Out of curiosity, did your card come with the SB-Link header from the factory, or did you solder one yourself?

I don't remember having any particular issues with the header pinout. It worked normally for me, i.e. Pin 1 on the card went to Pin 1 on the motherboard and so on. Note that I didn't use a dedicated cable, I simply connected the pins using jumper wires.

BTW, the standard SB-Link pinout has been posted here by @gerwin. Relevant pic:

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-02-04, 19:35:

Out of curiosity, did your card come with the SB-Link header from the factory, or did you solder one yourself?

It came with the SB-Link header. Looking at the solder joints, it appears to be factory since they are quite clean and match the others.

I don't remember having any particular issues with the header pinout. It worked normally for me, i.e. Pin 1 on the card went to Pin 1 on the motherboard and so on. Note that I didn't use a dedicated cable, I simply connected the pins using jumper wires.

Do you happen to have a photo of your Solo-1 card? Is it the same make (Terratec)?

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-02-04, 19:42:

Do you happen to have a photo of your Solo-1 card? Is it the same make (Terratec)?

Yup, it's a Terratec card, and the picture is attached to this post.

Note that there are many different versions of these cards, as described in that thread.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-02-04, 19:44:

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-02-04, 19:42:

Do you happen to have a photo of your Solo-1 card? Is it the same make (Terratec)?

Yup, it's a Terratec card, and the picture is attached to this post.

Note that there are many different versions of these cards, as described in that thread.

We have basically the same card then. All I did to mine was add a wavetable header, but that shouldn't impact the SB-Link...

I may have to get my hands on a different Solo-1 for comparison.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-02-04, 21:21:

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-02-04, 19:44:

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-02-04, 19:42:

Do you happen to have a photo of your Solo-1 card? Is it the same make (Terratec)?

Yup, it's a Terratec card, and the picture is attached to this post.

Note that there are many different versions of these cards, as described in that thread.

We have basically the same card then. All I did to mine was add a wavetable header, but that shouldn't impact the SB-Link...

I may have to get my hands on a different Solo-1 for comparison.

Did you change anything else other than just add the wavetable header? There are a few component differences then on Joseph_Joestar card.

R19, C49 and R28

Grem Five wrote on 2024-02-05, 02:20:

Did you change anything else other than just add the wavetable header? There are a few component differences then on Joseph_Joestar card.

R19, C49 and R28

Nope, just added the wavetable header. No other components have been added, removed or otherwise modified.

That's a good spot on the comparison between the two cards, though. I wonder why they are different?

Just doing a quick continuity test from bracket to the pc/pci pins.

My Labway have 2,5 and 6 all showing continuity. (pin 3 is missing like in the standard)

My two MPB-000092 have 3 and 5 showing continuity

Grem Five wrote on 2024-02-05, 03:00:

Just doing a quick continuity test from bracket to the pc/pci pins.

My Labway have 2,5 and 6 all showing continuity. (pin 3 is missing like in the standard)

My two MPB-000092 have 3 and 5 showing continuity

That's so odd they have different pinouts. I wonder if different cards originally included SB-Link cables wired to their specific pin layout?

Have you tried any of these cards with SB-Link?

I have not tried any of the cards via pc/pci.

I would check some of my other brand chipset cards on their pc/pci but it late here now.

Does your motherboard have a 5 or 6 pin pc/pci header? If it has 6 pins I wonder if pin 3 is causing the problem as the standard shows its not needed. (No idea) I see from your last pic in your 1st post it looks like you probably have a ABit AB-BX133-RAID BE6-II and that board only has a 5 pin pc/pci.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-02-04, 21:21:

We have basically the same card then. All I did to mine was add a wavetable header, but that shouldn't impact the SB-Link...

Yes, the model number is the same: TTSOLO1-NL VER1.2. However, there are some very slight differences on a few components.

The markings on the main chip only say ES1938S on my card, while your card has a Solo-1 description above that. Also, the EEPROM chip on my card is ATMEL932 while it's ATMEL934 on yours. This is likely just due to different production time and should have no impact on the card's functionality, but I thought it might be worth mentioning. In case it matters, my card was manufactured in September of 2000, according to the markings and stickers on its back side.

And lastly, if it helps, here's a pic of my Abit ZM6 motherboard. The SB-Link header (slightly to the right of the ZM6 marking) doesn't have Pin 3, just like in @gerwin's schematic. I checked the manual and there is no pinout listed, it just says be careful not to attach the cable the wrong way.

The motherboard I am using is indeed a ABit BE6-II.

The SB-Link header is missing pin 3. And I confirmed with a multimeter that pins 2 and 5 are ground.

This matches the Yamaha card I tested originally and which works.

I just checked the continuity of the SB-Link header on my Solo-1 vs. the metal bracket. As with your card, Pin 3 and Pin 5 are grounded, while Pin 2 is not.

I haven't tested the pins on the SB-Link header of my Abit ZM6, but I imagine it's the same as on your BE6. Yet somehow, the connection works on my board i.e. the system doesn't short out when I hook up the Solo-1. As mentioned earlier, I simply used jumper wires to connect Pin 1 on the card to Pin 1 on the motherboard and so on. No clue what's going on there.

P.S.

I do remember having to set the "Passive Release" option in the BIOS to "Enabled" for SB-Link to work, but that was the case with the YMF744 as well. It didn't short out even with that setting disabled, just froze the system in some games.

Ok, I now have the Solo-1 back in my ZM6 motherboard. Connected all pins as before via jumper wires and it still works fine.

For testing purposes, I powered down the computer and disconnected Pin 2 entirely (by removing that particular jumper wire). Powered it back on and guess what, the card still works correctly in PC-PCI mode. I ran Prehistorik and digital sound worked fine, which confirms that SB-Link is active.

Thanks for checking and confirming things with your Solo-1 card.

I did some continuity testing on my Solo-1. Pins 1, 4 and 6 all directly connect to the ES1938S chip. Pin 2 doesn't appear connected to anything.

At this point I'm going to try a different motherboard and cable. If I can at least narrow it down to either an issue with the card or the motherboard (or combination thereof), I'll have a better idea of what to test next.