I have used voodoo2 in a few via bards and never once had a problem.
Try the 3dfxzone.it drivers.

Last time I had tried everything, including the latest reference drivers, FastVoodoo and koolsmoky's kit, both under 98SE, ME and 2000, with the same issues. I don't think it's related to the ATI drivers too as I got the same results with an nVidia card before I switched to the Soyo with the Intel chipset 😒 Maybe there's a BIOS setting which breaks things?

Since the last failed build, I also came across a forum post (can't find it atm) that said that a setting corruption takes place when you open the V2 settings tab in the display properties control panel on VIA boards, so the solution is to just not click it at all, but I can't recall if it worked before going there (or if I tried it at all)...

I've been using V2 cards with my KT7A since sometime in 2002-ish. I know there was some sort of bug/problem between this motherboard and V2 cards, but I can't remember if it was a VIA chipset problem or a KT7A-specific problem. Either way, the FastVoodoo2 drivers have the fix included. I use them and don't have any problems.

I've run a Voodoo2 in my KT7 RAID no problems. Voodoo 1 is another story as You need to run Your Processor no higher than
600mhz otherwise You just get blocks on the screen. I thought my Voodoo1 was a dud for a while because of that.

Something to keep in mind with Socket 370 VIA chipsets is that due to the SB Live! Running to close to the PCI spec it can cause bus issues and even data corruption on HDD's if you are using the onboard IDE controller in conjunction with it. EDIT: (maybe that is interfering with the V2?) I have a dual P3 on a Via Apollo chipset that was used in conjunction with V2's, A V3, and a Geforce 4 ti4200 with some random compatibility issues over the years. I think the biggest issue he had was with Nvidia video cards and with the SB Live! Both of which were solved with the right chipset drivers and the latest bios version.

I have a CUSL2 and a TUV4X. The TUV4X I don't really use because Voodoo 2 SLi causes /major/ oddities. The CUSL2 still has them but too a much more minor degree. I have found a few solutions.
1: Do not use more than 256MB of ram. The main issue appears to be the Voodoos memory space.
2: Use an ISA audio card if possible. Which isn't in most cases, but it can be a solution depending on what your end goal is.
3: Windows 98SE UESP3 contains a memory fix that will solve 90% of memory space problems with this setup.

Thanks for your replies, everyone! I did use an SB Live and >256MB ram. I guess the only thing left to try is to build a system as lightweight as possible at first. I also came across this file which claims to solve SB Live corruption and other PCI bus latency issues. When I find time to actually build the machine I'll report back with what works 😀

Huh, I never knew of or tried that patch. Tell me how well it works, might try it on the Tualatin.
Although I don't see how it would fix the memory addressing issues. I think my core problem was a gig of ram, a PCI sound card, and dual Voodoo 2s. That's a lot of stuff to assign.

SRQ wrote:

1: Do not use more than 256MB of ram. The main issue appears to be the Voodoos memory space.

odd my voodoo 1 and voodoo 2 did not have problems with 6gb of ram in the newer x58 system I tried them in.

ODwilly wrote:

Something to keep in mind with Socket 370 VIA chipsets is that due to the SB Live! Running to close to the PCI spec it can cause bus issues and even data corruption on HDD's if you are using the onboard IDE controller in conjunction with it. EDIT: (maybe that is interfering with the V2?) I have a dual P3 on a Via Apollo chipset that was used in conjunction with V2's, A V3, and a Geforce 4 ti4200 with some random compatibility issues over the years. I think the biggest issue he had was with Nvidia video cards and with the SB Live! Both of which were solved with the right chipset drivers and the latest bios version.

In the early 2000s lots of people were bitching and complaining about their SBLive cards with the KT7A. I solved the problem by using an AWE64 and enjoyed my PC without any headaches. To this day, I still refuse to use anything but an AWE64 with my KT7A systems.

Back then, I remember going through driver hell with SBLive cards on other systems. I couldn't figure out why anybody would willingly put themselves through all that trouble merely for the sake of EAX, which most games didn't take advantage of anyway. I suppose that SBLive cards are supposed to sound better than an AWE64, but I can't tell a difference.

psychz wrote:

Thanks for your replies, everyone! I did use an SB Live and >256MB ram. I guess the only thing left to try is to build a system as lightweight as possible at first. I also came across this file which claims to solve SB Live corruption and other PCI bus latency issues. When I find time to actually build the machine I'll report back with what works 😀

Back in the day when all the fun was going down with SBLive cards and KT7A systems, I bookmarked this page with tons of good info regarding the problem:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/111739-30-h … -alleviate-686b

The page is still there. You should check it out.

Or, you know... just use an AWE64 card and save yourself all the headaches while enjoying near-100% DOS compatibility.

