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Voodoo3 2000 & 3000 FAQs
1. What are the system requirements for the Voodoo3 2000 and 3000 adapter? The system requirements for a PCI version are: a PCI 2.1 compliant slot on the motherboard and a P90 or better CPU. For the AGP version, you will need a Pentium 2 class machine or better. 2. What models do the Voodoo3 come in and what is the difference between them? The Voodoo3 adapter comes in 3 different models: the Voodoo3 2000, Voodoo3 3000, and the Voodoo3 3500 TV. The 2000 model comes in both AGP and PCI formats and is clocked at 143 MHz. The 3000 model comes in both AGP and PCI formats and is clocked at 166 MHz. The AGP has the TV Out function on it, while the PCI version does not. The Voodoo3 3500 TV comes specifically in AGP format and is clocked at 183 MHz. It also has a built-in TV and FM Tuner on the adapter. (NOTE: The European PAL version of the 3500 TV only comes with the TV Tuner on it.) 3. Does my Voodoo3 require an IRQ in order to run? Yes. Generally today's display adapters require an IRQ in order to function. Generally, the IRQ is assigned in the range of 9 through 12. 4. Are you going to sell a 3D only Voodoo3 adapter? No, all Voodoo3 cards will be 2D and 3D combined. 5. Is it OK to overclock my Voodoo3 adapter? Like many industry leaders including Intel, 3dfx Interactive does not support or condone the act of overclocking. Overclocking is a term used to describe the practice of running computer components above the specification set by the manufacturer. 3dfx does extensive speed-bin testing on our chips to determine which clock speed each part will operate consistently and reliably. Overclocking your Voodoo3 chip can cause damage to the graphics accelerator board and/or the system the board is installed in. It can also greatly decrease the life expectancy of the overclocked chip. 6. What Operating Systems does the Voodoo3 adapter support? The Voodoo3 adapters support Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. 7. The Voodoo3 has DVD Hardware Assist. I currently have a DVD Hardware Decoder card. When I purchase a Voodoo3, will I be able to remove the original DVD Decoder card and play DVD movies directly through the Voodoo3 Card? You can still use your original DVD decoder card provided it is CCIR601 compliant and you have a P2-233 or greater CPU. The Voodoo3 card will only make the DVD decoding operate faster. By integrating planar-to-packed conversion in hardware, the Voodoo3 offers full 30 fps (frames per second) MPEG-2 Playback with no dropped frames and Soft DVD support for all major CODECs. 8. How do I uninstall my old video card? First, you will need to uninstall any listings for the card in the "Add/Remove Programs." This will not necessarily remove the registry entries. However, sometimes a format and reinstall of the operating system may be necessary. Most of the time a little registry editing will get the job done. The best thing to do is contact the manufacturer of your previous video card and have them help guide you through the registry to remove their specific entries. 9. Is the Voodoo3 2000 and 3000 compatible with my motherboard? Here is a list of known motherboard hardware issues (voltage hardware issues will affect AGP models only): The Abit LX6 pre-revision 1.1 has a known voltage issue. The revision 1.05 Asus P2L97 has a known voltage issue. http://www.asus.com.tw/Products/Techref/Misc/rivatnt-rework.html The pre-revision 1.10 Asus P2B is missing a necessary jumper to set the AGP slot to 66mhz. The FIC PA-2013 (other than revision 2.1 PCB) has a voltage issue which will burn out the motherboard after an extended period of time using the Voodoo3. FIC has a new VA-503+ FAQ which gives instruction on how to make an AGP Voodoo3 card work properly with this motherboard. http://www.fica.com/english/techsupp/faq/socket7/FAQ503+.htm The FIC VB-601-V will fail to load Windows (protection error) with the current AMI Bios. Multiple Gigabyte boards have known voltage issues, including the: GA-BXC , GA-BXE, and the GA-BX2000. Here is a handy list (from the Gigabyte German website, no less) of Gigabyte boards that WILL work with the Voodoo3: GA-BX2000
