It so happens I had my CL-GD5429-86QC-B card out of the box because I had to stuff some other cards into it. So I measured the resistance and it's 69 ohms as well. If you think about it, 5/69=0,0725 which is not excessive power draw (this obviously doesn't factor in any switching losses). This card worked last time I tested it, it's also recapped because it was a rescue in so-so condition. But I used modern tantalum caps in place of the original mutilated electrolytics.

Any clearly broken capacitors should be replaced, this includes chipped or otherwise damaged ceramic ones, but these are usually pretty resilient. I doubt it's the source of your problems unless there is a clear, visible damage. The two most failure points of these cards is the VESA slot and DRAMs. The slot connector should be kept clean, but quite frankly I've had more issues with the mobo slot side of things and various mobo compatibility issues in general. So if it worked in the mobo you have, and was actually secured in place and the box was not dropped, the slot/connector is probably not the issue here. DRAM chips on the other hand just die on their own sometimes. If yours are socketed then at least try to swap them places to see if the problem changes or goes away - that would be a clue.

It could also be the main IC dying but again that shouldn't really happen to working card inside a slot, these usually are killed by static discharge or popping ouf of the slot while powered...

Sounds like a dirty connector or bad memory to me

if there is a short between 5v or 12v and ground anywhere you quickly learn about it as there will be magic smoke in some place and the power supply will (hopefully) shut down to prevent further damage

I tend to agree with DasBoot 😉 it might be a memory issue on the VLB card
when the card is well connected (well seated on the slot) it initializes successfully and the PC starts booting, what is displayed on screen after that is of total responsibility of the video card
so artifacts, lines, crazy characters all point to some issue inside the video card, the chipset, the memory or the BIOS of the card
So since you could start the PC and at least some lines and blinking cursor was displayed (I'm assuming the PC was booting normaly) it might be a memory thing or maybe a leg on the chipset has come loose.
Can you gently with a needle see if there is a loose leg on the chipset (the main cirrus logic chip) ?

Good luck !

Ceramics don't generally short. Some old high-value (10uf) ceramics can, but video cards that use above 0.1uf caps normally use tantalum or electrolytic.

If you post a photo of the board we can look and see if anything stands out.

Hi,

thank you guys for all the replies, here are the pictures of the card, the soldering of the electrolytics is not nice, but the contact is fine. Sorry for the reflections on the photos, but maybe youwill notice spmething.. I will try to inspect the main chipset legs under microscope. I have some eproms, so if anybody has contents onf the BIOS chip, I can try to swap it. not sure about the DRAM chips, where can I get those?

Thanks,

Lukas.

Does it boot with both ISA and VLB cards together? Can you solder SMD?

Yes issues with the VESA slot are common. I would use a pink pencil eraser on the VLB card part and then clean with IPA. Inspect your motherboard VLB slots with a magnifying glass as gold fingers and sockets are prone to attracting crud (they do not corrode but attract it).
Looks like a Jaton VLB card by the layout. Cirrus GD542x VLB are actually quite common and a replacement should not be very expensive if need be...
What has become very rare is the S3 Trio64 based VLB cards, those are horrific in price if you can even find one...

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-12-20, 04:09:

Does it boot with both ISA and VLB cards together? Can you solder SMD?

Yes, it booted with both VLB and ISA cards just fine before. I can try, I have done it before, but i don't have a hot air station, just soldering iron with multiple tips.

Horun wrote on 2024-12-20, 05:18:

Yes issues with the VESA slot are common. I would use a pink pencil eraser on the VLB card part and then clean with IPA. Inspect your motherboard VLB slots with a magnifying glass as gold fingers and sockets are prone to attracting crud (they do not corrode but attract it).
Looks like a Jaton VLB card by the layout. Cirrus GD542x VLB are actually quite common and a replacement should not be very expensive if need be...
What has become very rare is the S3 Trio64 based VLB cards, those are horrific in price if you can even find one...

I have already tried to rub it with pencil eraser and also used some compressed air on the slots, but no luck, the card seems dead now, no idea what happened. And it doesn't seem to have any loose legs on the main chip. Could it be the bios chip? changing that sounds like something I would be able to manage.

Lu.

anonyfous wrote on 2024-12-20, 11:13:

Yes, it booted with both VLB and ISA cards just fine before. I can try, I have done it before, but i don't have a hot air stati […]
Show full quote

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-12-20, 04:09:

Does it boot with both ISA and VLB cards together? Can you solder SMD?

