MEB
Mon May 26 10:50:21 PDT 2008
Out of curiosity, why three sound cards?
The AWE32 uses more resources [IRQ and physical addresses] than the base
16bit cards do. Its also a bit more particular with "sharing" those
resources even when re-configured to supposed free or non-conflicting
resources.. Its use of time slices and memory allocation is also more
restrictive and demanding. Its related, in part, to 32bit verses 16bit
issues and how Windows assigns priority. If you checked the NET you have
found that the AWE32 does and did cause issues in certain systems and
configurations, and specific versions [country specific or other] each had
their own quirks.. With your three card configuration, you have compounded
all the underlying issues that might be involved.
Its also possible that the physical drivers are causing actual memory
assignment conflicts [memory being used beyond the LINK/stub [that's not the
actual terms, but might be understood more easily] base addresses that are
shown in the configuration], over-writing the others requests. Windows 9X
likes to run certain activities in certain areas of memory, when two or more
are in conflict, one gets "lost" or held in waiting, or just not run if it
can't be re-assigned elsewhere.
But beyond that, it isn't all that unusual to find adapters [and other
devices] that will not work together, be it video, network, scanners, or
other. You MIGHT be able to get the issues resolved by complete MANUAL
configuration of the slots in the BIOS [no plug and pray, no PnP assigned
addressing or OS] AND by manually configuring EACH card and adapter BY SLOT
within Device Manager, but a single crash [BIOS or system], and you would
likely be back to manual reconfiguration all over again.
Windows doesn't like it when it doesn't have control,, it "usually" retains
the information for one or two manually set cards [but not always], but when
everything is manually setup, it gets confused. And the first time the Find
New Hardware is run [by you or the system], its back to conflicts and things
that don't work as Windows has no idea how to configure the system, and much
of its *virtual* aspects have been essentially broken.
Don't take this wrong, you could or can, perhaps, get this to work, but
long term stability is questionable.
--
MEB
http://peoplescounsel.orgfree.com
--
_________
"rpgs rock dvds" <rpgsrockdvds@hotmail.co.uk> wrote in message
news:04456e1d-6dbb-49c6-9910-c523e9d5b24d@34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
On 26 May, 11:19, rpgs rock dvds <rpgsrockd...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
> On 25 May, 11:36, rpgs rock dvds <rpgsrockd...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Inside Win98SE's "pure DOS", when I run the DOS utility called
> > "nvram120.exe", I see the subject line error on screen, and then I
> > have to reboot. (I wanted to run this utility to see if I could see
> > if a particular ISA card was installed correctly.)
>
> > My mobo is Supermicro P6SBU revision 1.01, and I have flashed the BIOS
> > to revision 3.1 (latest). The BIOS is called American Megatrends
> > AMIBIOS setup, version 2.5 (c) 1997.
>
> > When I was setting up the mobo (yesterday), I was encountering the
> > following situations:
>
> > 1) After installing my PCI cards (one at a time), I noticed that the
> > BIOS appeared to be "forgetting" some of these cards in the POST
> > device listing section. (In other words, some cards were being
> > ommitted from the device listing on reboot.)
>
> > 2) I also noticed that the "Checking NVRAM..." BIOS POST message kept
> > saying "...Update OK!", even though between some reboots I had
> > installed no additional hardware.
>
> > 3) I also noticed that sometimes a PCI card would be listed as
> > "Unknown Device", but if I moved the card to a different slot, it
> > would then be correctly identified as (for instance) "Multimedia
> > Device".
>
> > 4) I have also encountered a BSOD when I installed a Diamond 3dfx
> > card in one particular PCI slot, but then this BSOD would not occur if
> > I moved the card to a different slot. (Also, this "bad slot" in
> > question didn't seem to be a bad slot, as I tested it with another PCI
> > card and it seemed ok.)
>
> > To address some of the issues above, in Windows98SE I decided to
> > Disable NVRAM/ESCD updates inside Plug and Play BIOS properties inside
> > System/Device Manager. This appeared to fix the perpetual Checking
> > NVRAM...Update OK! message on every reboot, and also appeared to fix
> > one or two other resource conflict problems, but not the subject line
> > problem.