PCB ver.1.1 Jumper 20 und 21 muß gesetzt sein AGP voltage regulator notes: There is a problem with the combination of older motherboards and newer AGP graphic cards. This is due to the fact that some of the early AGP motherboards used a linear regulator to control the power supply to the AGP slot. Linear regulators can supply at most 2.5A of current, while the switching regulator used on newer motherboards can supply up to 6A at 3.3V. When these motherboards with linear regulators were produced, the average consumption of a graphics card was 1 to 2A, making a supply of 2.5A more than sufficient. Since then, graphic cards have developed and currently the average consumption is between 4 and 5A. This is no problem for motherboards using a switching regulator, but older boards with a linear regulator may run into issues such as overheating, burnouts, and lockups. 10. I'm having a problem with a specific game. Where do I get patches? 3dfx
does not write game patches. Normally you would visit the game manufacturer's
web site for updated patches for the games. Below is a list of sites that
have some of the more popular game patches. 11. How should I set my BIOS settings for optimal performance for the Voodoo3 adapter? Video BIOS Cache: Disabled (can be enabled if system is stable) Video BIOS Shadow: Disabled (can be enabled if system is stable) Palette Snoop: Disabled AGP Turbo Mode: Disabled (can be enabled if system is stable) AGP Aperture Size: 64 (usually default setting) PnP Aware OS: Yes Resources Controlled by: Auto Assign IRQ to VGA: Yes Disable
the L2 external cache on Super 7 boards (only necessary if experiencing
severe game crashes, etc.) Enable CPU WRITE ALLOCATE or K6 WRITE (this
setting is usually necessary for DirectX games to work correctly on Super
7 boards) 12. Is my Voodoo3 getting an IRQ? Verify in the Windows "Device Manager" that the Voodoo3 has both an IRQ assigned to it, and the IRQ is not shared with any other devices except for the IRQ holder for PCI steering. (Hint: Double click on the "computer" icon which is always at the top of the device manager's list of devices. This will give you a complete report of all IRQ's and which devices are using them) 13. Why can't I use Alt-Tab to switch in and out of games? You will need to make sure you are using the latest drivers for the Voodoo3-2000 adapter. The drivers are available at http://www.3dfxgamers.com/view.asp?PAGE=V3Drivers. Games that are designed for Glide 2.X will not function with the Alt+Tab function since Glide 2.X does not support it. 14. I'm getting a blank screen after the Windows logo. How do I correct this? Generally after installing the drivers for the Voodoo3 2000, a black screen will occur if the system is not handling the Bus Mastering properly. This happens on some of the Socket 7 AGP motherboards. Contact the motherboard manufacturer for all the latest drivers for the motherboard and install those drivers . There should not be any further issues once the drivers are installed. Another possibility is that the refresh rate is set to high for the monitor. You will need to go into Safe Mode and bring the refresh rate down to Adapter Default to adjust the refresh rate. 15. What TV Out resolutions can the Voodoo3-3000 handle and what signals does it support? The resolutions that the Voodoo3 3000 adapter can handle are 640x480 and 800x600. The TV Out comes in two different flavors as far as signals go. They are NTSC and PAL. NTSC is designed for North America and will not function in a PAL standard country. Conversely, the PAL is designed for those countries that are running the PAL signaled television and will not function in North America. 16. Where can I download and install the latest drivers? 3dfxgamers.com
has all models of the latest drivers. For
older drivers, go to: 17. Does the Voodoo3 2000 and 3000 support the Linux operating system? 3dfx has provided a reference driver which is available at http://www.3dfxgamers.com/view.asp?PAGE=V3Drivers. At this time the drivers are not supported directly by 3dfx Technical Support. It is recommended that you direct your questions to the 3dfx Linux newsgroups if you have any problems with these drivers. 18. Do the Voodoo3 2000 and 3000 support the Mac environment? There are BETA drivers available for the Mac OS, which are available at http://www.3dfxgamers.com/view.asp?IOID=30 These drivers are not supported by 3dfx Technical Support and are primarily intended for use by programmers wishing to develop applications utilizing the Glide API on the Macintosh platform. 19. My TV and monitor are garbled simultaneously when using the TV Output feature. One way to correct this is to open the TV application. Go into the Video Standard tab, switch the standard setting to PAL, apply the change, set it back to NTSC and apply the setting. Also, keep in mind that the quality of the picture is determined by the age of the TV and the scan conversion of the TV's electronics. 