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Help - Munkay - 05-26-2003
Today I bought a Pentium III 733 mhz computer for 100$. It came with a voodoo 3 graphics card. My problem is going through My Computer-> Properties -> Device Manager, no where in it can I find what _kind_ of voodoo 3 I own.
I know I am being computer illiterate, and this is rather embarassing for me to admit. But I'm at my wits end. I am having trouble getting the buttons in Warcraft III to display correctly (the game runs smooth at high settings, but the buttons are just blurred blocks). I know the first thing anyone will tell me, is to update my drivers...
So that is what I am attempting to do. From 3dfx's old site, they link a page that has 37 drivers. All I need to know is which card I have! It seems to be a choice between a 3000, and a 3500.
If the answer is in the bios, can some one guide me through it? I generally avoid the bios like the plague... (stupid I know)
Thanks ahead of time.
Help - DaveO - 05-27-2003
Try rebooting to see if there is a message on the screen for the type of video card. You can use the Pause key to catch it.
Help - dahak_i - 05-27-2003
For a similar reason, I had to figure out the exact model of a video card, just not a 3dfx card though. On the website they had (I found it through a google search), there were instructions on making a dump file and then finding the vid card info within.
You have to go through control panel, system, hardware, device manager.
If you're in XP, you then go to Print, and print a device summary either on paper or to a file.
As for decoding the video information, that's the tricky part 8-o.
If you can't get the model number from the heading (it might be just out in the open), you'll have to find it "encoded" in a few strings of numbers. Since you know it's either a 3000 or a 3500, you should be able to find one of them within at least two strings of numbers.
Unfortunately, this also considers the driver info to be similar to whatever card I had to look up. I'm sure it'll help, at the very least. And you can always try searching online for the info to compare against.
Good luck with it, and I hope your card gets working. I myself have a Vodoo 5 5500 from about 4 years ago, that still works halfway decently. I find drivers by hoe to be top quality. The 3dfx underground is an excellent resource for all sorts of vodoo tweaks, as well.
edit : Just tried the file dump myself, and nothing could read it. I don't have a printer hooked up, so I don't know if it would be actual info on the sheet or not, but you still might want to try. If you can't figure it out yourself, you can post what it says under the video section of the printout, and maybe a Lurker can.