Another defective Voodoo 2 \ VOGONS

Another defective Voodoo 2

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First post, by ferrari2k

Posted on 2025-08-17, 20:32

ferrari2k Offline

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Hi,
I recently bought a "worked last time" Voodoo 2 from Ebay but... yeah, didn't work at all...

The computer boots fine, I can hear that, but display is garbled, as you can see.

But when I plugin my display directly to my normal graphics card, I have a crystal clear picture. So I downloaded that 3DFx SDK with the test programs and that was quite encouraging.
The card is detected, the memory is detected in full (12MB version) and under Windows in the display settings dialogue I can see everything and the card is detected without problem there as well.

So now I am suspecting a memory chip that went bad, but... is there a memory test tool for Voodoo 2s?
Or can anyone point me into another direction what to look for?
It is quite late here so I won't have time to remove the card from the computer just yet to look for bad traces or something like that.
So I will be back here tomorrow and post more troubleshooting 😀

Reply 1 of 7, by dominusprog

Posted on 2025-08-17, 21:59

dominusprog Offline

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Don't jump the gun just yet, turn on the computer and gently push the RAM chips to see if it makes any difference. The issue can be caused by a broken solder joint.

A-Trend ATC-1020 V1.1 ❇ Cyrix 6x86 150+ @ 120MHz ❇ 32MiB EDO RAM (8MiBx4) ❇ A-Trend S3 Trio64V2 2MiB
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Reply 2 of 7, by Pickle

Posted on 2025-08-18, 14:46

Pickle Offline

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youtuber bits and bolts has done a number of voodoo related repairs and would give you ideas to check.
quite often the legs on the chips are loose. Could be bad memory. He has used a tool called mojo that can give hints what is not working:
https://bitsundbolts.com/2025/01/21/3dfx-vood … debugging-mojo/

Reply 3 of 7, by ferrari2k

Posted on 2025-08-18, 16:36

ferrari2k Offline

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Yep, that's what I used to determine what might not be working on the card, but generally that works.
What I found interesting is: this display error is coming right at the start of the computer, POST screen etc.
I haven't tried starting a game, but... what circuts are responsible for the simple pass through?
Because I imagine the card is not doing much in that situation?
I'll see if I can continue testing later and what the results are 😀

Reply 4 of 7, by ferrari2k

Posted on 2025-08-18, 17:42

ferrari2k Offline

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OK, so... I pressed around on the memory chips before turning the computer on and...
It worked!
Bad thing is: I pressed ALL of them....
So... It WAS a broken solder joint, but... how do I find that now? 😁

Reply 5 of 7, by Pickle

Posted on 2025-08-18, 18:27

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The solder on pins have to be reflowed.
Soldering iron and solder at a minimum and having flux will make good joints.

Edit: usually pushing the suspect chip might trigger the problem back again. A microscope can be helpful to spot cracked joints.

Reply 6 of 7, by dominusprog

Posted on 2025-08-18, 20:39

dominusprog Offline

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ferrari2k wrote on 2025-08-18, 17:42:
OK, so... I pressed around on the memory chips before turning the computer on and... It worked! Bad thing is: I pressed ALL of t […]
Show full quote

OK, so... I pressed around on the memory chips before turning the computer on and...
It worked!
Bad thing is: I pressed ALL of them....
So... It WAS a broken solder joint, but... how do I find that now? 😁

You can check the connectivity between the RAM chip legs and the pads with a multimeter.

A-Trend ATC-1020 V1.1 ❇ Cyrix 6x86 150+ @ 120MHz ❇ 32MiB EDO RAM (8MiBx4) ❇ A-Trend S3 Trio64V2 2MiB
Creative AWE64 Value ❇ 8.4GiB Quantum Fireball ❇ Win95 OSR2 Plus!

Reply 7 of 7, by ferrari2k

Posted on 2025-08-19, 07:15

ferrari2k Offline

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OK, thanks for the replies, at the moment the card is working and I will keep it as that 😀
My own Voodoo 2 worked flawlessly and for now I will be enjoying my SLI system, for the first time ever 😁
Thanks for all the input and help!

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