On the Packard Bell's I own, they have an onboard S3 True64/V2 2MB.

Before seeing your replies I had done a lot more research, and bought a

• Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 Pro 2MB w/ S3 ViRGE DX ($10)


• Matrox G450 PCI ($25)

The Matrox G450 was the only PCI version of the G4xx series. From what I read, the G4xx is twice as powerfull as the G200 line.

What advantages would the Millenium II have over the G450, or even the G200?

Also, is it even possible to run Quake 1 or 2 at 640x480 + 60fps in software mode using a 2D card? I tested the S3 ViRGE and while it seemed a bit faster at 640, its not where I want it to be. (Still worth getting the spare S3 card since it has high DOS compatibility. So its nice to have around.)

Hey goriath! Thanks for the advice.

I have been ordering some 2D cards for testing. When I installed a Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 Pro (S3 ViRGE DX Chipset), it also had 1 long beep, and 3 short beeps after updating the drivers.

This is when it all made sense. The 1 beep and 3 long beeps were due to a "default" graphics card conflict.

The motherboards have a S3 True64/V2 graphics chip onboard, and when you put in another graphics card that would assume responsibility for rendering 2D, the onboard card doesn't want to relinquish control to the other card. This would explain why the Voodoo 2 setup + onboard card as passthrough doesn't yield any beeps, because the V2 is 3D only.

In troubleshooting the above issues, I checked the BIOS settings, and inspected the IRQ options thoroughly. I didn't see any conflicts with IRQ settings. Also, there are no jumper or BIOS settings to disable the onboard card. So, I learned you have to disable the onboard video chipset through the device manager in Windows. Then after rebooting the computer, the beeps are no longer present. (Nice!)

So that mystery has been solved.

(The interesting thing is, even with the beeps present, the Stealth 3D Pro and V3-3000 seem to work properly.)

What is still a problem are some graphics cards rendering a black screen, or not being recognized at all. The monitor will not initialize a display when connected to the cards. It just sits turned off in standby mode. This is happening on a V3-2000 and a GeForce2 MX 200. I am still researching what could be causing this, but at the moment I am stuck on what could be the problem. Hmm... *scratches head*

I have been searching for days to try and find more concrete info on 2D cards. Specifically to route one into my Voodoo 2 setup. Currently I am using the 2MB onboard VRAM off the motherboard, and routing that into the Voodoo 2. In software mode, this 2MB onboard card runs Quake 2 at 320x240 at rock solid framerate. However, I want to get the best 2D performance I can get.

I did a lot of research and have read the following threads at Vogons and Vintage-Computer:

http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=33492
http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=14296
http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=39310
http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=35519
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?22122-Video-Card-Choice

I still don't have a clear picture on what would be a high performing 2D card to put alongside a Voodoo 2.

S3 ViRGE 325 DX/GX and Matrox Millenium II, Mystique, and G200/G400 seem to be the cards mentioned the most with the highest praise. However I see no 2D benchmarks or comparisons for 2D software rendering.

I am running an old Pentium 166 MMX, with PCI/ISA slots. I am looking for both Performance and Compatibility. If I have to get 2 brands of cards for that, I can do that. Even 3 if it means experimenting to find the right one.

Any insight on this would be very helpful.

Thanks!

Ok great, thanks for the tips guys. Much appreciated. I will be sure to use those methods as I test out a variety of games.

If you are using a 2D/3D card in a Voodoo 1 or Voodoo 2 environment, how does it choose to use the Voodoo 2's 3D capabilities instead of the other card for 3D?

Hey Glide, thanks for welcoming me to the site!

I did a lot of research and testing with some new hardware I bought. I picked up another Voodoo 3 (2000 model) to test with. I have two Packard Bell machines, a Multimedia M415 (Pent MMX 166), and a Multimedia 550 (Cyrix M II-266). The hardware beeps using the V3-3000 happened on both computers. Since V3 drivers were in both machines, I figured the new V3-2000 card should drop right in on either system, and boot up no problem.

Well... the system was stuck at a black screen. No picture.

I wasn't sure if the V3-2000 card was dead, or there was a compatibility problem. So I put the V3-2000 into a WinXP machine. Sure enough, the card works on XP. So its not dead.

I also bought a Diamond Monster Voodoo 2 8MB card. This card works perfect in both of my Packard Bell machines.

Based on this research, I think there is a compatibility problem with the Packard Bell motherboard/riser card configuration on these machines. The Voodoo 2 card's work great, but the Voodoo 3's are having some problems despite being fully working cards.

So I will be setting up Voodoo 2 SLi configurations in both of my Packard Bell systems, as this seems to be the most compatible option at the moment.

If you have any extra insight/comments feel free to reply.

Voodoo 3 3000, beeps on startup

I have a Pentium 166mhz Packard bell M415, running Windows98 SE. I have a 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000, green PCB PCI Card, model 210-0366-001.

Before I installed any drivers, the machine would boot up on the card just fine. However, after I installed the Voodoo drivers, the machine plays one long beep, and 3 short beeps. Which would indicate a graphics card issue.

I am running the latest Official (non-third-party) Voodoo 3 drivers from FalconFly.de, along with the DirectX 8.0 beta drivers.

voodoo3-10700.zip
voodoo3-10700b.zip (DX8 beta)

I then installed Quake II, which installed DirectX 8.0 along with it, so I upgraded the voodoo drivers to the DX8 beta drivers. Quake 2 seems to be working okay. I was able to play through entire levels, change the video settings in Quake II, and the graphics card seemed to be doing its thing.

Has anyone run into this problem before?
Is it a problem with the card or the drivers?

I want everything to be working properly, and the beep sequence on startup has me concerned. Any tips or help would be appreciated!

I am also running into an issue in Quake 2 where every once and a while my character will get stuck, and my input controls all lock up. If an enemy kills me, it will kick me back into the game again, but if not, I have to reboot the machine.