BIOS & Utilities
Reference Voodoo Banshee BIOS
This is the last reference BIOS series from 3dfx for the Voodoo Banshee. All files are from the same v1.00.10 core dated 02/09/1999. There are three series depending on whether the board supports TV-Out. There are specific AGP and PCI versions with either SGRAM or SDRAM support. This BIOS should be more compatible with the latest reference driver sets from 3dfx. Make sure you select the appropriate version for your card!
The default clock speeds are 100MHz for the graphics core and 110MHz for memory. Additionally, 3dfx specified more conservative memory timings for this release. This should allow you to overclock easier if you wish to. Note, however, that the specified SDRAM/ SGRAM modules at this stage were 8ns. If your board has slower 10ns modules, it should still work OK. If instability results, use BIOSUpdate to reduce PLLCtrl2 to 00002805 (100MHz).
I recommend that you make a boot floppy containing the flash utilities and the correct BIOS to be flashed as well as the TSR BIOS. Each TSR archive contains two files which correspond with SDRAM or SGRAM boards. If you damage your BIOS or flash incorrect values, etc, it's simply a matter or running the TSR from the command line to recover your Banshee. You can then proceed to flash correctly. I also recommend disabling video BIOS shadow and video BIOS cacheable from your system BIOS prior to flashing.
| These files can render your board inoperable. I have relented & made these files available due to the many requests. I will not be responsible for any errors/damage that arises from incorrect use! Conversely, it is possible to "resurrect" a seemingly dead board... You need to use flash.exe (v1.04) not userflsh.exe (v1.02) to flash a BIOS different to that of your manufacturer. |
Highly NOT recommended!
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3dfx Flash EEPROM Utilities - Updated The zip file includes readme.txt, flash104.exe (1.04), flash214.exe (2.14), userflsh.exe (1.02), userflash.txt and dos4gw.exe. Flash util v2.14 is newer and supports all Voodoo Banshee/Velocity/3/4/5 graphics boards. The userflsh utility is similar to flash utility but is intended for end-users to update their BIOS. The different between userflsh and flash is that userflsh will only update new BIOS code while preserving existing DramInit0 & DramInit1 memory timing as well as memory clock. The subsystem vendor ID on the VGA graphics card needs to match the subsystem vendor ID in the BIOS rom image before userflsh will update the new BIOS image. Flash will update with no restrictions... |
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3dfx BIOS Updater The BIOS Update utility allows a .ROM to be loaded and settings adjusted. All video mode, memory, sub-system vendor/device and boot up messages can be altered with the utility. Changes are saved to a .ROM file. Needless to say, you can seriously screw up here if you don't know what you're doing... Alternatively, Creative 3D Blaster users (and others) who wish to try this BIOS may find it solves some of their driver problems... I suggest copying the details of the existing Creative BIOS, ie sub vendor id, device id, and all the memory timings & applying them to this core. Then proceed with flashing. |
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| Standard BIOS Files | ||||
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| BIOS with NTSC TV-Out Support | ||||
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| BIOS with PAL TV-Out Support | ||||
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| 3dfx Voodoo Banshee & Voodoo Banshee2 Data Manuals | ||
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| 3dfx Voodoo3 Data Manuals | ||
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| 3dfx Voodoo Graphics, Voodoo Rush & Voodoo2 Data Manuals | ||
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