I just finished putting together a new computer. Its a K6-2 400 with a voodoo 3 3000 video card. When I tried to start it for the first time, i put in the floppy boot disk that came with windows and started it up, but nothing happened. Everything seems to be plugged in correctly, the power light went on, i heard the hard drive start spinning, all the fans were going, the monitor was on, but nothing came on the screen. I turned it on and off many times, and several times i got a message that said something like voodoo 3 bios with some other info about the video card underneath with a flashing cursor; but i couldnt do anything. I thought i was supposed to get the message that says which key to press to get into the bios or the windows installation menu, but most of the time i get absolutely nothing. Its an AGP video card so i thought maybe there might be some kind of conflict with that. Also, i noticed the light on the floppy drive never comes on at all. So, one of my main questions is, if the floppy drive wasnt working should i still see something come up on the screen when i start it?? What should i do to fix this? Would it make a difference if i tried a PCI video card??

Thank you VERY much for any help you could provide!!!

You should be getting some sort of video when you boot up. Make sure everything is plugged in correctly. also, go to the mobo's website and download an IRQ routing and AGP patch, then go to something like 3dfiles.com and download the latest drivers for your 3dfx chipset on the Voodoo.
And you might want to try another card first.
Good luck...
IXAGR8

When you boot and get the video BIOS screen but nothing else, it generally means that something isn't connected correctly. I would unplug everything (hard drives and floppy drives) and take out all cards but the video. If you still can't past the video BIOS screen, try another video card.

Let us know what happens.

Also depending on the motherboard, make sure your SDRAM setting on the board and in the BIOS are set correctly. For instance, you can't run 60ns SDRAM at Turbo speeds and 100 MHz. You'll need to adjust them accordingly. Check you motherboard documentation.

Double check all you connections and jumpers (if applicable). I can't remember how many times I've set jumpers incorrectly. One big trouble area I've seen are IDE drive cables connected incorrectly. Make sure all PIN 1's are connected and aligned properly.

If you suspect the Video card, see if you can enable an IRQ for Video. Most video manufacturers will tell you to try this first. Otherwise do as Larry suggests.

I put in a different video card, an old PCI one. It worked perfectly. I installed windows and then tried to update to the voodoo card and it still wont work. Also, the cdrom door seems to fly open at random sometimes and i cant get it to work right.

Well, considering all the trouble, I lean towards a faulty mainboard. The IDE controller and AGP controller could be bad, which would account for both problems.

Of course, you could have a bad CD-ROM and a bad video card too... Are either testable elsewhere?

I tried a different cdrom and it works fine so its not the motherboard. As for the video card, I read the instructions from the motherboard and to get AGP to work you need to install some files and do a bunch of other crap before AGP will work. Im going to take it to a repair shop, hopefully they can figure out the problem with the cdrom.

Well, if you hooked up another drive and it worked, you probably just have a bad drive. For the most part CD drives are throw aways, not repair items. Unless it is something really simple, they just aren't worth the time it takes to fix them.

I am very curious about all the instructions you mentioned to get AGP working with your machine. What brand / model of mainboard is it?

OK, here we go:

In response to your question, its a FIC pa2013 i believe.

Anyhow, i took it to a repair shop and they repair guy said he had the same motherboard in his computer, so i assume he knows what hes doing. He told me just to send both parts back, and they seemed to be defective. He got an AGP card to work in it, though not a voodoo 3.

I am sendin the voodoo 3 back.

Its too late to send back the cdrom though. I called tech support (it was Creative brand)and they were real assholes. I just wanted an address to send it back to to get it fixed. They wanted to troubleshoot everything to make sure it was really defective. The moron kept telling me i need to turn on the computer to check something, after i told him i couldnt turn on my computer, we argued until i decided to hang up on him. So like you said, i will probably just end up throwing it away.

Well, I agree with the repair guy - the FIC boards I have worked with haven't had any trouble with AGP cards.

As for the CD folks - I'm sorry to hear that - I hate hearing about rude tech people. It gives us all a bad name.

i went and got a new cdrom and a voodoo 3 2000 pci and it all works great!