I just plugged it in, and one of my V4 4500 PCI's (that I was going to sell) works fine, but the other one, when I boot up, black screen, and motherboard gives a series of beeps. Nothing else.

I tried clearing the CMOS for a couple of minutes, then holding F1 during powerup. No go.

I guess it's dead then isn't it? Not too happy, since it came boxed, and seller sold it as working.

Try it in another PCI slot, check it to be well inserted.

I tried all slots, no go.

I have pushed it all the way in, but yet I can still see a bit of the PCI connector gold plates. It's the same with the other one so it can't be that.

My last boxed 4500 PCI was boxed and dead also... I know how you feel.

If your other 4500 booted in the same PCI slot, the "dead" one should too.  The beeps is not a good sign as that usually denotes no video signal.  If you can slap in another non-3dfx card and boot into windows.  See if the card is detected at all.  Also fire up the flashing program and see if you can flash it, as it could just have corrupt bios.

rottentreats wrote on 19.12.08 at 00:24:41:

My last boxed 4500 PCI was boxed and dead also... I know how you feel. If your other 4500 booted in the same PCI slot, the "dead" one should too.  The beeps is not a good sign as that usually denotes no video signal.  If you can slap in another non-3dfx card and boot into windows.  See if the card is detected at all.  Also fire up the flashing program and see if you can flash it, as it could just have corrupt bios.

I installed a 2D card, booted to win2000, and it found the 3dfx card, and installed the drivers for it. Hardware manager said it was working fine. Went to DXDiag, didn't see a tab with 3d acceleration. After 5 seconds in dxdiag, the screen went black with a a blinking white dos cursor top left corner.

Tried to restart windows, but doesn't get past the loading screen.

I'm afraid I have never used a flashing program for a 3dfx card, plenty of others, but not for 3dfx. I couldn't find it on the main page.

Sounds like there could be an issue with the bios, who knows.

Found this site, reading it now.

http://3dfxbios.stantoworld.co.uk/

So if the card is recognized by the program, it could be a corrupt bios?

I tried flashing the card, AGP display set first.

It just says :

Error : Unknown flash EEPROM manufacturer (Man. ID:30h, Dev. ID. E9h)

My 4500 PCI had a similar error, needless to say that card is now a display piece.  Keep trying though, you never know!

http://www.abload.de/img/29608014wc1y4vm.jpg

Ah I see.

I contacted the seller, he said it still worked fine when he had it.

The only thing I did, is heat up the chip with a hairdryer (with my hand next to it, so I didn't cook it) pop off the heatsink, and install the Thermshield fan. Nothing more nothing less. Very strange, I've done that before with no problems whatsoever.

Did you test the card before changing heatsinks ?
Maybe when you changed it something bad happened  :(

RaverX wrote on 19.12.08 at 16:38:00:

Did you test the card before changing heatsinks ? Maybe when you changed it something bad happened  :(

Silly enough, No I didn't check. Can't see anything wrong with it though. I did scratch the bit of green around the chip heatspreader a bit with a razor trying to get the thermal adhesive off, but it wasn't a deep scratch or anything.

There's a lot of things that can go wrong. That little scratch is only one.
Maybe when you took off the heatsink, there was presure on the chip and some joints on the back of the chip unsoldered. Or something inside the PCB (there's a few layers inside) cracked. Or you touched a memory and you was statically charger. Or...

I feel very bad everytime I get a bad card, but that's life. It's still good as a display card, but at least you should learn something from this. Test your card before doing anything to it, at least you know it was alredat damaged or you did.

If you really think that the card is dead, try this one:

Remove the fan.

Do it into your furnance with 100-110°C for about 30 mins.

This way I've "repaired" a 9800Pro.  :)
Thats no joke!

Or: polish the the PCI connector or clean it with pure alcohol. Eventually its just oxidised or just fattily.

RaverX wrote on 19.12.08 at 18:25:30:

There's a lot of things that can go wrong. That little scratch is only one. Maybe when you took off the heatsink, there was presure on the chip and some joints on the back of the chip unsoldered. Or something inside the PCB (there's a few layers inside) cracked. Or you touched a memory and you was statically charger. Or... I feel very bad everytime I get a bad card, but that's life. It's still good as a display card, but at least you should learn something from this. Test your card before doing anything to it, at least you know it was alredat damaged or you did.

Yea, I know, quite a few things that go wrong, should have tested it.




RaVeNsClaw wrote on 19.12.08 at 18:33:20:

If you really think that the card is dead, try this one: Remove the fan. Do it into your furnance with 100-110°C for about 30 mins. This way I've "repaired" a 9800Pro.  :) Thats no joke! Or: polish the the PCI connector or clean it with pure alcohol. Eventually its just oxidised or just fattily.

I will try the polishing first!  :o  :D

I can always try the oven lol, it might have just been a freak thing though, I don't think boards to well at that degree.

Write a PM with your E-Mail-address and I will give you the 1.18 BIOS.

My sold 4500 PCI also got this error, when I tried to flash the 1.15 BIOS. The 1.18 worked fine for me. No idea why the 1.15 didn't want to be flashed...

If someone here have a 4500 PCI with 1.15 BIOS please make a fresh dump for me. Thanks!

Chosen_One wrote on 20.12.08 at 02:31:33:

Write a PM with your E-Mail-address and I will give you the 1.18 BIOS. My sold 4500 PCI also got this error, when I tried to flash the 1.15 BIOS. The 1.18 worked fine for me. No idea why the 1.15 didn't want to be flashed... If someone here have a 4500 PCI with 1.15 BIOS please make a fresh dump for me. Thanks!

I've send you the email. Much appreciated! :)

E-Mail on its way. Yesterday the mail wasn't send...no idea why :(

Got the email, I tried to flash the card, but it gives me the same error unfortunately. It's just strange that it does pick it up in windows. System is unstable yes, but still strange.