V5 PCI Mac returns for Sveta 2002!

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Hey all!

Hmm where to start since a lot has happened in the past 3 years... Let's see.

Well okay, as some know I did sell my remaining 3dfx cards to a friend named SWZSSR that lives in Adelaide, South Australia, as I was kind of fed up of how somethings went within the 3dfx community way back then, He told me I could always buy back my parts if I ever wanted to for the same values, then again part of me told me to never to sell these cards this, but hey eventually it did happen right rofl.

And the past three years has been a true struggle for me to get back my favorite card; The PC flashed 3dfx Voodoo5 5500 PCI Macintosh 64MB Rev.A1 2900 withs PC Bios 1.18_DVI.
Being 100% disabled didn't make it an easy ride either and then Covid-19 came along as well, all the lock downs.. yea that ate almost 2 years.
All in all it was a very long haul struggle on my end, I just never gave up my hopes for this card and here we are now, it did work out well in the end, it's all worth it.

And I know it's not a Voodoo5 6000, it doesn't even need to be, this very card has a lot of sentimental value to me, so it was my ultimate goal to get it back one way or the other, it was one of my last cards of my first 3dfx collection that I had from 2001 to 2005.
This is also probably the best 3dfx V5 ever made, well production wise of course! All thanks to it's universal PCI 2.3 connector and it's DVI-D which ideal if you want to use a flat panel plus it not only supports the 33Mhz PCI bus but 66Mhz as well, lifespan wise it's better off and you aren't forced to use an expensive Kiroutu Shikou AGP2PCI Card for example.

Anyhow I did manage to get my card recapped with a Polymer recap done by a friend of SWZSSR and got the card back after that, I paid 350 Eur for the card including the Polymer Recap which isn't bad for 2021 I thought, that I was very thankful for too

So here the card before the recap top & rear side:

Hig-Res before recap:
https://abload.de/img/v5pcimacolda11jt3.jpg
https://abload.de/img/v5pcimacoldb14kvk.jpg

Here after the recap:

High-Res After recap:
https://abload.de/img/3dfxvoodoo55500pcimacngjsv.jpg
https://abload.de/img/3dfxvoodoo55500pcimacvzjfl.jpg

When the card arrived about 4 days after testing VRAM issues started to occur.. but I wasn't sure of it, the card is 21 years old all understandable if that was the case, which was to me irrelevant to some aspects.
Here is why --> PC parts new or old can show flaws and defects, hardware age is therefor not of relevance in this case.

But still if decent tests were performed by the friend of SWZSSR, he would of detected them as well, so yea I ind of thought strange of this, no matter every problem has a solution, this didn't stop me.

After making a topic of this matter at Voodooalert.de, my best friend from that site that goes by the username "Backfire", he wanted to assist and fix my card, you can view that topic here:
https://www.voodooalert.de/board/forum/index.php?thread/25024-strange-vertical-lines-with-my-v5-pci-mac-during-bootup/

After I showed him what was going on, he saw immediately what caused the issues.

He told me that the VRAM was defective for the main VSA-100, which is the one on the left closest to the D-Sub & DVI-D ports.

Here the photo I showed him, this photo determined the defect with the card's VRAM of the main VSA.

High-Res:
https://abload.de/img/v5pcimacissueclku9.jpg

After that Backfire removed the burnt copper placed heatsinks he accidentally damaged some of the card's capacitors & SMD's, these were easily fixed though, no one is perfect,  so gladly this was not much of an issue:

High-Res:
https://abload.de/img/dmga6ikcq.jpg
https://abload.de/img/dmgbsdky2.jpg

And this Flux residue was also found and cleaned:

High-Res:
https://abload.de/img/dmgcmhjju.jpg

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

So all after that Backfire decided to repair the card with the following fixes:

01. Renewed Ceramic SMD's on the rear
02. 6ns Hynix VRAM renewal for the main VSA
03. Renewed Heatsinks & Fans for the VSA's topside
04. Renewed Power Supply Controller Chips

SWZSSR's friend did these two things to the card:

01. Full Polymer Recap
02. Burnt Copper Heatsinks for the VSA's rear side

And I agreed with all his idea's I just told him do what you can on what is best for the card, if anything needs to be replaced give it your best shot man, I trust your work and he did do extremely well, the result is amazing.

The card is like new again, the new industrial fans really made the card cool again, the old AAviD Fans had broken bearings, the new haves have Dual bearings and are very effective to keep the card cooled, he even applied 3dfx logo's neatly centers in the fans, he also repasted the two VSA-100-220 graphics chips also by getting rid of that old hardened glue like residue 3dfx used on these cards 21 years back.

This card got the best treatment in it's life from both Backfire & SWZSSR's friend and now it's in service once again.
Mainly for new projects, I also stand open to help test new drivers as well if they are still being made for Win2K pro & WinXP Pro of course.