Yes, it booted with both VLB and ISA cards just fine before. I can try, I have done it before, but i don't have a hot air station, just soldering iron with multiple tips.

Horun wrote on 2024-12-20, 05:18:

Yes issues with the VESA slot are common. I would use a pink pencil eraser on the VLB card part and then clean with IPA. Inspect your motherboard VLB slots with a magnifying glass as gold fingers and sockets are prone to attracting crud (they do not corrode but attract it).
Looks like a Jaton VLB card by the layout. Cirrus GD542x VLB are actually quite common and a replacement should not be very expensive if need be...
What has become very rare is the S3 Trio64 based VLB cards, those are horrific in price if you can even find one...

I have already tried to rub it with pencil eraser and also used some compressed air on the slots, but no luck, the card seems dead now, no idea what happened. And it doesn't seem to have any loose legs on the main chip. Could it be the bios chip? changing that sounds like something I would be able to manage.

Lu.

What does the PC do now when you turn it on ? does it beep ? do you have a POST analyser card?
I assume you tried the graphics card on different VLB slots no ? Most motherboards have 2 oe 3 VLB slots

Before swaping BIOS chips etc can you gently remove it from the socket, rub the pins with a 200 grit sandpaper or a blue pencil eraser and spray some deoxid fluid on the socket and gently reseat the chip

There is a possibility the graphics card may be damaged but to my experience 90% of the time is just some bad kind of connection ... those boards are old and crusty 😀

Good luck !

Nunoalex wrote on 2024-12-20, 11:29:

What does the PC do now when you turn it on ? does it beep ? do you have a POST analyser card? I assume you tried the graphics c […]
Show full quote

anonyfous wrote on 2024-12-20, 11:13:

Yes, it booted with both VLB and ISA cards just fine before. I can try, I have done it before, but i don't have a hot air stati […]
Show full quote

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-12-20, 04:09:

Does it boot with both ISA and VLB cards together? Can you solder SMD?

Yes, it booted with both VLB and ISA cards just fine before. I can try, I have done it before, but i don't have a hot air station, just soldering iron with multiple tips.

Horun wrote on 2024-12-20, 05:18:

Yes issues with the VESA slot are common. I would use a pink pencil eraser on the VLB card part and then clean with IPA. Inspect your motherboard VLB slots with a magnifying glass as gold fingers and sockets are prone to attracting crud (they do not corrode but attract it).
Looks like a Jaton VLB card by the layout. Cirrus GD542x VLB are actually quite common and a replacement should not be very expensive if need be...
What has become very rare is the S3 Trio64 based VLB cards, those are horrific in price if you can even find one...

I have already tried to rub it with pencil eraser and also used some compressed air on the slots, but no luck, the card seems dead now, no idea what happened. And it doesn't seem to have any loose legs on the main chip. Could it be the bios chip? changing that sounds like something I would be able to manage.

Lu.

What does the PC do now when you turn it on ? does it beep ? do you have a POST analyser card?
I assume you tried the graphics card on different VLB slots no ? Most motherboards have 2 oe 3 VLB slots

Before swaping BIOS chips etc can you gently remove it from the socket, rub the pins with a 200 grit sandpaper or a blue pencil eraser and spray some deoxid fluid on the socket and gently reseat the chip

There is a possibility the graphics card may be damaged but to my experience 90% of the time is just some bad kind of connection ... those boards are old and crusty 😀

Good luck !

Yep, the board has three slots, I tried all of them, no luck. 🙁 As I said, first, it worked fine, then ocassional CMOS clear was needed, then some crazy stuff on the monitor and a series of beeps (multiple beeps first and then the normal one beep and then the lines on the screen after that the computer booted), now it won't even post and is silent 🙁 Without the card it does the beep sequence and with other card it works fine. It seemed like a bad contact somewhere to me, but maybe it just died now... But I would still try to save it. Unfortunately, I don't have POST analyzer card.

anonyfous wrote on 2024-12-20, 11:56:

Nunoalex wrote on 2024-12-20, 11:29:

What does the PC do now when you turn it on ? does it beep ? do you have a POST analyser card? I assume you tried the graphics c […]
Show full quote

anonyfous wrote on 2024-12-20, 11:13:

Yes, it booted with both VLB and ISA cards just fine before. I can try, I have done it before, but i don't have a hot air station, just soldering iron with multiple tips.

