Track down old soundcard and CD-ROM drive combo I had \ VOGONS

Track down old soundcard and CD-ROM drive combo I had

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First post, by LieboOSBA

Posted on 2023-03-10, 22:08

LieboOSBA Offline

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In the late 90s, I acquired a 486 desktop PC. It was a generic case, PC-CHIPS or similar motherboard. Some 80 Mhz CPU. 8MB of RAM.

Importantly, it had in it an ISA sound card and it was paired with a CD-ROM drive. The Sound card and the CD-ROM were the same brand. The CD-ROM drive was NOT IDE as far as I could tell however it did use a standard IDE cable to connect the card to the CD drive.

It was not made by any of the "big brands" as far as I can remember. Such as it was NOT Creative, Philips, Sony etc.

There was a DOS compatible CD-ROM driver that I had to inject into a Windows 95 boot floppy so I could install Windows from CD. The sound card had a Windows 95 driver.

I could never get Adlib or SoundBlaster support working in DOS games such as Monkey Island 2 - so I resorted to playing DOS games using PC speaker only.

I'm really trying to rack my brain trying to remember the make of the soundcard and CD-ROM drive with a view to trying to find the same ones on eBay etc.

The CD-ROM drive face plate may have been a slightly more "olive" colour than "beige" as was common?

So in summary:

1. It was not Creative/Mitsumi
2. It did not work with the OAK CD-ROM driver that came with Windows 98 boot floppy
3. It didn't seem to be SoundBlaster compatible, at least as far as my efforts to get sound out of MI2 was concerned.
4. It only had a single ribbon cable support on the card.
5. It was a "full height" card in a regular shape (not slanted, not have a breakout for the MIDI/GamePort

Can anyone help me identify what the card and CD drive may be please?

LBX Computers

Reply 1 of 6, by Babasha

Posted on 2023-03-10, 22:25

Babasha Offline

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Something like ESS688 ISA Edisson Gold 16 soundcard + Funai 2x CDROM with MKE Panasonic interface. Or something similar.

Need help? Begin with photo and model of your hardware 😉

Reply 2 of 6, by LieboOSBA

Posted on 2023-03-10, 22:35

LieboOSBA Offline

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Babasha wrote on 2023-03-10, 22:25:

Something like ESS688 ISA Edisson Gold 16 soundcard + Funai 2x CDROM with MKE Panasonic interface. Or something similar.

No, the CD-DRIVE and the sound card were the same brand. The card you listed also has multiple CD-ROM ports where the card I am trying to find only had one.

I think this card from Orchid is similar, uses an "AT-BUS CD-ROM" interface - https://dosdays.co.uk/media/orchid/sndprpro.pdf - but I cannot find if this was bundled with a CD-ROM drive also branded Orchid - plus I don't recall there ever being a SCSI interface on the card too. But the back plate seems right with the volume wheel etc.

LBX Computers

Reply 3 of 6, by Pierre32

Posted on 2023-03-10, 22:46

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Given the countless number of third parties who pumped out their own branded cards based on ESS, Yamaha, Opti, Crystal, Aztec chips etc, who knows how many bundles are now lost to history. As you have already found, mostly the Creative stuff has been recorded.

Struggling to think of anything that wouldn't have had some Adlib/SB functionality, so that may have been just a driver issue at your end. Gravis (Ultrasound) and MediaVision (Pro Audio Spectrum) might have presented particular challenges in this regard. Or perhaps it was a pro sound card? https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advice/pc- … rs-guide-part-1

Reply 4 of 6, by LieboOSBA

Posted on 2023-03-10, 22:50

LieboOSBA Offline

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No it was not a professional sound card. Didn't have SIMM slots for memory etc. Just a basic card really. It worked fine in Windows 95 and in DOS using its own driver test tools but could never get DOS games working with it, mainly MI2 I played on it on DOS.

It is possibly lost to time as you say.

I managed to get the drivers downloaded from the internet for it back in around 1997/8 so I could possibly recognise the name/brand if I a) could remember the old driver sites I used to use (the one I am thinking of had the good old "Microshaft Winblows" banner graphics and the likes) and b) that site is archived on the way back machine.

One of the sites I used to use back in the day was driversguide when the username and password everyone needed was "drivers" and "all" but that site, that old, is not working on the WBM.

LBX Computers