You have a PM with my email address.

You cand also put it here in this thread as an attachment to your post.

Any method is OK 😀

WOW. Is that for real? 😁 Where' s the cooler? 😁 I know that the V5 5500 is made up of two of the chips from the V4 4500 and sometimes when a chip is bad on a v5 5500 it can still work in single chip mode.

The original thermal glue job on your V4 4500 is BAD. My card also has the same great application of thermal glue. GG 3dfx!!! I can see the gaps at the corners between the heatsink and the chip when I place them against a source of light 😁

I still dont have the guts to flash a V5 5500 bios on my card 😁

Congrats!

I found the card and have a suitable Win 2000 system ready.
What do I need to use to dump the BIOS?

One of these tools?
https://3dfxbios.cl-rahden.de/index.php?title=Flash-Tools

Thanks Arctic. Those tools are just for flashing a VGA BIOS image only. The procedure is way easier 😀

On this site http://3dfxbios.stantoworld.co.uk/

The Util's tab. Press it and then you will see a page on which there is a DumpBios 64k Version utility.

You launch the dumpbios.exe under MS DOS(floppy disk, F8 at boot and chose Command Prompt only or Restart in MS-DOS Mode from Windows) and the VGA BIOS should be saved under the name BIOS.BIN - a file with the .BIN extension will be generated in the folder that contains the dumpbios.exe. First I put the exe in a folder on HDD and then I went to MS-DOS and ran the dumpbios.exe . Be sure that the V4 is the only graphic adapter in your PC as you cant select between cards.

Or

here: https://3dfxbios.cl-rahden.de/index.php?title=Recovery-Tools

There is a Download LINK not far from the top.

DumpBIOS 64k is the tool to recover your actual BIOS flashed on the card. Before flashing a new one or simply for my help you can dump it.

Short instructions:
Extract the ZIP-file
Execute the executable file under MS-DOS(Use Windows XP or below)
A file named BIOS.BIN will be saved beside the executable file
Rename the file, so you can identify the BIOS if you need it again

*******
I will have to see if I can flash a .BIN file as all the VGA BIOS files I have seen are .ROM - After googling a little it seems I 'll have just to rename the .BIN to .ROM and everything will be ok.

Until now this is the only way that I know of to save a 3dfx BIOS. If there is another way maybe someone can help.

*******

Or

I attached the file to this post.

Alright! I have the Evilking IV installed and running!
BIOS Version 1.15! Hopefully I can get an "intact" backup of it.

Can I use the command prompt of win2k, or does it have to be real DOS?

@Robert B
Please don't blame 3dfx for the card. Powercolor was the manufacturer of this particular model. 3dfx only gave their licence, PCB design and the chips to them.

I bet they had freedom of choice what kind of heatsink compound would be used.

When in doubt, I would only use the BIOS "intended" for the card.

Ok! BIOS is ready!
Good luck to you Robert!

Had to zip it to get around the "file ending" limitation of vogons. Original size was 64k.
I used "DumpBIOS 64k".

I take a bow to you. You're THE MAN!!! Thanks a lot!!! 😀

I'm so anxious to try the new BIOS file OH BOY! oh boy! OH BOY! 😁

The command prompt of the W2K is OK. I also, always try to use the VGA BIOS file from the original manufacturer of the card.

If I can, I'll try the image tomorrow or monday morning as I dont keep all my stuff at home. I have a storage space at the office 😁

The BIOS is the real deal:

More later 😁

Well guys, again bad news...sheeeshhh.

This morning I tried everything I could and nothing worked. The VGA BIOS file Arctic sent is GOOD but again no matter the version of the flash program I used V2.00,V2.13, V2.14, V2.17 etc I just received the same error Unknown flash EEPROM manufacturer. (Man. ID: FFh, Dev. ID: FFh) I tried flash programs from three sites hoping that something might work but to no avail. I tried everything I could think of.

I even tried to flash the V4 on another PC and still the same thing. The EEPROM chip is not supported / recognized by the flash program. I tried to do a blind flash with version 2.17 and still nothing worked.

The V2.13 lists my BIOS chip as supported: "Added support for the SST 39VF512 flash part. / In the main routine, added a check for the SST 39VF512 flash part."

I managed to make a blind copy / blind dumpbios of the existing BIOS on the V4 and at first sight it is almost the same as the one in the file Arctic uploaded. There was a difference in the size of the recovered file. The size of the BIOS image recovered from the V4 is around 40KB instead of 64KB as it should be.

I'll post details tomorrow as I left the files on the PC at my workplace.

Back to square 1. I still think the card might be saved but the solution eludes me.

You can always try blind flashing with flashrom. By the looks of it, it does support your particular bios chip, though I don't know if it can flash through the V4. It certainly worked with my Radeon 9250 AGP, and it's not in the compatibility list either as far as I can see.

Even if at the moment I dont have a solution for my V4-L, I'll post a comparison between the GOOD BIOS and the DAMAGED BIOS from my V4-L.

V4L115.ROM is the GOOD BIOS file I received from Arctic.
V4-DMG-1.ROM is the DAMAGED BIOS recovered from my V4-L

At first glance it seems there are little differences between the two files, but if you look closely you will find discrepancies.

At the DUMP tab in the case of the V4L115 addresses go from 0000 to FFF0 and in the case of the V4-DMG-1 they go from 0000 to 9FF0

Differences can also be seen in the tabs: Fonts, Boot-up Strings, Registers, Vesa Strings. These might not be so important but my knowledge is limited in the case of BIOS editing.