>
> > Regarding the BIOS (as described at the top of this message), I've
> > never seen so many options you can adjust. I'm sure somewhere buried
> > in these options is a "fix" for every problem I'm likely to stumble in
> > to, but it's a technical minefield, because I've never used this mobo
> > before. I tried loading in the BIOS Fail-Safe options to try and fix
> > the subject line problem, but that didn't work.
>
> > ATM, I have this hardware (which all seems to work) -
>
> > 3 ISA slots = all completely empty now. There *was* a legacy SB16
> > which worked perfectly, but I removed it to test a legacy Gravis
> > UltraSound which didn't work, and so it was removed as well.
>
> > AGP slot = Matrox graphics card G450
>
> > PCI slot 1 (a shared slot with an ISA slot) = empty. (This seemed to
> > be a bit of a problematic slot, so I've left it empty for now.)
>
> > PCI slot 2 = 3dfx card. Was causing BSOD on install, but now seems
> > fine.
>
> > PCI slot 3 = Matrox graphics card G200 (for connecting to above 3dfx
> > card). Works fine within a "Win98SE hardware configuration profile"
> > so that I can toggle between this PCI graphics card, and the AGP
> > graphics card listed above.
>
> > PCI slot 4 = Creative PCIAudio ES1371 sound card. Works fine.
>
> > Phew, that's it I think. Sorry for the long post! Thanks for any
> > suggestions at all. Best regards, Robert.
>
> Thanks a lot Brian, Philo, MEB and Franc for your helpful comments!
>
> To summarise, ATM I have removed some cards leaving this config:
>
> All 3 ISA slots filled with non-PnP sound cards.
> PCI Slot #2 = graphics card.
> AGP = graphics card.
>
> I'm having no probs at all with the two graphics cards, no problems
> with the BIOS, no Win98 problems either. I can now run nvram120.exe
> if I don't use emm386. However, it doesn't provide any information
> about the 3 non-PnP ISA sound cards. This may be normal, I'm not
> sure.
>
> Although I am getting no errors with any of the 3 non-PnP sound cards,
> when I added in the 3rd card (an AWE32), it now makes the 1st card
> (Roland SCC-1) either silent or occasionally it outputs very incorrect
> sounds.
>
> Regarding this soundcard problem, I think I might post this on a
> soundcard google groups site, but in case anyone is interested, the
> problem is summarised below -
>
> Roland SCC-1 ~ IRQ=3, I/O=330. Works fine if AWE32 is not present,
> otherwise is silent.
>
> GUS Classic ~ IRQ=7 and also 7 for SB emulation (which I don't use),
> I/O=240, DMA=3 (playback) and 3 (recording). Usually works fine with
> all other soundcards, very occasionally goes silent.
>
> Creative AWE32 ~ IRQ=5, I/O=220 and 300 (disabled MSEL jumper to avoid
> 330 which would clash with Roland SCC-1), 620 (awe effects), DMA=1 and
> 5. I also disabled the joystick and MPU-401 jumpers hoping that would
> help matters.) Works fine with all other soundcards.
>
> Problem summary = Roland SCC-1 does not cause any errors as such -
> it's just silent now the AWE32 is in place.
>
> Thanks again, Best regards, Robert.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Just to update the ISA sound card situation:
If I remove the AWE32, and replace it with a legacy SB16, *everything*
works. (ie, I get the Roland SCC-1 working fine, and the SB16 also
works fine too. Plus the GUS works as well!)
The legacy SB16 has the MSEL jumper set to open which means the midi
address = 300 and not 330. The SB Diagnose utility accepts this value
OK no problems.
However, if I insert the AWE32 card back in the PC (with the MSEL
jumper also set to open, which means the midi address is 300 and not
330), and then run the Diagnose utility, Diagnose reports a problem
and will not accept 300 as a valid midi address. Strangely it accepts
330, even though the MSEL midi jumper is set to open which is 300.
Regards, Robert.