Can you test the cards in another system, or do you have known working cards to test in this machine? From your post you said its working with the TNT2, but not with the other two cards - can you confirm those two work?

The BIOS keeps losing the clock and settings, I wonder if the CMOS battery is bad?

That's my board, and that's the same manual that is on the CD, but I have no Default Primary Video Adapter setting in the BIOS. The other two options are there, that one isn't.

If it loses all settings when power is lost yes the battery is likely bad, unless you have the CMOS clear jumper set to the "Clear" position (and it usually isn't a good idea to boot with that set). Try a new battery and check the jumper.

Hmm, can you give the revision of your board and the version of your BIOS? I'm afraid if you don't have the option, then it might default to PCI when both are present like obobskivich said (no way to set AGP as primary in that case), and in that case you should really check whether the PCI cards are working. You can still hope for a later BIOS version to have that feature though.

And yea def get a new battery 😀

I'll definitely do a battery replacement. Manual says "good for up to seven years!" Which was impressive until 10 years ago when it suddenly stopped being. 😉

Revision is: 703649-406
BIOS version is: 4S4EB0X1.86A.0011.P04

Judging from a brief skimming of this the Primary Video Adapter option was included in a BIOS revision. That document does note that with the Primary Adapter option, AGP is the default.

Replaced the CMOS battery, and tested the cards on a Windows XP machine I have. They both worked without any problem, or at least without any problem during POST and boot. I'm sure the drivers would have been a pain. 😁

Is the next step to try to update the bios on the board? I believe this is the bios version for my board.

Wait, so everything is working the way you want it right now? As the saying goes: if it ain't broke...

BIOS updates is always a tricky thing.

I bricked a good Acer S370 Tualatin board that way. Had to get another board just to get the BIOS chip.

New BIOS version address very specific issues and there should be documentation. Often it fixes things that don't affect what you do.

If you have a hardware BIOS reader take a copy before flashing. I found this to work very well.

The cards work on another machine, not on the PII.
I don't know if updating the BIOS will fix anything, the "Boot from PCI/AGP" option is usually only needed when both PCI and AGP video cards are installed and you want to decide which one should be the primary adapter.
I always updated a BIOS when I had the chance. In this case the board uses the P04 "first production release" so an update might be useful.

Some points from the release notes which might be interesting:
P07: Modified BIOS to try to use non-SPD, unprogrammed SPD and improperly programmed SPD DIMMs and to issue a new new warning message on first detecting these devices.
P08: Updated DIMM timing algorithm.
P09: Added Pentium(R) II processor 450 MHz support.
P11: Fixed the issue with system not displaying video with PCI video card behind a DEC bridge.
P11: Added support for Intel(R) Pentium(R) III processor at 450MHz.

AidanExamineer wrote:

I believe this card is a Matrox M3D (at least it's listed as one!). […]
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I believe this card is a Matrox M3D (at least it's listed as one!).

My first question: is it? I'm new here. Either way I'll know in a few weeks when it shows up at my house. 😒

My second question: What is a good 2D card to pair with PowerVR PCX2s? The board I have for my build is an Intel SE440BX, so AGP or PCI cards would both be acceptable, though I doubt AGP is really an option.

Thanks!

I had a Riva128 in my ancient P2-300 440BX build and it worked fine in DX (OpenGL was broken beyond belief). Not sure why you're wanting to use the PowerVR PCX2s, since they really didn't see much good use, outside of Dreamcast/Naomi. SLI'd Voodoo2s paired with a good 2D card would get you better results in DOS/Win98 gaming, imho. But then again, nobody listens to me, so to each his own. 🤣

ElectricMonk wrote:

AidanExamineer wrote:

I believe this card is a Matrox M3D (at least it's listed as one!). […]
Show full quote

I believe this card is a Matrox M3D (at least it's listed as one!).

My first question: is it? I'm new here. Either way I'll know in a few weeks when it shows up at my house. 😒

My second question: What is a good 2D card to pair with PowerVR PCX2s? The board I have for my build is an Intel SE440BX, so AGP or PCI cards would both be acceptable, though I doubt AGP is really an option.

Thanks!

