Thank you! I am very happy that this Voodoo card is back from the dead - and I am surprised that the overall look of the card improved a lot after I cleaned it up. Thanks for visiting Mike!
- For straightening bent pins, the absolute best tool i found to be, one segment of a box-cutter blade. (From the type of blade that is long and is pre-divided into segments, so you can break them off one by one as they get dull.) - Another really good tool for REALLY bent pins, is a metal needle, that has been softened with a flame, in order to make it bend and not break. You bend the very tip of the needle in order to make the smallest hook possible, in order to grab the pin from behind (in some cases, even insert the needle between the chip and the pins so you can pull the pin from behind, in order to make room for inserting the box-cutter blade).
Good memories... 🙂 I bought that card for CHF 799.00 back in the days ... Great to see you could bring this one back to active life. I still have my Diamond card somewhere? (Now using Guillemot 3dfx, AGP, 16MB)
Glad you were able to fix it. I love the work and thought that goes into these. I learn a thing or two from these videos too. Hope to see more of your videos.
Another really cool video. I always enjoy your in depth look at video cards from the golden era or 3D. Those were exciting times with blistering advancements.
This reminds me of the pile of Voodoo1s i wasn't able to repair yet. Should be a nice project for the colder days of the year :-) a small hint: Try to move the desolder wick in the direction of the pads, not 90° or other angles. Otherwise, you risk ripping them from the PCB. regarding the components from other cards: These Voodoo-cards are 99% based on a reference design, should be absolutely no problem as there are only minor differences between different vendors.
It always breaks my heart when I find in flea markets cards like this, with heavy damage. But congrats on the views, very soon you will reach 10k subs, and hopefully you will pass 100k...
Cool to see an old card brought back to life. I have one of these that outputs a picture, but it's washed over in yellow for some reason. I'm wondering if it might be something as simple as a broken cap or resistor like you found with yours.
Very nice repair. I would also like to see a video were you try to repair the card with the broken pins. Maybe you could cut a little of the chip to reach some metal were the pins would be and then solder some wires. Even if unsuccessful, I would enjoy watching it.
Very nice work. I have an identical Diamond Monster and on the TMU it has broken pins and also broken inductors and capacitors. I would love to see how you can repair yours and maybe I will try and fix mine as well with your guide from the video. You are my top inspiration along with vswitchzero and PhilsComputerLab. Danke schoen 🙏
Those cheap transistor testers can tell you the inductance of a wire wound inductor, but I don't know about those ferrite - I think filter - inductors. Very entertaining, good work.
There's a bug that usually happens with (perfectly good) Voodoo1 cards and faster PCs, that manifests a very similar colored rectangle pattern when starting games. I have found that disabling "PCI IDE Bus Mastering" in the bios, usually solves the problem.
Somewhere at home I have Quantum3D Obsidian 50-4220 w/ Amethyst daughterboard… And if I remember right, it freezes when launching game… Looking at these videos, maybe I need to get some soldering iron and try to fix it :) Or sell it :D
A few months ago, I successfully fixed Voodoo2 12Mb from PowerColor. I found 6 bad smd resistors arrays. After changing it to new arrays, card came back to live!
Congratulations! Awesome that you were able to rescue this Voodoo 2 by replacing components that cost a few cents. Wonder how many have been trashed because of that.
Eyyy I have a Diamond Monster 3D II. It is in a shadowbox on my wall, alongside the Voodoo 3 2000. Unfortunately many many years ago, my brother removed one of the memory chips for whatever reason (top right). Other than that it is in good condition.
Nice work. Good that you change pc for voodoo 1 on second test, because voodoo 1 don't like cpu faster than 400 mhz. On higher games just freeze on startup.
I have seen alot of Voodoos with bent pins. But usually they all work. And yes, this from them being in the trash. Where I get all my stuff, this is just thrown into boxes.
It could be that some pins are not used or carry the same signal. I hope that there will be a proper pinout diagram of those TMU and FBI chips. Same for Voodoo 2 chips.
