VOGONS


Voodoo Banshee repair

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First post, by Retronerd878

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I've got a Voodoo Banshee that looks absolutely spotless. It does post no problem, boots to windows. Sometimes I get random freezes and 100% crash if I start a game.

Took out the thermal camera and saw that the power regulator get sreally hot. Like 90 C degrees. I don't know if that is normal or not.
Voltages on the pins of the regulator are 4.9V, 3.6V and 2.3V.

Maybe the SMD Electrolyitcs have gone bad? Although they look flawless. Any ides?

Reply 1 of 3, by MagefromAntares

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Hi,

I have found the data-sheet of this regulator IC:https://www1.futureelectronics.com/doc/ANALOG … ME1084DCBTZ.pdf

According to this it has an operational ambient temperature limit of 70 Celsius and a Junction Temperature of 125 Celsius, this means that it is beneath the temperature that would make it quickly fail, but 90 degrees Celsius is definitely not in the normal operating region. It is weird that it doesn't have a heat-sink attached, even if the root cause of the overheating is not with this IC, it should still have a heat-sink installed for the long term survival of the IC. This same data-sheet also mentions that the ones marked with "ACDT" has an adjustable voltage rating, so it depends on the circuit what its output voltage should be.

The data-sheet also shows some example schematics of application, these might help debug the issue.

EDIT: I have checked some Voodoo Banshee cards, I haven't found one with the exact same layout, but they either have a small heat-sink attached to the regulator IC, or has the regulator IC farther from other components and have a large PCB surface still covered with conductive material around them to increase heat dissipation, while it may not be the root cause, in my opinion the regulator IC on this board has been placed in such a way to minimize cost instead of planned long term usage.

"A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it." - Dune

Reply 2 of 3, by marxveix

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Banshee heats up pretty well, active cooling should be also there.

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Reply 3 of 3, by nuno14272

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Test it with reference drivers.
Test it in not a modern mobo.

1| 386DX40
2| P200mmx, Voodoo 1
3| PIII-450, Voodoo 3 3000