First post, by retro games 100
- Rank
- l33t
I'm testing a MV PAS16 studio sound card. If I run the install.exe program inside the pastudio folder, most of the time this hardware set up utility will fail to allocate resources to the card. However, occassionally it will succeed. Once it has succeeded, if I then reboot the PC and test a game, the sound effects will be silent. Occassionally, the sound effects can be heard, but then they unexpectedly go silent during gameplay.
If I rerun the install.exe set up routine again, the same behaviour as mentioned above will recur - that is, most of the time this set up routine will fail to allocate resources to the card, but occassionally it will succeed. Etc, etc.
I am using a 386 mobo to test this card. Also, I have a second working back up MV PAS16 studio card. If I test this back up card, I don't experience the problems that I describe above. Any ideas please people?
Edit: I seem to be able to narrow down the problem to this testing pattern: if I get the card's resources working correctly, and then switch off the machine, and then switch the machine back on again, the card's resources are not allocated correctly. So, when there is no power to the machine, that is the time that the card's resources are mysteriously "reset / lost".
Edit 2: I've done some more testing. This is an odd problem. It's as if the card works if it has had a chance to "warm up" a bit. If you try to use it "cold", then it will behave oddly, and the sound effects will be silent, and the card cannot be succesfully initialised. However, if the machine has been on for a short period of time, the card appears to work. The card has 4 capacitors, but they all look in good condition.
Edit 3: The mystery deepens. I tried the working PAS16 again, and it behaves the same way as the "broken" PAS16. I think something is wrong with the PSU, more specifically, the ATX-to-AT PSU adapter gadget. I notice that it sometimes forces down some of the coloured wire metal connector things, which means that they don't make contact with the PSU. I'll go an look for an ATX-to-AT PSU adapter gadget replacement in my big box of junk...