Arrived:

looking awesome!

Thank you! 😀

While testing a Vortex 2 today, I came across the dreaded secondary PCI bus warning on an Intel D815EEA (Easton) motherboard. The Vortex 2 was plugged into the very last PCI slot of the board. It could be other 815 (Solano) chipsets experience the same, as well.

I'm just putting this out there in case someone else is able to help given the likely larger install base (I don't have a YMF744).

Yes, we get the same warning due to the PCI-PCI bridge, there is a patch for that.

Tests coming soon.

no need for further comment

Thank you 😀

I have a YMF744 sound card in an external enclosure over a PCIe-to-PCI bridge (made by sintech).

I can do some testing with it if you think it might help.

Yes, please! Could you test its MIDI Out functionality?

I ran the DirectMusic tests through DXdiag on Win98SE and all the MIDI devices listed there played back music properly.
Sound in windows works too.

Something that doesn't work properly is both FM Synth and DOS soundFX in Win98SE.

FM Synth doesn't work at all, says 'Could not Detect FM chip' with Blood setup.
SoundFX will play but are slow and stuttery.

No sound in proper MS-DOS mode at all, but sound in win98SE itself is working at least.

Regarding my PCIe to PCI bridge it's ID is

PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_8240
It's a XIO2001 Texas Instruments PCI Express-to-PCI Bridge

I think DOS sound doesn't work properly because this bridge chip doesn't support 'Subtractive Decode' but I could be wrong.

Ok, you say it played back through all listed MIDI devices, do you have any external MIDI synth connected to the soundcard's gameport? If not, please check that you have external synth selected in the Yamaha control applet, so that you choose that MIDI out and no sound comes out.

Yeah, if I choose external synth I don't get any MIDI since there isn't anything connected to the gameport.

I suspect that the gameport in non functional though despite Win98SE reporting it as OK.
If I boot into XP and look at the gameport it says it cannot find enough resources for the gameport, and assigning resources manually does not help it start. It's probably the lack of 'subtractive decode' but again it's only just a theory at the moment.

Ok, so you don't get any sound but the MIDI player runs just fine, pretending to be playing something, right?

Yeah.

Thanks a lot! That discards one of our hypotheses.

Are you aiming at making this as a PCI or PCIe card? or both?

No, it will be regular PCI only. If anyone is interested in taking on the project for any further development once we release it, please PM me and we'll see.

I see the latest iteration is keyed for 5v only. Is there not going to be a universal 3.3v/5v version, like the earlier prototypes?

Good eye there 😉
Thanks for asking, I actually hoped to get this request.

As the vast majority of users will be using it in 5V slots, we decided to key it as such, as another protection against wrong placement (as main chips, components, and headers may actually inspire such wrong placement).
However we did not change anything related in the schematics, even more, we left the 3.3V key without the metal latches, giving a hint for all of you who have carefully watched our project 😉