20. If I put a fan on my Voodoo3, will I void my warranty? No. If you think that your case is not receiving adequate ventilation, feel free to add a small fan (a 486 CPU fan will work fine) to the top of the Voodoo3 heat-sink. The key here is to NOT remove the original heat-sink. This will void your lifetime warranty. 21. When I start a Direct3D game, I get an error message that says: "No hardware acceleration found," or something similar. Go to "Start" > "Run" and type in "DXDiag." Then press enter. (Applies if you have DX 6.1 or higher installed.) This will bring up the "DirectX Diagnostics Tool." Click on the "display" tab and verify that "DirectDraw" and "Direct3D" acceleration are enabled. If they are disabled, enable them. If it says: "no acceleration is available" , close the DXDiag tool and go into your "system" properties. Click on "performance", then "graphics" and turn the "hardware acceleration" back to full. Then reboot. You will now be able to enable the "Direct3D" acceleration in the DXDiag tool. 22. Error message: Error loading 3dfxcmn.dll. Editing
the registry can be tricky. If you have questions, call our tech support
line: USA: 800-234-4334 23.Error message: CoCreate Instance Failed. Editing
the registry can be tricky. If you have questions, call our tech support
line: 24. What is the best way to install new drivers for my Voodoo3 card (or install it for the first time)? PLEASE READ THIS SECTION COMPLETELY AND familiarize YOURSELF WITH IT BEFORE FOLLOWING THE STEPS. THESE ARE BASIC STEPS AND COULD DIFFER DEPENDING UPON WHICH VERSION OF WINDOWS YOU HAVE AND YOUR LEVEL OF EXPERTISE WORKING WITHIN WINDOWS ITSELF. (a) First you will need to set the display adapter to "Standard Display Adapter VGA." (Follow the "a" steps.) (b) If you are installing the Voodoo3 for the first time then you will want to do these steps BEFORE you put the Voodoo3 in the machine. (Follow the "b" steps.) (a) and (b) To set the adapter to standard VGA, right click on the "my computer" icon and choose "properties" (or press the Windows hotkey and pause at the same time). This will take you into the "system properties." Click on the "device manager" tab, click on the plus sign in front of the "display adapter" category. Now double-click on the display adapter listed. Then choose the "driver" tab. Now choose "update" or "change" driver (depending upon which version of Windows you have). You will then want to choose the options "display a list of all drivers" and then "show all hardware" to bring up the Windows list of manufacturers. The "standard display types" are at the top of the list. The "Standard Display Adapter VGA" is the first one in this list. After choosing this adapter, if you have Windows 98 you will get a warning message. Disregard it and choose "yes." The Standard Display Adapter VGA will only give you 16 colors and a 640x480 resolution. You will now need to reboot to make the change take affect (Windows will prompt you to do this). (a) If you are upgrading drivers, after rebooting, go into the "control panel" and "add/remove programs", and uninstall the 3dfx tools. Reboot again. (a) You are now ready to install the new V3 drivers. (b) If you are installing the Voodoo3 for the FIRST time, you should now have a 640x480 resolution and be in 16-color mode. Now go into the "control panel" and "add/remove programs" and uninstall any utilities which are for the video card you are replacing (examples would include "Diamond InControl Tools"). Reboot the computer again. **(see note below) If you are installing the drivers from the CD, run the installation by inserting the CD into the CD-ROM drive and follow the directions onscreen. When prompted to reboot go to the next step. (b) Now shut Windows down, power the machine completely off, remove the power cord, and ground yourself by touching one of the screws inside your case. Remove the video card you are replacing and then insert the Voodoo3 card into the first PCI slot (or whichever one is available if you do not want to move cards around) or AGP slot. Connect the monitor and power cord and power the machine back on. After booting up, Windows should detect the new card, and the installation process from the CD should autorun and continue again. Install the 3dfx tools and reboot. If you have a previous version of DirectX (prior to DX6.1), you will need to install DirectX 6.1 from the Voodoo3 CD as well. **If you are an advanced user and would rather install the newest drivers, do not run the installation from the CD before replacing the card. Simply replace the previous video card with the Voodoo3. Cancel when Windows detects the card upon boot up and double click on the Voodoo3 driver file you have downloaded to install the newest drivers and 3dfx tools. 