I would have suspected that the P5A could have issues with it, but the VC820 should have handled a Voodoo 3 without a problem.

Voodoo 3's have integrated RAMDAC's, the chip primarily responsible for generating the VGA signal. So unless you can observe that are components either broken or missing, I'd suspect a bad card.

Yes. Indeed strange that it fails on both motherboards.
Especially when the GFX chip itself are getting warm and the rest of the system is booting fine.
I can see by the HDD-led that it is loading Windows on both systems.
It must be as you wrote, the ramdac wich is faulty, or perhaps some resistors at the vga connector.

Rule out the easy things first. BIOS is easy to check, previous owner may have bricked it. Boot with a second (non-3dfx) VGA card, then reflash the Voodoo3 BIOS with an original version.

Just for the record, could it be a 3500 with many more available the one that you bought? I'm currently trying to troubleshoot a similar issue and I was wondering if the card is to blame or not.

konc wrote:

Just for the record, could it be a 3500 with many more available the one that you bought? I'm currently trying to troubleshoot a similar issue and I was wondering if the card is to blame or not.

Yes... It's the V3-3500 Compaq model.
Seller said that there was a customer in Australia wich had some mobo-incompatibility.
Could that perhaps be the one and only Phil?

jwt27 wrote:

Rule out the easy things first. BIOS is easy to check, previous owner may have bricked it. Boot with a second (non-3dfx) VGA card, then reflash the Voodoo3 BIOS with an original version.

Might do it in a day or two. Not that I am in a lack of cards, only lack of time.
Have to move to another town in April, to live with my fiancé.
Packing all my things that I don't use in the everyday, wich takes a lot of my time.
Going to be good, as we both will save money and we can wake up together every morning.

Just for the record... How to flash a Voodoo? Do you have a link for a good website with
instructions and bios versions and flash tool to download?

brostenen wrote:

Yes... It's the V3-3500 Compaq model. Seller said that there was a customer in Australia wich had some mobo-incompatibility. Cou […]
Show full quote

konc wrote:

Just for the record, could it be a 3500 with many more available the one that you bought? I'm currently trying to troubleshoot a similar issue and I was wondering if the card is to blame or not.

Yes... It's the V3-3500 Compaq model.
Seller said that there was a customer in Australia wich had some mobo-incompatibility.
Could that perhaps be the one and only Phil?

thought so... also got 2 of those (US seller, should be exactly the same), none of which ever worked on 3 different motherboards. I even threw away a m/b because I couldn't believe both cards were dead...
What is going of with these cards? I hope we'll find a logical explanation, it can't be all dead and the seller having no bad feedback for them.

konc wrote:

thought so... also got 2 of those (US seller, should be exactly the same), none of which ever worked on 3 different motherboards. I even threw away a m/b because I couldn't believe both cards were dead...
What is going of with these cards? I hope we'll find a logical explanation, it can't be all dead and the seller having no bad feedback for them.

Wich boards did you try the cards on? I am qurious.
The card came sealed in an antistatic bag, and was never ever used, wich makes me wonder even more.

I have the same problem.
I will test it again in all of my systems (KT333, 440BX and i815)

How many have gotten a Compaq-V3-3500 running, and on what motherboard?
If any issues solved, then how? I am really qurious now. Hmmm....

Other option: What happens when you also install a PCI video card in the same mainboard and try to get windows (eg. 98SE) to recognize the V3 AGP card? (Maybe even set "Boot from PCI" in BIOS setup before.)

idspispopd wrote:

Other option: What happens when you also install a PCI video card in the same mainboard and try to get windows (eg. 98SE) to recognize the V3 AGP card? (Maybe even set "Boot from PCI" in BIOS setup before.)

That works to an extend... In other words.
The Voodoo is being picked up by Win98se, and the monitor keeps flashing in a strange way.
I installed an TNT1-Pci and the video was set to PCI/AGP in order to start on the Pci. (primaery videocard)
Now... There is some life in the Voodoo3, just only in small flashes/burst's and still no picture.
The flashes are not the same, as there is absolutely no pattern in this/to this.

Anyway...
The card (GFX-Chip) is working, just not the vga-output. That is for shure.

I got a voodoo3 PCI like this this. I used the two PCI videocard trick, booted to DOS and reflashed. Everything is good now.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

I got a voodoo3 PCI like this this. I used the two PCI videocard trick, booted to DOS and reflashed. Everything is good now.

Hmmm....
Could it be the firmware then? How can I flash a Compaq V3-3500?
What would be the correct bios and what tool should I use?

I could be mistaken, but I believe there is a special flash utility just for the voodoo3 cards. These utilities are usually available on the websites that host the BIOS images. No idea which image to use. Would a retail V3500 image work? Is there anyone that dump the BIOS for you?

You can find the special software here:
http://www.falconfly.de/tools.htm

Still confused about the whole flashing procedure. 🙁

brostenen wrote:

konc wrote:

thought so... also got 2 of those (US seller, should be exactly the same), none of which ever worked on 3 different motherboards. I even threw away a m/b because I couldn't believe both cards were dead...
What is going of with these cards? I hope we'll find a logical explanation, it can't be all dead and the seller having no bad feedback for them.

Wich boards did you try the cards on? I am qurious.
The card came sealed in an antistatic bag, and was never ever used, wich makes me wonder even more.

I tried them on a genuine intel 440bx, an ACS 6bat-a+ and a third that I don't recall.
Apparently there are too many cards not working anywhere, so this can't just be a motherboard incompatibility.
I'll try to find some time during the weekend and attempt flashing one of them. I have no idea what BIOS to use yet, I guess I'll try the standard 3500. How much worse can it become 😀
I've flashed before another Voodoo 3, but that one was working. I guess I'll have to plug in a second pci vga to boot and flash this one, right?

If any of you got that same card working, please let us know how/on what hardware

Standard BIOS? Hmm... I have a feeling that the standard 3500 BIOS would be incompatible because of the lack of the tv-tuner on the Compaq model. I would like to know if anyone out there have flashed the Compaq model with the standard BIOS.
How about the differences regarding PAL and NTSC model? Is this just for the tv-out? If that is the case, it does not matter to me, as I am not using that feature at all.