Just got my Voodoo 3 3000 in the mail that I won at ebay auction...I installed it and used the same drivers as I had with my 3 2000(amigamerlin 2.5).....the card did load  a glide game once, and when I started to play it the screen went blank...most other times after the 3dfx logo flash was gone I got vertical black and white lines on the monitor, where it is supposed to say loading 3d excellerated hardware, and then entering the game itself....

Ive also tried the amigamerlin 2.5SE, 2.9, and amigasport3.0 to no avail......

right now I am back on this message board with the 3 2000 because when I came here just to post the problem, the screen went blank with the 3 3000, also(whithout even using glide)....sad day...

Can someone tell me if I got a DOA card?

Yep, seems like it.

Technically, after exchanging the Card, you should note nil difference, except the increased performance.

Ok thanx Falconfly..That was my first ever buy on ebay.....Makes me want to never do it again...lol

Just sent him an email to see what can be done Patience..I will keep yas posted....

UPDATE:Seller refunding money and told me to keep the card...lol...

Now funny thing is I put it back into the box and was looking at the pic on the outside of the box and the card doesnt look anything like the pic...why would the pic be different than the actuall card? Ive also seen other pics claiming to be 3 3000's and Ive noticed the aluminum heat sink has brass screws on them, and the heatsink itself is larger than this one. This heatsink is just glued to the top of this chip..Is there so many different manufacturers that many look different?


But when I fired it up the bios said voodoo3 3000, so I guess thats what it is...lol

sticker on the back says v33316


Hmmm I was searching the pic from falconfly's post on another thread and I find this card looks almost exactly like this card except the heatsink is aluminum...and just left of the heatsink at bottom of card a few diodes are a little different..what da heck I got here a 2000 that dont work or a 3000 that dont work...lmao

http://www.planetfalconfly.de/img/Voodoo3-2000PCI-SGRAM-Tilt.JPG

Post a picture of your card if you can... ;)

Maybe the solution is that it's a 2000 that has been 'bad-flashed' with a 3000's BIOS... ???

Only time will tell... ???

Cant post a pic...no camera...and also was looking at it real closely and one of the diodes is dissconected at one side...looks like it was bent over...

Hmm. well if it's only ONE diode on one side, it should be REALLY easy to fix! ;D

Brush up on your soldering skills and patch it back together... ;)

Should work just fine! 8)

Should be one of those :

Voodoo3 3000 PCI SG-RAM
http://www.falconfly.de/identify/Voodoo3_3000_PCI_(SG-RAM).jpg

Voodoo3 3000 PCI SD-RAM
http://www.falconfly.de/identify/Voodoo3_3000_PCI.jpg

Voodoo3 3000 AGP SD-RAM
http://www.falconfly.de/identify/Voodoo3_3000_AGP.jpg

Thank's Falcon and all!!!....Falcon it is a match with the
sg-ram card...Facing that pic, its the little round silver diode right under the left bottom of the heatsink...so maybe thats the problemo with the card?

BTW Patience...I appologise for calling you a bro...I think I just read in another thread your a women...so sorry sister!

Hi I too seem to be having ebay card problems  :(

I've identified mine as a
Voodoo3 3000 PCI SG-RAM
it came with a Voodoo3 install disk (P/N 271-0011-005)
which didn't autoload.
When I searched the closest drive I could find was for NT
(I wanted Win 2000).
Anyway the machine now appears to be un-healthy.
I can get into the bios fine to swap between onboard & PCI but when it trys to go into Windows it's slower than a slow thing with one foot nailed to the floor.
When I say slow I mean slooooooow, not just a little slower but ridiculously slow. It's been about 5 mins now and still stays "Starting Windows..."

I've tried switching back to onboard and re-plugging the VDU into the MB socket but still dead slow.

Any ideas ?

wrote on 02.09.04 at 00:45:12:

Hi I too seem to be having ebay card problems  :( I've identified mine as a Voodoo3 3000 PCI SG-RAM it came with a Voodoo3 install disk (P/N 271-0011-005) which didn't autoload. When I searched the closest drive I could find was for NT (I wanted Win 2000). Anyway the machine now appears to be un-healthy. I can get into the bios fine to swap between onboard & PCI but when it trys to go into Windows it's slower than a slow thing with one foot nailed to the floor. When I say slow I mean slooooooow, not just a little slower but ridiculously slow. It's been about 5 mins now and still stays "Starting Windows..." I've tried switching back to onboard and re-plugging the VDU into the MB socket but still dead slow. Any ideas ?

PS I've now found a bunch of win 2000 drivers
amigasport-win2k_xp-30
and
voodoo3-win2k-10300
looking like suitable candidates.
But I'd like to know how I can get the PC to regain it's former speed so I can try them.

Hi :)

Well, I've seen the problem you are describing myself before, although not with a 3dfx Card.

Chances are, there is a Resource conflict that Win2000 can not really resolve.

Make sure the Voodoo3 does not share an IRQ with another PCI Slot. The INT-Table of your motherboard (if existing) will show what IRQ's are routed to which PCI Slots (including Onboard devices working via PCI Bridge).

When sharing an IRQ with another, bandwidth or latency-sensitive Device, the System can easily be hogged down, as the two Devices fight over it.

Also, the Voodoo3 should be assigned an IRQ in the first place (some Motherboards have the Option of Enabling/Disabling the Video Card IRQ).

And last but not least, make sure your Bios Options do not conflict with the Voodoo3 PCI. Some PCI Bus related settings (which might be totally irrelevant to an OnBoard VideoChip) can have odd results on the PCI Hardware and how the System behaves.
---------------------
In order to troubleshoot the Resources first (e.g. a safe look in the Device Manager), you can always assign the Voodoo3 the "Standard VGA" Driver.

