Y1 seems to be at an odd angle.

edit: just editing for some attention. If the crystal is broken, it's likely the chip underneath won't work due to no clock, etc.

Can you not just point a dos game expecting GM via port 330 to it?

Unisound can initialise ess1868 cards by setting the Blaster variable:

Set blaster=a220 i7 D1 T4 p330
Unisound /cX

Where X is the id of the pnp ISA card in your system
The card should be totally software configurable, so adjust the blaster line to whatever resources suitable your system and are free.

Since it doesn't have a waveblaster header I would be willing to bet the synth is connected straight to it.

weedeewee wrote on 2024-04-11, 18:34:

Y1 seems to be at an odd angle.

Is not my card, just a generic picture I found on the net. C5 is also missing, which is not the case with my card, is in much better shape, no odd angled xtals, no missing capacitors, no scratches, and NO GM, no matter if I set MIDI port to 300 or 330, no matter if I enabled Aux2 out; both in DOS and Win98SE, if I select MPU-401 I hear the sound of silence.

megatron-uk wrote on 2024-04-11, 19:32:

Can you not just point a dos game expecting GM via port 330 to it? […]
Show full quote

Can you not just point a dos game expecting GM via port 330 to it?

Unisound can initialise ess1868 cards by setting the Blaster variable:

Set blaster=a220 i7 D1 T4 p330
Unisound /cX

Where X is the id of the pnp ISA card in your system
The card should be totally software configurable, so adjust the blaster line to whatever resources suitable your system and are free.

Since it doesn't have a waveblaster header I would be willing to bet the synth is connected straight to it.

Tried Unisound, it does not work. It just gives me the message Unknown PnP card [SEM3006] found.

fillosaurus wrote on 2024-04-11, 20:02:

megatron-uk wrote on 2024-04-11, 19:32:

Can you not just point a dos game expecting GM via port 330 to it? […]
Show full quote

Can you not just point a dos game expecting GM via port 330 to it?

Unisound can initialise ess1868 cards by setting the Blaster variable:

Set blaster=a220 i7 D1 T4 p330
Unisound /cX

Where X is the id of the pnp ISA card in your system
The card should be totally software configurable, so adjust the blaster line to whatever resources suitable your system and are free.

Since it doesn't have a waveblaster header I would be willing to bet the synth is connected straight to it.

Tried Unisound, it does not work. It just gives me the message Unknown PnP card [SEM3006] found.

How many ISA cards do you have installed?

megatron-uk wrote on 2024-04-11, 21:51:

fillosaurus wrote on 2024-04-11, 20:02:

megatron-uk wrote on 2024-04-11, 19:32:

Can you not just point a dos game expecting GM via port 330 to it? […]
Show full quote

Can you not just point a dos game expecting GM via port 330 to it?

Unisound can initialise ess1868 cards by setting the Blaster variable:

Set blaster=a220 i7 D1 T4 p330
Unisound /cX

Where X is the id of the pnp ISA card in your system
The card should be totally software configurable, so adjust the blaster line to whatever resources suitable your system and are free.

Since it doesn't have a waveblaster header I would be willing to bet the synth is connected straight to it.

Tried Unisound, it does not work. It just gives me the message Unknown PnP card [SEM3006] found.

How many ISA cards do you have installed?

Just that one. More than 20 years ago I managed the art of juggling addresses and irqs with 2 souncards and a SCSI controller.

Bizarre that it doesn't respond to the init and seemingly has an odd identifier.

I thought the 1868 was pretty much a single chip solution, with that one chip basically connected directly to the ISA bus... I have a couple of these, at least one of mine has nothing on the card except the 1868 chip and a few passive components. The other has some amplifier circuitry for a speaker out jack, but that's it. It's a pretty bare bones design.

(I use the one without the amp since I only need line out anyway)

Also, just for a crazy test... Have you checked if there is anything via the cd channel? My 1868 appears to route the waveblaster header audio to the cd channel, rather than aux.

i have a couple cards with the samsung wavetable chip. it's always connected directly to port 330. i'm thinking something is muted in the mixer. is the wavetable detected under windows as a roland mpu-401 device?

This YT video shows a user's system startup commands for the card. Those commands are just the usual kind of initialisation commands, so I don't know whether any help is gained, but at least we see a working example of the same card - doing GM - and some parameters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL0cnLBNIns

/M:0 - MIDI 0 (zero)?

Babasha wrote on 2024-04-12, 09:22:

/M:0 - MIDI 0 (zero)?

M is microphone input. That esscfg line also says to me that wavetable audio is going via the cd channel in the mixer (/c:8). Just like my basic card.

What is the OP initializing the card with and what are the mixer settings?

stanwebber wrote on 2024-04-12, 05:50:

i have a couple cards with the samsung wavetable chip. it's always connected directly to port 330. i'm thinking something is muted in the mixer. is the wavetable detected under windows as a roland mpu-401 device?

Yes, but even in Windows is silent.