Voodoo2 SLI: Is it supposed to look like this?

[CZroe]

I bought a Voodoo2 SLI (Scan Line Interleave = dual Voodoo2's) from a forum member some time ago to use in a system for older games (I have quite a few 3dfx-only games). It works, but every game has horizontal "scan lines" that look very much like a bad TV set with no line-doubling. It's almost as if every other horizontal line is black, and therefore I can hardly read text at 640x480. Higher resolutions are bearable, but this just doesn't seem normal (Most games from that era don't have a higher option than 800x600!). Has anyone here ever run a Voodoo2 SLI before? What did it look like for you? I'm specifically using a Quantum Obsidian X-24 (SLI on one card!) in case it's a specific problem with that. If one Voodoo2 was bad, would that cause the problem I am seeing? Thnx!

 

[thraxes]

Well you do need two cards for this, you know that, don't you?
The optimal config is to have two identical cards from the same manufacturer. If one does not work or can't sync up to the other than only every second line gets drawn and there is a blank in between (what you have)

 

[EdipisReks]

thraxes, the Obsidian X-24 is all that is required, as it has 2 v2 chips and 24 MB of RAM on one board. CZroe, it shouldn't look like that. what drivers are you using?

 

[thraxes]

I stand corrected, I had 2 PCI slots taken by voodoo cards back in the day... man that is so long ago.

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: EdipisReks
thraxes, the Obsidian X-24 is all that is required, as it has 2 v2 chips and 24 MB of RAM on one board. CZroe, it shouldn't look like that. what drivers are you using?

The latest 3dfx non-hacked drivers + the latest 3dfx MiniGL. Because it's on a Win98 system they should be fine for the old games they were made for. For some reason, Direct3D games aren't doing this. I believe they may be using the integrated Intel Graphics for Direct3D even though I installed the Voodoo2 drivers after. MiniGL games (GLQuake, Quake2, etc) have this problem, as well as Glide games (Unreal, Unreal Tournament, etc).

I did notice a bent pin touching another pin on one V2 chip which I straightened at work using a high-powered electronics rework microscope + Xacto knife. Perhaps whatever hit and bent the pin messed something else up? I didn't see anything else under the microscope. I did that before ever using it. Another thing is that the PCB seems slightly curved. I have flexed/straightened it ever so slightly (No more than one would do while installing the card), so perhaps some PCB traces have been broken? The traces look so complicated even though it's on two PCBs! 48 512k memory chips sure do take alot of real estate...

I saw an eBay auction mention a problem between it and 133FSB CPUs. Obviously it can't be directly related to a CPU's FSB frequency, so perhaps they meant the chipset? This is running an an Intel i815 + 350Mhz Celeron @ 550 (100MHz FSB). I first tried it with a Celeron 466 @ 66MHz, so I'm pretty sure it's not related to FSB on mine I wish one of my friends were still running Win98 on a BX board so I could try it there

 

[CZroe]

Bump

 

[Brian48]

Just out of curiosity, are these two V2's identical? I mean same brand as well as memory configuration? I'm familiar with the problem that you've just described. It's normally caused by either an out of spec SLI cable (two long) or two cards not completely the same (ie. Creative V2 + Diamond V2). It's usually caused by the later.

 

[sandorski]

I'd try some hacked drivers.

 

[Shazam]

Just out of curiosity, are these two V2's identical? I mean same brand as well as memory configuration? I'm familiar with the problem that you've just described. It's normally caused by either an out of spec SLI cable (two long) or two cards not completely the same (ie. Creative V2 + Diamond V2). It's usually caused by the later.

He has an x-24. It's SLI on one card.

IIRC, this is normal. There was lots of bitching about this back in the day.

 

[Brian48]

Ahh, I see. Didn't read the whole post. I'd check over at voodoofiles.com to see if there's any modified drivers available. If running Win2k or WinXP, I'd check over at ntcompatible.com as well.

 

[OS]

scanlines are a known issue with V2 SLI configurations. There's no known solution or workaround.

 

[MrChad]

If you can get a hold of another SLI ribbon cable, I would try replacing the one you're using. I remember a friend of mine having this problem with his SLI'ed V2s, and we traced it back to the SLI ribbon.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Brian48
Just out of curiosity, are these two V2's identical? I mean same brand as well as memory configuration? I'm familiar with the problem that you've just described. It's normally caused by either an out of spec SLI cable (two long) or two cards not completely the same (ie. Creative V2 + Diamond V2). It's usually caused by the later.

Dude he's got an Obsidian. It's V2 SLI on a *SINGLE* card.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: MrChad
If you can get a hold of another SLI ribbon cable, I would try replacing the one you're using. I remember a friend of mine having this problem with his SLI'ed V2s, and we traced it back to the SLI ribbon.

Dude he's got an Obsidian. It's V2 SLI on a *SINGLE* card.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: thraxes
Well you do need two cards for this, you know that, don't you?
The optimal config is to have two identical cards from the same manufacturer. If one does not work or can't sync up to the other than only every second line gets drawn and there is a blank in between (what you have)

Dude he's got an Obsidian. It's V2 SLI on a *SINGLE* card.

 

[cpals]

Was that all necessary Smilin?

CZroe, I would just keep trying different drivers. If that doesn't work, it sounds from the posts here that you're outta luck.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: cpals
Was that all necessary Smilin?

Yes.

 

[buleyb]

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: cpals
Was that all necessary Smilin?

Yes.

:-D

 

[CZroe]

OK, I thought it might be a side effect of SLI, but just to be sure I'll describe it differently: it really does delete every other row of pixels. It's not just a thick black line between pixel rows. It does seem very much like the effect I've seen in emulators when I enable "scanlines" (For more "TV-like" output) except these programs insert the black lines between rows of pixels and maintain full detail. With this being a single card SLI, I can't really disconnect them. Will installing the drivers for only one card effectively "un-SLI" them? The VGA input/output cable is some wierd double cable that I've heard referred to as a "Medusa cable" which is proprietary. Therefore, I can't remove any loop-back between the two cards

 

[sandorski]

[shot in the dark] One of the gpu's might be fried, thus one is outputing, the other isn't and where it isn't you get black lines. Before giving up though, try some of those hacked drivers. Also make sure that you haven't accidently disabled one of the gpu's in a tweak program.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I used SLI back in the day and do not recall anything like this problem (and if it was there, it was not nearly as pronounced as what you are experiencing). It does sound like a hardware problem. I guess if you are that interested in using Glide apps, you may be better off getting two dirt-cheap V2s off eBay and starting all over, or using a Glide/D3D wrapper with a newer nVidia or ATi video card.

 

[Brian48]

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: cpals
Was that all necessary Smilin?

Yes.

Did you even read the follow up posts?

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Brian48

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: cpals
Was that all necessary Smilin?

Yes.

Did you even read the follow up posts?

Yes.

 

[IaPuP]

Why not just pick up a V3? They do glide damn well and they're probably easier to get working than the old SLI stuff anyway.

Besides, they're almost free now heh

Eric

 

[Woodchuck2000]

Originally posted by: IaPuP
Why not just pick up a V3? They do glide damn well and they're probably easier to get working than the old SLI stuff anyway.

Besides, they're almost free now heh

Eric

What he said...