There may be fractured solder joints too, I would first try to reflow the card.

Paadam wrote:

There may be fractured solder joints too, I would first try to reflow the card.

Right, I completely forgot about that.
I'm a very cautious person, I try to be very careful in what I do. That's why I'm not much of a fan of the "oven method".
How would I best go about trying to reflow it? Should I go over the solder joints one by one with a soldering iron?

No, the best way to do it at home is to obtain a controllable heatgun with temperature display. Set it to 300c and use thin end and low cfm (so you are not blowing the components off). Also I would suggest buying some good flux (BGA ones are good as they flow well and have no ill effects later, like oxiduzing or conducting current).

Been using this method for all kinds of computer repairs, including changing BGA CPU on my Thinkpad X31. I wanted it to have low voltage Dothan CPU so I de-soldered one from X41 and swapped it into my X31. Result: both faster, quiter and with longer battery life. Here's the topic: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=101801

Thank you for the help!

I'll see if I can borrow one somewhere, but this is more of a low priority repair for me right now. It'll probably be some time until I start this.

Can I send you a PM when I'm ready? You seem like you know your soldering.

The most common problem i know with these cards are ''the legs'' of the 3dfx chips. They are sitting VERY close to each other so check them very closely and make sure none of them are shorting.

Separating them with a needle saved me a couple v2's trough the years as well as a v1. There are a lot of these tiny legs and a single bump during storage can be enough to bend some and these cards are stored a long time usually in boxes of hardware etc..

meljor wrote:

The most common problem i know with these cards are ''the legs'' of the 3dfx chips. They are sitting VERY close to each other so check them very closely and make sure none of them are shorting.

Separating them with a needle saved me a couple v2's trough the years as well as a v1. There are a lot of these tiny legs and a single bump during storage can be enough to bend some and these cards are stored a long time usually in boxes of hardware etc..

OH YOU GOTTA BE SHITTING ME!!!

Give me like 15 minutes. I'll report back!

Alright, case closed, we're done here!

THANK YOU MELJOR!

If you hadn't told me I'd probably have reflowed the solder for no reason and still not have fixed the card!

The cult of Voodoo has once again demonstrated its might by resurrecting humble servant. All praise 3dfx. May Voodoo be with you.

I determined the framebuffer memory area and tried to look at it, but that was not visible from your picture.

But do check capacitor C55, just below memory chip U6, it looks like it is loose or something.

Jepael wrote:

I determined the framebuffer memory area and tried to look at it, but that was not visible from your picture.

But do check capacitor C55, just below memory chip U6, it looks like it is loose or something.

Whao, Thank you, I just checked them. I don't know if they're broken but they are loose. One of them just fell off. Do you think I can resolder them, or do I have to get new ones?

I'd just resolder it. But, are there several loose?

Jepael wrote:

I'd just resolder it. But, are there several loose?

C49 and C55 were loose, that was all of them. I just resoldered them. It was quite fiddly but now it's done.

No problem, glad it worked out!

You got one of the easy ones right at a corner, i had a few legs bent right in the middle of a chip and one was deformed so badly that i was scared to brake it when bending it back in shape.
Card works perfectly ever since. Great job on the resolder, enjoy your card!

Hellistor wrote:

When starting a game the only thing shown on screen is an "artifact block" […]
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When starting a game the only thing shown on screen is an "artifact block"

Now I know this case is solved, but the artifact you had been getting looks very similar to the artifact my Voodoo 2 in my K6-3/400 rig was having, except that apart from the one block of artifacting, it displayed and worked perfectly fine. The position of the artifact block changed as I changed resolution, so I always assumed it had to do with one of the memory chips.
I might as well go have a look at the card as it may have been having a similar problem, though usually I'm very thorough when inspecting my components before I apply any power.

And glad you managed to resurrect your Voodoo 2!

Tetrium wrote:

Now I know this case is solved, but the artifact you had been getting looks very similar to the artifact my Voodoo 2 in my K6-3/ […]
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Hellistor wrote:

When starting a game the only thing shown on screen is an "artifact block" […]
Show full quote

When starting a game the only thing shown on screen is an "artifact block"

Now I know this case is solved, but the artifact you had been getting looks very similar to the artifact my Voodoo 2 in my K6-3/400 rig was having, except that apart from the one block of artifacting, it displayed and worked perfectly fine. The position of the artifact block changed as I changed resolution, so I always assumed it had to do with one of the memory chips.
I might as well go have a look at the card as it may have been having a similar problem, though usually I'm very thorough when inspecting my components before I apply any power.

And glad you managed to resurrect your Voodoo 2!

I wouldn't be surprised if it had the same problem, always worth checking. Let us know, would be nice if this becomes the' 'what voodoo2 did you resurrect today'' topic 🤣

btw the 3dfx card that seems to be the weakest of the bunch (for me) is the Rush. I have 4 of them now, one is fine but three are bad. One artifacts and 2 don't even display anything.
Is there a specific thing with the Rush that breaks or is it just random and bad luck? Anyone else had problems, or even better: fixes?