I have a pair of these in good working order and a multimeter but not really much idea how to use a multimeter beyond checking continuity and voltage. Happy to help if you can suggest how to measure those components to confirm what they are?

Thanks, I appreciate the offer to help.
The problem with measuring components in-circuit is that the values might not be correct.

Ideally, I hoping that there is a component list or that someone else has replaced those caps as before and managed to find the right values.

I use Transistor-Tester LCR-04. Most SMD capacitors have three value: 1oo nF, 1nF, 100pF

I don't have a list for that specific card (since I don't have one..) but those caps are usually 100nF and 10nF. Position and actual value is not that important, especially when replacing with modern caps.
The card should work without those caps though, maybe it would be somewhat unstable, but it should work.

Check for broken solder joins, broken resistors, and PCB damage, such as:

Also run mojo.exe, preferably from a pure DOS env, and check what it reports.

Thanks for the feedback.

What is the SMD package size of those caps? Are they 0805?

Where can I get the DOS version of Mojo?
I found one executable in the Monster 3D driver but it’s windows based.

I did check for continuity on that PCB trace damage, it seems to be okay but I’ll check it again.

I’ll also have another look over the board for other damage that I may have missed.

Those caps should be 0603 size, imperial.

I'm not aware of a windows version of mojo.exe.
Anyway, you can find it in the glide SDK.
http://falconfly.3dfx.pl/reference.htm

Thank you sdz.

I ran mojo which indicated:

Vendor ID: 0x121a
Device ID: 0x2
FBI Revision: 2
FBI Memory: 4MB
FBI PowerOn Sense: 0x2
FBI DAC Output Cooler Format: 24BPP
Scan-Line Interleave? No
TMU Revision: 1
Number TMUs: 2
TMU 0 RAM: 4MB
TMU 1 RAM: 4MB

Since it looked good in mojo, I decided to test the card again and tried reinstalling the drivers.
This time I had success.

The card does work, it displays a 3dfx logo when launching games and I am able to play Dethkarz, NFS2SE, and Rollcage in glide without any graphical issues.

I would still like to replace the missing caps but at least I know the card is okay.

sdz wrote on 2024-08-26, 13:57:

I don't have a list for that specific card (since I don't have one..) but those caps are usually 100nF and 10nF. Position and ac […]
Show full quote

I don't have a list for that specific card (since I don't have one..) but those caps are usually 100nF and 10nF. Position and actual value is not that important, especially when replacing with modern caps.
The card should work without those caps though, maybe it would be somewhat unstable, but it should work.

Check for broken solder joins, broken resistors, and PCB damage, such as:

The attachment S1.png is no longer available

Also run mojo.exe, preferably from a pure DOS env, and check what it reports.

I have 10nF caps in my stock but I don't have 100nF.

Should I just solder 10nF to all the mentioned points:
(Would it be risky if the cap is the wrong rating in this case?)

C522
C565
C567
C592
C601

Here’s a rear view of my card:

The card shows artefacts in all 3D games and apps like 3DMark99. (Tried multiple different drivers and they all exhibit the same behaviour)

I'm not sure if the missing caps are the cause.
I measured nearby caps with an LCR meter and found them to be 100uf but I have not been able to find 100uf caps in 0603 package that ship to my location.

I've checked the FBI and TMU's for loose pins and didn't find any.
Also tried to look for loose joints on the memory but that is more difficult to check.

Really not sure what to do to fix this Voodoo 2 card.

A tool like Witchery might be very useful.

byte_76 wrote on 2024-12-18, 06:39:

The card shows artefacts in all 3D games and apps like 3DMark99. (Tried multiple different drivers and they all exhibit the sam […]
Show full quote

The card shows artefacts in all 3D games and apps like 3DMark99. (Tried multiple different drivers and they all exhibit the same behaviour)

I'm not sure if the missing caps are the cause.
I measured nearby caps with an LCR meter and found them to be 100uf but I have not been able to find 100uf caps in 0603 package that ship to my location.

I've checked the FBI and TMU's for loose pins and didn't find any.
Also tried to look for loose joints on the memory but that is more difficult to check.

Really not sure what to do to fix this Voodoo 2 card.

A tool like Witchery might be very useful.

