GRex PCI + Voodoo 3 3000 16 MB + LAN + Sound

[lordspider]

I'm not talking out of my ass. I tested the whole set with AmigaOS 3.9 and CGX4 for your information. The system works perfectly and the Voodoo 3 driver has NO problems with my Blizzard PPC Rev 0 card. If there were any Voodoo related problems, the Amiga wouldn't even show the Early Startup Menu (I had only one rev 0 card with such problem, but the card was upgraded from BPPC 040 to BPPC 060).

So what you're writing is NOT true, at all not for every BPPC rev 0 card.

My description of the card is NOT incorrect and very misleading, as you may think. All I wrote is true.

The CGX Voodoo 3 driver recognizes the Voodoo card without any problems, the screenmodes can be set up and there's no graphics corruption.

All applications just WORK, you can play games such Wipeout or Heretic II, so I just don't know where did you find all those informations about Voodoo and BPPC rev 0 problems.

[lordspider]

@x56h34:

Hmm... I'm using flashupdate 2.2 and NOT the 1.3 (both can be found here: http://grex.amigaworld.de/index.php?lang=de&page=15)

There are also CGX 3, CGX 4 and Warp3D drivers I've installed to use my Voodoo 3 3000 card.

About the speed: I also had Mediator 1200 and it was SLOWER than G-Rex. Isn't it strange? According to you're post, my G-Rex should work slower ("crawling") than other solution, but the fact is it works faster. Why? Maybe because of the 2.2 flashupdate. And the card still has revision 0.

So, I have regular, speedy Grex compatibility with the 2.2 flashrom and a revision 0 BPPC card. My eBay description is TRUE, because the BPPC has the newest flahrom.

[lordspider]

@StormLord:

I used the flash ver 2.2 from http://grex.amigaworld.de/
Versions of my CGX files are:

cgx3drave.library   1.2   (10/12/01)
cgxsystem.library  42.7   (01/02/02)
cgxvideo.library   42.1   (02/10/00)
Voodoo3             4.3   (01/18/02)

And here are the 680x0 libraries versions:

68040.library      46.5   (10/19/99)
68040new.library   46.13  (10/05/01)
68040old.library   44.2   (07/13/99)
68060.library      46.15  (10/05/01)

First I've installed CGX 3 drivers, than I upgraded them to CGX 4 drivers.

My BPPC has revision 0 according to the boardtype tool (can be also found on http://grex.amigaworld.de/)

[lordspider]

@x56h34:

No, this doesn't offend me

I read posts in the G-Rex mailing list and there are some persons which have BPPC rev0 and working Voodoo 3 card. But there are also persons who have BPPC rev0 and Voodoo 3 doesn't work with their hardware.

No, I'm not a liar, just tell me how can I convience you that all I'm writing is true.

Believe me, I did google/yahoo groups search before I bought Grex and I was affraid if it will work with my card, but it works fine and fast, so I wrote it in description of my auction.

[lordspider]

@x56h34:

I forgot to mention that I'm using BPPCFix and BlizzKick, maybe it is something important, or maybe not.

I had many BPPC cards because I'm selling them on eBay. All of them were revision 0 cards, I never had the revison 2 card.
Since I have G-Rex I test every BPPC with it. Some of cards refuse to work due to old (pre-Grex) flash rom, but after update to the G-Rex 2.2 version everything run nice.

Maybe it depends on the G-Rex revision? I just don't know...

[lordspider]

@StormLord:

StormLord wrote:
@lordspider
Actually I though of a screenshot to prove that grex is working with rev0 :-)

Here they are:

[lordspider]

x56h34 wrote:
@lordspider:

I remebmer that originally Phase 5 released BPPC cards which they internally referred to as v1.1. These were the first cards released...buggy with BVision usage and Phase 5 offered an upgrade for free to v1.2, in order to fix the problems.

Remember, both v1.1 and v1.2 are only internal Phase 5 names...these are both reported as revision 0 by boardtype.

[...]

Now...it could be that v1.2 which Phase 5 calls internally (still reported as revision 0 by boardtype) is actually the missing link in our little dilema here, which may sometime work with Grex, or may even perfectly work with it.

It could be that DCE simply wanted to avoid overall confusion and they stated that revision 2 is needed.

It's a guess. Nothing more. :-)

Yes, this can be solution to our dilemma, but how to check this revisions??? Maybe cards with serial numbers above certain figure are revision 1.2?

[lordspider]

@doctorq:

I know G-Rex is not good solution for those who want to run OS4.

As you wrote, it is nice expansion for AmigaOS lower than OS4, and maybe for MorphOS in the future?

Yeah, programme to determine the exact revision of BPPC would be nice, but is there someone who can write it?

[lordspider]

How did you connected the PCI cards? I don't know if it may be important, but my G-Rex had LAN in first slot (closest to the BPPC), Terratec in 3 slot and Voodoo in 5 slot.

The Early Startup Menu and the BPPC menu are displayed through the Voodoo card without problems, even with I set "No 31KHz screen".

I've first installed CGX 3 from this archive:

http://grex.amigaworld.de/download.php?id=31

After it was working fine, I've upgraded it to the CGX 4 version using the second archive:

http://grex.amigaworld.de/download.php?id=32

and the CGX 4 CD-ROM.

As far as I can remeber installing CGX 4 without installing CGX 3 lead to displaying the boot logo forever.

My Voodoo3.info has following tooltypes:

BITMAPCACHE=YES
BOOTLOGO=YES
DRAGGING=NO
PASSTHROUGH=YES

And the CGX variables are set as follows:

56KHZAUDIO = 1
ALERTEMU = 1
CPUP2C = 0
FORCECHUNKY = 0
HIDE15BIT = 1
HIRESCRSR = 1
KEEPAMIGAVIDEO = 0
NOMOUSERATIO = 0
NOPASSTHROUGH = 1
PLANES2FAST = 1
SAVEMEM = 1
SUPERGELS = 1
SUPERLAYERS = 1
USESEMAPHORES = 1
WBPATSPEEDUP = 1

Versions of all my CGX libraries you can find in one of previous posts.

[lordspider]

AmiGR wrote:
Sound cards will not work in the third slot. Install any DMA-able cards in the first two slots (Sound or 100MBit ethernet or TV-Card), the Voodoo should not occupy a DMA slot, it does *NOT* support BusMastering.

But the Terratec 128 WORKS in the 3 slot! I wanted to use the LAN card and sound card in the 2 DMA slots, but the sound card freezed computer after a few seconds of playing sound, that's why I moved it to the 3 slot, where it works perfectly.

[lordspider]

@x56h34:

My G-Rex has also 2 DMA slots, but when I used the sound card in one of them, the computer freezed after a few seconds when I tried to play any sound.

After experimenting I found the combination 1 (LAN) - 3 (Sound) - 5 (Voodoo3) as the best one.

[lordspider]

x56h34 wrote:

I think that my rev. 0 card simply requires too much power in order to "trick" Grex into working. So far everyone that says that a particular rev. 0 card worked seems to be talking about a no-SCSI version. My BPPC is an 060/240/SCSI version, and I think that unless upgraded to rev. 2, its power management is simply not good enough for such a major attachment (an entire busboard).

I was using the G-Rex with BPPC 060/200/SCSI and it worked. The card had revision 0, but I never used the SCSI because there was no cable with the card.