VOGONS


First post, by aieros

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Hello,
Long time lurker, first time poster 😁
Anyways, I have an issue with a 3Dfx Voodoo 1 (Diamond Monster 3D Rev B) that seems to have a ghosting issue... along with the vertical scan fuzziness expected on modern displays.
(This card hasn't been used in 25 years...)

The ghosting issue appears as white vertical lines in the background (More noticeable on dark)

The computer is a Compaq Deskpro 2000 5133U in original condition. (This PC was new in box up until about 3 months ago)

Is there anything I can do? Or is there just a ghost in the machine?

Thanks!


Win98SE : Intel Pentium III Katmai 500Mhz, 512MB RAM, 16GB CF, 3Dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP, Aureal 8820 Sound Card
Win98SE : AMD K6-2 450Mhz, 128MB RAM, 16GB CF, ATi Rage 128, Voodoo 2 12MB, SB Live!

Reply 1 of 6, by auron

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did you already adjust the clock/phase settings on your monitor? usually there is an auto button as well. VGA input pretty much always looks terrible on LCDs before doing this.

Reply 2 of 6, by Postman5

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press auto adjust button on monitor

Reply 3 of 6, by leileilol

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Voodoo cards get interference and it's more obvious on LCDs so that's how I take it. The other things (washed out picture, horizontal blurriness and visible horizontal line patterns) are a 100% intended and intentionally engineered video feature.

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 4 of 6, by myne

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I recall a similar issue being fixed by replacing a faulty resistor somewhere.
Search youtube for voodoo repair vids.

The hard part will be diagnosis.

Mine didn't ghost when I had it.

I built:
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Dos+Windows 3.11+tcp+vbe_svga auto-install iso template
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Reply 5 of 6, by aieros

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auron wrote on 2024-10-18, 21:41:

did you already adjust the clock/phase settings on your monitor? usually there is an auto button as well. VGA input pretty much always looks terrible on LCDs before doing this.

Wow! That seems to have fixed the ghosting! Thanks for the suggestion.

Otherwise the screen fuzziness , I figured was just the nature of the card connected to a LCD.


Win98SE : Intel Pentium III Katmai 500Mhz, 512MB RAM, 16GB CF, 3Dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP, Aureal 8820 Sound Card
Win98SE : AMD K6-2 450Mhz, 128MB RAM, 16GB CF, ATi Rage 128, Voodoo 2 12MB, SB Live!

Reply 6 of 6, by auron

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yes, LCDs generally do either 1:1 or a non-integer scale to fit, and then blur the image a bit. so it's not going to look that good, although 3d graphics might fare better than pixel art. you could check in the OSD if there is a sharpness setting.

and additionally, the 3dfx cards' post filters were certainly designed for CRTs, not LCDs. there are some environment variables to turn them off, but not sure offhand how much that applies to a voodoo graphics as opposed to voodoo2 and up.

an external scaler could do a much sharper integer scale, with a bit of black around the image though.