3Dfx Voodoo Graphics repair: Reviving an iconic 3D Accelerator

[@Constantin314]

that repairing memories sticker is a very nice touch, BuB

[@UpLateGeek]

I was so jealous of my friend when he got one of these cards. I was saving for one myself when the Voodoo 2 came out, but it was more expensive so I had to save up for a little longer before I could afford one. I actually remember the day I bought it, but that's a story for another time. Glad to see another Voodoo card brought back from the dead. Keep up the great work!

[@DefenderOfBoston-yo2tl]

I'll never forget the day I got my Orchid Righteous 3D and first fired up GLQuake. I was young and much more impressionable at the time, but I still consider this the biggest leap ahead in personal computing that I have witnessed in my lifetime. SSDs come to mind as well, but the first few generations really weren't that great, both from a performance and reliability perspective. One day, I will have a Righteous 3D again and rejoice at the clicking of the hilariously mechanical relays. It didn't bother me at all and was really quite useful to diagnose issues. Thanks for saving another one, Alex. ❤

[@Choralone422]

I would agree with this. Proper early 3D acceleration, along with 2nd gen and later SSDs were both massive steps forward in computing! The only other development for me that comes close would be the jump between dial-up modems and broadband internet connections. In mid 1999 I went from a 56k modem (using everything between 2400 baud and 56k for BBS & later internet access since the early 90s) to cable internet that was 1.5mbit/128kbps at the time. It was like a whole new world opened up!

[@DefenderOfBoston-yo2tl]

@@Choralone422 Good point on broadband. I see how this has been a much bigger deal for others than for me personally, because I was able to secure an insanely cheap flat-rate 64k ISDN connection very early on. While that was not a huge leap from analog, it was reasonably snappy for websites (when websites were still properly optimized, true and rock solid 8kbps went a long way) and the unlimited nature allowed me to download almost 700 MB of stuff per day, which added up quickly, so speed wasn''t a limiting factor at all. Neither was the shared phone line, as ISDN came with 2 lines. It would even have been possible to aggregate both lines for a whopping 128k, but I never felt the need. Even at 64k, my connection remained superior to DSL regarding monthly data volume for an insanely long time, because DSL was volume-limited at quite low levels for such a long time, at least in our region. But yeah, DSL and DOCSIS tech was another big leap for sure. As is fiber for some poor souls in rural areas these days. 😅

[@bitsundbolts]

I was in the store with my friend when he bought his Orchid Righteous 3D. I remember the sales person selling Orchid's relays and the clicking sound as a distinct feature of the card: "You know when you're playing 3D games because the card makes the clicking noise! No other card offers that feature!" Well, he bought the card and told me how awesome it was. About three years later, I bought that PC from him with the Orchid. It became my brother's PC. I had a Pentium II 350 at that time and he had a Pentium 200 (no MMX), ASUS P55T2P4, and the Orchid Righteous 3D. To this day, oddly enough, I still have most of those PC components - including the case.

[@034G63EVO]

@@Choralone422 My first one was the Canopus pure 3d. But like you, damn do i remember.

[@kimnice]

I remember being in this computer megastore in Finland and getting obsessed with Orchid Righteous 3D. I had to have it. I begged my mom..and she finally agreed to buy it! Biggest jump in graphics ever! And the game bundle? 3dfx-versions of: Mech Warrior 2, Fatal Racing, Terminal Velocity, Descent 2, Microsoft Monster Truck. There was also a demo CD. Now almost 30 years later..after buying multiple systems my self.. I thank my mother for buying this card for me :)

[@JamieBainbridge]

The sponsored cutting board. "This dinner was brought to you by PCBWay..." 😅

[@Clancydaenlightened]

was ist für abendessen? Fiberglass? Fr4? Resin?

[@DefenderOfBoston-yo2tl]

@@Clancydaenlightened Chips with DIP of course. 😂

[@ScottyBrockway]

Another 3DFX card saved, awesome work.

[@tony359]

Simple but rewarding !

[@jpnc2319]

It's very relaxing watching you doing that rework.😊

[@stevvieb]

The 3dfx whisperer strikes again

[@T3hBeowulf]

I love that Cerified Repaired sticker. That is such a cool outcome. After years if hearing relays click in home theater receivers, this card would seem right at home as a HTPC. Any other time, hearing relays would be a delightful sound.