I have already tried to rub it with pencil eraser and also used some compressed air on the slots, but no luck, the card seems dead now, no idea what happened. And it doesn't seem to have any loose legs on the main chip. Could it be the bios chip? changing that sounds like something I would be able to manage.

Lu.

What does the PC do now when you turn it on ? does it beep ? do you have a POST analyser card?
I assume you tried the graphics card on different VLB slots no ? Most motherboards have 2 oe 3 VLB slots

Before swaping BIOS chips etc can you gently remove it from the socket, rub the pins with a 200 grit sandpaper or a blue pencil eraser and spray some deoxid fluid on the socket and gently reseat the chip

There is a possibility the graphics card may be damaged but to my experience 90% of the time is just some bad kind of connection ... those boards are old and crusty 😀

Good luck !

Yep, the board has three slots, I tried all of them, no luck. 🙁 As I said, first, it worked fine, then ocassional CMOS clear was needed, then some crazy stuff on the monitor and a series of beeps (multiple beeps first and then the normal one beep and then the lines on the screen after that the computer booted), now it won't even post and is silent 🙁 Without the card it does the beep sequence and with other card it works fine. It seemed like a bad contact somewhere to me, but maybe it just died now... But I would still try to save it. Unfortunately, I don't have POST analyzer card.

If the PC doesn't do the normal error beeps (1 long and 8 short or another depending on the type of BIOS) when the graphics card is mounted it means that there was some level of communication between the graphics card and the BIOS

From my limited experience when the graphics card is totally dead the PC doesn't even "see" it and just beeps "no graphics card"

So your card is only "half dead" which is not good at all...

Lets hope someone with more expertise can try to help here
But as is has been pointed here, that is a fairly common card and there are many for sale at relatively low prices
I have 5 or 6 of those 😉

Good luck

Nuno

Is this capacitor around the right way? It looks like GND should face down.

The ceramics on this board would be 100% fine, unless they are have broken legs.

anonyfous wrote on 2024-12-20, 11:13:

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-12-20, 04:09:

Does it boot with both ISA and VLB cards together? Can you solder SMD?

Yes, it booted with both VLB and ISA cards just fine before.

Thats good bad! Means BIOS on VLB card is not being mapped correctly. Good because now we know what to fix, bad because it can:
- still be Cirrus Logic Chip
- just supply to VGA chip
- VLB connector
so we didnt really narrow much 😐

For Bios to be mapped into correct address couple of things need to happen:
- Cirrus Logic chip must have power
- CL chip must have solid connection to A[23:15] address lines, M/IO, W/R pins
- ISA part of the card must have good connection between SMEMRD# and 74LS244 chip hiding under the BIOS chip

Considering you had flickering colors previously I would also blame VLB connector and motherboard socket first. Try different VLB socket, use pencil eraser on VLB edge connector

>first, it worked fine, then ocassional CMOS clear was needed, then some crazy stuff on the monitor and a series of beeps (multiple beeps first and then the normal one beep and then the lines on the screen after that the computer booted), now it won't even post and is silent

Wait, no beeps with only this card doesnt sound right. Why would it work with another VGA card in ISA slot tho? Either it doesnt respond at all and another ISA VGA is free to load its own bios, or it responds erroneously/pulls data/address buss down somehow because of problems with power for example.

>Is this capacitor around the right way? It looks like GND should face down.

https://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu/item … logic-cl-gd5428 2A3UH100 Plus is rectangular pad facing down.

Reseating the BIOS can work wonders.

MikeSG wrote on 2024-12-20, 15:04:

Reseating the BIOS can work wonders.

Guys, I removed the bios ROM, cleaned the socket, put it back together and it works! Thank you all!

anonyfous wrote on 2024-12-21, 15:53:

MikeSG wrote on 2024-12-20, 15:04:

Reseating the BIOS can work wonders.

Guys, I removed the bios ROM, cleaned the socket, put it back together and it works! Thank you all!

awesome !
Fortunately this old cards are more resilient than we think... as I said 90% of the time it is just some type of bad connection (including chip pins getting "unsoldered" )

Enjoy your retro hobby ! 😀