VOGONS


First post, by ]--Freeman--[

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Hi everybody,

I have a pentium 3 with a QDI Legend Advance 10T Series P6V694T-A10T Motherboard, 512M RAM 133Mhz with a Voodoo 3000 16M AGP.

The graphic card has the following bios version: 2.15.07-SD

I have the infamous glitch or artifacts or noise on the image in some low resolutions and I've read in this forum that updating the voodoo bios can fix this problem. But, also... the most of the threads haven't had a total success and always the people have needed a pci graphic card to solve the problem because they have previously bricked the card because a flash error on the writting process.

So, which steps I have to follow to flash bios the first time? Which flash utility version I have to download? Which commands I have to use?

Anyway if there is a setting in the motherboard bios that can fix the problem and can avoid update the voodoo bios, better than better.

Thanks a lot for the help!!

Reply 2 of 8, by Postman5

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What do these image defects look like? Take a photo, please.

Reply 3 of 8, by bloodem

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Postman5 wrote on 2025-03-22, 09:35:

What do these image defects look like? Take a photo, please.

He is probably referring to this: Voodoo 3 2000 Artifacts and noisy video.

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Reply 4 of 8, by ]--Freeman--[

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Exactly Bloodem!

Postman5, I would do it but these artifacts or noise are so slightly that is very difficult to capture it on a photo or video.

I've found on old threads that the main problem is to identify well your voodoo card to update the bios. In the web I've shared explains very well how to identify it.

I'll let you know if the process was successful.

Reply 5 of 8, by ]--Freeman--[

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Ok, I've found the modul number of my voodoo card: 210-0364-003. It's a Voodoo 3 3000 OEM version.

Reply 6 of 8, by analog_programmer

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]--Freeman--[ wrote on 2025-03-22, 01:37:

I've found something interesting:

http://pa3pyx.hostronavt.ru/voodoo3.html?i=1

Thanks for reminding me of this site - it was in my browser's "bookmarks". I have to mod and update my Voodoo3 2000 BIOS.

You can check for Voodoo3 BIOS files here: https://3dfxbios.cl-rahden.de/index.php?title … o3#Voodoo3_3000 There are newer versions if your Voodoo3 3000 AGP card is equipped with SDRAM.

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Reply 7 of 8, by ]--Freeman--[

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Well, I've updated the bios succesfully to 2.15.12-SD, but the problem persist.

I've noticed sometimes my hdd is detected by my motherboard and sometimes not. It happens the same with other hdd I have. So, maybe the problem is in the power supply that is very old and a generic one. It's possible it is not supplying correctly the motherboard and, therefore, the voodoo 3, or adding a ripple that provoques this noise/tearing/dithering.

I've bought a Nox Hummer Alpha -NXHUMMERA500WBZ. We'll see if there is changes.

Reply 8 of 8, by ]--Freeman--[

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Hi everybody!

Finally I've solved the problem. Here you are my little story:

When I received the nox power supply, I noticed that motherboard connector are not configurable to change 24 pin to 20 pin. So, I had to return it. Instead, I bought a MSI MAG A650BN 650W 80 Plus Bronze where it's possible to change to 20 pins atx connector. Well, with a new popwer supply, I solved the hdd problem, but the dithering problem not.

The next step was to do a recap. Before starting, I noticed that a capacitor was missing on the board. I weld it but the problem persisted. So, I replaced all the capacitors. With the new capacitors, the dithering was reduced considerably. You had to look very close to the screen. I measure ESR from old capacitors and it was very bad. It was good idea to replace them.

Looking some old post from here I read generally voodoo card have a bit of dithering because of its DACs and depending on the monitor you can see a little or not. I assumed that was normal then. Anyway I searched if it was something related with a voodoo card and my monitor, a dell 2007FP. In a post where people posted test results of their monitors, was mine and I read in low resolutions sometimes you needed to activate autoadjust option manually so you can look the resolution correctly. Usually this feature is automatic but for some reason in low resolutions, this feature doesn't activate. Ok, I test this on my dell monitor and the dithering dissappeared completely!!! The imagen now is very clean.

So, the summary or guide would be the following:

  • Check if your monitor has an autoadjust feature and enable it. Maybe the main problem is here.
  • If the problem persists, replace old electrolytic capacitors with new ones (Good quality brand like Rubycon, Vishay or Nichicon for example).

Other details like a good VGA cable is very important to avoid parasitic interferences or noise.

I hope my experience can help other mates.

Regards!!