lowlytech wrote on 2022-10-08, 18:32:

I have a Rev D Pas16 with the sony interface (not used). I have had a bit of trouble getting this card to work in my 486 DX4 100, but finally found my VLB I/O controller to be the culprit for constant freezes and either the native or thunderboard sections to not work reliably.

Seems my last current issue is with impulse tracker. It plays fine, no issues, but when I exit IT, the thunderboard section doesn't work. All adlib and SB is just dead. Wolf3d will show sound blaster detected, but no audio. If I reboot or I have found it I open say jazz jackrabbit which is setup to use the PAS it will then be corrected. Is there some PAS16 reset or initialization program to reset its state so to speak to avoid having to reboot every time I exit impulse tracker?

This is the only other issue I have found with my PAS16 setup. I have tried various versions of IT, but nothing changes. Wondering if it isn't in the driver file for PAS16 maybe?

Was there an init program specifically bundled with the actual standalone Thunderboard ? If so, maybe you could try that .

The PAS16 can be a finicky card and is known to be speed sensitive, i.e. a 486DX-100 might be "too fast" for it. Even if you go off turbo mode (presumably 50Mhz) the system might still be too fast for this card. In my experience the PAS16 performs best up until 486DX-40 and even then you'll run into weird situations where sometimes it won't initialise correctly or something like that.

darry wrote on 2022-10-08, 18:52:

lowlytech wrote on 2022-10-08, 18:32:

I have a Rev D Pas16 with the sony interface (not used). I have had a bit of trouble getting this card to work in my 486 DX4 100, but finally found my VLB I/O controller to be the culprit for constant freezes and either the native or thunderboard sections to not work reliably.

Seems my last current issue is with impulse tracker. It plays fine, no issues, but when I exit IT, the thunderboard section doesn't work. All adlib and SB is just dead. Wolf3d will show sound blaster detected, but no audio. If I reboot or I have found it I open say jazz jackrabbit which is setup to use the PAS it will then be corrected. Is there some PAS16 reset or initialization program to reset its state so to speak to avoid having to reboot every time I exit impulse tracker?

This is the only other issue I have found with my PAS16 setup. I have tried various versions of IT, but nothing changes. Wondering if it isn't in the driver file for PAS16 maybe?

Was there an init program specifically bundled with the actual standalone Thunderboard ? If so, maybe you could try that .

Thats a good idea. I downloaded the thunderboard driver from vogondrivers and there is a tbtest.exe file there. When i run this from a fresh boot it detects the card and plays some thunder sound file. However once i run it after exiting impulse tracker it detects the card, but has no sound when it gets to the thunder sound file. Guess it isn't resetting the right thing.

pan069 wrote on 2022-10-08, 19:21:

The PAS16 can be a finicky card and is known to be speed sensitive, i.e. a 486DX-100 might be "too fast" for it. Even if you go off turbo mode (presumably 50Mhz) the system might still be too fast for this card. In my experience the PAS16 performs best up until 486DX-40 and even then you'll run into weird situations where sometimes it won't initialise correctly or something like that.

Yeah, i have almost given up on this pas16, but the sounds are so much better than my Sb16 2740. The floor noise hiss is night and day with just desktop speakers.

A shame cause i purchased this card specifically for this build and didn't realize these cards were so finicky with faster systems. My next step down 386/40 is already happy with a sb pro 2, so don't really have anything slower to put this in.

Hi there! I was using the PAS16 in the 1990s.
For a while, it ran in a Pentium 75 with Windows 98SE, too.
And I had no problems of any kind. OPL3 music in Media Player worked fine, too.

Could it be that EMM386 is loaded?
When I experimented with a PAS16 a few years ago, I had nothing but trouble if EMM386 was loaded.

Jo22,

I do have emm386 loaded. It seems that impulse tracker needs the extra EMS memory for loading module files.

So far i think we have the card working pretty well. Adlib and SB seems to function as well as PAS16. Only issue is that after exiting impluse tracker, it kills the adlib/thunder sections until you reboot. However I have found that launching jazz jackrabbit (which is setup to use PAS) after exiting impluse tracker will reinitialize whatever goes wrong and does make the adlib/sb work again without a reboot.

lowlytech wrote on 2022-10-11, 18:34:

Jo22,

I do have emm386 loaded. It seems that impulse tracker needs the extra EMS memory for loading module files.

Hi! Then get an EMS board, try EMM286 or try QEMM/386Max, alternatively. 🙂

The PAS16 was made in 286/386 times and was quite advanced for its time.
It's software configurable (pre ISA PnP) and does some BUS listening (PC-Speaker for example). It also supported card IDs for a multi soundcard configuration.

A clean real-mode environment is more friendly for such things, likely.
EMM386 is like a miniature OS in itself; it intercepts interrupts, port addrsses, memory access etc.
At least for testing, I'd skip EMM386.

Btw, port 388h (AdLib, OPL3) is the main control port of the PAS16, too.
Please keep in mind that Impulse Tracker is no pure MOD/PCM tracker - it supports OPL commands in modules, too!
Maybe that's somehow related to the issue. 🙂

Good luck! 🙂🤞