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Wondering about Windows 9x, NT 4.0 and USB sound cards...

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First post, by laverio

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Hello!
I am having a lot of fun lately with Windows 9x and NT 4.0 (and 5.0 betas) on my little EeePC 1000H, which has almost no driver support for these OSes.
I said almost because there's an NDIS 2 driver that makes ethernet work in 9x, and because USB works on NT 4.0 with the Inside Out Networks driver, and maybe works on Windows 95 OSR2.1 too since the OS freezes when I plug an USB mouse, the same one which worked on NT 4.0.

Back on topic after this little but necessary introduction: I would like to get an USB sound card, and even though I've read a lot about this lately I still have lots of questions, so here goes:
- before buying, do I have to look for some specific feature or requirement? Will every USB sound card work or not?
- which OSes officially support USB sound cards? I think 98 SE does for sure, but what about the original edition or Windows 95? Has anyone ever tried?
- continuing from the previous point, what about NT 4.0?

Thanks in advance to everyone who will read this and provide an answer.

Reply 1 of 2, by Jo22

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Hi, I think I did start to use USB beginning with Windows 98SE.
My first use was a small webcam (Trust?), a low-res digital camera/webcam in a calculator and an 64MB USB pen drive.
Printers, modems, joysticks and scanners were all being used via legacy ports.
Even when scanners and printers started to offer USB, the parallel port seemed more reliable.
Mice were connected to either serial or PS/2 ports. Keyboards used DIN or PS/2 ports (mini DIN).

USB and Windows 95..
At home we had Windows 95 RTM in a box, no OEM versions.
So no FAT32 or USB support. Windows 95 used same traditional hardware as DOS/Windows 3.1x did.

While our Pentium PCs already had "useless ports", we didn't know what to do with them in the 90s.
They were buggy still, also. USB 1.0 specs.

It was comparable situation as with PCMCIA on notebooks, I think.
Many 486/Pentium notebooks of the 90s had PCMCIA slots, but only a few knew what to do with it.
The slots were mostly left unused, except if a modem or ISDN card was needed.

Then users did try to figure out to use that strange, obscure expansion slot.
They had to install PCMCIA manager software and figure out how to "unmount" those cards properly.

Speaking under correction, though.
Other users surely have different opinions or memories.
At home, we didn't use OEM software in the 90s, simply, I believe.
I can't recall ever seeing an "Windows 95 with USB support" CD-ROM in the house, I mean.

Typos fixed.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 2 of 2, by KT7AGuy

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Win95B OSR2 has USB support, but you're better off running Win98SE.

The Audigy 2 NX is the only USB sound card I know of that has drivers for Win98SE. I don't know of anything that will work with 95, 98, or NT4. But, why are you bothering at all? Do you lack drivers for the onboard sound?

If you have the onboard sound working under Win9x, then I don't see a reason to use a USB sound card. The onboard card supports EAX 1 and 2. Any game that supports EAX 3 will probably not run on the Eee 1000H anyway.

Is there any chance you can link to drivers and post a write-up of how to get Win9x working on your netbook? I own a 1000HA which is the same as yours except that it lacks bluetooth. I've always been curious if it was possible to get Win9x working on it.

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