One thing that caught my eye was the PCIR section where I saw that for V4L115 image size is 32K and for V4-DMG-1 image size is 40K. This is strange.

Also the BIOS file size on HDD, for V4L115 is 64KB and for V4-DMG-1 is 40KB.

All of this raises more questions than answers.

In the future I might remove the BIOS chip from the card and use a BIOS programmer to rewrite it as there is no way I can rewrite the chip with the card in my PC.

@psychz - thanks for the information. I'll look into it and if it is possible I'll try to do something.

Thanks again for the BIOS file 😀 - the most important piece of the V4-L puzzle 😁

UPDATE! 😁

It seems that the file from Arctic is corrupted too. I spoke over email with the owner of the site https://3dfxbios.cl-rahden.de/index.php?title=Main_Page and he pointed this. I sent him the file to add it to the BIOS library and he saw that it is not OK. I also did a comparison between the file from Arctic and a file from his library and indeed there were some inconsistencies like fields with no data.

He asked me what PCI card I used and at that moment something made "click" in my brain and I said WHAT IF?

So today I took out, AGAIN, the PIII box, out went the GF2 and in went the V4-L and this time a SiS 6215 PCI.

I wasnt expecting any change so I was looking at the screen waiting to see the same BS!!!

Things got a little interesting if I may say so. I used a BIOS file he suggested which by the way was the stock V4 1.15 BIOS which I tried to use earlier, before Arctic sent me the file.(I know people suggested to use a regular BIOS file but I was reluctant to do so). The 3dfx flash versions were again the CLASSICS: 2.13, 2.14 and 2.17.

First I used the 2.17 and what do you know, I saw that it detected my DAMN SST 39VF512. With my heart racing I pressed Y and Y and I saw ERASING EEPROM: completed.

After this I was expecting the flash program to write the new BIOS but instead this came on the screen: Error: EEPROM could not be written. A valid image should still exist in ROM.

Yeah yeah ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US. I KNOW THIS SHHHHHHH....T I dont need another ERROR 😁 damn it!

After this first atempt the flash program saved a copy of the BIOS from my card and clearly it was bye bye. The BIOS editor could open the image.

I tried the 2.13 and again the SST 39VF512 was detected, the message ERASING EEPROM: completed appeared but again I got the same error Error: EEPROM could not be written. A valid image should still exist in ROM.

F.....................................K!!!!!!!

I tried the 2.14 and again the SST 39VF512 was detected, the message ERASING EEPROM: completed appeared but again I got the same error Error: EEPROM could not be written. A valid image should still exist in ROM.

After I used the 2.13 and then 2.14 because the 2.17 already erased the existing data from the EEPROM the saved BIOS files were almost empty. I couldnt open them with the bios editor.

The V4-L is still detected by WIndows, PCI.EXE and Sissoft Sandra says it is a V4 4500. STRANGE!!! This is true even after I shut down the PC and it was disconnected from the mains.

Having nothing to lose I tried the /RESET atribute of the flash.exe for 2.13 and 2.17 but this lead to NO CHANGES even after I replaced the saved BAD BIOS SAVE.ROM with a GOOD SAVE.ROM as at each initialization the flash.exe rewrote the SAVE.ROM

Still the V4-L was detected by Windows, PCI.EXE and Sissoft Sandra.

Looking for answers I tried the combination V4-L + SiS 6125 PCI on a K6-2+MVP3 but here the error was the classic Error: Unknown flash EEPROM manufacturer. (Man. ID: FFh, Dev. ID: FFh)

After all of the failed procedures the results are: an empiter EEPROM chip on the V4-L, the dumpbios file of the corrupted V4-L BIOS is unreadable by the editor and a few values changed visible in the PCI.EXE ex. 1A 12 04 00 changed to FF FF FF FF - YEAH BABY!!!

I also used a 2.14 flash program and another bios file both from another site and this time I got the message beginning ROM transfer but it never completed.

After this the V4-L was detected by Windows, PCI.EXE and Sissoft Sandra.

I think I am in the twilight zone as in my zone normal things dont happen very often 😁

I keep reading this and thinking "that EEPROM chip's gotta be toast, right?"

That's what she said 😁 - I've never met such a finicky card before, that's fore sure.

My guess also 😀 and probably was toast ever since I received the card. I have some doubts that it was functional before delivery...

What might've lead to a corrupt BIOS is a very good question.

All in all it was quite an experience for me, and over the years I've had my share of miraculous recoveries. This one sure doesnt seem so 😁

*******************

L.E. A recent turn of events has brought another possibility to do something without buying a new EEPROM and programmer. The new EEPROM and programmer is a too costly solution for now.

I'll keep you posted 😁

This saga really is something....tomorrow will be my lucky day, lucky day, lucky day? 😁 with all the 0.00001% chances of success.

You could look into trying UNIFLASH 1.40 as it is capable of flashing all types of chips in a lot of devices. It has a large list of supported chips in a text file that comes with it and can reset the flash chips hardware ID when "unknown flash type" comes up.

nice topic. trying to revive this card by flashing is like treat broken leg by eye drops

anthony wrote:

nice topic. trying to revive this card by flashing is like treat broken leg by eye drops

With the ever increasing cost of these Voodoo cards it can be worthwhile to try all available resources to try to save them IMO.