I had a Riva128 in my ancient P2-300 440BX build and it worked fine in DX (OpenGL was broken beyond belief). Not sure why you're wanting to use the PowerVR PCX2s, since they really didn't see much good use, outside of Dreamcast/Naomi. SLI'd Voodoo2s paired with a good 2D card would get you better results in DOS/Win98 gaming, imho. But then again, nobody listens to me, so to each his own. 🤣

The TNT2 is unlikely to work with the ATI Rage version of MechWarrior 2. Or the Matrox Mystique version. Or the PowerVR version. Or the S3 ViRGE version. 😉 I'm mainly interested in those other cards for historical reasons; I'd love to test them out, and compare them.

I guess I'll keep the TNT2 in for now while I do the Win 95 build, and come back to the PCI card issue at a later date. Unless you guys have any more ideas? The BIOS update does sound too risky.

ElectricMonk wrote:

Not sure why you're wanting to use the PowerVR PCX2s, since they really didn't see much good use, outside of Dreamcast/Naomi.

PowerVR PCX2 has nothing to do with the SEGA Dreamcast (except for being a direct predecessor of the PVR2). PowerVR was 2nd to 3dfx in having a proprietary API so there's plenty of more PVR games than S3D/ATIcif/Mystique/Rredline/Speedy3d etc. They were fairly popular in 1997 (especially in Japan), but quickly went towards obsolence the following year because it couldn't have any blending functions beyond alpha.

In addition, PCX2 isn't a host card, so there's no real loss of functionality in installing one. It's not going to replace the host's 3d, unless configured to (via control panel api-wide or game-specific), and you can still have a Voodoo2 with one. It's totally possible to build a (Rendition/S3D/ATICIF/Mystique, pick one )/SGL/Glide system.

Weird update. Tried using the PCI and AGP cards in tandem a few more times, swapping between which one was connected to the monitor every time I did a cold boot.

And kerblammo, the Matrox worked. Once, briefly, then was back to not working after I reconnected the SB32 and changed my master/slave config with the disc drives. I went back to power cycling and swapping the video cable, and sure enough I can get the Matrox to work if I just TRY HARD ENOUGH! It seems to continue working through warm reboots, and even power off, as long as the power supply remains plugged in and switched on.

So instead of a failed card, I've got a failing card? Or could it be a power issue?

Wait so, if you disconnected the SB32 it works? Or that had no effect and it only stops working if the machine loses power?

That doesn't seem tied to it, I just pulled power in order to put the SB32 back in and reconfigure the IDE cables.

If it starts working, it will work through multiple shutdowns/restarts until I turn the power supply off or unplug it.

With my limited experience, I would suggest noting down the differences in the PCI regs dump between the working and non-working(this has to be done blind, by making use of autoexec or whatever) states in both DOS and Windows(if possible, i.e if OS gets loaded in the background without any display). If there is a problem, I guess, it should be with the motherboard (hardware) most likely, with such weird issues, unable to reproduce and all. BIOS problem is less likely, though an update might provide a work-around for some hardware bugs/incompatibilities (for eg. I had to introduce a delay in the BIOS before the display initialization for the card(behind a bridge) to be detected.

A mind-less guess, the board may need some sort of warm-up 🤣 before it may actually start to work 😊 .

leileilol wrote:

ElectricMonk wrote:

Not sure why you're wanting to use the PowerVR PCX2s, since they really didn't see much good use, outside of Dreamcast/Naomi.

PowerVR PCX2 has nothing to do with the SEGA Dreamcast (except for being a direct predecessor of the PVR2).

Confused it with the Neon 250, no doubt. PCX2 with PowerVR Series 2. Very different animals. I used to do that all the time, until I tortured myself with reading the early PowerVR Series 1 datasheets. Can't forget now. (Still, even the CLX2 and PMX1 are different animals.)

As long as I don't change any hardware configurations, I don't have any further card troubles. I swapped the power supply, and that was as close as I got to messing with it. The Mystique's preferred resolution of 640x400 is out of range for my LCD monitor (augh), so I'm back in the market for a CRT to replace my dead one. And I was THIS close to MechWarrior 2!

I'll let it ride for now, and see if I have this same weird issue when my curiosity gets the better of me and I try to switch to the RAGE II. 😁 Thanks for the help, Vogons (and any Betelgeusians that may be out there).