[@TheRetroRaven]

The Orchid Righteous 3D Voodoo 1 was my first 3D accelerator card. Such an amazing card. I have so many fond memories , and luckily I still have mine , together with its box and content. I paired mine with my K6-2 233, in order to play Unreal at 512x384 (gives a few more frames compared to 640x480 at almost no visual cost). Before that, I just played games in Software mode. So while I was late to the game, only aquiring mine in 1998 , I was super happy and kept using it even with my P3-500 up until year 2001 (paired with an ATI Rage 128 Pro).

[@e8root]

512x384 is good resolution to use on 3dfx. If I remember correctly refresh rate needs to be set high enough to avoid pixel doubling - otherwise it looks much worse than 640x480. Lower resolution helps even on Voodoo2

[@user-9sidfgsxgj]

It's interesting that Orchid and A-Trend both put Anubis on the box art of their Voodoo cards.

[@MonochromeWench]

It's from one of the 3dfx technology demos

[@ausnorman8050]

The same model I had given to me from my dad for my P166 system growing up (hand me down). Still have it in my collection today :) Also have the 3Dfx version of Mech Warrior 2, could you add that into your testing suite ? Great repair as always BuB.

[@bitsundbolts]

It is a very nice card. Take good care of it!

[@dynamight1124]

Some flux is hydroscopic so can end up being conductive. I was having terrible issues with a small SOT23 voltage reg, at one point I could hear the sizzling under it. Replaced and used SMD flux, perfect every time now. It's possible the flex was causing an issue.

[@sparki_]

3dfx should hire you 😜 great job as always

[@martinskoloud6147]

Ach Du gibst dir immer so viel Mühe, wie kann man das nicht mögen?

[@georgez8859]

Awesome Job. You really are a Professional. Thanks for the Video

[@bitsundbolts]

Thanks!

[@kj197734]

Oh man I remember going to the mall and seeing these at the old GameStop when they used to sell everything gaming related. They carried the Righteous 3D, Guillemot Maxi Gamer 3D, and the Diamond Monster 3D back around 1996/97. Good times indeed!

[@3dfxvoodoocards6]

Excellent work

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you!

[@fft2020]

I love your repair videos BuB !

[@xephorce]

epic win and save. love seeing this stuff saved

[@jeffm2787]

Good video, simple, to the point with good results.

[@Aranimda]

I can remember that the Orchid Righteous 3D was the fastest Voodoo board tested in the benchmarks of one of my local computer magazines back in the days.

[@bitsundbolts]

I didn't know that. Interesting. I want to find one of those old magazines and read a day-one review of the Voodoo Graphics.

[@MrQuist125]

Nice work and nice gpu :)

[@PROSTO4Tabal]

I live 3dfx repair videos, these are the best !

[@johng.1703]

that is the same sort of card I bought from new back in the day when it very first came out. and yes toom raider was amazing on it.

[@tocaamerillo431]

that laugh at 16:59 sounded like Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park

[@Zodiac_Mack]

It's always nice to see people using a good amount of flux bu there is a limit, When you use more flux than solder you may have issues 🙂nice fix.

[@bitsundbolts]

Hehe, well, I don't mind if someone decides to drown the card in flux, but then it should be cleaned properly. The most annoying thing with flux on the board is that when you touch it to install or remove the card, you get that stuff on your fingers. It doesn't go easily with soap. Well, and then there is the fact that that card looks dirty.

[@Zodiac_Mack]

@@bitsundbolts Non conformal - conformal coating 😀, Also depending on the orientation of the card and the heat it can also seep down into the slot causing contact issues over time as dust builds up over time,

[@jensrobot]

16:45 "Tomb Rider" lmao

[@parandersson6541]

Nice with the Tombraider theme in the end

[@cybergarri]

Don't look like a bridge between 2 leg in the 12:53?

[@bitsundbolts]

It does look like a bridge, but it is just cracked solder mask and the black layer of the PCB showing. But you're right, it can be mistaken for a solder bridge.

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

It's time to watch BuB!

[@modlabs]

I like such videos. It's very relaxing

[@Entarra]

Is that a bridge? at 12:54 - 12:55 Or just something shiny on the board

[@bitsundbolts]

It's broken solder mask with the black surface of the PCB showing through. It can easily be mistaken as a solder bridge.

[@Entarra]

@@bitsundbolts Ah good.

