Re: Ways to reduce the Noise of ISA Soundcards?

Posted on 2024-03-05, 15:43

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

When I first started recapping old electronics, I was using ultra low esr caps, the lowest you could buy. These tend to make zero difference in most digital electronics but there were two places where I did notice a difference. The biggest difference was in audio circuits. Not sure if that would …

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Re: Ways to reduce the Noise of ISA Soundcards?

Posted on 2024-03-05, 05:57

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I'd like to share for posterity that I literally just troubleshot a similar problem. My situation is a little different, though: I have an ESS1868f that I normally just use for MIDI (going out to a DreamBlaster over gameport), and an SB16 that is only used for OPL. I was having an issue when playing …

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Re: DreamBlaster X16 + X16GS Release

Posted on 2023-11-12, 19:04

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

This looks fantastic, although I do have a couple of questions. I already have an X2GS, with my main usage being the actual GS part. Would this be a huge upgrade? Is there maybe a comparison table of the features? Also, I have this idea of creating a hardware MIDI stack. Does the X16 support MIDI …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-04-28, 12:37

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Today I troubleshot a funny issue with my ISA sound cards. For context, I have a sound system with a full size mixer, into which the retro rig is hooked up through a sub mixer; I also have my more recent computer going in there via USB. When the cards were connected (an SB16 and an ESS), I was …

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Re: USB Mouse and Keyboard under DOS

Posted on 2022-01-24, 14:42

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I know this is not what you want to hear, but the only way to go is with PS2 devices. Even when you think USB mostly works, there will be cases when a game will not play ball with it: I used to have weird issues where pressing keys or even moving the mouse would cause the computer to freeze up, all …

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Re: My experience with a weird VPD SATA adapter

Posted on 2022-01-21, 09:42

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Fast-forward one month, during which I upgraded the PSU: I went with Seasonic after all, and chose the SS-300FS which has 28A 3.3v / 30A 5v. It also has the-5v line, which is a nice bonus for those elderly ISA boards. I did have to replace a couple of domed caps, but aside from that it looked good. …

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Re: My experience with a weird VPD SATA adapter

Posted on 2021-12-26, 16:37

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's probably either the JMB controller or the onboard regulators that might pull enough to bump your system's stability after all. I just noticed you're having ChengX caps on the controller. Not the brightest but will hold up rather good (I don't see them being in a very hot area either.) so you …

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Re: My experience with a weird VPD SATA adapter

Posted on 2021-12-26, 12:59

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

First off.... 256GB? lol Second - replace the PSU, and while at it, try and replace those two caps above the IDE connector. I have a feeling these might be underspec'd (chinese capacitors are something I take with extreme levels of salt.) and hence why the shutdowns. Wouldn't count on the potato …

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My experience with a weird VPD SATA adapter

Posted on 2021-12-26, 04:18

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hello, first off merry Christmas or whichever festivity your culture celebrates. I would like to share my experience with this weird IDE to SATA adapter: s-l1600.jpg Although the seller claims that the adapter uses a Jmicron chip, it actually employs an unheard of VPD Chips IC, with product code …

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Re: Weird problem with keyboard in System Shock 1 on Pentium MMX system.

Posted on 2021-07-10, 19:49

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Hi, I have problem with keyboard in System Shock 1 on my Socket 7 system with Pentium MMX 233 MHz. So when I press caps lock or other switch keys like num lock or scroll lock it freezes my keyboard, game is still running but keyboard isn't responding to any of my input. I already have ruled out …

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Re: UNISOUND - Universal ISA PnP Sound Card Driver for DOS v0.76b

Posted on 2021-07-07, 20:23

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

So, just to clear things up: the CT2230 is a non-PnP card (?) and the ES1868f is a PnP -card. You can configure the cards to reside nicely side-by-side; just re-set the BLASTER before re-running unisound. I have a CT2290 and the Yamaha Audacian (YMF718, PnP) so it is very similar to your setup. …

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Re: Sound Blaster 16 ct2230 works only for a few minutes

Posted on 2021-07-05, 20:47

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I would also like to ask a few pointers about emptying up solder from the eyelets, as I noticed I was experiencing a lot of issues in cleaning them up (using a combination of manual solder pump and braided wick, hence why I abused the rosin in the first place; in the end I resorted to methods that …

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Re: UNISOUND - Universal ISA PnP Sound Card Driver for DOS v0.76b

Posted on 2021-07-05, 19:34

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Thanks for the great program, it's working very well with my CT2230 and ES1868f. I do have one question: is it possible to use this driver to run them together (ESS just for MIDI and SB16 for all the rest)? I have tried a few things, but it looks like I'm getting resource conflicts (and the SB16 …

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Re: Sound Blaster 16 ct2230 works only for a few minutes

Posted on 2021-07-03, 21:40

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

the iron being basically blackened at that point (I was managing to only tin the very tip) In that state, you have to clean the tip.Trying to work with an iron in that state is plain torture, easily messes up things but rarely gets things done. Depending on the type of tip you have, there are two …

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Re: Sound Blaster 16 ct2230 works only for a few minutes

Posted on 2021-07-03, 10:58

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Sorry to hear about the troubles, but glad you got it working. Congrats! If any of the rest of the original caps act up in the future, well you've already got the replacements. If I could make a suggestion: put the rest all in one container (or ziplock bag, or whatever) and make a clear label of …

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Re: Sound Blaster 16 ct2230 works only for a few minutes

Posted on 2021-07-03, 01:37

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Welp, I should've quit while I was ahead. I managed to kill and revive the board twice; let me explain. While swapping out the op amp section of the caps, I did too much at once and I was getting no more sound; turns out that I simply forgot to add back a couple of caps, and all was good. Then I …

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Re: Sound Blaster 16 ct2230 works only for a few minutes

Posted on 2021-07-02, 17:13

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Folks, big news: the caps came in, and I was getting impatient from the desoldering gun not arriving, so I started work by hand. The first two removals were tragic, and I actually did some damage to the board's coating in the common ground area; fortunately, it was nothing that I couldn't fix using …

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Re: [SOLVED] PSA : using USB keyboard with BIOS PS/2 emulation routines does not always work well. I.E. in Jazz Jackrabb

Posted on 2021-07-02, 07:53

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by BeastOfSoda

in DOS

in DOS

Update: after some more extensive testing, I have found out that the USB keyboard is manifesting a similar problem to the OP, but only when the caps lock key is pressed (games stutter for a fraction of a second). Funny thing is, this also happens in Windows 98: if I move the mouse around and press …

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Re: Sound Blaster 16 ct2230 works only for a few minutes

Posted on 2021-06-28, 19:00

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Sorry for the double post, I am going to condense in layman's terms something else I've learned over the last couple of days. I have gone ahead and converted the TAN delta values to ESR, with the following results: 20210628_204644.jpg Although the values look strange, especially for the 1uf caps, …

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Re: Sound Blaster 16 ct2230 works only for a few minutes

Posted on 2021-06-28, 15:51

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by BeastOfSoda

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Sounds good. That image will be handy to others in the future. Nicely done. As far as getting a proper desolding station, that's up to you. But for a simple cap replacement job like this, typically I would hold onto the cap on its side of the board with needle-nose pliers, and on the other side add …

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