I recently upgraded my Video card from a Diamond Stealth 64 to a Voodoo 3.
When I installed it, I got a "Windows Protection Error" message and the computer would turn off after pressing a key.

I threw in the towel and took it to a computer store. They told me the drivers that came with it would not work and they downloaded new ones from the net. It still did not work right when I took it home. I would still get Windows Protection Errors, though only sporadically. I decided to try to fix it myself by downloading drivers from driverguide.com. According to user posts, the driver I downloaded worked well, but it did not work well for me. Now it won't boot at all. It won't even run the BIOS when I power it up.

If anybody can offer any suggestions after this skecthy description, I would be most grateful. Does anybody know where to get a reliable driver for Voodoo 3 3000 AGP, now that 3dfx is shut down?

Thanks in advance,
Rick3904

Some more system info would helpful...

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mjc
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Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Need some more info, in particular what OS you're running.

I would pull the Voodoo and try the old card, if it manages to boot at all don't let it, use the [F8] key or hold down [Ctrl] to get a boot menu and choose Command Prompt Only. At the C:\> prompt type
scanreg_/restore using a space in place of the underscore used here, and replace the registry with a backup copy made before this problem occurred.

Reboot, make sure the computer runs right.

Then reboot, using the boot menu again and go to Safe Mode. Open Control Panel, and go into Device Manager, and remove any video adapters listed. Then shut down, try the voodoo and see if it will accept the drivers. If not, you'll have to go through the process all over again, but there is the possibility that it might work...

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Originally posted by mjc:
Some more system info would helpful...



Thanks for the quick response. My system is a K6-2 350 mhz, running Win 98 original, 320mb RAM

The other thing about the Voodoo card - when it DID work, there was no improvement whatsoever in video. I got it so SimCity 3000 Unlimited and the Sims would run better, so I thought.

What I don't understand is why it won't even go through the BIOS when I turn it on - nothing happens! I did remove the Voodoo and put back the Diamond, though I did not have an opportunity to remove Voodoo drivers first. I was hoping to do that if the thing would start in safe mode.

Again, thanks for the reply, I really appreciate the help.

I guess I should lug it back to the computer store, since it never quite worked when I got it back from them. (My problem is that I know just enough about computers to get myself in trouble sometimes!)

Hey,

The next step I would take before lugging it out the door is to clear the CMOS. It may or may not help, but can't hurt. If you have a motherboard manual, it should tell you which jumper clears the CMOS and how to do it. Otherwise, remove the CMOS battery for fifteen minutes and then put it back in. (Usually, the battery looks like a watch battery, about the size of a quarter) Try to boot up using the old video card.

If you get that far, post back and we'll turn it up a notch. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

As an aside, I can't see where the Voodoo 3 is that much better of a choice than the Diamond Stealth. If you really want to try a Voodoo, try the 4500 PCI or AGP card. It has 32mbs of memory with its own 166Mhz processor onboard. It's a damn fine card.

Good luck.

Big Blue 66


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Woe is me.

You say it doesn't work at all now...are you sure the Voodoo3 is seated properly? This was a problem with some Voodoo cards...do you get a long beep when you boot up?

For drivers, you can check:
http://theflyingpenguin.com/

I'm pretty sure he mirrored all the 3DFX drivers on his site...

You should see an improvement w/the Voodoo3, although you may want to try running games in different apis since the V3 is better at glide (obviously) and opengl should work better than d3d...

I would also look for answers at the message boards at:
www.voodooextreme.com (http://www.voodooextreme.com)

Their site will be down for a few days, but their boards are still running, good luck...



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