G'day,

I just scored myself my first piece of Quantum3D hardware - an Obsidian2 S-12 PCI-TV! :) Probably the least exciting Quantum3D hardware but I don't mind. I'm having a bit of trouble getting it to operate properly. First off, system specs:

• P3 533MHz (EB)
  
• Transcend TS-AVD1 Mobo (VIA Apollo Pro133)
  
• Quantum Obsidian2
  
• Win98SE
  

This is my test-bed for all my V2 era hardware and it's worked fine with any reference card I throw at it, but I'm having a bit of trouble with the S-12. It's identical to the one on Gary's site (this one) which leaves me to wonder - did the S-12 have the same sort of cable arrangement as the X-24 did in terms of the passthrough cable? From what it seems, the 9-pin on the Obsidian 2 might be for the 2D passthrough, the VGA D-sub for 3D-out like a regular Voodoo2, and the TV outputs doing the same just instead going through a chipset to encode the output to the Composite and S-video ports.

I've tried numerous versions of Quantum3D drivers, but the best I can manage both from the TV output and D-Sub out is a somewhat corrupted screen output with semi-scrolling coloured blocks down the screen. Trying various reference Voodoo2 drivers get me nowhere either, but I didn't expect much from that.

I am finding it rather difficult finding information about these cards - either in just general discussion or any manuals to read about them. If anyone might be able to help assist with this I'd greatly appreciate it :)

Thanks,

---dens

I think you have a bad card- The S-12 uses same sort of setup as a Voodoo I or II pass through cable (not like the X-24 medusa)

If you can run a normal VII with no problems on that motherboard I strongly suspect a bad card.

gdonovan wrote on 30.07.08 at 12:10:58:

I think you have a bad card- The S-12 uses same sort of setup as a Voodoo I or II pass through cable (not like the X-24 medusa) If you can run a normal VII with no problems on that motherboard I strongly suspect a bad card.

So it uses a passthrough cable, but a male-to-male one? The plug on the S-12 as you know is just a female plug - is the passthrough cable different to regular V2's? (i.e. both ends male versus male/female ends).

Would be a shame to have a dud card. I'll keep at it though. This isn't the cleanest of installs.

Thanks mate,

---dens

Yeah the cable is different (same as the Obsidian 100SB 4400/4440v) but functions the same as an ordinary VII card. I think that's what was meant to be said..

Ok then, bit of a shame that I can't get passthrough and while it does seem at this stage that it might end up just as a nice piece of hardware to look at, I still want to see if I can get it working. I'll be trying it in another PC as i'm in the process of building a couple more oldschool boxes for 3dfx nostalgia.

Any other ideas what might be causing the crazy artifacts? I'll get a pic of it tonight so you can see what I mean.

---dens

Bad Chip or RAM,
but not impossible to replace, a lot of Collectors like me have spare Chips! And about the memory, there are cards with bad chips where you can get ram

To be honest I don't trust myself enough to desolder each chip and resolder them hoping that I might be able to fix it. I'd love to have it working, but I'm not sure if it's exactly worth it for this card. An X-24, maybe, but not an S-12.

---dens