Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Tue, 4 Jul 2006, Samual Acorn wrote:

> ....as far as AWE32 problems go i cant help you anymore... ive taken
> the AWE out of my system and put the SB16 back in.... why? for some
> odd reason that awe card gives my computer a serious case of the
> hiccups (spontaneous reboots) and random problems with the second ide
> controller not liking certain cdrom drives.... my gut thinks that
> because there is no jumper to disable the panasonic/mitsumi/sony cdrom
> connectors (like there is on the sb16) that thats where my secondary
> ide weirdnesses are coming from (if i enable, say, the panasonic
> interface on the sb16 card im using now the second ide quits working
> all together or works -very- strangely)... for all i know the awe
> might have all 3 (sony mitsumi and panasonic) enabled with no way of
> disabling them...

I was able to disable the onboard controllers in DOS using CTCU/CTCM.
isapnp should be able to do something similar.

> as far as the random reboots... well... im not sure if its the
> physical damage the card endured in the shop i bought it at (none of
> the traces look broken but that doesnt rule out any ESD damage) or
> again.. an unseen conflict with the second ide...
>
> but with the awe i cant get my system to run for more than 2 days (and
> thats pushing it) and im tired of seeing fsck fix my harddrives (who
> knows what data im loosing) but the sb16 will let me run this system
> for months on end (or until the power company hiccups)

I never heard of such a problem with sound cards before.  Interesting.

> and since 99.9% of what i listen to goes to the DAC anyway
> (ogg/mp3/xm/it/s3m/mod) and with timidity installed (using the same
> soundfont i was loading into the awe) i dont need the awe....

Timidity does sound much better than awe.  How did you load an .sf2 or 
.sbk sound font for timidity, which Ron set up with .pat files?

Could I substitute some larger .pat files for the small ones in GUS2 
(violin, for instance), taking them from other sources?

> interesting to note tho... without the awe the only midi device i have
> to choose from when using '-e' with playmidi is the external port ;)
You probably did not insmod opl3.

> ... might want to hunt down some old hardware jumpered sb16 cards...
> might make life a little easier... the cards built in volume slider
> comes in quite handy at times too... (its where the line out jack is
> on awe cards)

I have several of those (CT1740?), also some SBPRO (CT1600).  I have at 
least 10 SB16 cards in case you ever need one.  2940 2960 4170 4180...
The IDE controllers are not a problem if I boot from DOS after disabling 
the controllers with CTCU.  I might switch to a 1740 and timidity to use 
the vol control, thanks for the idea.

> also interesting to note; with the sb16 i dont hear the noise of the
> data flowing over the network like i could with the awe... (conflict?
> card damage? at this point i dont care anymore... i dont have to hear
> it)

I don't think I heard this noise.

> --sam

Sindi