I can't remember if it was on the bird site or the new social media site, but I think it was TubeTime who posted a thread about repairing a chip by grinding down the plastic on a chip with broken leads to reveal the lead frame, which he soldered wires onto to replace the broken leads. I'm guessing you were planning something similar to fix that other chip?
The good old Diamond Monster 3D - lucky that my card is still working since 1997 ^^ But one of my Voodoo 2 are broken - the pins of the 3D Chips are broken.
Good job! In case you will need more information on those SMDs, there are component maps available for most of the Voodoo II. I have some unbranded cards that share the same design as your Diamond. You can find the capacitos value on the same general schematics. The card with the broken chip pins can be most likely be salvaged but it is a royal pain. But I have seen a guy using a laser engraver programmed to decapsulate the broken part of thr chip in order to solder bodge wires on to it. 😮 But we normal people have to use micro-grinder. Good luck! Pretty nice videos you have!
Thank you! Yes, I have found some Voodoo 2 component maps, but nothing for the Diamond Monster 3D. I guess I was lucky that the damaged components were quite simple to figure out.
Ive got an Diamond Monster 3D 2 SLI set and done the same an them. many bent pins on the chips. Without a microscope i had no chance to repair them. But now they are fully working and in the future i will upgrade them to 12MB now they only 8MB versions. My Retro setup is an P2 450 with 128MB Ram, nVidia Riva 128ZX and the Voodoo2 SLI. I call it High End gaming PC from 1998 ^^
@@bitsundbolts Haha i had to make one too. Nothing special. I used an floppy cable und twistet it on the right place and it works without any problems. So i made a longer cable to have some space between the two cards. I put everything in a modern case with window an a green LED strip. The last thing i want to put in is a SoundBlaster Live from 1998. Now there is only an onboard Creative Audio PCI in it.
I may replace the resistor with a higher value and see if something changes in the mojo debug tool output. Maybe this resistor is responsible for a frequency setting.
Hi! How did you know the value of that cracked SMD capacitor? I'm trying to fix my Diamond Monster 3d and I found it hard to find much info about it. Thanks
4:20 I have this card (working) and mines a rev B like yours. I just have an iphone 7 but if you need a decent quality picture of a working one or parts of it for component identification, just let me know. Will check this comment edit: I should finish this video before commenting, lol. You got it working, nice :)
Do you have, by any chance, the value of the ferrit between the two VGA ports? Have a Monster 3D Rev B here that I wanted to fix for some time. So far I didn´t start with the work because I was unable to find the exact value of the part. :)
Are you talking about the two black caps? There are two of them between the two VGA ports on the 3Dfx chip side. Those two are inductors. If you mean on other spot, you can send a picture to my email which you can find on the About page of my channel.
Yes, those are inductors. They have 0 resistance. I ordered some of those from AliExpress. When I fix the Maxi Gamer 3D, I will add one of those ordered from AliExpress. If the card works, I'll add the link in the video description.
The memory is slightly off. A memory mod that was created for a Maxi Gamer 3D will not fit over the TMU memory, however, were talking about 1mm here. Revision 1.1 could work but may be at the limit what's possible. If I get another Diamond Monster 3D, I'll definitely try to make a mod for it using revision 1.1
@@bitsundbolts Thank you for the links to both MOJO and the 3dfx Flash utility. I was playing POD Gold when suddenly my Diamond Monster 3D froze the images on the screen and they all became corrupted and turned very dark. After a hard reboot I was able to see the 3dfx card in device manager and it was telling me it is okay but when I try to play any 3dfx game it just blinks the LCD desktop screen image for a fraction of a second and that's it. No crash message!!! A complete visual scan under my digital microscope did not reveal any problems and I even checked all the pins on both the TMU and the FBI just to make sure. Ugg.
I do accept, but it probably comes down to shipping. If you want to discuss further, I would suggest you contact me through the email I provide in the Channel About page.
So many 3dfx fanboys buying, selling and installing/uninstalling these cards CARELESSLY so they have heavy scratches, destroyed smd components, water damage and nasty bent pins. 3dfx fanboys deserve what they get, blurry textures, ugly colors and being ripped off.
