First post, by Malik
- Rank
- l33t
The obvious factor that inhibits the LAPC-I playback completely is the absence of the -5v rail in the PSU, irrespective of the motherboards.
I've also noticed a few oddities :
1.) DFI P2XBL Slot 1 Motherboard (440BX) with PIII 450MHz 100MHz FSB with PC-100 128MB RAM :
Most of the games that I have, played back the MT-32 music without any problems, EXCEPT for one - Companions of Xanth - No music at all. The FM sounds work.
2.) ASUS P3B-F Slot 1 Motherboard (440BX) with the same components as above : No problems in any games, including Companions of Xanth.
3.) DFI CA61 Socket 370 motherboard (VIA chipset) with intel Coppermine 1GHz processor with all other similar components: No problem using any games.
I have no idea what the factor was which prevented the Companions of Xanth's MT-32 music being played in the DFI P2XBL motherboard with all the same components used.
4.) Gigabyte 586TX2 motherboard (Socket 7, intel TX chipset -Titanium II, tried both with my P133-S and a P166 MMX) : Games which upload samples to the LAPC-I - example GODS, Heart of China - are unable to play the uploaded synths/samples properly. It's like using the MT-32 emulation using AWEUTIL in an SB AWE card - wrong sounds.
Why? What is the matter here?
5.) My trusty Unico VE-501 Pentium Motherboard (Socket 5 with intel P133 - P54C, 128MB EDO RAM, SiS 5501-5502-5503 Chipset): Works perfectly. No problems whatsoever. [In addition, not related to this topic, all the Sierra games are able to detect the Sound Blaster (AWE32 in my case) hardware without using any speed bug patches, at stock speed.]
Just baffled about the two cases : one - Inability of Companions of Xanth to play the music in the P2BXL motherboard, and two - sample upload and playback problems in those games that do this, using the Gigabyte 586TX2 motherboard.
I'm awaiting for another Socket 7 Gigabyte 586TX3 (I think this uses the SiS chipset) to arrive to test the LAPC-I on it. I also want to check the Sierra games with the P166 MMX cpu for the SB hardware detection without patches at stock speed with this board.
Though my trials with the chipsets and the LAPC-I are severely limited, I've been experiencing better (more reliable) LAPC-I performance on SiS and VIA chipsets, rather than intel's.
Any enlightening facts regarding the 2 discrepancies listed herein will be useful.