"I measured nearby caps with an LCR meter and found them to be 100uf but I have not been able to find 100uf caps in 0603 package that ship to my location." I'm guessing you measured in circuit, you won't get good values for capacitance on the main VCC rail either the voltage regulated one for the 3dfx chips or the 5v rail for the RAM and some other bits. Because in circuit it's reading the total capacitance of all caps on that same circuit.

Bypass caps of that era are usually going to be like 100nF, to measure it properly you should desolder a nearby cap that looks like it matches the placement / function / colour / size of your broken one. Solder it back down to just one pad so it can't fly away and is no longer part of the main circuit, then measure it with the LCR meter.

Could you post a picture of the artifacting you're getting? The type of artifacting would determine what to look at, if you have dots all over the screen or broken segments of the overall display output then it'd be a fault with the framebuffer. But menus in 3dfx games are also 3d rendered flat textures, so broken menu items aren't going to be FBI issues normally.
If the artifacting is specifically only on textures but the display output is otherwise working then it'll be an issue with one of the TMUs.

With the SST variables you can turn off one or both of the texture mapping chips - I used "SET SSTV2_NUM_TMUS=1" to quickly narrow down the fault on a voodoo 2 card recently which had loose pins on TMU1 but TMU0 and the framebuffer were fine: Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

The Windows 98 desktop is clear of artefacts but anything that uses 3D indicates artefacts, including the 3DMark99 loading screen and game menus.

I've tested another working Voodoo 2 card in the same PC and it works 100% so this isn't a driver or PC issue.

Here are some pics of 3DMark99 and NFS Porsche menu.

The link that you share isn't working for me and I'm not sure how to disable the TMU's.

I have re-checked the pins of the TMU's and FBI under a microscope but I cannot find any loose pins. I checked each and every pin by using a sewing needle and gently applying sideways pressure. They seem to be well soldered.

Could this be caused by the missing caps?

byte_76 wrote on 2024-12-20, 08:57:

The Windows 98 desktop is clear of artefacts but anything that uses 3D indicates artefacts, including the 3DMark99 loading scree […]
Show full quote

The Windows 98 desktop is clear of artefacts but anything that uses 3D indicates artefacts, including the 3DMark99 loading screen and game menus.

I've tested another working Voodoo 2 card in the same PC and it works 100% so this isn't a driver or PC issue.

Here are some pics of 3DMark99 and NFS Porsche menu.

The link that you share isn't working for me and I'm not sure how to disable the TMU's.

I have re-checked the pins of the TMU's and FBI under a microscope but I cannot find any loose pins. I checked each and every pin by using a sewing needle and gently applying sideways pressure. They seem to be well soldered.

Could this be caused by the missing caps?

Okay, on the 2nd and 3rd pictures it looks like the corruption is missing data on textures specifically. You could try the SET SSTV2_NUM_TMUS=1 variable in autoexec bat to disable the 2nd tmu (the one nearest the RAMDAC & VGA ports) to see if it makes a positive difference. In my case it did so I knew to check there and found the bad pins.

I think given where the trace damage is on yours - the back side of TMU 1, putting that environment variable might give you a clear picture, perhaps. It would be good to narrow it down, even without witchery.

IMG_1369.jpeg this is not an artifact. All Voodoo2 show this effect between 3 and 4 3DMark99 tests. I wrote about this earlier Voodoo2 on 3DMark99 ugly effects

I don't have experience with Voodoo 2 cards and I don't understand how to use the variable mentioned above to disable one TMU. Where exactly do I add/modify the values?
Is there a guide on how to do this or are there tools available to disable components on a V2?

Are there any other test tools aside from mojo? (I've tried mojo and it seems to report the correct details for my card)

In a batch file or directly from a dos window that you then use to start the game.

Eg
C:> set blah blah
C:> game.exe

byte_76 wrote on 2024-12-26, 06:21:

I don't have experience with Voodoo 2 cards and I don't understand how to use the variable mentioned above to disable one TMU. Where exactly do I add/modify the values?
Is there a guide on how to do this or are there tools available to disable components on a V2?

Are there any other test tools aside from mojo? (I've tried mojo and it seems to report the correct details for my card)

You could watch of this video, vswitchzero covers it pretty well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRFucW4uB5k&t=544s