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First post, by Prez

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Hi everyone !

I'm the owner of a old thin client using a Via 82T686B south bridge, a very common one for old cpus like Via C3. It has a sound blaster pro compatibility included, that still need to be activated in the bios (disabled by default).
Its running almost fine, sound blaster wave effects are good and FM software emulation is nice, not perfect, but still its okay on main situations. its a nice machine for MS-DOS gaming, and very cheap.

My question was about the last version of this southbridge, the VT8231, which still have this sound blaster pro compatibility according to the official drivers :
https://rebyte.me/fr/via/142904/?operationSystemId=52
(many sources point at this)

But i don't have right now a pc or thin client using this chip, does someone here has one and can test this ? thanks !

Best regards
Philippe.

Last edited by Prez on 2022-06-20, 17:32. Edited 3 times in total.

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Reply 1 of 44, by Prez

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This is confirmed by the datasheet (page 54) :
https://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/v … ETC/VT8231.html

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Reply 4 of 44, by xjas

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I wish there were a way to enable the BIOS SB options on the Fujitsu S220/S300, AFAIK it has the same southbridge. That would solve the soundcard problem. But it has a custom BIOS I've never seen before... Do you have any ideas on that?

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Reply 6 of 44, by Prez

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xjas wrote on 2020-04-10, 10:43:

I wish there were a way to enable the BIOS SB options on the Fujitsu S220/S300, AFAIK it has the same southbridge. That would solve the soundcard problem. But it has a custom BIOS I've never seen before... Do you have any ideas on that?

Hi !
I wish too 😉
Turning this option in the bios just activate, i believe, a flag or more somewhere in the south bridge.
I'm very sure that if we find the way to do it through a very little software, depending on the datasheet provided up there, it will work and activate the sb pro emulation !

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Reply 7 of 44, by Prez

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If we can find what does exactly the bios when activating the "SB enabled" flag, it will be very simple to write a software to do that.
Maybe some disassemble of the bios code wil do 😉

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Reply 8 of 44, by Prez

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Page 40 of the datasheet we can see some registers dedicated to sb pro emulation :
https://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/v … ETC/VT8231.html

Maybe that's the way to look at it for enabling it by sofware.

Found it !
Look at page 111 !
Function Enable
RO 0 Sound Blaster Enable (0 Disable, 1, Enable)

So if we can find someone able to send this command to the southbridge, here you go, SB Pro enabled for everyone on every systems using these southbridges ! That means a lot of cheap thin clients 😉

Best regards

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Reply 9 of 44, by Prez

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Ok i did it !
It works on my system.
You can try on yours !
http://jegeek.net/telechargements/pciset.zip

Just launch sbpro.bat and voila !

ps : I did code the device id of my VIA AC Audio 97 device of my system, which is a 82C686B. I think it should be the same on other machines, but still we have to check.

Will do some more tests on my Fujitsu for example.

Best regards
Philippe

Last edited by Prez on 2020-04-10, 14:40. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 11 of 44, by Prez

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Ok, on the Futro S220, its a VT8233, it won't work !
Remember it only works on VT82C686A/686B/VT8231 southbridges !

Last edited by Prez on 2020-04-10, 13:59. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 12 of 44, by Prez

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ShovelKnight wrote on 2020-04-10, 13:19:

Does it also enable the FM synthesis?

Sure !
Remember you still have to launch :
set BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T2
viaudio.com
viafmtsr.com

Best regards

Last edited by Prez on 2020-04-10, 14:39. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 13 of 44, by Prez

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If you're not sure about the southbridge version you have, open the .zip file i gave and launch "PCI.EXE". Search for the VIA AC'97 Audio device, it will tell you exactly what it is !

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Reply 14 of 44, by Prez

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ShovelKnight wrote on 2020-04-10, 10:36:

I have a VIA Epia 800 motherboard with the VT8231 southbridge and it has legacy SB Pro emulation that can be enabled or disabled in the BIOS setup.

Hi !
Can you test the tool i gave on your chipset please ?
I would like to know if the device id of the VT8231 differs from the one of my 82C686B. It might ! You can use PCI.EXE given in the .zip file for that.
If so, i should write two differents batchs, one for 82C686, one for VT8231.

Thanks for your help.

Best regards,
Philippe

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Reply 15 of 44, by Prez

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xjas wrote on 2020-04-10, 10:43:

I wish there were a way to enable the BIOS SB options on the Fujitsu S220/S300, AFAIK it has the same southbridge. That would solve the soundcard problem. But it has a custom BIOS I've never seen before... Do you have any ideas on that?

Hi !
Have you seen my post ? I did test but the S220 i own uses a VT8233, its not compatible with the sb pro emulation.

The S300 should have the same problem : https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/Futro/s300/
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)

Best regards
Philippe

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Reply 17 of 44, by Prez

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JazeFox wrote on 2020-04-10, 14:33:

Great, I was thinking about adding SBPro compatible-VIA audio chipsets initialization to my DOS tool Unisound. I'check if I can add it with resource configuration options (Base Address/IRQ/DMA...).

What is it sir ? Can i have a link ?
Of course feel free to use any ressources you find here.

Best regards
Philippe

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Reply 18 of 44, by ShovelKnight

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Prez wrote on 2020-04-10, 14:10:
Hi ! Can you test the tool i gave on your chipset please ? I would like to know if the device id of the VT8231 differs from the […]
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Hi !
Can you test the tool i gave on your chipset please ?
I would like to know if the device id of the VT8231 differs from the one of my 82C686B. It might ! You can use PCI.EXE given in the .zip file for that.
If so, i should write two differents batchs, one for 82C686, one for VT8231.

Thanks for your help.

Best regards,
Philippe

Hi Philippe,

I will assemble the system during the weekend and test your tool.

Reply 19 of 44, by Prez

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ShovelKnight wrote on 2020-04-10, 14:39:

Hi Philippe,

I will assemble the system during the weekend and test your tool.

Thanks a lot !

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