Prez wrote on 2020-04-10, 14:38:

What is it sir ? Can i have a link ?
Of course feel free to use any ressources you find here.

Sure: UNISOUND - Universal ISA PnP Sound Card Driver for DOS v0.81b

JazeFox wrote on 2020-04-10, 14:49:

Prez wrote on 2020-04-10, 14:38:

What is it sir ? Can i have a link ?
Of course feel free to use any ressources you find here.

Sure: UNISOUND - Universal ISA PnP Sound Card Driver for DOS v0.81b

Wow very nice !!
As the sound blaster emulation we're talking about is integrated into VIA southbridges, does it count for you ?
Anyway, very well done !

ps : If you plan to move into PCI cards one day, i'm your man to do some testing 😉

Best regards
Philippe

Hi Philippe,

I am happy to report that your solution works perfectly with the VIA VT8231 south bridge.

The built-in audio actually is detected as "VIA Technologies Inc. VT82C686A/B AC'97 Audio Codec":

I disabled the SB Legacy mode in the BIOS setup and tried to run VIAUDIO.COM. As expected, it told me to enable it in the BIOS first:

I then ran your VIASBPRO.BAT followed by VIAUDIO.COM, et voila!

ShovelKnight wrote on 2020-04-12, 13:36:

I disabled the SB Legacy mode in the BIOS setup and tried to run VIAUDIO.COM. As expected, it told me to enable it in the BIOS first:

Nothing to contribute to the discussion, but I wanted to express my surprise at seeing someone else using Sunil's DEXE! That's been a staple of my DOS toolkit for about a quarter of a century, and this is the first time I've seen it used out in the wild. I've long considered trying to write a clone of it for DOS and (moreso) NT, but never managed to get around to it.

X3J11 wrote on 2020-04-12, 14:13:

Nothing to contribute to the discussion, but I wanted to express my surprise at seeing someone else using Sunil's DEXE! That's been a staple of my DOS toolkit for about a quarter of a century, and this is the first time I've seen it used out in the wild. I've long considered trying to write a clone of it for DOS and (moreso) NT, but never managed to get around to it.

It's an indispensable tool for me as well. I can't possibly go back to using DIR, it feels so clunky in comparison.

ShovelKnight wrote on 2020-04-12, 13:36:

Hi Philippe, […]
Show full quote

Hi Philippe,

I am happy to report that your solution works perfectly with the VIA VT8231 south bridge.

The built-in audio actually is detected as "VIA Technologies Inc. VT82C686A/B AC'97 Audio Codec":

55ED3043-C37F-42C6-9C93-9151253F86B1.jpeg

I disabled the SB Legacy mode in the BIOS setup and tried to run VIAUDIO.COM. As expected, it told me to enable it in the BIOS first:

429D0691-FCCF-4332-B014-C8414C3FFE7F.jpeg

I then ran your VIASBPRO.BAT followed by VIAUDIO.COM, et voila!

4A668849-D2B7-493C-B712-27D666FA012D.jpeg

This is good to know, some thin clients are missing the bios SB enable/disable option- some versions of the HP T5710 for example.

Great ! I'm really glad to read that. Lets have some more returns and i will do a post dedicated to the software. Effectively, a lot of thin clients such from HP are missing the option in their bios. Now we can use them as very tiny and cheap ms-dos gaming machines. I just bought an hp thin client, the T5710 for $30 with the VT8231 to do some test. Thanks a lot !

Prez wrote on 2020-04-12, 15:37:

Great ! I'm really glad to read that. Lets have some more returns and i will do a post dedicated to the software. Effectively, a lot of thin clients such from HP are missing the option in their bios. Now we can use them as very tiny and cheap ms-dos gaming machines. I just bought an hp thin client, the T5710 for $30 with the VT8231 to do some test. Thanks a lot !

You do have to be careful with which T5710 you buy, I think the 800mhz version has a compatible chipset but the 1.2ghz version uses something different.

