I think I read somewhere this problem can often be resolved by flashing the VGA BIOS blind (without another graphics card) either by remembering the keys you have to press or by making a batch file.

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried it out but unfortunately didn't help.
I made a batch file which is simple to start but I don't know what input to expected if that is the only graphics card, 2.17 required to type in 1 to select the card. So I did the same as when I had the ISA as well, but waiting a few minutes at every step.
Tried with both 2.17 and 2.14 flash tools to be sure. The 2.14 gives a different message/question: "There is no build information for the selected hardware. Continue?" Of course this is with another video card installed.

Hm, could you try disabling shadowing in BIOS?
Also you could try and use the flash tool from Windows 9x instead of DOS.
Not too confident any of those will help but who knows!?

Just to be sure: You're using a BIOS image matching your type of card? (SGRAM/SDRAM)

https://youtu.be/mLfkqqW5rvc

Doornkaat wrote on 2023-06-25, 05:48:

Hm, could you try disabling shadowing in BIOS? Also you could try and use the flash tool from Windows 9x instead of DOS. Not to […]
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Hm, could you try disabling shadowing in BIOS?
Also you could try and use the flash tool from Windows 9x instead of DOS.
Not too confident any of those will help but who knows!?

Just to be sure: You're using a BIOS image matching your type of card? (SGRAM/SDRAM)

I tried to disable "video bios shadowing" as well as " Video bios caching" just in case.
Also tried from windows 98 command prompt mode. Not sure if there is a GUI version of the flash tool.
And to be on the safe side I tried to flash both SG and SD RAM version for both 3000 and 2000 versions.

But every time I got the exact same error message.

I found another thread here: How to flash stubborn voodoo 3 2000
His card have the same EEPROM and got the same error code, just with a different IDs.
Here someone was able to fix the card by replacing the chip. But other mention even replacing it did not help.
So I have the assumption that maybe the EEPROM went bad. I ordered a new chip plus plcc32 socket.
Meanwhile I'll poke around with an oscilloscope near the bios, maybe some resistor or capacitor causing the problem.

But if there is any other suggestion, I'm happy to try it out!

Honestly I start to suspect a problem with the flash tool. There are others online reporting the same issue you're having. As far as I understand support for this EEPROM was only added in late versions of the flash utility so maybe they messed up support for it and nobody noticed?
I'm crossing my fingers for you getting the card fixed with a new EEPROM! You haven't got any option of flashing the current EEPROM outside of the card I take it?
Installing a socket is a good idea btw!👍 That way you can try another model of EEPROM if the new identical one doesn't work out either.
Good luck, keep us updated!😃

W-y-v-e-r-n wrote on 2023-06-23, 20:54:

I made a batch file which is simple to start but I don't know what input to expected if that is the only graphics card

I use version 2.14 (unmodified) of the flash utility to flash my voodoo3 3500. The input to the flash command is just the name of the bios rom file.

Today I just find this youtube video: https://youtu.be/hrPNvE3BNgU
It sounded jut like the problem I have.
So I took a closer look on the back of the pcb and there are sever scratches some of them seems to be quite deep. Or even looks like the trace is severed.
But the traces are so thin and close together I need to buy a microscope to be able to investigate further. Not to mention if want to fix it 😀