You can definitely fix that Voodoo card with the broken pins and I want to see that Video!
I'd love to see that!
I love repair videos. Even if it's not a success. Looking forward to see more like this.
Awesome work! Always a great feeling to see old broken cards brought back to life 👍😁
Your videos are better, though. 😁
Thank you! I am very happy that this Voodoo card is back from the dead - and I am surprised that the overall look of the card improved a lot after I cleaned it up. Thanks for visiting Mike!
3dfx videos repairs always give me the most intensive cinema time
- For straightening bent pins, the absolute best tool i found to be, one segment of a box-cutter blade.
(From the type of blade that is long and is pre-divided into segments, so you can break them off one by one as they get dull.)
- Another really good tool for REALLY bent pins, is a metal needle, that has been softened with a flame, in order to make it bend and not break. You bend the very tip of the needle in order to make the smallest hook possible, in order to grab the pin from behind (in some cases, even insert the needle between the chip and the pins so you can pull the pin from behind, in order to make room for inserting the box-cutter blade).
Had one of those back in the days. Man was it ever great!
Nice work, bud. Keen eye to find those cracked components. Gonna be a nice, restored card, for quite some time, I'm sure.
I had one of those back in the day and it was awesome! GLQuake was a revelation!
Good memories... 🙂
I bought that card for CHF 799.00 back in the days ... Great to see you could bring this one back to active life.
I still have my Diamond card somewhere? (Now using Guillemot 3dfx, AGP, 16MB)
Glad you were able to fix it. I love the work and thought that goes into these. I learn a thing or two from these videos too. Hope to see more of your videos.
Praise the omnissiah and the machine spirit
This was amazing job.
Another really cool video. I always enjoy your in depth look at video cards from the golden era or 3D. Those were exciting times with blistering advancements.
Thank you! Those videos are also fun to make - especially when the project is successful.
Dude wow! What an awesome repair.
Thank you 🙏
This reminds me of the pile of Voodoo1s i wasn't able to repair yet. Should be a nice project for the colder days of the year :-)
a small hint: Try to move the desolder wick in the direction of the pads, not 90° or other angles. Otherwise, you risk ripping them from the PCB.
regarding the components from other cards: These Voodoo-cards are 99% based on a reference design, should be absolutely no problem as there are only minor differences between different vendors.
Thanks for the tip! Makes a lot of sense to move the wick along the direction of the pad!
Hi
Thx for Rescue this Legend 3D Graphics Card !
Cheers
Oh boy, my favourite repair series and my favourite graphics card brand, what a way to start a new work week :))
It always breaks my heart when I find in flea markets cards like this, with heavy damage.
But congrats on the views, very soon you will reach 10k subs, and hopefully you will pass 100k...
Cool to see an old card brought back to life. I have one of these that outputs a picture, but it's washed over in yellow for some reason. I'm wondering if it might be something as simple as a broken cap or resistor like you found with yours.
Very nice repair.
I would also like to see a video were you try to repair the card with the broken pins. Maybe you could cut a little of the chip to reach some metal were the pins would be and then solder some wires. Even if unsuccessful, I would enjoy watching it.
I'll definitely do it. I just need to work on a few other projects first to not get too overloaded with 3Dfx content.
Very nice work. I have an identical Diamond Monster and on the TMU it has broken pins and also broken inductors and capacitors. I would love to see how you can repair yours and maybe I will try and fix mine as well with your guide from the video. You are my top inspiration along with vswitchzero and PhilsComputerLab. Danke schoen 🙏
An X-Acto blade works well for straightening bent SMD pins.
Another interesting video, like!
Great job on the repair.
When it comes to bent pins I prefer to use a razor blade and a little twist to bend them back into position.
I thought these are to bendy. I think the tiny tweezers are best because it's difficult to keep a needle in control.
Thank you
Those cheap transistor testers can tell you the inductance of a wire wound inductor, but I don't know about those ferrite - I think filter - inductors.
Very entertaining, good work.
If desoldering chips. I suggest using chip quick solder. It allows you to be much gentler on solder pads. I learned this lesson hard way.