Hi !
Yes right !
It is a 800 Mhz version, i checked the photos of the motherboard to be sure its using a VT8231.
Cheap one 😉

https://www.ebay.fr/itm/HP-ThinClient-t5710-8 … 872.m2749.l2649

Best regards
Philippe

Ok, I made a little tool to enable and configure the SBPro feature in the compatible VIA chipsets from the scratch.
In the end I decided not to add it to my Unisound tool because I want to keep Unisound fully XT/8088/8086/286 compatible, and this VIA tool needs 32 bit register access for PCI, Codec...

Thanks to Prez for the valuable info in this thread, and datasheet details.

Here it is:

VIASBCFG - VIA chipset's SBPro configuration tool v0.10a (download link at the end of this post).

- Features:

• VIA chipset detection
• Supported VIA southbridges: VT8231 (tested), VT82C686/A/B (untested)
• Enable / Disable SBPro feature
• Optionally Configure resource settings: SB addr, IRQ, DMA, MPU addr, Joyport addr via BLASTER environment variable. If no BLASTER var is found, default settings are: A220 I5 D1 P330 J200.
• To disable MPU port, set P0, to disable Joyport, set J0. (for boards without DB15 port)
• Set VIA AC97 Codec volume and SB Mixer volume

- Usage: run VIASBCFG /H to get usage help.

- This tool does NOT provide FM/Adlib emulation, so if you need it, you must
run VIAFMTSR after VIASBCFG. (VIAUDIO.COM is not needed).

- This tool may contain bugs. Use at your own risk.

- This tool has been tested successfully with these systems:

• VIA EPIA-V mini ITX board (VT8231 southbridge)
• HP T5500 Thin Client (VT8231 southbridge)
• Unbranded SBC board with VIA C3 533A CPU (VT8231 southbridge)

VIA VT82C686/A/B southbridge not tested!! Please, provide feedback. I own a MSI P3 board with VT82C686A southbridge, but after 15 years in a drawer, it has a lot of bulged caps and it is not working... maybe i'll try to recap it some day and test it.

- If a game or program chrashes trying to play audio, it could be a resource conflict problem. In that case, try to reserve that resources in the BIOS. Change the "Resources controlled by" to "Manual" in BIOS (PnP/PCI section) and change desired IRQ/DMA setting to "Legacy ISA" (some BIOSes) or to "Reserved" (some other BIOSes). If your BIOS does not have that options available, try to configure different IRQ/DMA resources in BLASTER var and re-run VIASBCFG.

----

Download VIASBCFG:

VIASBCFG - VIA SBPro configuration tool for VIA VT8231 & VT82C686/A/B chipsets (v0.12d)

JazeFox wrote on 2020-04-17, 11:59:

Ok, I made a little tool to enable and configure the SBPro feature in the compatible VIA chipsets from the scratch. In the end […]
Show full quote

Ok, I made a little tool to enable and configure the SBPro feature in the compatible VIA chipsets from the scratch.
In the end I decided not to add it to my Unisound tool because I want to keep Unisound fully XT/8088/8086/286 compatible, and this VIA tool needs 32 bit register access for PCI, Codec...

Thanks to Prez for the valuable info in this thread, and datasheet details.

Here it is:

VIASBCFG - VIA chipset's SBPro configuration tool v0.10a (download link at the end of this post).

- Features:

• VIA chipset detection
• Supported VIA southbridges: VT8231 (tested), VT82C686/A/B (untested)
• Enable / Disable SBPro feature
• Optionally Configure resource settings: SB addr, IRQ, DMA, MPU addr, Joyport addr via BLASTER environment variable. If no BLASTER var is found, default settings are: A220 I5 D1 P330 J200.
• To disable MPU port, set P0, to disable Joyport, set J0. (for boards without DB15 port)
• Set VIA AC97 Codec volume and SB Mixer volume

- Usage: run VIASBCFG /H to get usage help.

- This tool does NOT provide FM/Adlib emulation, so if you need it, you must
run VIAFMTSR after VIASBCFG. (VIAUDIO.COM is not needed).

- This tool may contain bugs. Use at your own risk.

