megatron-uk wrote:

SquallStrife wrote:

Is there a list of non-Roland cards that have "Intelligent" MPU401 interfaces?

Music Quest did one, and there's the Midiman MM401 too.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

SCC-1 is another good alternative. Roland Sound Canvas and MPU401 in one purchase. Pricey though...

Really only those few? So there aren't any SB compatible cards with intelligent MPU401 interfaces?

gerwin wrote:

In the KT600 BIOS manual it mentions support for Non Maskable interrupts (NMI's) was dropped on the KT600.

@gerwin - As the BIOS is probably the same, or similar, where would I find this setting? Can you instruct me where to go to find this option, and what do I need to set it to?

@Mau1wurf1977 - I have that photo for you I promised:

There was some silly sticker stuck on the sound chip but you can make out underneath the sticker residue that the chip is creative.

fdlchris wrote:

@Mau1wurf1977 - I have that photo for you I promised:

Cute card!

SquallStrife wrote:

Really only those few? So there aren't any SB compatible cards with intelligent MPU401 interfaces?

Looks like it. The Ensoniq cards are already an exception. They work with most games that fail to work with MPU401 interfaces on most other interfaces. While don't support the intelligent mode by implementing every single feature, the do emulate the key feature used in games (some kind of acknowledgment I believe).

But games from Legend Entertainment, seem to only work on a real Roland MPU401 (or compatible) card. Midiman MM401 and others are 100% compatible.

fdlchris wrote:

gerwin wrote:

In the KT600 BIOS manual it mentions support for Non Maskable interrupts (NMI's) was dropped on the KT600.

@gerwin - As the BIOS is probably the same, or similar, where would I find this setting? Can you instruct me where to go to find this option, and what do I need to set it to?

I found it again, what I meant is that the yellow text is present in the Asus A7V333 mainboard manual. The Asus A7V600 has the same text, except that the yellow text is missing there, thus I think they dropped the NMI function on the A7V600. While it is a required function for most Soundblaster emulation methods.

gerwin wrote:

fdlchris wrote:

gerwin wrote:

the yellow text is missing there, thus I think they dropped the NMI function on the A7V600. While it is a required function for most Soundblaster emulation methods.

Probably because they anticipate users moving forward onto newers OSes such as 2k and XP. They didn't expect anyone to be still using Win9x.

I had the same AudioPCI card and tried the same driver sets as mentioned above in pure MS-DOS. I would sometimes get instant crashes and resets of the system when testing the sound in-game. At the best of times, I would hear some obscued sounds generated by the cards MIDI functionality (random elongated chords that sound twisted). Mostly, the card would not be detected nor play sound.

I gave up and got rid of it. I went back to real DOS audio using a legacy system with ISA ports and either my SB16/AWE32 combo, or my AWE64. The real deal is much better than emulated sound via PCI cards.

Agreed. Nothing beats ISA 😀