OK, so here's a question...

I have in front of my an S3 Trio3D/2X graphics card. What the hell kind 
of slot does that plug into??

I assumed it was AGP, but when I put it up against the motherboard, the 
key is in the wrong place.

So this card is neither PCI nor AGP, so... WHAT IS IT?? >_<

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Invisible wrote:
> OK, so here's a question...
> 
> I have in front of my an S3 Trio3D/2X graphics card. What the hell kind 
> of slot does that plug into??
> 
> I assumed it was AGP, but when I put it up against the motherboard, the 
> key is in the wrong place.
> 
> So this card is neither PCI nor AGP, so... WHAT IS IT?? >_<

AGP slots comes in several variants:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AGP_%26_AGP_Pro_Keying.svg

-- 
Tor Olav
http://subcube.com

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Tor Olav Kristensen wrote:
> Invisible wrote:
>> So this card is neither PCI nor AGP, so... WHAT IS IT?? >_<
> 
> AGP slots comes in several variants:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AGP_%26_AGP_Pro_Keying.svg

I'm going to go out on a limb and hypothesize that I have a 3.3V card 
and it won't fit in a 1.5V slot... From these diagrams, that appears to 
be the case. (There's another key not shown, but the board has no 
contacts on it, and the slot appears to be mechanical only.)

Either way, this doesn't help me... *sigh*

But hey, I won't let that dampen my mood. ;-)

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Le 22.04.2009 11:28, Invisible nous fit lire :
> Tor Olav Kristensen wrote:
>> Invisible wrote:
>>> So this card is neither PCI nor AGP, so... WHAT IS IT?? >_<
>>
>> AGP slots comes in several variants:
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AGP_%26_AGP_Pro_Keying.svg
> 
> I'm going to go out on a limb and hypothesize that I have a 3.3V card
> and it won't fit in a 1.5V slot... From these diagrams, that appears to
> be the case. (There's another key not shown, but the board has no
> contacts on it, and the slot appears to be mechanical only.)
> 
> Either way, this doesn't help me... *sigh*

The AGP kind is in the name of your card S3 Trio3D/*2X*, the card as a x2 AGP port.
Nowadays port (well, the latest before PCI-E) was AGP x4/x8
They are not compatible.
AGP x2 use 3.3V signaling. You need a motherboard with AGP x2... very old too.
your card might work with AGPx1 motherboard too.

The otherkey is just the fitting AGP-length connector, not all lines are used by your
card. It also avoid inserting in PCI slot (electrical damage expected).
Later, an additional key was made to lock the card in the slot, but it was not
mandatory
for the first AGP.

Another sad news expect you: the video connector... modern LCD have no more VGA
connector!
(and finding a good CRT is an impossible mission nowaday)

Last note for the card:
It's not even worth the postal stamp

http://www.priceminister.com/offer/buy/5367905/S3-Trio-3D-2X-4-Mo-AGP-2-x-Carte-graphique.html

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Invisible wrote:

> I have in front of my an S3 Trio3D/2X graphics card.

Actually, I have three of them. And you know what? They're all slightly 
different...

If I compare any pair of boards, there is a difference. So it's not like 
one board is different to the other two, they're ALL different!

- Boards B and C have two RAM chips on them. Board A has bays for two 
chips, but only one is present. (All three boards are spec'd as "4 MB".)

- Board B has a different brand of RAM chip. (But *all* the boards have 
different *models* of RAM chip.)

- Boards A and C have pins on the AGP connector which aren't connected 
to anything. But on board B, those pins are physically missing rather 
than just unconnected.

- Board B has less writing printed on it between the two RAM chips. The 
actual components mounted there appear identical, but just fewer markings.

- Each board has some kind of 3-pin component with what looks like a 
heat sink soldered to a very large metal pad on the board. Oddly, only 
two of the three pins are connected to anything; the middle pin is cut 
off at the base. On boards A and C, there are three metal pads on the 
board that end in rounded tips, and the middle one appears to be a 
continuation of the large pad the heat sink is soldered to. But on board 
B, there is a gap between the pads the pins are soldered to and the 
circles at the end, and there is no middle pad (but the circle is still 
there).

- Some of the code numbers on both the S3 chip and the Holtek chip are 
different on each board, while others are identical. (I'm guessing these 
are serial numbers, or at least revision numbers.)

- Hello, I didn't notice this: Board B says "SP368G REV:2" on it, while 
the other two boards say "SP368G REV:3" on them.

So there we are. *Clearly* I have too much free time...

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Le_Forgeron wrote:

>> I'm going to go out on a limb and hypothesize that I have a 3.3V card
>> and it won't fit in a 1.5V slot... From these diagrams, that appears to
>> be the case. (There's another key not shown, but the board has no
>> contacts on it, and the slot appears to be mechanical only.)
>>
>> Either way, this doesn't help me... *sigh*
> 
> The AGP kind is in the name of your card S3 Trio3D/*2X*, the card as a x2 AGP port.

Ah, is *that* what that means? I stupidly assumed it ment twice the 3D 
power or something daft like that.

> Nowadays port (well, the latest before PCI-E) was AGP x4/x8
> They are not compatible.
> AGP x2 use 3.3V signaling. You need a motherboard with AGP x2... very old too.
> your card might work with AGPx1 motherboard too.

Heh. Well, these are old, old cards. I decided to keep them as spares, 
but I guess there's pretty useless in that capacity now.

> Another sad news expect you: the video connector... modern LCD have no more VGA
connector!
> (and finding a good CRT is an impossible mission nowaday)

Ah, but they all seem to come with DVI-to-VGA converters. ;-)

> Last note for the card:
> It's not even worth the postal stamp
> 
>
http://www.priceminister.com/offer/buy/5367905/S3-Trio-3D-2X-4-Mo-AGP-2-x-Carte-graphique.html

How interesting... both of those photos look significantly different to 
the product I have here.

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> I'm going to go out on a limb and hypothesize that I have a 3.3V card 
> and it won't fit in a 1.5V slot... From these diagrams, that appears to 
> be the case. (There's another key not shown, but the board has no 
> contacts on it, and the slot appears to be mechanical only.)

A photo would help.  If it's really old it might be ISA :-)

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Invisible wrote:

> - Some of the code numbers on both the S3 chip and the Holtek chip are 
> different on each board, while others are identical. (I'm guessing these 
> are serial numbers, or at least revision numbers.)

The Holtek chips say "HT27C512-70" followed by a number that's unique to 
each chip. Apparently this part number is a "OTP CMOS 64K x 8-Bit EPROM".

http://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/64437/HOLTEK/HT27C512.html

"The HT27C512 chip family is a low-power, 512K bit, +5V electrically 
one-time programmable (OTP) read-only memories (EPROM)."

Um, wouldn't that make it a PROM rather than an EPROM? The E is for 
*erasible*. :-P

...so I'm guessing this is the card's firmware then?

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Invisible wrote:

> - Board B has a different brand of RAM chip. (But *all* the boards have 
> different *models* of RAM chip.)

Wrong.

Board A has EliteMT, board B has ACTRAM, and board C has eFox.

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scott wrote:

> A photo would help.  If it's really old it might be ISA :-)

LOL! No... ISA is much larger than this. It's the exact same physical 
dimensions as the AGP slot on the motherboard, just with the key slot in 
a different position.

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