Help! MAC Voodoo5 5500 wont flash with PC BIOS!

[Chips]

Hi everyone,

I just purchased a Voodoo 5 5500 for the apple MAC and I can't seem to flash it's BIOS!!!

I am using the flash utility located at http://welcome.to/3dfxbios and continually get "ERROR:  No 3dfx banshee or Voodoo3 card found".

I tried several times on 2 different machines.  One has an AGP card, the other has a PCI card (if that makes any difference).

How many times do I have to try before it flashes??

Anyone else have any hints/suggestions?

Thanks.

Chips.

[Chips]

Come on guys!

Somebody out there must have done this before and it worked!!

I need to hear from someone who has successfully flashed a MAC 5500 on a PC.  Specifically what mainboard/processor you used, which version of DOS, any other important details you did etc etc.  First up, I need answers to the following questions:

1.  When the instructions say flash several times until it takes it, does that mean I need to do a complete re-boot each time the flash fails to see the card or what??  I just kept running the program over and over and it always came up with the same error.  Also, I tried removing the card and running the flash program and I get the same error.

2.  The bootdisk says use DOS 6.0.  I tried making a DOS bootdisk from XP, and making a bootdisk from a DOS 6.22 image found at www.bootdisk.com.  Both did not work.  Do I strictlly need DOS 6.0?

3.  Can anyone remember if the PC detected any card in the BIOS posted PCI device list after booting?  No unknown PCI devices appear in mine, but I guess thats expected if it doesn't have a usable PC BIOS in it.  I'm just curious to see if people had anything come up on theirs.

4.  I have tried flashing it on the following 2 mainboards.  Anyone see any problems?

a.  AT Octek rhino 12, Cyrix 200MX, Virge DX PCI graphics.
b. AT PCCHIPS M590, AMD K6-2 500, onboard SIS6326 AGP graphics.

5.  I have 3 other PCs left I can try this on.  Perhaps people have some recommendations as to which one would be best to do this on.  They are:

a.  AT PC Partner MVP3, AMD K6-2 550, Geforce2 MX440 AGP grahpics.
b.  ATX P6LX-A+, Pentium II 333, Radeon 9200SE AGP graphics.
3c  ATX Abit BE6, Pentium III 500, Radeon 9250 AGP Graphics.

Failing all these, my next best step is to try and flash using a MAC.  Is this possible?  Of course, the big problem is finding a MAC.

Sorry for the long post, but I'm DESPERATE and fairly annoyed that I paid AU$142 for a card that I can't use.

HELP!!!

[Rolo01]

Don´t worry, I will look into it when I get home from work this evening.
I can email you the flashing program I used last time.

[Chips]

Thankyou!

Just for info, I have been trying with the 3dfx flash utility version 2.14 found on this site, in the recovery disk by seraphic, and on http://welcome.to/3dfxbios site.  I'm attempting to program the DVI enabled rom (v1.18).  I'm also fairly experienced in building old PCs which always involves flash upgrading mobos etc.

[Chips]

I just ran the DOS based pciscan.exe from http://www.nu2.nu/utils/ and the card did not appear in the list of PCI devices, even when I put it into "bypass BIOS -- talk directly to PCI hardware ports" mode.

I'm no hardware expert, but does this sound like a problem with the card?

[Rolo01]

Okay, I try to provide as much information as possible :

My system :

Pentium4-2800 HT ( Northwood )
Asus P4C800E-dlx
1 GB Ram Corsair XMS DDR3200

AGP Slot : Radeon 9800 Pro
1st PCI Slot : Voodoo5 5500 MAC PCI

I bootet into DOS mode using my old Win98SE start disk. This should be the same as MS-DOS 6.22
I startet flash.exe, it loaded DOS/GW ( some kind of DOS extender ) and started flashing.
There was one message, you can see that on the attached screen shot.
I confirmed with YES and the flashing started.
Guess what : The PC froze in the mid of the process.
Ok, so I rebooted into DOS again and tried again.
This time it went fine, see the screenshot.

I remember I had that "No Banshee/V3 error" myself some years ago, I did a search back then for a 3dfx flashing utility that forced the card to be flashed no matter what.
I can send you the files I used, please give me your email at Rolo01 at gmx.de
This is the screenshot :

Image Insert:

42.58 KB

After that I restarted the PC and bootet WinXP. I installed SFFT Alpha29 drivers and all was fine, I tried GTA Vice City and it worked well.

[Chips]

So is your flash utility different to the one at http://welcome.to/3dfxbios ?

[Rolo01]

I dont remember where I got it, but I stored it on my HDD in the 3dfx folder.
I always use that one and it worked with the V4-4500 MAC and yesterday with the V5-5500 MAC as well.

[Chips]

OK, thanks - You can send it to simon_chipperfield AT hotmail.com

But I'm still concerned that the pci scan utility saw no device on the bus

Oh, and by the way - Looking at your DOS screenshot above, My flash attempts never get to the line "There is no build information for the selected hardware" - instead I always get "there is no 3dfx banshee or voodoo 3 card detected".

[.SLeEP]

Originally posted by Rolo01

I dont remember where I got it, but I stored it on my HDD in the 3dfx folder.
I always use that one and it worked with the V4-4500 MAC and yesterday with the V5-5500 MAC as well.

Hi Rolo01!

do you mind sending me your tool and BIOS also? I bought a V5500MAC a few days ago and need to flash it, too...

my email is: thomas.schlaefer at mnet-online.de

[ps47]

http://www.3dfxzone.it/enboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1967
why dont you flash it with Triggers verified BIOS?

[Buendia]

Hi, I also bought Voodoo5 5500 PCI for MAC, and tried to flash and failed.

1. I've downloaded flash utility and also 1.18 bios for PC from http://welcome.to/3dfxbios.
2. switched to MS-DOS 6.22 from booting A
3. Run utility and it kept saying "unknown EEPROM manufactuer"
4. Even Windows XP recognized as Voodoo5 as unknown VGA, but didn't work due to bios.it seems like graphic card is not dead.

My system spec is as follows.
AMD64 Benice 3000, Nvidia FX5900 AGP, 512MB RAM

I also tried with 1st PCI and 2nd PCI slot.
And changed AGP graphic card to Nvidia TNT2, Geforce2 MX, and Savage Pro.

But everytime utility kept saying that unknown EEPROM.

EEPROM on Voodoo5 is AMTEL AT49BV512, and on Voodoo5 board, bios is 1.3FO.

I desparately need you guys help..

My e-mail is buendia@korea.com and send me any info if you have been successful flashing bios.

Thanks.