[@ShamblerDK]

I miss those relay sounds in modern cards.

[@raineyjayy]

Oo. The grand daddy card. Let's go

[@webfischi]

The person doing work on this card before, watched a lot of Louis Rossmann videos

[@VladoT]

I would replace those relays because internal corrosion on their contacts can have the symptoms of not showing 2D and 3D when switching sometimes.

[@bitsundbolts]

I also have an Orchid Righteous 3D. It works fine to this day. I wouldn't replace the relays until they either don't make the proper clicking noises, or they are completely silent (aka faulty).

[@VladoT]

@@bitsundbolts The clicking has nothing to do with the actual internal contact resistance and some climates are especially harsh to this relays, so dry and hot climate and they will last forever but cold and damp, well not so much.

[@metalworksmachineshop]

Nicely done. Saved another card. I'm watching two V1 cards on eBay. But 75 to 100.00 is too much for being listed as untested. Just want it for the collection.

[@bitsundbolts]

Yeah, untested on eBay usually means "faulty".

[@wettuga2762]

What tool do you use to see the components up close? That zoom is crazy good!

[@bitsundbolts]

It is a trinocular microscope. Two eye pieces and one camera. The model is on my website. It's pretty good for this type of work.

[@michaelturner2806]

At first I thought for a thorough clean the 3dfx chips would best be removed entirely so you could get all the stuff that was up under there. Then I thought that would probably involve the heat gun and there's no need to stress the components unnecessarily.

[@bitsundbolts]

I try to avoid hot air for repairs as much as possible. Nothing worse than damaging a card like this because of some leftover flux.

[@lemagreengreen]

Whatever happened to Orchid as a brand? they were a pretty big name in those early days.

[@retrocomputinggrotto]

Shame you didnt test the card before you started the repair - I was always taught to take what the customer says with a pinch of salt and test anything before you attempt a repair in case it's an intermittant fault etc. it's also a good way of proving you've fixed the fault 😎😎

[@bitsundbolts]

Yes, after checking for shorts and under the microscope, I could have tested the card.

[@i486dx4]

Excellent repair! Would not surprise me however if there was an issue with the relays - could potentially be intermittent, temperature related etc. 25+ year old electromechanical components can be a little scary!

[@bitsundbolts]

I have not come across issues with the relays yet. They might wear out due to heavy usage, but then the noise should be very different. The sounds of those relays is what I remember from my model (which I still have).

[@nkronert]

Nice repair! What do the relays actually relay? Is it basically 2 video cards on the same board?

[@bitsundbolts]

If I am not mistaken, those relays are responsible to switch between the primary signal of the '2D' card (the signal that is routed through the loop cable) and the 3D signal generated by the Voodoo card. That is why you hear the clicks when the game Tomb Raider plays the videos during the intro because videos are played by the 2D card (the Rage XL in this video). Once the Voodoo takes over and outputs the 3D signal, the relays switch again from the 2D to the 3D signal.

[@DefenderOfBoston-yo2tl]

@@bitsundbolts That's exactly right. While absolutely hilarious that they went the mechanical and audible route, it was great, because it gave you an indication of what is going on (and what may be the issue if a game didn't work). Furthermore, it was a perfect match for IBM's venerable buckling spring Model M. Clickity clackity! 😂

[@MonochromeWench]

They switch between the vga input from the 2d card loopback cable and the vga output from the voodoo's RAMDAC. They are software controllable allowing games to switch between 2d and 3d output on demand allowing near instant switching without needing to reinitialize the card

[@nkronert]

​@@MonochromeWench so the 3D part cannot emulate a 2D screen and be the only video source?

[@MonochromeWench]

@@nkronert A voodoo card can be used as a dumb frame buffer but is not register compatible with VGA

[@Ale.K7]

Great! :D

[@axescar]

There is interesting project of sdz-mods to remake voodoo 1 with new pcb and HDMI. As for me such cards as in video can be a nice donor for that :).

[@bitsundbolts]

Haha, don't use an Orchid for a donor 😅 there are plenty of reference board designs that can be used for donors.

