Hello.

I got a Creative CT6950, which is a Riva TNT2 Vanta. The card was not producing video signal but it would boot the computer. This made me suspect of ROM issues, which I know to be common on cards from this era.

Checked the voltages, caps and did a visual inspection under the microscope. No issue.

So I tried to boot from a second card and flash the BIOS.

Nvflash would detect the Riva TNT2 vanta, but it could not detect the EPROM (00,00 device id for this last one).

I tried to force it using -g (to force use of a given device) system hanged up and after that card wont boot nor be detected on nvflash.

Removing the BIOS chip did nothing to change this.

I dont have an eprom programming tool... I understand its the best bet. But my question is this:

Should the card work without the EPROM? I am guessing that my attempt killed it completely and now with no working chip the card cant do its basic initialization things, but I am not sure this behaviour is expected.

Also I cant just install another blank eprom and flash it from within the system right? I need to program it the first time outside the card?

Thank you!!