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Voodoo3 2000 AGP on ASRock K7VT2 - compatible?

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First post, by WildW

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Hi folks - so I'm messing with hardware for no particularly good reason and ran into some issues. I have a Voodoo3 2000 AGP, known good and currently working in a Pentium 3 BX motherboard without issues. I also have a known good ASRock K7VT2 motherboard (socket A, VIA KT266A chipset - https://www.asrock.com/mb/via/k7vt2/ ) running an Athlon XP2000. . . I wanted to experiment with pushing the Voodoo3 a bit harder than my P3-450, maybe use them together as my main Win98 machine.

Anyhow, I switched the motherboard to AGP 2X in the BIOS first, and the original video card (Radeon 9250) was running happy with that, the ATI SMARTGART reporting 2x AGP and fast writes off. Then I removed the ATI drivers and swapped in the Voodoo3 card, but I'm not getting as far as POST. At first I got a 2 + 8 beep code, which apparently is "Display memory read/write failure". I tried reseating the card a few times but I either get that code or just 1 long and 3 short beeps - video error.

I put the Voodoo3 back in the machine it came from and it worked again right away. Put the Radeon back into the K7VT2 and it all works. Everything points to these two things being incompatible . . . should they work together?

Reply 1 of 4, by Doornkaat

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I think the Voodoo3 AGP variants use AGP 1.0@1x, not AGP 1.0@2x. Have you tried forcing that? 2x introduces DDR signaling which the Voodoo does not support and I don't know wether this will confuse the MoBo or make it fall back to 1x if 2x is forced in BIOS.
In any case the chipset is AGP1.0 (1x /2x) and AGP2.0 (4x) capable.
Edit: likely wrong😅

Last edited by Doornkaat on 2020-05-23, 17:53. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 2 of 4, by WildW

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Interesting . . . I have not tried AGP 1x, I could do that now that the Radeon is back in the machine. However. . . the Voodoo3 is supposed to be a 2X card according to everything I read (even if the speed isn't needed), and shouldn't the motherboard detect the type required and switch automatically anyway?

Reply 3 of 4, by Doornkaat

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You know what? I may have been mistaken there.
Try forcing 1x anyway, see if it helps.

Reply 4 of 4, by WildW

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Hmm. . .1x works. . . actually now I find 2x works. However, it is still beeping bad video card on every bootup, it just also then POSTs correctly, boots to Windows, drivers install, about to try something in Glide mode. I wonder if it is complaining about a bad 5V rail or something, I don't exactly have the right PSU on this machine, too modern.

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