ESS PCI Sound Cards? \ VOGONS

ESS PCI Sound Cards?

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First post, by Jorpho

Posted on 2010-07-03, 01:06

Jorpho Offline

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I really ought to start liquidating some of my old PC "junk", but actually I'm pretty dependent on an ancient SB Live! at the moment, so I could stand to get an improvement there.

So I stumbled upon this ancient little card today and scooped it up. It seems to be an ESS XG A31-H30, and it's PCI. It's also clearly quite old, as the audio connectors are all black.

Can someone tell me about this card? What sort of drivers or DOS compatibility does it have?

Reply 1 of 7, by gerwin

Posted on 2010-07-03, 11:45

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"ESS XG A31-H30" does not ring any bell with me or with google. Maybe you could post a picture of the card, or just get a vortex-2 PCI or something, or go ISA.

--> ISA Soundcard Overview // Doom MBF 2.04 // SetMul

Reply 2 of 7, by Jorpho

Posted on 2010-07-03, 14:18

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ISA is not an option as the computer I have in mind has not ISA slots.

The FCC ID is LWHA311H30. The most prominent chip is labelled "ESS Maestro-2", which I guess might make it the same as Re: ESS (not Ensoniq) Maestro-2 Compatibility .

Reply 3 of 7, by swaaye

Posted on 2010-07-03, 16:07

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There is a DOS driver for Maestro 2 but I had serious problems with the few games I tried. I had a notebook with the chip. Some games would cause very loud screeching.

SBLive/AudioPCI or Vortex are better IMO.

Reply 4 of 7, by ux-3

Posted on 2010-07-03, 18:19

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If you look for FM with PCI, the ESS Solo-1 sounds pretty authentic. There is a thread here somewhere about the pros and woes of that chip.

Retro PC warning: The things you own end up owning you.

Reply 5 of 7, by tikbalang

Posted on 2010-07-04, 11:18

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i may have dos drivers for that, although i've not heard of "ess xg" card.

ESS PCI DOS Drivers
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Reply 6 of 7, by Jorpho

Posted on 2010-07-06, 04:12

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What about XP drivers?

Reply 7 of 7, by tikbalang

Posted on 2010-07-06, 11:12

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try looking at http://esstech.com/ using the wayback machine.

ESS PCI DOS Drivers
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