Okay. I'm new to PC's and PC gaming and I've never owned a Glide card in my life until a recent purchase of a Voodoo 2 card from ebay...

My system is as follows-
Gateway G6 450
Pentium II 450 MHZ
384MB RAM
Geforce 2 Ti
Creative Voodoo 2 12MB (currently awaiting another Creative Voodoo 2 board to run in SLI mode)
10GB ATA-33 harddrive
Sony DDS tape drive
Zip 100 onboard drive
Toshiba DVD-Rom
Adaptec SCSI PCI board
Generic PCI modem
AC97 audio
Intel WS440BX motherboard
200 watt ATX power supply (systems original)

Running Windows 2000 pro

I am using a single Voodoo 2 graphics card at present, with the latest official 3DFX drivers downloaded from Falconfly website. Texture size set to 2MB in the driver window.
I run my desktop at 1280x1024 resolution (got a 19" monitor)
When I load up a gilide game (Red Baron) the menu screen appears without any problem, but when I select fly now the screen shrinks down to 800X 600 resolution (which is to be expected) however this doesn't stretch to fill the screen. If I resize the desktop to 800x600 before loading the game the game will run full screen- is this normal.
When I run full screen I get some graphics corruption in the corner of the screen- looks almost like interference!

I'm also getting what can best be described as comet tails on the desktop when I have the Voodoo 2 Card installed. With it removed the picture is wonderful.

I'm wondering if this is a power supply problem, as my power supply is a little on the small side I think.

Just how much power do the Voodoo 2 cards draw?

Any ideas.


Cheers

Andy

The PSU can throw up strange problems.  And the one you describe with the 800x600 game screen not filling the monitor's screen is a strange one!

I play RB3D often here on Voodoo2 SLI.  The game is about to be given a whole new lease of life by the Promised Land patch too around now ( http://www.wingwalkers.org/jasta1/newplmain.htm )!

I would suggest that since you have a workaround for the resolution issue you use it.  Ideally changing the desktop res to run the game should be unnecessary.  But Voodoo2s are getting old now and have to be humoured now and then.  A utility like PowerStrip can be used to automatically switch the resolution whenever you run the game.

The comet trails issue sound like passthrough cable interference.  I run a desktop res of 1152x864x32@85Hz on a 19" monitor here and have no problems with passthrough degradation.  But if I switch to 1280x1024 I start to see a slight fluffiness to text and lines.  Do the comet trails disappear at lower screen resolutions?

There are a number of fixes for passthrough degradation.  To quote from a Quantum3D support page -

1/ Lower the resolution and refresh rate. 

2/ Try setting your 2D adapter to a higher horizontal frequency. In the Advanced Tab of the Display properties page, set the Refresh rate from "Optimal" or "Adapter Default" to a constant frequency of 75 or higher. 

3/ Try straightening out the pass-through cable as much as physically possible. Straighten it out more by moving the graphics accelerator board into different PCI slot (See next bullet). 

4/ Try swapping the graphics accelerator into a different PCI slot. Try all possible combinations. (Note: Windows 95 users may have to go through the "New Device Found" routine when swapping PCI graphics accelerators.). 

5/ Use the manual video switching method #1: Leave the monitor cable unscrewed from the connector on the Obsidian2 graphics accelerator or the 2D adapter. Leave the pass-through cable that plugs into your 2D adapter unscrewed at the 2D adapter external port. When the Obsidian2 graphics accelerator is needed, plug the monitor cable into the Obsidian2 graphics accelerator and plug the pass-through cable into your 2D adapter. When the 2D adapter is needed, unplug the pass-through cable from your 2D adapter and plug the monitor directly into the 2D adapter, thus totally bypassing the Obsidian2 graphics accelerator. 

6/ Use the manual video switching method #2: If DSUB inputs and BNC inputs are on the monitor, buy a BNC cable (If not already available.). Plug the BNC cable from the 2D adapter (DSUB end) to the BNC inputs on the monitor. Plug the DSUB cable from the Obsidian2 graphics accelerator video out to the DSUB input on the monitor (The supplied pass-through cable is not used in this method.). Use the monitor's video switching controls to switch between DSUB and BNC video inputs when appropriate (This can be extremely annoying if the monitor does not support automatic video switching/sensing between DSUB and BNC.). 

7/ If two monitors are available then use one monitor ( #1 rated monitor.) and plug it directly into the 2D adapter. Use the other monitor ( #2 rated monitor.) And plug it directly into the Obsidian2 graphics accelerator video output (The supplied pass-through cable is not used in this method.).

Hope this is some help.  RB3D looks fantastic on Voodoo2s.  And the passthrough problem is surmountable although it appears to vary by monitor, primary card and quality of Voodoo2 and passthrough cable.

Good luck.