Problem with a Voodoo3 3000 (VIA Apollo MVP3)

[DjinN]

I have an AMD K6-2 at 400 Mhz with 128MB SDRAM. The motherboard is a LuckyTech P5MVP3 with the VIA Apollo MVP3 chipset, and it has an AGP 2X slot.
I had a S3 Trio3D/2X AGP 2X card with a 3dfx Voodoo2 as child card, and until now I hadn't any problem. But recently, I replaced them with a 3dfx Voodoo3 3000 AGP 2X card. I plugged a fan above the video card to avoid reheating, but the system reboots or hangs up when is turned on about 10 minutes (during this time, the system works properly). This time may be shorter if the system is overloaded (i.e., when executing DirectX games or when playing MP3 files under Windows ME). The Voodoo3 card was tested in a different system, and it worked perfectly.
I wonder if the Voodoo3 3000 video card is too much powerful for my motherboard. May be a compatibility issue? Currently, I'm using the old S3 card.
Please, explain me if my Voodoo3 video card is NOT supported by my motherboard, and if the answer is yes, what video card can I purchase that will be supported by my system (with a similar performance). I tried a nVIDIA GeForce256, and the problems were harder: the system hung up during the P.O.S.T.
Waiting for your reply, thanks very much for your help.

 

[HolyGrenade]

The Voodoo3 and the GF256 are extremely power (as in electricity) hungry graphics cards. The GF256 more so than the Voodoo3. It takes the nearly maximum power allowed in the agp spec. the thing is many super7 boards cannot supply the maximum power specified by the agp standard and thus cannot supply enough for the card. It is ok for low load applications, like normal windows tasks and normal office apps etc. But, when the card is being heavily used, like in games, the system hangs. Sometimes it is the powersuply unit. It cannot supply enough power to the board.

Anyway, for starters, get the latest version of the VIA drivers (4in1). Get the latest version of the video card drivers. Check if everything works. If not, check if you have any IRQ conflicts. Try to ensure the graphics card is not sharing its IRQ with anything else.

If still not working, take off the extra fan you put in above the video card (the card should have one onboard?), and move all the pci cards as far away from the voodoo cards as possible, i.e. put them in the slots starting from the left end. now that should allow more air to go through the cards sink. Some super7 motherboards had a jumper for voodoo3 mode, check if yours has that, if so set it. Check if everything works.

If still no help, check if the PSU is not powerful enough (~200W-250W or less). With those cards you'll probably need a good 300w power supply. Before you take this advice, do you know if you have an AT motherboard or an ATX? If its AT, its probably gonna cost you too much getting temporary upgrades which you probably will have to disgard pretty soon. Check if cards with a lower power-apatite like the GeForce2mx, ATI Radeon, Kyro2 or Kyro will work on your system. If not, you'll probably need to get a TNT or something.

If the system is ATX, then it would be worth while investing in a good 300W powersupply unit like one from enermax. They make good reliable PSUs. Even if it doesn't come in handy for this system, it will serve you well in future ones.

If you're still having problems, I'm afraid you'll probably just have to get a card that isn't so power hungry, like one of the ones I have listed. Don't worry though, all the cards I have listed are better than the Voodoo3. Unless ofcourse you want to go for a total system upgrade.

<font color=red><i>I refugee from Guatanamo Bay,
dance around the border like I'm Cassius Clay
</i></font color=red>

 

[DjinN]

Thanks very much for your explanation.

My power supply is 250W, and is ATX (though the motherboard is AT, not ATX).

The system reboots even when viewing a web page with Internet Explorer...(about ten minutes).

Some people said me that MVP3 chipset makes requests to the Voodoo3, and the video card doesn't manage these requests properly, overloading the Voodoo3 buffer, and for that, the video card leave operating normally.

The system reboots or hangs up even in Fail-Safe mode of Windows... I have no IRQ conflicts. I have only one PCI card (a Sound Blaster card) and it's far from the AGP slot.

 

[HolyGrenade]

I had a FIC motherboard based on a via chipset (can't remember which one). It was running a 450MHz AMD K6-2. The Graphics card was a GeForce256DDR. That system crashed a lot. The PSU was 250Watts. I still have the system, but run a cheap PCI SiS graphics card on it. Its OK 'cos I don't run any games on it. Its just for work. It hardly had any other perhipherals.

I also have a 650MHz Athlon, which runs the same graphics card on an ASUS K7V motherboard. It has 5 PCI slots, all of which are taken. I also have a 40GB and a 30GB HDD + a DVD drive and a CDRW drive. All of this runs perfectly on a 250watts power supply unit (Though I run it on a 300W PSU now with my new case). This shows how much of a shortcoming the early motherboards had in AGP and power handling.

So, if you want to play games, i'm not sure if I can help you in any other way but just say get a TNT or Kyro card for the PCI slots since you have free ones. As for the Voodoo3, I'm afraid you'll be better off without it. Return it if you can, or exchange it for something you can use or just sell it. Some of the other people here might be able to provide other advise, but thats all I can come to.

<font color=red><i>I refugee from Guatanamo Bay,
dance around the border like I'm Cassius Clay
</i></font color=red>