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Voodoo 2 TMUs "disappear" but 3dfx demos work fine

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First post, by jbenam

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Hi,

I have two Voodoo 2s (which I intend to use in SLI mode), but one of them isn't working properly.

The Voodoo 2 is a late revision one, which looks identical to a Powercolor Evil King II (the rear of the card has no RAM chips), even if the card is 12MB.

It had some missing caps on the rear of the card, which I have now replaced.

Mojo.exe detects everything properly, but if I open the control panel, then I get the "bogus TMUs" message (0xdead). Sometimes, after a minute or so, the TMUs will reappear.

Weird thing is that if I run the Donut tech demo, or the Anubis one (includes in FastVoodoo 4.6) everything works absolutely fine. That's even if Mojo reports the bogus TMUs error.

With FastVoodoo 4.6, the system hangs. I am now using the latest DX6 reference driver, which lets me test the card.

Quake II shows a grey screen as soon as I set up the 3dfx renderer. I get something if I use SSTV2_TEXMAP_DISABLE, but obviously textures are disabled. This doesn't help in other games (like Drakan) as they just hard lock the system on a black screen if I try to run them.

I have reflowed the two TMUs and the FBI, but it seems it didn't change the result.

The SSTV2_NUM_TMUS variable set to 1 didn't change the result.

I hear distinct buzzing electrical noises when running the 3dfx demos.

I am starting to think that the capacitor map I have used (the one for the CT6670) might have different values than an Evil King II?

Help please, my Voodoo 2 dream is within reach but this issue is stumping me 🙁

EDIT: It's a thermal / solder issue. I could get Quake 2 and Carmageddon 2 to run for a while when the card is hot.

Reply 2 of 4, by jbenam

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I have resoldered almost the entirety of the card. For a while I was getting *very* decent results (I could play Quake II for a few minutes without crashing) but now after resoldering the right side TMU I am getting the dreaded dotted rainbow textures on Donut, and I am getting the "glide2x.dll expected Voodoo, none detected" issue. Mojo doesn't report the bogus TMU message anymore.

Setting SSTV2_TMU_MEMSIZE=2 lets Quake II switch to 3dfx mode, but freezes before getting in-game. And I can see dotted textures in the Quit screen.

Pins are not touching - rechecked a few times.

Any tips on what to do to fix the dotted rainbow textures?

Reply 3 of 4, by treeman

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I had the bogus tmu error on voodoo 1 where the fbi was faulty. After transplanting a fbi chip from a donor card it works.

It is a funny error shows tmu as faulty and fbi as working but I think the fbi has to initiate the tmu, if it fails then the tmu gets a bogus error

Reply 4 of 4, by jbenam

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Welp, while resoldering the FBI, two tracks got lifted under the legs and got bridged. I have tried to straighten them and separate the bridge, but it's a PITA and I didn't manage to do so an hour or so later.

Honestly I don't feel like wasting any more time on it since I am not sure the texture issue will be solved. I will keep it for spares while looking for another V2. Feels bad, man - it has been years since I last lifted a track, especially considering my soldering skills and equipment.

Well, gotta put to rest my Voodoo 2 SLI dream, at least for now 🙁

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