- This tool has been tested successfully with these systems:

• VIA EPIA-V mini ITX board (VT8231 southbridge)
• HP T5500 Thin Client (VT8231 southbridge)
• Unbranded SBC board with VIA C3 533A CPU (VT8231 southbridge)

VIA VT82C686/A/B southbridge not tested!! Please, provide feedback. I own a MSI P3 board with VT82C686A southbridge, but after 15 years in a drawer, it has a lot of bulged caps and it is not working... maybe i'll try to recap it some day and test it.

- If a game or program chrashes trying to play audio, it could be a resource conflict problem. In that case, try to reserve that resources in the BIOS. Change the "Resources controlled by" to "Manual" in BIOS (PnP/PCI section) and change desired IRQ/DMA setting to "Legacy ISA" (some BIOSes) or to "Reserved" (some other BIOSes). If your BIOS does not have that options available, try to configure different IRQ/DMA resources in BLASTER var and re-run VIASBCFG.

----

Download VIASBCFG:

https://mega.nz/file/AVVEWCRZ#TqHnHjzgmAdIMUn … 1Y0130yrUD2By_Y

Download original VIAFMTSR:

https://mega.nz/file/xEdwRaSY#oBlQJZeExK7H-uq … 9omL0iwHvDIOvNw

Great !!
Will test it on my system with 686B 😀

Edit :4- CREDITS & HELP
-----------------

Thanks to Prez of VOGONS forums for the useful information, VIA chipset
datasheet, etc... great thread, man!

Haha thanks ! love you man 😉

Best regards
Philippe

JazeFox wrote on 2020-04-17, 11:59:

Ok, I made a little tool to enable and configure the SBPro feature in the compatible VIA chipsets from the scratch. In the end […]
Show full quote

Ok, I made a little tool to enable and configure the SBPro feature in the compatible VIA chipsets from the scratch.
In the end I decided not to add it to my Unisound tool because I want to keep Unisound fully XT/8088/8086/286 compatible, and this VIA tool needs 32 bit register access for PCI, Codec...

Thanks to Prez for the valuable info in this thread, and datasheet details.

Here it is:

VIASBCFG - VIA chipset's SBPro configuration tool v0.10a (download link at the end of this post).

- Features:

• VIA chipset detection
• Supported VIA southbridges: VT8231 (tested), VT82C686/A/B (untested)
• Enable / Disable SBPro feature
• Optionally Configure resource settings: SB addr, IRQ, DMA, MPU addr, Joyport addr via BLASTER environment variable. If no BLASTER var is found, default settings are: A220 I5 D1 P330 J200.
• To disable MPU port, set P0, to disable Joyport, set J0. (for boards without DB15 port)
• Set VIA AC97 Codec volume and SB Mixer volume

- Usage: run VIASBCFG /H to get usage help.

- This tool does NOT provide FM/Adlib emulation, so if you need it, you must
run VIAFMTSR after VIASBCFG. (VIAUDIO.COM is not needed).

- This tool may contain bugs. Use at your own risk.

- This tool has been tested successfully with these systems:

• VIA EPIA-V mini ITX board (VT8231 southbridge)
• HP T5500 Thin Client (VT8231 southbridge)
• Unbranded SBC board with VIA C3 533A CPU (VT8231 southbridge)

VIA VT82C686/A/B southbridge not tested!! Please, provide feedback. I own a MSI P3 board with VT82C686A southbridge, but after 15 years in a drawer, it has a lot of bulged caps and it is not working... maybe i'll try to recap it some day and test it.

- If a game or program chrashes trying to play audio, it could be a resource conflict problem. In that case, try to reserve that resources in the BIOS. Change the "Resources controlled by" to "Manual" in BIOS (PnP/PCI section) and change desired IRQ/DMA setting to "Legacy ISA" (some BIOSes) or to "Reserved" (some other BIOSes). If your BIOS does not have that options available, try to configure different IRQ/DMA resources in BLASTER var and re-run VIASBCFG.

