Upgrading From 3dfx to nVidia

Video card upgrades can be a very difficult chore. With EVGA.com's advances in installation and driver management technology (EVGA.com's ADM Software) this is made much, much easier. However, some older video cards have drivers and settings that are so invasive that almost nothing that can be done programatically can get all of their settings removed.

In particular, the cards from 3dfx (the Voodoo and Banshee series) are very difficult to overcome. And, with so many people choosing a new nVidia based card from EVGA.com to replace these old 3dfx cards, we felt that it would be helpful to explain some of the problems that you might encounter and their solutions.

Some of the most common errors when upgrading from a 3dfx card to a new nVidia based card from EVGA.com are black screens when games start, DLL errors, messages that say a 3D accelerator cannot be found, etc. But, before you think that your new video card is the problem, read on.

NOTE: This information only applies to Windows 95/98/ME

If you did not specifically uninstall the older 3dfx drivers and support softwre, then there is a good chance that they are still around in your registry and system folders causing problems for you and your new card.

There are several ways to deal with this. The most sure-fire way is to do a COMPLETE re-installation of Windows (this includes re-formatting the hard drive and re-installing). This isn't always the most preferred way in terms of time and data loss, but it is the most problem free method. Because of how major of a step this is, it is usually relegated to the choice of last resort.

What follows is your second option. This can get a little tricky, especially if you aren't very familiar with Windows and its Registry. If that's the case, you may want to seek some outside help from a friend, or technician that has a bit more understanding.

The first step is to install your current display adapter as a Standard Display Adapter (VGA). This can be accomplished either through the Device Manager or the Display Control Panel. You will find the driver listed under the Standard Devices section at the top of the driver manufacturer list.

Then, boot into Safe Mode. From here, you will want to go to your Add/Remove Programs Control Panel. Look for any entries with 3dfx in their title (e.g. 3dfx Tools) and remove them. If a re-boot is required, then please make sure to boot back into Safe Mode.

Then, look in the Device Manager under Display Adapters. If there are any 3dfx drivers listed there, remove them. Again, if a reboot is required, then please boot back to Safe Mode.

Now comes the tricky part. The actual editing of the Windows Registry. For this we will assume that you are using the Windows RegEdit utility. To run RegEdit, just go to your Start Button and choose the Run command. Enter "regedit" and press ENTER.

You will first want to go to the HKLM\Hardware\Enum\PCI section and look for any 3dfx devices there. If you find any there then you will want to remove their keys.

Next, go to the HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Class\Display section and look for any display devices that are 3dfx. If you find any there you will want to remove their keys as well.

Then, do a general search of the registry for the words "Voodoo", "3dfx", and "Glide" and remove all references to them in the Registry.

Additionally, you will want to make sure that you remove the "3dfx tools" key from the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run section as well.

After this, all you need to do is to remove the actual driver files. Before you start looking, make sure to allow your explorer to "Show all files" and disable "Hide file extensionf for known file types".

Then, search your hard drive for 3dfx*.*, Glide*.*, and Voodoo*.* and delete any files found. They will mostly reside in the \windows, \windows\system, \windows\inf, \windows\inf\other, and \windows\help directories. In addition, delete any references found in the \program files folder.

After all of this is done, you can re-boot into normal Windows and install our drivers as normal. This should take care of any problems that you might face from older 3dfx drivers.

We would like to acknowledge inspiration for this article from the similar one found on Guru3D at http://www.guru3d.com/tech/voodoo-to-nvidia/index1.shtml