There's a bug that usually happens with (perfectly good) Voodoo1 cards and faster PCs, that manifests a very similar colored rectangle pattern when starting games.
I have found that disabling "PCI IDE Bus Mastering" in the bios, usually solves the problem.
Great repair, congratulations on 1M views!
Thank you!
Well done! thanks for the nice video!
Good Job! Another card safed.
I had one of these back in the day
Somewhere at home I have Quantum3D Obsidian 50-4220 w/ Amethyst daughterboard…
And if I remember right, it freezes when launching game… Looking at these videos, maybe I need to get some soldering iron and try to fix it :) Or sell it :D
A few months ago, I successfully fixed Voodoo2 12Mb from PowerColor. I found 6 bad smd resistors arrays. After changing it to new arrays, card came back to live!
Congratulations! Awesome that you were able to rescue this Voodoo 2 by replacing components that cost a few cents. Wonder how many have been trashed because of that.
Great work 👍👏
Eyyy I have a Diamond Monster 3D II. It is in a shadowbox on my wall, alongside the Voodoo 3 2000. Unfortunately many many years ago, my brother removed one of the memory chips for whatever reason (top right). Other than that it is in good condition.
Excellent job!!!
Thank you
Congrats on the repair.
Thanks 👍
Nice work. Good that you change pc for voodoo 1 on second test, because voodoo 1 don't like cpu faster than 400 mhz. On higher games just freeze on startup.
I have seen alot of Voodoos with bent pins. But usually they all work. And yes, this from them being in the trash. Where I get all my stuff, this is just thrown into boxes.
It could be that some pins are not used or carry the same signal. I hope that there will be a proper pinout diagram of those TMU and FBI chips. Same for Voodoo 2 chips.
I can't remember if it was on the bird site or the new social media site, but I think it was TubeTime who posted a thread about repairing a chip by grinding down the plastic on a chip with broken leads to reveal the lead frame, which he soldered wires onto to replace the broken leads. I'm guessing you were planning something similar to fix that other chip?
Yes, that is exactly my plan. I don't think I need to grind a lot - and if possible, I want to make it invisible - as if nothing ever happened.
I love 3dfx videos of yours! FITST
The good old Diamond Monster 3D - lucky that my card is still working since 1997 ^^
But one of my Voodoo 2 are broken - the pins of the 3D Chips are broken.
I'll try to fix the broken pins on the Maxi Gamer 3D - but first I need to wait for this inductor, that I took of the board, to arrive.
Good job sir!
Thank you!
Good job! In case you will need more information on those SMDs, there are component maps available for most of the Voodoo II. I have some unbranded cards that share the same design as your Diamond. You can find the capacitos value on the same general schematics. The card with the broken chip pins can be most likely be salvaged but it is a royal pain. But I have seen a guy using a laser engraver programmed to decapsulate the broken part of thr chip in order to solder bodge wires on to it. 😮 But we normal people have to use micro-grinder. Good luck! Pretty nice videos you have!
Thank you! Yes, I have found some Voodoo 2 component maps, but nothing for the Diamond Monster 3D. I guess I was lucky that the damaged components were quite simple to figure out.
Ive got an Diamond Monster 3D 2 SLI set and done the same an them. many bent pins on the chips. Without a microscope i had no chance to repair them. But now they are fully working and in the future i will upgrade them to 12MB now they only 8MB versions. My Retro setup is an P2 450 with 128MB Ram, nVidia Riva 128ZX and the Voodoo2 SLI. I call it High End gaming PC from 1998 ^^
I also have two Diamond Monster 3D 2 ready for SLI, but first I need to make my own SLI cable.
@@bitsundbolts Haha i had to make one too. Nothing special. I used an floppy cable und twistet it on the right place and it works without any problems. So i made a longer cable to have some space between the two cards. I put everything in a modern case with window an a green LED strip. The last thing i want to put in is a SoundBlaster Live from 1998. Now there is only an onboard Creative Audio PCI in it.
Where is the loopback Voodoo cable for your Trident card ?
Bravo.
