of the card anyway.

Have you tried any overclocking tools to see if underclocking the card improves the stability? Or maybe you could try taking out the AGP video card and just using the motherboard's onboard graphics to see if that changes anything.

wbahnassi wrote on 2024-09-10, 13:52:

Orzene wrote on 2024-09-10, 03:04:

I'm also tempted to try and remove the passive heatsink on the Voodoo3 and replace it with a fan, but the thing is practically glued on there, so I don't think I could remove it easily, if at all.

I'm not a fan of removing glued heatsinks. You can still screw a fan on the heatsink and it should help.

BTW, my Voodoo3 PCI also is picky about motherboards. On one mobo, it refuses to run Glide at all. On another older mobo, it runs fine. So it seems to require something that became missing in later boards. Don't know what though.. maybe certain voltages have too little amps on newer PSUs? That's why I suggested trying a different PSU. But it's just a guess...

Got ya! Yeah, it does -seem- like a MoBo issue, even though when I first installed the card into my Win98 machine, it ran just fine. Something may have deteriorated in between now and when I first did that. Not sure what, though. If it's some kind of power regulation issue, it could be the motherboard itself, and not necessarily the PSU. As stated before, when I can, I'll see about getting a new(-ish) PSU to test things.

Thermalwrong wrote on 2024-09-10, 18:04:

That's good news that the display issue has gone away at least :) […]
Show full quote

Orzene wrote on 2024-09-10, 03:04:

UPDATE: […]
Show full quote

UPDATE:

While I can't reduce the speeds on the CPU via the BIOS ( the Intel D815EEA just doesn't give you that option), I -DID- swap out the 1ghz Coppermine for a slower PIII 733mhz CPU. However, this did not change anything, and the Voodoo3 2000 seems to still prefer my Win95 K6-2 PC.

I'm tempted to get an AGP Voodoo3, and test it to see if that changes anything, but that won't be for a bit. I'm also tempted to try and remove the passive heatsink on the Voodoo3 and replace it with a fan, but the thing is practically glued on there, so I don't think I could remove it easily, if at all. I'm sort of wondering if it would act the same on another, different Socket 370 board, but I don't have a spare, and this is just a speculative guess.

I'll keep updating this thread as new things develop surrounding this issue. Know that, at the very least, the initial problem with the monitor was fixed, technically.

That's good news that the display issue has gone away at least 😀

For removing the heatsink, that is held in place with thermal epoxy and without a good plan to remove it (like the freezer method) there's a chance you could damage the BGA or the solder balls adhering it to the PCB, there's little benefit and I only do that if I need to do re-work type stuff on a card.
I've put a bigger heatsink on the Voodoo 3 and it doesn't make a lot of difference, lots of the heat still soaks through to the back of the card anyway.

Have you tried any overclocking tools to see if underclocking the card improves the stability? Or maybe you could try taking out the AGP video card and just using the motherboard's onboard graphics to see if that changes anything.

I haven't tried any overclocking software, since that isn't my focus for these older PCs. I hadn't considered using said utilities to down-clock the CPU, though, so I can certainly look into it. However, swapping to a slower CPU didn't change anything, so I want to say that the CPU might not be an issue.