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Gravis Ultrasound Classic is acting weird.

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First post, by Paddan1000

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My Gravis Ultrasound Classic suddenly turned completely silent, but otherwise did not report any errors. Both MIDI and digital audio was absent. I found out that I could get the card to play sounds again by adding the switch -eo (enable output) after ULTRINIT.EXE in AUTOEXEC.BAT, which I didn't have to do before. Now the card appears to work just like before, except that the music from "Epic Pinball" plays some notes off key.

This isn't a huge problem right now since the card still plays sounds, but I'm worried that the card is somehow damaged and that it will soon develop other issues.

Does anyone know about this problem and if it's a result of the card being damaged, if it's because of a conflict or if it's because I've changed something in some config file?

Reply 1 of 7, by Paddan1000

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Here is a recording of my Gravis Ultrasound playing the intro music from Epic Pinball. Weird beeps are heard at 0:08 and 0:16 in the Mp3.

I would like to know what is the cause of these beeps and why they are not present in other games and demos with tracker- or MIDI-based music.

It also seems that I need to run the executable ULTRAMIX.EXE to get the card working. It's like the sound volume of the card is set to zero as standard and that this software mixer is needed to set an audible volume. This is something I never had to do before, but the card always worked directly at start-up.

I've tried several different ports, IRQs and DMAs and I've checked all jumper settings and polished the contact fingers of the card. Nothing makes a difference.

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  • Filename
    epicpin.mp3
    File size
    582.18 KiB
    Downloads
    164 downloads
    File comment
    Epic Pinball intro music played by a broken Gravis Ultrasound.
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 2 of 7, by jaqie

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It's possible your epic pinball or even your drivers or operating system itself has a corrupt file somewhere. That would be my very first thought with this array of symptoms.

Reply 3 of 7, by 5u3

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If nothing else worked so far, you could try to remove and re-seat the GF1 chip in its socket. This has helped when one of my GUS cards was acting weirdly. Be very careful though, as the plastic socket is brittle and breaks easily, especially if you don't have the right tool available to pull the chip out of the socket.

Reply 4 of 7, by Paddan1000

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You were right, Jaqie. Re-installing Epic Pinball fixed the beeps in the intro music and replacing the ULTRINIT.EXE file fixed the problem with the card being silent.

I'm glad that the card itself is out of danger, but does this mean that my hard drives are deteriorating? Epic Pinball and the ULTRINIT file were located on separate physical hard drives so apparently this problem with file corruption has appeared on both drives simultaneously. The drives are 15-20 years old, but Scandisk showed no errors on either drive.

Reply 5 of 7, by DonutKing

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Are you using the latest drivers (version 4.11)?
Also I've never managed to make ultramix do anything on my 3.4 classic (it won't change the volume at all) so it's very strange that helps....

If you are squeamish, don't prod the beach rubble.

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