Here the final photo's of the card after I got it back from Backfire from Germany:

3dfx Voodoo5 5500 PCI Macintosh 64MB Rev.A1 2900
Flashed with PC Bios 1.18_DVI
Current Driver: AmigaMerlin 3.1 R11 for Win2K/XP

High-Res:
https://abload.de/img/v5pcimacafvjhd.jpg
https://abload.de/img/v5pcimacbffj9t.jpg

Final system name & Specs:

Sveta 2002

AMD AthlonXP 2200+ Thoroughbred-A, 1 Core @ 1.8Ghz
EPox EP-8K7A+ AMD 761 Chipset with Via 686B SB
2x 1GB PC-2700 Kingston @ PC-2100 266Mhz DDR
3dfx Voodoo5 5500 PCI Macintosh 64MB 256 Bit SDR Rev.A1 2900 + PC Bios 1.18_DVI
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro
Mitsubishi Electronics LS-120 F200 Super Floppy Drive
1x Seagate Barracuda V 80GB 7200 RPM Main Disk
1x Seagate Barracuda V 120GB 7200 RPM Game Disk
Belkin 5 port NEC USB 2.0 PCI Card
3-Com 3C905C-TX-M PCI Ethernet Adapter 10/100Mbit
LG HD-DVD Drive 16x / 40x
BTO Plusdeck 2c Cassette Tape Convertor/Player/Recorder Drive
Antec True Power 550 Watt PSU
Addtronics 6896A Entry Level Server Tower
Compaq S710 17" Blackshade CRT from 2001
Reso @ 1024x768x32 ! 85Hz | 0.22.5 Dot Pitch
1995 Roland E-14 Keyboard
Reggy the EPoX Mascot

Win 2KPro UK + SP4
AmigaMerlin 3.1 R11 (main driver for V5)
Latest 3dfx Tools for V5 PCI Mac

High-Res:
https://abload.de/img/svetainaction8ekd3.jpg
https://abload.de/img/svetav5pcimacb01k4a.jpg

Back in 1999 I painted this Addtronics 6896A with Art from Descent 2 & Freespace 2

Here the Descent 2 Pyro-GX & Freespace 2 Starships, which are these:
Shevan Strike Carrier, Vesudan Dreadnaught & Terran Hercules MK III Starfighter

High-Res:
https://abload.de/img/descent2dqkts.jpg
https://abload.de/img/freespace2dtkjf.jpg

Here a closeup of the Lian Li Side fan case mod my dad & I applied and a closeup of the V5 PCI Mac in slot 6 in the bottom.
It was placed in PCI slot 6 because it didn't fit anywhere else the EPp-8K7A+ has a horrid PCI Slot setup if you are wanting to use long cards like a 5500 PCI /PCI Mac or a 5000 PCI.

High-Res:
https://abload.de/img/svetav5pcimacax9kd9.jpg
https://abload.de/img/v5pcimaccloseup60jc5.jpg

Also I sometime use SFFT Alpha 41 modified by ps47 & myself for DXX Rebirth 0.58.1 + DXX Retro 1.3/1.3a for Descent 1&2
But I am also going to give SFFT 1.9 a go as I am trying to get STALKER Shadows of Chernobyl working with the latest 3D Analyze.

So here some screenshots I took of the card's drivers and some other famous tabs within the drivers of the 3dfx Napalm series.

3dfx Color & 3dfx Digital

High-Res:
https://abload.de/img/3dfxcolors9jcs.jpg
https://abload.de/img/3dfxdigitaltlknk.jpg

The infamous 3dfx FSAA panel & the date & time of today, July 16, 2021 that being

High-Res:
https://abload.de/img/3dfxfsaa5dk6g.jpg
https://abload.de/img/svetaslookjuly162021a2ujgt.jpg

Here the main wallpaper of this build atm, it's in dedication to Retro PC Argentina
At x-3dfx about 30 of their members joined and helped us with lots of vital information regarding 3dfx & retro hardware it's self.

High-Res:
https://abload.de/img/svetaslookjuly162021birkvd.jpg
https://abload.de/img/svetaswpa7rkr7.jpg

Aircraft model used for the shot:
Boeing 747-287B
Aerolineas Argentinas "AA Livery 1986-1997"
LV-OPA
Scale 1:200
Inflight 200
Limited Edition 1 of 100 pcs

High-Res:
https://abload.de/img/lv-opalfwkfl.jpg
https://abload.de/img/lv-opaonstandg03k46.jpg

And there ya have it the entire backstory & experience but all in all it all came toa good and happy ending

Remember The Force Will Be With You, Always

Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.

[Glide]

Hi Obi,

it's always nice to read you . Thank you to share here this new happy history on a 3dfx card. Every fixed and recovered 3dfx card is a good new for this Community.

Good luck to all 3dfx owners.

Bye bye

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Hey thanks Glide, yea the card is doing considerably well, no  crashes at all now.

Played Star Wars Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight + FSAA x2 @ 1024x768x16 in max settings and this game looks amazing.

I even tried FSAA x4 it runs but this is a tad slower if using a V5 PCI based card, the 66Mhz Bus speed of the AGP cards do come ina greater advantage here.

But if I had a Dual AthlonMP 2400+ I could use the 66Mhz Bus with this card ad get the same performance a 5500 AGP+ DVI would get, so that is still on my to do list.

it does take time for me to know how everything works again, using other drivers and such.

Would be great if AmigaMerlin 3.2 would be released, not sure what it did better than AmigaMerlin 3.1 R11 though.

[gravitonfield]

Hey Obi-Wan,
Can I ask the brand/model of those fans that replaced the AAVID fans?
Are they 7 mm thickness like the original or 10 mm?
I'm trying to find a good 40 x 40 x 7 mm replacement for my noisy stock AAVID fans.