Hey can anyone help me by explaining to me how I am suposed to manually install a driver for a Voodoo 3 3dfx Card on Windows XP.

Fairly easy :

Go into the Device Manager, Open Video Card's properties and select Update Driver -> manually choose Driver.

WinXP will certainly give you an exclamation that the Video Driver is not certified, simply ignore that. After a reboot, the Driver should be installed and running.

That way is the "oldschool" way of installing a Driver, since all modern Drivers nowadays come with their own Setup Executable which automates all steps...

OK this is going to sound retarded and noobish but err..Whats the name of the driver file? . somthing?I am sooo new at this.

Ah, no problem.

All Drivers are compressed, so just unzip the entire Archive into a Directory of your choice.

As soon as you got it extracted, you just have to point the Device Manager at this Directory when manually directing it to the Driver location on your Harddisk. It will automatically find the .inf File holding all relevant information Windows needs to know (e.g. Driver File names, Registry settings and their locations for install) and installs them automatically, nothing more needed.

Choosing "Update Driver" instead of "let me choose the Driver myself" will effectively do the same, except "Update Driver" will only install a newer Driver than already installed (becomes a factor when switching to another Driver that is simply older than the one installed) and will also fail if the PCI Vendor ID for your Card is not explicitly contained in the found .inf File(s). (latter should never happen with a normal Voodoo3 though, this is a factor for some of the less widespread nonstandard Cards or Prototypes)

Or do you want to know 'which' Driver set (of the many existing) you should download in the first place ?

Jubilation?Falcon Fly sir,as your avatar depict,you seem to be playing Unreal Tournament.Now I installed the driver like you told me to,restarted my PC and chose 3dfx Glide from the Card list.Upon loading the game I get a small window saying "Error" With the button "ok" as the only option...Any idea about that problem?

well in this case WinXP is known not to be the best Operating System for 3dfx cards, since I would reccomend Windows 2000 Professional + Service Pack 4 or Windows 98SE + Unofficial Service Pack 2.02.

Quite odd.

I do not own WinXP myself anymore and don't plan on getting it either *g*
But from what I know, WinXP should work just fine with just about all the modern 3rd Party Drivers existing, haven't heard about significant problems.

Which Driver exactly did you choose ?

SFFT-V3-Alpha32...Will switching driver actually make a change?

Oh yes...

The Alpha xx Series Drivers are primarily focussed around their revamped DirectX Core (and it remains at Alpha testing status, so bugs are likely to occur at one point or another), therefor should be used for latest Direct3D Games that simply won't run well or at all on other Drivers.

It basically is a "specialist" at that, which makes it so very useful for alot of modern Direct3D based Games, but mainly only those really benefit.

For Classic Glide games, other Drivers are likely the better overall choice, Amigamerlin/Amigasports are among the best existing. The latest incorporate the Alpha series DirectX Core but ship with the common and proven Glide/OpenGL Drivers.

Using an older Version in case problems persist may actually help in your case (e.g. for classic Unreal Tournament)

So you recommand Amiga for my case huh?Ishall try it out at once using the manual install like you teached me...See if it works..But Which would you highly recommand for my "special" case? (Which Amiga Version)

SFFT driver has full glide/opengl functionality,just lika amigasport.there is no reason why it shouldnt work.if there are weird problems with glide,the problem probably lies elsewhere (old and terribly botched up installation of xp for example)..

wrote on 18.10.05 at 22:54:18:

SFFT driver has full glide/opengl functionality,just lika amigasport.there is no reason why it shouldnt work.if there are weird problems with glide,the problem probably lies elsewhere (old and terribly botched up installation of xp for example)..

Sorry to break it down to you but XP was installed this summer and by a professional....

Hm, I think the Amigasport Driver does not require manual installation, AFAIK it has a setup routine as well.

Why glide wouldn't work on some Drivers I could only explain as an error (e.g. WinXP somehow rejecting non-WHQL Driver files, which I know it can when setup to do so), or the System (Hardware) just not being compatible to the very latest Glide Cores when used e.g. on old, classic Games.

That's why I recommended trying older Versions of available Drivers as well, since their more original Glide cores are definitely known to work hassle-free for a safe start.
For as long as the Glide .dll's are in place, Unreal Tournament should work without problems.

Did you try running other basic Glide or Direct3D Applications to make sure the Card itself is running properly ?

Woot it work at last!I can see the blood,the gun blaze,the lightning effects!Thanks again guys,you got my card fixed!

well no problem maybe you leanrt something new also which is always welcome ;)

I must say congrats to yourself also by getting it to work, since it was all so new for you ;)  Happy to hear it works The_Crimson;)

The Force Is With You.  8)