----

Download VIASBCFG:

https://mega.nz/file/AVVEWCRZ#TqHnHjzgmAdIMUn … 1Y0130yrUD2By_Y

Download original VIAFMTSR:

https://mega.nz/file/xEdwRaSY#oBlQJZeExK7H-uq … 9omL0iwHvDIOvNw

It works perfectly on my system with a 82B686B !
Did disabled sb emulation in bios.
Did boot and launch VIASBCFG then VIAFMTSR.
All games are working perfectly 😉
I will receive soon an HP thin client with a VT8231 inside with SB emulation disabled, i will try VIASBCFG on it as soon i received it, but it will ok i know 😉

You can post an entire post uniquely dedicated to VIASBCFG now on Vogons i think !

Best regards
Philippe.

Great w0rk figuring this out and making the init utility Prez & JazeFox. This is going to be SUPER useful on a ton of devices. I can't believe the solution was just a few register writes all this time; makes it even worse that lazy mfgers didn't include the BIOS support. 😜 Anyway, nice job!

I think I have a motherboard here that has the 8231/686b but doesn't have the physical audio jacks soldered onto the board, I might have to give that a try and see what happens.

Prez wrote on 2020-04-10, 14:29:

Hi ! Have you seen my post ? I did test but the S220 i own uses a VT8233, its not compatible with the sb pro emulation. […]
Show full quote

Hi !
Have you seen my post ? I did test but the S220 i own uses a VT8233, its not compatible with the sb pro emulation.

The S300 should have the same problem : https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/Futro/s300/
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)

Best regards
Philippe

That's a shame, I figured it'd be a close enough relative. Welp, back to messing with adding 12V input on the PCI riser...

xjas wrote on 2020-04-17, 23:55:

Great w0rk figuring this out and making the init utility Prez & JazeFox. This is going to be SUPER useful on a ton of devices. I […]
Show full quote

Great w0rk figuring this out and making the init utility Prez & JazeFox. This is going to be SUPER useful on a ton of devices. I can't believe the solution was just a few register writes all this time; makes it even worse that lazy mfgers didn't include the BIOS support. 😜 Anyway, nice job!

I think I have a motherboard here that has the 8231/686b but doesn't have the physical audio jacks soldered onto the board, I might have to give that a try and see what happens.

Prez wrote on 2020-04-10, 14:29:

Hi ! Have you seen my post ? I did test but the S220 i own uses a VT8233, its not compatible with the sb pro emulation. […]
Show full quote

Hi !
Have you seen my post ? I did test but the S220 i own uses a VT8233, its not compatible with the sb pro emulation.

The S300 should have the same problem : https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/Futro/s300/
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)

Best regards
Philippe

That's a shame, I figured it'd be a close enough relative. Welp, back to messing with adding 12V input on the PCI riser...

Yup, if you find a neat solution for the lacking +12V i'm interested.
Remember that if it is for a soundcard, you can find easily some that doesn't require +12V and will work on the Fujistu right away.
I ordered 2 or 3 different models, i'm waiting for them to make some tests.

Best regards
Philippe

Thanks, I'll open a new thread for the tool then, maybe tomorrow. Feedback for differnt systems will be appreciated (including testing of resources re-assignment, address, IRQ, DMA..) and volume levels.

About +12V problem for PCI sound cards in thin clients...
I know it is a bad solution, for most reasons (altough I am not expert in electronics), but I "solved" that in my Futro S220 + ALS4000 PCI sound card bridging +12V line in the card with +5V (First i cut the track going to +12V in the PCI riser, just in case, but I checked the track goes nowhere in the board). +12V in PCI sound cards usually goes to a 78L05 or similar regulator to feed the amp (with 5V in the end), I guess that the goal is to get a different +5V source to minimize noise separating analog part from digital. Anyway I didn't bypass the regulator, but fed it with +5V instead of +12V. In theory those regulators work with minimum ~7V, but if you want a "quick and dirty" fix, it "works", so who cares. The output levels are lower and you'll notice some more noise, but the card will output sound.

It worked with a Yamaha 724 based sound card too.

If you want to do something similar to this, be careful, and check +5V and +12V lines in your system and your sound card, just to be sure the +12V line is not connected in your board, or if you need to do some cuts. You don't want to ruin your hardware, so if you are in doubt, don't do this.

