Yeah, I've got one, it's been running fine for years with the 4193 drivers. The only actual difference between a retail TBSC and a Dell version, is that the 10 pin front panel output is enabled on the Dell card, whereas AFAIK it doesn't work on the regular one.

Methinks you might just have dead cards. It seems a little unlikely that both would be bad, but they should work trouble-free, so I don't know another explanation.

The only actual difference between a retail TBSC and a Dell version, is that the 10 pin front panel output is enabled on the Dell card, whereas AFAIK it doesn't work on the regular one.

Thanks for the info, if that's all the difference is, then I guess you are right, the second card is simply bad.

Ah, guess I misread the first time, I missed that one of 'em works.

The Dell drivers don't seem to be any different from the regular ones, other than the fact that they're a slightly older version. I think they're just normal drivers repackaged with a different installer.

And I'm also not positive about the difference in front panel outputs... it seems kinda strange that they'd have it disabled on the retail card but still have the components populated on the board. But, I've never seen any reports of success getting the front panel output to actually work on a retail card, and I know it works fine on my Dell version.

As for the Dell SB Live, yeah, that was a totally different thing from the retail card. I've got a few of those cards too, and they're pretty much useless. They have a cut-down EMU10k chip that lacks any hardware processing ability, and none of the standard drivers will work with it. Avoid those things like the plague.

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

And I'm also not positive about the difference in front panel outputs... it seems kinda strange that they'd have it disabled on the retail card but still have the components populated on the board. But, I've never seen any reports of success getting the front panel output to actually work on a retail card, and I know it works fine on my Dell version.

Interesting. May I ask where one can find a front panel to go with a Santa Cruz Soundcard?

I just stole one out of a Dell case. AFAIK, all the ones used in the grey P4-era cases worked the same.

If you can find or adapt a cable to fit that pin header, you could also make your own front panel thingy. You just need switching jacks where the switches are normally open... most of the ones you commonly find are normally closed.

I'd have to pull out that machine and look to be sure, but I think it was something like: Pin 1 is ground, pin 2 is left channel, pin 3 is the switch, which gets shunted to ground by the jack switch to activate the output, then pin 4 is right channel. I don't know about the microphone pinout, I never hooked that part up.

I see.
Actually I was under the impression that the front panel was something like the one from the Audigy-2 or EWS-64, but if I understand correctly now the Dell Santa Cruz Panel contains only a few basic outputs. No Midi or S/PDIF stuff.
Dell Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Users Guide

It does have another pin header at the front edge of the card, that looks a bit like a floppy connector. I suspect that one was probably intended for some sort of front panel device similar to a Live! Drive or Audigy thingy, but AFAIK such a thing never came to market. I don't know anything about how to make use of that header, or even exactly what functions it serves. Probably SPDIF, audio I/O, maybe MIDI... dunno for sure. There's no documentation on it anywhere.

The one I was talking about in my earlier post, is the little white 10-pin header at the top edge of the card, which contains headphone and microphone outputs. An interesting thing to note about that headphone output is that it's driven by its own op-amp, separate from the back speaker outputs. It seems to be a bit better audio quality using the front panel jack, than hooking up headphones to the rear of the card.

The floppy-style connector on the back edge is labelled SPDIF/I2S on the back of my card.

Yeah, it's labelled like that on mine, too. I've seen vague mention of an optional SPDIF I/O expander board in some documentation on the card, but AFAIK they never actually released such a thing, nor am I convinced that was the only function contained in the header, because even with multiple digital I/O ports, 20-something pins is way too much. My suspicion is that it was more of a general 'future-expansion' type port, and maybe the plans for a full breakout box got axed or something, so the SPDIF board was the only thing they intended to release. That's just my speculation, though, I don't really have any evidence to back that up.

But they never released so much as a pinout for it, so without attacking it with some reverse-engineering ability much greater than what I can do, it's still a mystery as to what exactly can be done with it.

Not that it's really a big deal anyhow, the sound card is good enough for me without any additional accessories, aside from my ghetto-rigged front-panel headphone jack.