there's 5V and 3.3V PCI.... there's also 64-bit PCI... if your card is a 64-bit PCI, then that could explain why you fried it, because the 5V and 3.3V 32-bit PCI slot lengths are the same, just keyed in opposite directions... many 64-bit PCI cards physically fit into a 32-bit slot but have the longer section hang unconnected above the motherboard... but it won't work!

oh well... those cards are worthlessly cheap anyway, unlike the semi-modern geforce fx5200 pcis that are ridiculously overpriced

Here's a pic to illustrate where I installed the card. The lighting isn't good and I was tired. 😦

ok, so it's just a 32bit card but in your haste you installed it wrong

yeah, that's one sure way to fry a card

good thing these cards are dirt cheap!

retro games 100 wrote:

I've had this Riva 128 card for years. Unfortunately, I've just broken it. The PCI connector on it is divided in to 3 sections. I inserted the back 2 PCI sections of the card in to just the large main front PCI mobo slot section, which left the front PCI section of the card "dangling" outside of the mobo's PCI slot, and the back PCI mobo slot section completely empty. Now, the card does not POST. The mobo is OK, however.

Also, this is weird. I've just discovered that one of my 486s will not allow me to install DOS on to a HDD. Well, it's a CF actually. When the DOS 6.22 install begins, after 1% of this installation has completed, it keeps asking me to insert Install disk 1 in to Drive A. If I try this installation on any other mobo, with the same FDD, cable and install disks, everything works OK. After installation has suceeded on a different mobo, I can then successfully use the DOS HDD on the 486 mobo.

I thought it might be a mobo FDD controller problem, but I also tried an ISA IO card, and that also failed to install DOS in the manner described above.

It's God's way of telling you to get a Voodoo 3/4/5. 😁

sliderider wrote:

It's God's way of telling you to get a Voodoo 3/4/5. 😁

I don't think a V3 will work in many (any?) 486 mobos, which is a pity.

I know it won't work on any of my boards, all I get is a solid red/green screen and no POST.
I wonder if it's a PCI problem or if the BIOS uses pentium instructions.

TheLazy1 wrote:

I know it won't work on any of my boards, all I get is a solid red/green screen and no POST.
I wonder if it's a PCI problem or if the BIOS uses pentium instructions.

The latter is easy to test...use a POD-83 😉

Here's a pic to illustrate where I installed the card. The lighting isn't good and I was tired.

Huh... I never even knew that was possible. I wouldn't have thought it would fit like that. You have an uncanny knack for finding new and interesting ways to break shit. 🤣

If mobo is ok i think you had some luck. I fried a Voodoo3 2000 PCI and a PCI 486 mobo capable of 50MHz FSB doing the same thing... 😢

Everyone can make mistakes 😉
I always double check things that might destroy something, though it doesn't always go the way I'd like.

Hehe, but my best breakage was when I was testing a Diamond MX300 sound card. The seller shipped it to me without its backplate. You know those things have got a connector on the back of them. Well, I wasn't really thinking (hmmm, there's a pattern emerging here) and my brain said "that's the front bit", and so I installed the card completely the wrong way around in the PCI slot. The card got killed, but I've got a vague recall that the mobo was also killed.

I test a lot of junk, but luckily the stuff I accidentally destroy is a very small percentage.

you need to stop doing anything when you're dead tired
go to sleep!

if it's not work related, forget it till the next day!

TheMAN wrote:

you need to stop doing anything when you're dead tired
go to sleep!

if it's not work related, forget it till the next day!

You're absolutely right 😉
Sometimes we can be in a hurry, but making a mistake can happen, no matter how careful you try to be.

Personally, I've prevented say 90% of disastrous setups simply because I spotted my error before I applied power, but very sometimes, mistakes can still happen. We had a thread on Vogons about this!

Apart from frying a A7V333 (wrong jumper) and a Palomino (forgot the paste), I've also inserted the IDE cable incorrectly several times (only 1 of 2 rows of pins connected, 2nd row not connected at all, but nothing broke), amongst others.
It happens! We're not robots.
Well, except for RG100 obviously. It has no excuse whatsoever!!

😜

Strangely reminds me of this

I wonder if they are still friends? 😉 Is the photo showing the 7800 card, with the "special modification"?

retro games 100 wrote:

I wonder if they are still friends? 😉 Is the photo showing the 7800 card, with the "special modification"?

I think so.
Heres the unmodded one:
http://www.ixbt.com/video2/images/g70-10/xfx- … -scan-front.jpg

epic fail