25.I have an onboard video card and I'm having problems getting my Voodoo3 to take over as the primary video card. If your computer system has an onboard display adapter, you can try a couple of things to see if the adapter will properly disable. The first thing you can do is to remove the Voodoo3 adapter and bring the system down to Standard VGA. Once that is done, check the device manager tab to see if there is a check box that says "Disable in this hardware profile" If there is a check box, place a check mark in that box and shutdown the computer. Once that is done, place the Voodoo3 adapter back into the system. Let Windows detect that a new display adapter is in the system and have it install the Standard VGA driver. Then let the system reboot. Go into the device manager and make sure that there are two listings in the Display area of the device manager. Check to see if one of them has a "Red X" on it. Once that is done, place the install CDROM into the computer and let the Autorun initialize. Install the drivers that are on the CDROM. The system will ask to be rebooted. Please let it reboot. You should be up and functional. If that does not solve the issue, check in the BIOS of the computer for a line that states Primary Display "Onboard AGP or PCI". Make sure that it is set to PCI. If there is not a line in the BIOS of the computer and/or the system continues to enable the onboard display adapter, you will need to contact your system manufacturer for information on how to disable the display adapter that is on the motherboard. You may need to either upgrade the BIOS or move a jumper on the motherboard. Also, please check to ensure that all the utilities for the onboard display adapter are removed from the system. If they are still on the system, go into your "add/remove programs". Uninstall any drivers or utilities having to do with your onboard video card. Because there are many different versions of Windows available, these instructions could vary slightly. If you have any questions, call us at 800-234-4334, and we will guide you through this process. 26. Motherboard Updates and other information. Make sure that you have the latest System BIOS, Motherboard Bus Mastering Drivers, and AGP Bus Drivers from your Motherboard Manufacturer. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU VERIFY WITH YOUR MOTHERBOARD MANUFACTURER WHICH AGP AND BUS MASTERING DRIVERS YOU SHOULD USE. These links are provided as a courtesy only. If you download and install the wrong driver, it could cause Windows to not operate properly and/or no longer boot up. If you have a VIA MVP3 AGP chipset, you can download the most current AGP and bus mastering drivers at: http://www.viatech.com or http://www.via.com.tw. Click on "drivers." If you have an ALI Alladin V AGP chipset, go to: http://www.acerlabs.com and click on "drivers" or http://www.ali.com.tw and click on "support." IMPORTANT: If you are given the option of choosing "Normal Mode" or "Turbo Mode" when installing these updated AGP drivers, you should normally choose "Normal Mode." Last but not least, contact your motherboard manufacturer and inquire if your board has a linear or switching AGP voltage regulator. If your board has a linear regulator, you may have problems with an AGP Voodoo3 card. For more info click here. 27. I still haven't received my WinDVD software for my Voodoo3. Call our new fulfillment department @ 800-300-9884 (option #2). 28. I receive a "There are no more files" error while installing the drivers for my Voodoo3. This usually occurs for one of the following reasons: 1. The system has an onboard video card. Please refer to question #25 for further instruction. 2. There are driver files and/or display utilities from the last video card still residing in the system. If you do not have a video card built into your system , the problem is most likely happening due to drivers from you last card. Contact the manufacturer of the card for help deleting their files and registry entries. You can usually install the drivers manually to workaround this problem. Don't run the setup off of the CD. Instead update
the driver for the card (probably listed as a Standard VGA or similar)
from the device manager or the display properties (Tell Windows you want
to display a list of drivers. Then select 'Have Disk' and browse to the
win9x\driver directory on the Voodoo3 CD). After the driver is installed
you should be able to install the 3dfx Tools. You'll most likely get the
"No more files" error again, but it should still install.
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