JazeFox wrote on 2020-04-18, 14:20:

Thanks, I'll open a new thread for the tool then, maybe tomorrow. Feedback for differnt systems will be appreciated (including t […]
Show full quote

Thanks, I'll open a new thread for the tool then, maybe tomorrow. Feedback for differnt systems will be appreciated (including testing of resources re-assignment, address, IRQ, DMA..) and volume levels.

About +12V problem for PCI sound cards in thin clients...
I know it is a bad solution, for most reasons (altough I am not expert in electronics), but I "solved" that in my Futro S220 + ALS4000 PCI sound card bridging +12V line in the card with +5V (First i cut the track going to +12V in the PCI riser, just in case, but I checked the track goes nowhere in the board). +12V in PCI sound cards usually goes to a 78L05 or similar regulator to feed the amp (with 5V in the end), I guess that the goal is to get a different +5V source to minimize noise separating analog part from digital. Anyway I didn't bypass the regulator, but fed it with +5V instead of +12V. In theory those regulators work with minimum ~7V, but if you want a "quick and dirty" fix, it "works", so who cares. The output levels are lower and you'll notice some more noise, but the card will output sound.

It worked with a Yamaha 724 based sound card too.

If you want to do something similar to this, be careful, and check +5V and +12V lines in your system and your sound card, just to be sure the +12V line is not connected in your board, or if you need to do some cuts. You don't want to ruin your hardware, so if you are in doubt, don't do this.

Ah maybe its enough for the cards , should be great !
It seems that there is +9V output at the power stage inside the Futro. So you might use also +9V, which is very near of course +12V and be a vector of more success. Maybe i will try this this evening 😀

Can you upload some schematics to show where to put voltage on the +12V pins ?

Best regards
Philippe

I would suggest that the BIOS module could possibly be taken from the EPIA BIOS and inserted in the Thin Client etc. BIOS using CBROM.

xjas wrote on 2020-04-17, 23:55:

Prez wrote on 2020-04-10, 14:29:

Hi ! Have you seen my post ? I did test but the S220 i own uses a VT8233, its not compatible with the sb pro emulation. […]
Show full quote

Hi !
Have you seen my post ? I did test but the S220 i own uses a VT8233, its not compatible with the sb pro emulation.

The S300 should have the same problem : https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/Futro/s300/
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)

Best regards
Philippe

That's a shame, I figured it'd be a close enough relative. Welp, back to messing with adding 12V input on the PCI riser...

Oh well, that precludes any P4 motherboards then. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Fortunately, the Pentium 4 didn't introduce any features that improved DOS gaming performance over its predecessors anyway.

Great work and a very useful tool indeed!

Prez wrote on 2020-04-10, 13:10:

Ok i did it ! It works on my system. You can try on yours ! http://jegeek.net/telechargements/pciset.zip […]
Show full quote

Ok i did it !
It works on my system.
You can try on yours !
http://jegeek.net/telechargements/pciset.zip

Just launch sbpro.bat and voila !

ps : I did code the device id of my VIA AC Audio 97 device of my system, which is a 82C686B. I think it should be the same on other machines, but still we have to check.

Will do some more tests on my Fujitsu for example.

Best regards
Philippe

Thank you Philippe for starting this topic and doing the investigation work into these VIA chips. It is much appreciated!

Action Replay wrote on 2020-06-09, 17:18:

Prez wrote on 2020-04-10, 13:10:

Ok i did it ! It works on my system. You can try on yours ! http://jegeek.net/telechargements/pciset.zip […]
Show full quote

Ok i did it !
It works on my system.
You can try on yours !
http://jegeek.net/telechargements/pciset.zip

Just launch sbpro.bat and voila !

ps : I did code the device id of my VIA AC Audio 97 device of my system, which is a 82C686B. I think it should be the same on other machines, but still we have to check.

Will do some more tests on my Fujitsu for example.

Best regards
Philippe

Thank you Philippe for starting this topic and doing the investigation work into these VIA chips. It is much appreciated!

Thanks a lot ! It is my pleasure to share this litte work 😀

Best regards,
Philippe Dubois