[@lasskinn474]

did you ever come across some reasoning from 3dfx engineers for why they replace the vga signal instead of overlaying on it, just a cost issue? you know like how DXR2 dvd card does the overlay(on passthroughed signal). speaking of which did you ever play around with them? (if you do there's some old video player that lets you use the dxr2 to output svideo from just regular windows coded decoded files and not just dvd/mpeg2(obviously it doesn't decode on the card then but it was really useful for outputting good quality tv out as a second monitor kind of a thing for watching warezed videos from a tv)

[@toseltreps1101]

passthroughed 🤡 you're a fine little wordsmith aren't you

[@bitsundbolts]

Unfortunately, I haven't come across the reason why there is this hard switch between 2D and 3D signal. I could imagine that it was due to signal quality and cost. Maybe it was just easier and cheaper to implement two VGA signals the way 3Dfx did it back then. Just speculation from my side, but maybe someone else knows. EDIT: I do have a DVD decoder card. I just never came around testing it! Some day, I will though.

[@MonochromeWench]

DXR2 greatly reduced signal quality even when not overlaying anything. Voodoo pass through was not perfect but miles better than DXR2.Though I suspect 3dfx did hard switch over because syncronizing the analog signals was likely too much of a hassle. The design as is allows the voodoo to generate it's own sync and not need to lock onto the external sync of the 2d card. Without genlocking, it is quite complicated. If synch matching it is easiest if you also match resolution. The design used by 3dfx didn't place any limitation on what 2d and 3d modes could be used at the same time. An overlay mode would have been nice for Windows, but Voodoo wasn't designed primarily for Windows but for other markets like Arcade gaming and you don't need overlay for Arcade. I'd suspect 2d passthrough was a late addition for PC gaming. In an embedded environment you could run with only a voodoo card and no 2D card at all but in a standard PC you needed a vga compatible 2d card.

[@Subdest]

Can old toothbrushes help you with cleaning? Never throw them away. Help so often :)

[@johnnypiedro3828]

Machst du jetzt auch Internationalen 3Dfx Garantieservice;) ?

[@bitsundbolts]

Manchmal wenn sich eine Gelegenheit ergibt.

[@danielktdoranie]

Heya do you have a service where you fix old computers/components? Obviously paid of course

[@bitsundbolts]

I accept faulty hardware that I feel can be fixed with my current abilities. If you have something for repair, it is best to contact me via email.

[@AndrewFremantle]

Those relays are nuts. click-click....

[@bitsundbolts]

Yes! It is the click right before 3D goodness is about to happen!

[@WiiNV]

​@@bitsundbolts L🤭L

[@lemagreengreen]

@@bitsundbolts About the relays. I have heard people say that Voodoo2 did not have them but I distinctly remember the clicking! did early Voodoo2 cards have the mechanical relay as well?

[@B24Fox]

Most likely the card was fine to begin with. I've tested a lot of voodoo1 cards (among others), and they're pretty picky when it comes to running on more modern systems.. (And on very rare occasions, i've heard even on Pentium 2 machines). With the exact symptoms you described; black screen or even a colored rectangles pattern appearing when the game is supposed to start. Even went as far as working, and later on it didn't, on my usual test system (VIA KT266 w/ AthlonXP2000+). In this regard; my advice to everyone, is to at least try disabling PCI(or PCI IDE) Bus Mastering, in BIOS... before you write-off a Voodoo1 as dead. Or just try getting a Pentium I, to test it on.

[@bitsundbolts]

The fastest system I have tested Voodoo graphics is a Pentium III 1000. I heard that people also face issues with such a setup, especially when the FSB is at 133 MHz. However, I have never had an issue like that, but keep in mind that I never is anything newer than Slot 1. I think it is a very valid advice to anyone with an original Voodoo Graphics - test in a period correct system.

[@myne00]

Heh. I sold a couple of those not too long ago. There was surprisingly little interest.

[@bitsundbolts]

Hm, interesting. I would assume that Orchid cards are very sought after.

[@PROSTO4Tabal]

I'm pretty sure he try local ads on knitting sewing newspaper or something similar

[@random007nadir]

So hairy! Was it previously repaired by a werewolf?

[@bitsundbolts]

Haha! Yeah, flux is so sticky that it catches anything.

[@Ojref1]

some fluxes if not cleaned can become corrosive and conductive over time.

[@bitsundbolts]

Oh, interesting. I always clean the boards as good as I can. Maybe the flux was responsible for why some of those solder joints looked different from the others.

[@CuttingEdgeRetro]

I wonder it was Pp's card ;)

[@toseltreps1101]

Schee gmacht Bubi :)