What would cause graphics corruption on soft-boot but not cold-boot \ VOGONS

What would cause graphics corruption on soft-boot but not cold-boot

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First post, by ratfink

Posted on 2024-10-04, 23:49

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I've got a Slot A system (Windows 98) that recently I've been using with a Voodoo Banshee.

The Banshee was flakey at first and I thought (based on other threads here) that it was the problem because the other cards I've used in this board recently were problem free. At that stage I thought the problems were due to poor contact, because when I made sure to shove the card firmly into the socket there were no glitches. I ran benchmarks, repeatedly rebooted: all fine.

But a kind of flakiness has returned (after some playing with sound cards) and typically at the moment what happens is that the system will work fine in Windows and then on soft-booting (restarting from windows) the BIOS screen is ok but the next screens - and Windows - have narrow vertical bars down them, sometimes with text corruption. Rebooting clears this. And I don't seem to get it with cold booting.

This is obviously not a Windows problem, it's something to do with the hardware. Could it be the PSU? The motherboard?

Reply 1 of 9, by rasz_pl

Posted on 2024-10-05, 02:13

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Might be 20 year old smd electrolytic caps on the video card itself. In general "narrow vertical bars down them, sometimes with text corruption" sounds like video ram problems.
take a good photo of the card

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Reply 2 of 9, by MikeSG

Posted on 2024-10-05, 10:37

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Is it glitchy when you touch/wiggle the card in the socket when the PC is on?

Reply 3 of 9, by ratfink

Posted on 2024-10-05, 18:08

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It had been very glitchy when I first started using it, and at one point I thought it needed to be at a certain angle (after some experimentation)... and then thought maybe just pushing it down hard into the AGP slot might be worth trying like if it was a contact issue - and that seemed to fix it. So after a while I removed it and tried the same again two of three times over a couple of weeks - all fine.

But now it's glitching again, after I have started adding other cards to the PC. Today I have changed the PSU, it made no difference. A Voodoo 3 I just installed in the same board runs fine.

Reply 4 of 9, by rasz_pl

Posted on 2024-10-06, 02:42

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Only tantalum caps, gold looks fine. You could try it in another mothrboard.

Reply 5 of 9, by PcBytes

Posted on 2024-10-06, 06:19

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Honestly I wouldn't cut off bad BGA off the list. I remember seeing someone on this forum having issues with a 3D Blaster Banshee (forgot what bus it was on, PCI or AGP, but I do remember the card being a 3D Blaster Banshee) and he ended up having to reball the big Banshee BGA chip.

I think the issues were somewhat similar - garbled output on cold boot, but would fix itself if left running for a period of time I think.

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Reply 6 of 9, by MikeSG

Posted on 2024-10-06, 07:11

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I've had two sound cards react differently to oxidisation on PCI slots. One would always work, the other only worked after cleaning the slot.

May be some signals on the Banshee are more sensitive to oxidisation.

Reply 7 of 9, by ratfink

Posted on 2024-10-06, 12:13

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here's what happens in a different motherboard (and another psu)...the same thing...

Reply 8 of 9, by PcBytes

Posted on 2024-10-06, 12:26

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Yeah... that looks like BGA to me. But before jumping to that conclusion, try cleaning the PCI contacts on the card first. If same behaviour happens, then you have BGA issues. (cracked solder balls from age)

"Enter at your own peril, past the bolted door..."
Main PC: i5 3470, GB B75M-D3H, 16GB RAM, 2x1TB
98SE : P3 650, Soyo SY-6BA+IV, 384MB RAM, 80GB

Reply 9 of 9, by ratfink

Posted on 2024-10-06, 12:38

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ok thanks, that makes sense...

... switch cleaner on the gold contacts seems to have fixed it! to make sure i took it out, reinserted, wiggled, flexed it slightly a few times - no impact, still works fine. fingers crossed itvwill stay that way

thanks all for your input!

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