VOGONS


First post, by Sly_Botts

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Hey guys,

So I got this Voodoo 3 3000 from ebay. It had an old bios v1.00.01. I wanted to update it to V2.15.12. I downloaded 3dFXflash 2.14, booted to command prompt. Ran "Flash V3_300~1.rom" from the 3dfxflash directory (as the file name was too long) and this message came up: "Eeprom could not be written, A valid image should still exist in ROM"

Obviously now the bios is gone so I will have to slap in a PCI card and try again. I was wondering, why I got this message? It was the correct bios for my card. A voodoo 3 3000 AGP with SDRAM. I downloaded the 2.15.12 bios for the V3 3000 with SD RAM so I don't understand why it didn't work.

Any help would be great,

thanks guys.

It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life.

Reply 1 of 7, by darry

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Did you backup the original BIOS ? What size is it ?
What size is the image that you tried to flash ?

Also, what is the EEPROM brand and part number ?

See also Any benefit to upgrading the BIOS on a Voodoo3?

EDIT: If you tried flashing a 64KB BIOS image into a 32KB EEPROM, it might explain what happened .

Reply 2 of 7, by Sly_Botts

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darry wrote on 2022-07-23, 04:52:
Did you backup the original BIOS ? What size is it ? What size is the image that you tried to flash ? […]
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Did you backup the original BIOS ? What size is it ?
What size is the image that you tried to flash ?

Also, what is the EEPROM brand and part number ?

See also Any benefit to upgrading the BIOS on a Voodoo3?

EDIT: If you tried flashing a 64KB BIOS image into a 32KB EEPROM, it might explain what happened .

Yeah the original is backed up but I tried to blind flash it and it was a nogo. I will just have to install a PCI card and do it that way. I think maybe I might have an OEM Voodoo 3 (it came from Greece) so when I get the PCI card I'll go through the list of bio's until one of them works.

It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life.

Reply 3 of 7, by Sly_Botts

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Success!!!

So I ordered an ATI Rage 128 XL from ebay (Cheapest PCI card I could find). Its an original chip on a new PCB made in China. Unfortunately the card only works on 3.3v PCI slots and my ASUS P2B slots are 5V. I knew this was probably going to be an issue once I did some research and a guy on Youtube made a video about this! He also explained how he added a 3.3v regulator to the card and *ding* it works in a 5V PCI slot with this modification. So I cannibalized a 3.3v regulator from a spare SD card to IDE adaptor I had laying around and would most likely never use.

Once this was done, It worked. I flashed the Voodoo 3 3000 with bios 21512SD.rom someone on this forum posted a few years ago and it worked great!

Its nice when things work out!

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It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life.

Reply 4 of 7, by DonCatoli

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Sly_Botts wrote on 2022-08-05, 21:49:
Success!!! […]
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Success!!!

So I ordered an ATI Rage 128 XL from ebay (Cheapest PCI card I could find). Its an original chip on a new PCB made in China. Unfortunately the card only works on 3.3v PCI slots and my ASUS P2B slots are 5V. I knew this was probably going to be an issue once I did some research and a guy on Youtube made a video about this! He also explained how he added a 3.3v regulator to the card and *ding* it works in a 5V PCI slot with this modification. So I cannibalized a 3.3v regulator from a spare SD card to IDE adaptor I had laying around and would most likely never use.

Once this was done, It worked. I flashed the Voodoo 3 3000 with bios 21512SD.rom someone on this forum posted a few years ago and it worked great!

Its nice when things work out!

I am having the same issue you had but even with booting with an ATI PCI card it still refused to flash until I used the modified 2.15.07 file from another post, can you share the 21512SD.rom post that worked for you please?

Reply 5 of 7, by drosse1meyer

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cool

also, fyi, there's a nice project by Sphere which addresses this - Adding 3.3v to pci adapter(Released)

P1: Packard Bell - 233 MMX, Voodoo1, 64 MB, ALS100+
P2-V2: Dell Dimension - 400 Mhz, Voodoo2, 256 MB
P!!! Custom: 1 Ghz, GeForce2 Pro/64MB, 384 MB

Reply 6 of 7, by Sly_Botts

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DonCatoli wrote on 2022-12-06, 23:01:

I am having the same issue you had but even with booting with an ATI PCI card it still refused to flash until I used the modified 2.15.07 file from another post, can you share the 21512SD.rom post that worked for you please?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DgPo2mrddr9R … iew?usp=sharing

Don't use the mod Rom. Just use 21512sd.rom

It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life.

Reply 7 of 7, by DonCatoli

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Sly_Botts wrote on 2022-12-25, 02:43:
DonCatoli wrote on 2022-12-06, 23:01:

I am having the same issue you had but even with booting with an ATI PCI card it still refused to flash until I used the modified 2.15.07 file from another post, can you share the 21512SD.rom post that worked for you please?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DgPo2mrddr9R … iew?usp=sharing

Don't use the mod Rom. Just use 21512sd.rom

Thank you