The only setting I can find in the BIOS is [Devices and I/O Ports] -> [Video Setup] -> [Video Interrupt] which is already set to disabled.

I'd still like to get it working with IRQ 2 if possible but my bigger problem is the ORPHINIT/ULTRASND issue I think 🙁

I've attached verbose logging from both ORPHINIT and IWINIT (ULTRASND) and my config files...

EDIT: It looks like I can get it to work but I need to run ORPHINIT twice:

1) Run ORPHINIT and it will error about SB DSP.
2) Run IWINIT and it will succeed.
3) Re-run ORPHINIT and it can now successfully reset the DSP.

I got that DSP issue a few times. In my case it was the PnP BIOS assigning resources to the "other" part of the card. IE: IRQ 5 was being assigned to the IW and IRQ 7 went to the Crystal. IRQ 2 isn't available on AT machines, it is cascaded with IRQ 9. Anything set to IRQ2 will appear on IRQ9 as a result.

it does not matter which order you run ORPHEUS.BAT or ULTRASND.BAT
there is the case of the ASUS PVI-486SP3 that needs first ultrasnd and then orphinit in order not to get error messages
and the "unable to reset dsp issue" is found to be resolved in other cases by selecting "PNP OS INSTALLED" to YES in BIOS
bottom line is that these issues are always BIOS and resource allocation issues , having an IBM system does not make things easier 🙁
I doubt you will be able to use IRQ2/9 on this system, anything p1 and above have 2/9 tied to ACPI controller and motherboards that actually let you use this irq are very few in my experience.
In PCMIDI Downloads page: http://pcmidi.eu/files.html there are several patches to liberate games that are hardcoded to use IRQ2 , so using IRQ3 for example is not that bad.

I think that you should mess more with the BIOS settings sofakng until you find some combo that works. I have no systems with that BIOS so I am unsure what to propose 🙁

As a sidenote/rant during xmas time I restored a nice 486/66 ValuePoint tower... I have had a very hard time finding replacement larger HDDs for the system! Something that I have not seen before, the BIOS just rejected 9 out of 10 I have tried - including CF cards and I am not talking about capacity detection but rejection via boot error code if the offending HDD was installed. Even between exact same model HDDs with the same firmware one would work and the other would not. XT-IDE bios extension was also useless in the system as there was no way to shadow it and whereas all HDDs got detected with it the performance was so horrible that the system felt like a 286 when there was HDD activity... I found no solution to this and I settled with a hdd+cf combo in the end that would work with both bios and ez-disk to take care of the capacity limitations. A real SBPRO also gave me issues but after a couple of reboots it started working OK - no idea what that was about.
also forgot to mention, there are 2 IDE channels but you can only have 2x HDD usable in the system.... 🤣

Thanks so much for the help and I understand it's a BIOS issue and not directly related the card (which is amazing!)

It seems strange that if I run ORPHINIT, IWINIT, and then re-run ORPHINIT that everything works. Do you have any theories why that seems to work?

I'm not too concerned about the PCMIDI IRQ issue though. I can use patches or figure something out.

sofakng wrote on 2024-02-04, 13:57:

[...]Do you have any theories why that seems to work? [...]

I think that the extra initialize attempts finally leave the system in a state where the cards can be successfully initialized with their drivers...
I assume you have tried a CMOS clear in case this helps with resources?

I haven't tried that but I will. Thanks again for the help!

Oh, sorry but one more question...

Is it safe to plug the output of the Tandy Nano into the line or microphone input?

The Tandy Nano has a built-in amplifier (LM386) and doesn't have a line output...

sofakng wrote on 2024-02-04, 14:38:

Oh, sorry but one more question...

Is it safe to plug the output of the Tandy Nano into the line or microphone input?

The Tandy Nano has a built-in amplifier (LM386) and doesn't have a line output...

connect it to the line-in and it should be OK

Thanks again 😀

keropi wrote on 2024-02-04, 06:53:

I doubt you will be able to use IRQ2/9 on this system, anything p1 and above have 2/9 tied to ACPI controller and motherboards that actually let you use this irq are very few in my experience.

This is a good point. I just ran into this on a board I'm currently using the Orpheus II with.

