Voodoo3 3500TV FAQ
Updated 03/02/00

This page provides general Voodoo3 3500TV support information.

  1. What is the Voodoo3 3500 TV? What features does it have?
  2. What are the system requirements for the 3500 TV to function?
  3. What operating systems are supported by the Voodoo3 3500 TV?
  4. Will the Voodoo3 3500TV function normally under Windows NT?
  5. What is the recommended processor speed to capture video?
  6. What type of games can I play on the Voodoo3 3500 TV?
  7. After installing the 3500 TV, I get poor performance in games, and/or the Visual Reality software does not recognize that there is a 3dfx product installed in the system.
  8. I am not hearing any audio from their 3500 TV when using the TV or video capture applications.  
  9. I am not able to run the TV application provided with the 3500 TV. I get an error that says "The preview window is not available" when trying to launch the application. Upon closing that window, I get a second error that says "The overlay surface is not available at this time".
  10. My TV and monitor are garbled simultaneously when using the TV Output feature.
  11. Where is the Ulead serial number for registration?
  12. How do I enable the TV Out feature on the Voodoo3 3500 TV adapter so I can see what is on the monitor on the TV?
  13. I installed the Voodoo3 3500 TV and now online gaming is slow and choppy.
  14. After installing the Voodoo3 3500 TV I cannot use suspend mode.

 


  1. What is the Voodoo3 3500 TV? What features does it have?

    The Voodoo3 3500 TV is a Voodoo3 adapter that is clocked at 183 MHz and has a TV Tuner as well as an FM tuner on it. The 3500TV only comes in AGP format at this time. It comes with the Visual Reality software and is capable of doing video capture up to 320x240 resolutions. (Note: The European version of the 3500TV does not have the FM Tuner on it.)

  2. What are the system requirements for the 3500 TV to function? 

    The minimum system requirements for the 3500 TV to function is an IBM PC or 100% compatible, a 266 MHz or higher processor, AGP 1.0 or higher expansion slot, CDROM, Windows 95 or Windows 98, and 16 MB of RAM.

  3. What operating systems are supported by the Voodoo3 3500 TV?

    The operating systems that are supported are Microsoft's Windows 95 and Windows 98.

  4. Will the Voodoo3 3500 TV function normally under Windows NT?

    The Voodoo3 3500 TV is only supported under Windows 95 and Windows 98. You can, however use the 2000/3000 drivers and get the adapter to function under Windows NT, but you will not have any of the features of the 3500 TV. Only the display to the monitor will function under this operating system.

  5. What is the recommended processor speed to capture video?

    The recommended processor speed to do video capture is a 500MHz or better CPU.

  6. What type of games can I play on the Voodoo3-3500TV? 

    You can play any game that is designed for DirectX, Glide or OpenGL.

  7. After installing the 3500 TV, I get poor performance in games, and/or the Visual Reality software does not recognize that there is a 3dfx product installed in the system.  

    This is most often due to the presence of software from previous 3dfx products. If the previous 3dfx product is a Voodoo2-based adapter, in many cases it is sufficient to download and install the delv.inf file from 3dfx.com which removes registry entries for the Voodoo Graphics/Voodoo2 series cards. If the previous display adapter was a Voodoo3 based card, then a complete clean-out of 3dfx items from the system is required. This involves removing all references to "3dfx", "voodoo" and "glide" from the Windows Registry as well as removing files matching the search string, "3dfx*.*,voodoo*.*,glide*.*" from the hard drive. Once the cleaning of the system is complete, the drivers and software for the 3500 TV can be safely reinstalled.

  8. I am not hearing any audio from their 3500 TV when using the TV or video capture applications.

    To correct this issue, make sure the audio cable from the CDROM is plugged into the audio in port on the 3500 TV. Once that is done, plug the audio cable from the 3500 TV into the sound adapter where the CDROM was plugged into originally. Once this is done, go into the Visual Reality menu and make sure the audio source is set to the CDROM.

  9. I am not able to run the TV application provided with the 3500 TV. I get an error that says "The preview window is not available" when trying to launch the application. Upon closing that window, I get a second error that says "The overlay surface is not available at this time".  

    The first thing to check is the color depth settings. The display needs to be set to 16-Bit High Color. If this does not correct the issue, the next thing to try is the posted web patch for the 3500 TV which updates the drivers. If that does not work, there may be a lack of support files for WebTV. If this is Win98, you simply need to install WebTV. If this is Win95, you need to update their OS with the latest service packs and updates from Microsoft's website. Then do a clean install of the video drivers.

  10. My TV and monitor are garbled simultaneously when using the TV Output feature.  

    The way to correct this is open the TV application, go into the Video Standard tab, switch the standard setting to PAL, apply the change, set it back to NTSC and apply the setting.

  11. Where is the Ulead serial number for registration?

    The long barcode number on the back of the display adapter is the serial number for the Ulead software.

  12. How do I enable the TV Out feature on the Voodoo3-3500TV adapter so I can see what is on the monitor on the TV?

    To enable the TV Out function of the 3500TV, go into the display properties, click on the settings tab, click on the advanced button, and then click on the 3dfx TV Tab. In the 3dfx TV Tab, click on the enable TV Out functions. Please make sure that you have the cable already connected to the TV and to the POD before enabling the TV Out.

13. I installed the Voodoo3 3500 and now online gaming is slow and choppy.

This is a known issue with IE5 and/or WebTV. Here is the Microsoft knowledge base document URL concerning the issue: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q230/2/43.asp

The document lists a registry fix, or you can go back to IE4, or uninstall WebTV (the less desirable fix, this will disable your TV tuner). Recently, the newest IE5 combined with Windows 98 service pack 1 has also been reported as a fix.

Microsoft corrects this issue with Windows 98SE as well, but here is the best way to fix it (so far) without upgrading to 98SE (or using the newest version of IE5 and W98 SP1). After you've edited the registry, change the two keys back to the way they are supposed to be, and extract the key to your desktop. Now instead of having to constantly edit the registry every time you reboot, you can just double-click on the key and merge it back into the registry at will.

This is what the two keys SHOULD look like when you're done changing them (below). Choose "registry," "export registry file." In the "export range", choose "selected branch." Name the file whatever you want and save it to your desktop.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock\Autodial] "AutodialDllName32"="wininet.dll" "AutodialFcnName32"="InternetAutodialCallback"

14. After installing the Voodoo3 3500 TV I cannot use suspend mode.

This is apparently a driver issue with the V3 3500 3l2c capturing driver. This is currently being worked on in-house.

 

 
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