Amazing ride!
perhaps the resistor told the card what kind of memory was fitted? that would've been a really cool thing to know
I may replace the resistor with a higher value and see if something changes in the mojo debug tool output. Maybe this resistor is responsible for a frequency setting.
Great fix!
LOVE THE VIDEO!
I love the repair videos
You should get an arduino components Tester to identify things like inductors and capacitors.
I'm pretty much sure I ran UltraHLE Zelda Ocarina of TIme at 5fps with this card back in the days.
Hi! How did you know the value of that cracked SMD capacitor? I'm trying to fix my Diamond Monster 3d and I found it hard to find much info about it. Thanks
I removed a similar looking capacitor which belonged to a group of components looking identical to the ones where the cap was broken.
That NFS3 at the end... ;w;
4:20 I have this card (working) and mines a rev B like yours. I just have an iphone 7 but if you need a decent quality picture of a working one or parts of it for component identification, just let me know. Will check this comment
edit: I should finish this video before commenting, lol. You got it working, nice :)
Hehe, thanks for offering help though!
Do you have, by any chance, the value of the ferrit between the two VGA ports? Have a Monster 3D Rev B here that I wanted to fix for some time. So far I didn´t start with the work because I was unable to find the exact value of the part. :)
Are you talking about the two black caps? There are two of them between the two VGA ports on the 3Dfx chip side. Those two are inductors. If you mean on other spot, you can send a picture to my email which you can find on the About page of my channel.
@@bitsundbolts They are labeled L5 and L6. L5 is still there, but L6 is missing on my card.
Yes, those are inductors. They have 0 resistance. I ordered some of those from AliExpress. When I fix the Maxi Gamer 3D, I will add one of those ordered from AliExpress. If the card works, I'll add the link in the video description.
@@bitsundbolts Thank you, I should have something fitting in my spare parts bin. :)
This was my first Gaming Card and i used two Cards called Mega Monster 😅
I have the same card!!! will your RAM expanshiopn fit the TMU ram???
The memory is slightly off. A memory mod that was created for a Maxi Gamer 3D will not fit over the TMU memory, however, were talking about 1mm here. Revision 1.1 could work but may be at the limit what's possible.
If I get another Diamond Monster 3D, I'll definitely try to make a mod for it using revision 1.1
Where can I get solder mask? That could be so useful.
I use "MECHANIC" solder mask which I got from aliexpress. You may get them from eBay or Amazon too depending where you live.
@@bitsundbolts much thanks
Well done ! 8)
Where can I find the Mojo program?
I have added a link in the video description where you can find the tool in the 3Dfx folder. Let me know if this helps.
@@bitsundbolts Thank you for the links to both MOJO and the 3dfx Flash utility. I was playing POD Gold when suddenly my Diamond Monster 3D froze the images on the screen and they all became corrupted and turned very dark. After a hard reboot I was able to see the 3dfx card in device manager and it was telling me it is okay but when I try to play any 3dfx game it just blinks the LCD desktop screen image for a fraction of a second and that's it. No crash message!!! A complete visual scan under my digital microscope did not reveal any problems and I even checked all the pins on both the TMU and the FBI just to make sure. Ugg.
Maximum Like! 👍👍
Thank you!
Hey man, do you take Hardware donations? I'm downsizing and have some 386 and Pentium era Boards and Cards left over
I do accept, but it probably comes down to shipping. If you want to discuss further, I would suggest you contact me through the email I provide in the Channel About page.
GG !!!
Yikes. A quality static bag would have prevented 90% of damage.
epic
i have 2 voodoo 1 cards need to be repaired 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
Do you know what is the problem with those cards?
yes i do can i email you? i really really need these cards fixed @@bitsundbolts
I wish I could send you a card in for repair. And pay you for it.
How can you understand so little about inductors, yet still clearly have some electronics capability. It's such a basic component....
So many 3dfx fanboys buying, selling and installing/uninstalling these cards CARELESSLY so they have heavy scratches, destroyed smd components, water damage and nasty bent pins. 3dfx fanboys deserve what they get, blurry textures, ugly colors and being ripped off.