Disabling ACPI in the BIOS did let it work on IRQ 2 though. 😁

If I connect the Tandy Nano (amplified output) to the line-input on the Orpheus 2, how should I set the Nano's volume? For example, should I connect a multimeter or oscilloscope and adjust it so it's outputting a certain voltage?

Also, is it possible to use Daemon Tools (or similar) with red book audio through the Orpheus? I've read that Daemon Tools requires a "VxD" audio driver (or something like that?). I've tried using it with the drivers provided on the Orpheus website but it doesn't seem to work.

Didn't see this posted yet: Orpheus II does work with Parity RAM.

I’ve tried four different power supplies (two AT and two ATX) with my Orpheus II but the sound output is still very noisy. This is on an Asus 486SV2GX4.

This card’s abilities are unmatched but I can’t stand the noise. Anything else I can do to decrease it?

Update: same noisy result with a fifth power supply and 8433UUD motherboard.

airs wrote on 2024-02-13, 21:17:

I’ve tried four different power supplies (two AT and two ATX) with my Orpheus II but the sound output is still very noisy. This is on an Asus 486SV2GX4.

This card’s abilities are unmatched but I can’t stand the noise. Anything else I can do to decrease it?

I assume you have checked the audio cable? checked on some other motherboard/system in case this is the one causing the issue?
What kind of noise are you getting anyways? constant hissing? crackles and pops? distortions? constant in all sources, sb and gus?
Orpheus soundcards are not supposed to have noisy output, it's one of the reasons they exist in the first place

keropi wrote on 2024-02-13, 22:07:

I assume you have checked the audio cable? checked on some other motherboard/system in case this is the one causing the issue? […]
Show full quote

airs wrote on 2024-02-13, 21:17:

I’ve tried four different power supplies (two AT and two ATX) with my Orpheus II but the sound output is still very noisy. This is on an Asus 486SV2GX4.

This card’s abilities are unmatched but I can’t stand the noise. Anything else I can do to decrease it?

I assume you have checked the audio cable? checked on some other motherboard/system in case this is the one causing the issue?
What kind of noise are you getting anyways? constant hissing? crackles and pops? distortions? constant in all sources, sb and gus?
Orpheus soundcards are not supposed to have noisy output, it's one of the reasons they exist in the first place

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll try different speakers and a different cable. The noise is a constant hiss/buzz at the dos prompt, which persists in games and programs.

Could also worth it to check if noise is present on spdif output, if you can...

keropi wrote on 2024-02-14, 00:04:

Could also worth it to check if noise is present on spdif output, if you can...

Tried a different cable and speakers, same result. Tried in a P3-500 system, same result. The noise does increase if I move the PS2 mouse around (on all systems).

I can test SPDIF with a Topping DAC but this is getting frustrating given the amount of money spent.

This is certainly not the expected behaviour 🙁

In the past I also had this issue when I was moving the mouse and I would hear it on speakers, the cause was a crappy unshielded mouse cable , you could actually hear the data stream on speakers, noise would stop with unplugged mouse and return when I plugged it...
Might sound weird but just check it out and see if something improves.

Please send me an email to arrange for return of the card in order to check and replace if needed.

keropi wrote on 2024-02-14, 05:48:

This is certainly not the expected behaviour :( […]
Show full quote

This is certainly not the expected behaviour 🙁

In the past I also had this issue when I was moving the mouse and I would hear it on speakers, the cause was a crappy unshielded mouse cable , you could actually hear the data stream on speakers, noise would stop with unplugged mouse and return when I plugged it...
Might sound weird but just check it out and see if something improves.

Please send me an email to arrange for return of the card in order to check and replace if needed.

Thanks Keropi. I put the card back in the system it was originally going to be used in, the 486SV2GX4, but moved it to the lowest ISA slot and the noise is decreased thankfully.

I played some DOOM using SB for FX and it was great. However once I swap to using GUS for FX, DOOM will crash after just a couple of minutes. Will try changing the resources it uses and see if I can get it stable.

Glad to hear the noise issue is resolved
Make sure that the Gus resources are truly free, maybe something wants to use the irq or dma channel, pnp bioses can get in the way....