Anyway, I tried to look up the Asus CUV4X to see if it used the 686b southbridge. It doesn't look like it does, so you should be OK even with a SBLive card. However, there are many variants of the CUV4X, so it's very hard to know for sure. If you know the exact model of CUV4X that you're using, it will be easier to look up its specs.

Jade Falcon wrote:

SRQ wrote:

1: Do not use more than 256MB of ram. The main issue appears to be the Voodoos memory space.

odd my voodoo 1 and voodoo 2 did not have problems with 6gb of ram in the newer x58 system I tried them in.

I would be interested in hearing more about your Voodoo 1 in such a system. Most folks have trouble running them with CPUs faster than 600mhz. What games have you tested? Did any fail to run? In particular, Incoming and Expendable are known to choke with CPUs faster than 450mhz.

KT7AGuy wrote:

I would be interested in hearing more about your Voodoo 1 in such a system. Most folks have trouble running them with CPUs faster than 600mhz. What games have you tested? Did any fail to run? In particular, Incoming and Expendable are known to choke with CPUs faster than 450mhz.

High cpu speeds is not relevant with getting these cards to work. its the speed of the PCI bus that is. 3dfx card are picky with bus speeds. and many old chipset overclock the pci/agp bus over a X FSB setting. Anything over 100fsb on a 440bx will overclock the agp bus and if I recall the pci bus is overclocked at when going over 133fsb.

For the voodoo1 I used the voodoo1 XP_64 bit drivers and nothing more.
For the voodoo2 I used the same drivers but tweaked them to work with the voodoo2. witch involved modding the inf file.

I tried quake3, ut99 and heretic all played fine. a tick slow, but fine none the less.
I have also used voodoo2's in many newer 32bit systems without troubles. socket A and 478 even a 929 setup.
I have a rush in my slot one bench setup and its cpu it at 750mhz stock, if I go over 133mhz the rush starts to have trouble. My virge is stable at 150sfb in the same setup. and will post and bench 2D up to 170fsb.

Thanks for the link at tom's hardware. My CUV4X is the 1.03 revision with the 686A chip. It isn't the B, but doesn't appear to be trouble-free either:

the article linked above wrote:

So next I ran an ‘older’ VIA set-up: KT133 and 686A (Soyo K7VTA). The results were the same as when running with the KT133A and 686B, even though it has the older Southbridge and only ATA/66 support. Run with two drives set as masters on each port with a SBLV installed and I did get system (disk) errors. Remove the card and there are no errors. Install the SB 16 PCI and there are no errors.

I don't care about DOS compatibility, at least not on this box, so will have to check if I have any A3D card, otherwise I'll resort to a WF192XG or a humble AudioPCI, even an ISA AWE64 as you said and be done with it. My main problem is with Voodoo2 though and I'd not be surprised if it was caused by the SB Live, after having read all this stuff. It could even be a totally unrelated issue however 😢

These are all thoughts and ideas though, no real testing can happen these days, at least not until the weekend when I'll have time to get this thing up and running!

Jade Falcon:

This is good info to know! Thanks! 😀

I've got an ABIT BH6 system with the P3 Coppermine 1ghz at 100mhz FSB. I have a V3 in it as well as a Canopus Pure3D V1 card. I didn't test Incoming or Expendable, but Archimedean Dynasty, EF2000, and Mechwarrior 2 all ran just fine when I underclocked it to 660mhz (66mhz FSB). I was quite surprised that they worked! Unfortunately, I didn't test them at 1ghz (100mhz FSB), so I don't know if they would run at that speed too.

psychz wrote:

Thanks for the link at tom's hardware. My CUV4X is the 1.03 revision with the 686A chip. It isn't the B, but doesn't appear to be trouble-free either:

the article linked above wrote:

So next I ran an ‘older’ VIA set-up: KT133 and 686A (Soyo K7VTA). The results were the same as when running with the KT133A and 686B, even though it has the older Southbridge and only ATA/66 support. Run with two drives set as masters on each port with a SBLV installed and I did get system (disk) errors. Remove the card and there are no errors. Install the SB 16 PCI and there are no errors.

As I understand it, the problem is with the IDE controller on the motherboard. I assume that you could also solve this problem by disabling the onboard controller and using a Promise TX2 PCI-to-IDE card. In addition to fixing the problem, you would also get a faster disk controller. It would suck pretty bad if you spent the money on an A3D card and still had the problems.

The issue with a Voodoo1 is cpu speed, not FSB speed, although overclocking the AGP/PCI bus likely won't help.
Fortunately with the AMD system You can either run a Palomino or earlier cpu with pencil trick mod, or run a
mobile cpu or unlocked thoroughbred or barton (the latter 2 req bios mods for proper support)

I noticed with the Barton the occasional "Block screen" with the Voodoo1 at 600mhz, but I can run the cpu all the way down to
500mhz with multiplier and 450mhz by underclocking the fsb.