First post, by mxmxmx2
Hello,
I'm trying to get a Soundblaster 16 with a Vibra16S chip and an OPL3 (CT-2800, ISA non-PnP) to work properly in the ISA slot of a non-MSDOS-based system. (In fact, it's not even x86 architecture.)
Anyway, it works fine so far; I can configure interrupt, DMA channels, MPU port number, set the mixer, communicate with the DSP, read the MPU port etc. Basically everything works, except for the FM synthesis via the OPL3 chip. This chip doesn't react at all, neither on ports 0x388-0x389 nor on 0x220-0x221. I probed its chip select line (/CS) that goes from the Vibra16S to the OPL3 with an oscilloscope and I can see that /CS is never asserted by the Vibra16S when I access the IO ports for the OPL3. This of course explains why FM synthesis doesn't work.
Thus, I guess that the OPL3 synthesis needs to be activated somehow inside the Vibra16S to become usable. However, obviously I cannot simply load Creative's DOS drivers.
Hence, I have a question for you: Can anyone confirm that on cards with a Vibra16S FM synthesis won't work unless some sort of driver or initialization program is executed? If I know which program this is, I can try to disassemble it to find the proper sequence to activate the OPL3 on my card.
Thanks in advance!