Also, make sure all remains of the former Video Card (Driver, Control Application) are removed both via the Software Menu (uninstall), and (while in safe mode) deleted from the Device Manager.

All Windows Versions otherwise keep all Driver Files, Software, and Registry entries for old Hardware, even after it is removed. After a while, this can get pretty messy, causing a wide array of odd errors.

wrote on 02.09.04 at 01:00:03:

Hi :) Well, I've seen the problem you are describing myself before, although not with a 3dfx Card. Chances are, there is a Resource conflict that Win2000 can not really resolve. Make sure the Voodoo3 does not share an IRQ with another PCI Slot. The INT-Table of your motherboard (if existing) will show what IRQ's are routed to which PCI Slots (including Onboard devices working via PCI Bridge). When sharing an IRQ with another, bandwidth or latency-sensitive Device, the System can easily be hogged down, as the two Devices fight over it.

Do you think trying it in a different PCI slot might help ?


Quote:

Also, the Voodoo3 should be assigned an IRQ in the first place (some Motherboards have the Option of Enabling/Disabling the Video Card IRQ).

I have a [yes|no] assign IRQ for VGA
which is currently = yes
if I change this to no will it use a default IRQ for that PCI slot ?


Quote:

And last but not least, make sure your Bios Options do not conflict with the Voodoo3 PCI. Some PCI Bus related settings (which might be totally irrelevant to an OnBoard VideoChip) can have odd results on the PCI Hardware and how the System behaves.

How can I tell ?


Quote:

--------------------- In order to troubleshoot the Resources first (e.g. a safe look in the Device Manager), you can always assign the Voodoo3 the "Standard VGA" Driver.

Unfortunately I can't assign anything as it's too slow.
I've not even managed to get Windows to start yet :(

Quote:

Also, make sure all remains of the former Video Card (Driver, Control Application) are removed both via the Software Menu (uninstall), and (while in safe mode) deleted from the Device Manager. All Windows Versions otherwise keep all Driver Files, Software, and Registry entries for old Hardware, even after it is removed. After a while, this can get pretty messy, causing a wide array of odd errors.

Thanks for your help.

If your Bios VGA IRQ setting is enabled, you should leave it that way.

Although, for booting and troubleshooting, you could Disable it. It (usually) just won't work with anything 3D that way, but should work fine in 2D.

Choosing another PCI Slot commonly helps.
It's just important to try and get the Video Card its own IRQ.

And since we're talking Resources, you should disable all unused Onboard devices (e.g. COM ports, LPT Port, USB, Raid Controller, Sound) if you don't need them.
Every single one can free up an IRQ for you :)

(Win9x Drivers often have problems having to share Resources among different Devices, so keeping the system resource-friendly by deactivating unused Devices is a good thing to start with)

And of course, I assume you have the latest Chipset Drivers installed for your Motherboard ?
(intel based Systems usually don't need anything, but on SiS, VIA, ALi or NForce based Boards, those Drivers are really needed)
------------
Worst case, you either have to wait to let it boot once, or enter the Safe mode and manually Deactivate potentially conflicting (or unused) Devices from there in the Device Manager. (that way, they can be re-activated easily the same way, both in Normal or Safe Mode)

Finding out what IRQ's are shared among what devices is the most important thing.
If completely unable to look at it under Windows, the initial Boot screen (after the Motherboard counts up its RAM and detects the HardDrives/CD/DVD's), it should show up for a second.
Press the "PAUSE/Break" Key to halt the text output.
(it's a bit tricky, but by quickly pressing any key to resume, and almost instantly the Pause Key again, you can slowly progress and catch the right moment to halt the machine at the right spot ;) )

PS.
The Video Card's Driver can be changed to "Standard VGA" (= vga.drv) in Safe Mode as well. That should do the trick.

ok
how about this ...

I've now taken the card out and it's still taking forever to get win 2000 up :(

there shouldn't be any conflicts now as it's HW is back to the way it was.


I've noticed a few SiS chips on the MB so maybe I need to do something there.
I usually like to get to the point of having it working after changing one thing before changing another..

Hm, since you got Win2000, can you select "Last known good Profile" at the very beginning of the Boot process ?
(press F8 at initial boot process to get full menus)

Only problem being, once Win2000 makes it to, or past the LogOn-Screen, it will store that config as "known good" at at point, regardless if it took 10 Minutes to get there...

Worst case, you might be in for a Recovery Installation of Win2000, but that should be reserved as a last resort.

You'll definitely need SiS Drivers, if Win2000 didn't recognize them with default Drivers.
(btw, what exactly is the Hardware we're talking about? Old Socket7/Slot1 Pentium class or SocketA Athlon class ? )

Tried the "Last known good Profile" at the very beginning of the Windows Boot process.

No joy.
I've now decided it's actually freezes at the starting windows bit.
As I had left it at that point for ages (20 mins) with no further progress.

I could try booting from an old win 98 disk that was used on that machine to see if that boots ok.
That'll tell me if it's a bios thing or win 2000 that is causing the problem.

I might leave that till tomorrow night though as I've got to get up for work in about 3 hours.

BTW it's a Celeron 633MHz
so not quite an antique.

Well, did you change anything in the Bios ?
If so, restore the old values.

And did you succeed booting in Safe Mode ?
There, the Voodoo3 should be uninstalled and deleted from the Device Manager, and the former Video Driver re-installed.