Before attempting to solder any resistors, have you tried cleaning the pci bus contacts on the card? Use some isopropyl alcohol and see if that helps, bad contacts can result in a card not getting detected.

Doubt that it's edge contacts related issue, as drivers had to be installed in order for that infamous error to show up.

Yes, those are 34 ohm resistors, probably for address or data bus lines. You could solder in any regular lead resistors from 1 to 100 ohm w/o problem just for testing purposes.

But before doing that, could you please add these environment variables to a registry/batch file?

SSTV2_NUM_TMUS=1 (in theory games might start with a single working TMU)

If that didn't help, try this one:

SSTV2_TEXMAP_DISABLE=1 (games MUST start with this one, but w/o texturing).

SSTV2 wrote:

But before doing that, could you please add these environment variables to a registry/batch file?

Not sure I understood. Do I need to add an environment variable or change Registry?
If Registry, what keys do I need to edit?
I'm using Windows 98se.
Thanks.

I'd suggest you to edit registry by adding those two values in Glide key, this way all glide applications will be affected:

Here is a simple guide on how to do it - Reg.

SSTV2_NUM_TMUS, possible values - 0,1,2 (2 is default).

SSTV2_TEXMAP_DISABLE, 1 - disables texturing, 0 - enables.

Indeed with those values in places, Unreal Gold will start in Glide mode. Without any textures when in full screen of course.
I tried setting SSTV2_TEXMAP_DISABLE to 0 and was able to get the game to run again. This time I think I had some other colors to the 3d objects but again no textures.
I then tried removing both keys, but bow the system will crash on windows boot until I pulled the Voodoo card.
Oddly, I think that once I installed Unreal Gold the error message on boot disappeared. Only now that the card is out it came back. Maybe the reinstallation of DX7 did some magic?

I remember SSTV2_TEXMAP_DISABLE used to cause no texturing in games, regardless of the value it was set to, just its existence was enough in registry or batch file for it to work 🤣

Try leaving only TMU variable in registry and test other multi-texturing capable games. I'm surprised that Unreal was able to start w/o texturing at all. Also, single texturing games might work even w/o TMU set to 1.

Well, the setup of Tomb Raider 3 wouldn't even detect the card. I have only the primary card with D3D to choose.
And while this is all kinda fun, I think I'll go on and try to actually fix the card 😀
I ordered the resistors from AliExpress since I couldn't find any local electronics shop that would sell SMD resistors in small quantity. Minimum 3000 pieces 😮. I mean... It is not that expensive (about 15 dollar) but what on earth would I do with the other 2998 resistors? 😀

Probably would taken some from another busted card to test. But hopefully thats the case cause im on the same boat with mine.

anetanel wrote:

but what on earth would I do with the other 2998 resistors? 😀

Some progress has been made.
I ordered 300 resistors (at least not 3000 😀 ) for 1.99$ from Ali Express, and I got them today.
I soldered two resistors instead of the missing ones, and "Voila!" the card did not crash anymore!
I ran the dount demo and it runs, but here I noticed that the screen flickers a bit on the first "brick" screen and the doughnut itself seems corrupted 🙁

When running with 1 TMU it looks.. err.. better?

In the control panel, the system Info shows the following:

1Scanline Interleave:Not Detected 		
2
3FBI Revision:4		
4Frame Buffer Memory:4 MB		
5Texture Mapping Unit(s):2		
6TMU Revision:4		
7Total Texture Memory:3 MB		
8
9
10FxMemMap VxD Version:4.10.01.0015		
11WinGlide 2.x Driver Version:2.56.00.0459		
12DosGlide 2.x Driver Version:2.56.00.0458		
13WinGlide 3.x Driver Version:3.03.00.0670		
14Direct3D Driver Version:4.11.01.1151 beta		
15Direct3D 32-bit DLL Version:4.11.01.1151 beta		
16Direct3D 16-bit DLL Version:4.11.01.1151 beta	

Notice that it shows 3 MB of Texture Memory, where to my understanding it should be 4.

I switched to a perfectly working 12MB Diamond Monster 3D II, and it shows 8 MB:

1Scanline Interleave:Not Detected 		
2
3FBI Revision:4		
4Frame Buffer Memory:4 MB		
5Texture Mapping Unit(s):2		
6TMU Revision:4		
7Total Texture Memory:8 MB		
8
9
10FxMemMap VxD Version:4.10.01.0015		
11WinGlide 2.x Driver Version:2.56.00.0459		
12DosGlide 2.x Driver Version:2.56.00.0458		
13WinGlide 3.x Driver Version:3.03.00.0670		
14Direct3D Driver Version:4.11.01.1151 beta		
15Direct3D 32-bit DLL Version:4.11.01.1151 beta		
16Direct3D 16-bit DLL Version:4.11.01.1151 beta		

Any ideas how to further troubleshoot?

I just noticed something. The original resistors are marked "34R", and the resistors on the 12MB version are marked "34X".
I measured the resistance with a multi-meter and it is 22.1 ohm in both of them. Apparently in SMD resistors land, 34 means 221 and the R or X suffix means a 0.1 multiplier, so 34R = 221*0.1=22.1 ohm.
While the resistors that I bought are 34 ohm... so maybe these wrong values causes my problem?

https://www.hobby-hour.com/electronics/smdcalc.php
(BTW, that site claims that R means a 0.01 multiplier, but my multi-meter disagrees)