VOGONS


First post, by Mau1wurf1977

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Hey guys I got two of these ESS AudioDrive ES1868F cards and was playing around with them last night.

Firstly they work really well. The seem to be SB Pro compatible.

I do have a driver disk which includes CWDINIT.EXE to initialise the card.

However I found that the card works even without running this application.

Anway the card has a Gameport / Midi port. When I run CWDINIT.EXE I get confirmation about the resources. It's the ususal 220 / 5 / 1 for Soundblaster cards but it doesn't say anything about 330 or game / midiport.

So I got my joystick to midi cable, hooked up a Roland module, started a game and the Roland plays fine.

So how do I disable the midi port (I would like to use a Roland MPU401 card and not have a conflict).

There are no jumpers on this card whatsoever.

I started CWDINIT.EXE with the /? option and I do get a heap of settings but nothing to disable the Gameport / Midi port.

Maybe my drivers disc is missing a configuration utility.

Last edited by Mau1wurf1977 on 2010-11-23, 20:49. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 9, by Mau1wurf1977

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Ok I'm getting somewhere...

There is a CWDAUDIO.INI file which shows:

[PNP] WssIO=534 WssInt=5 WssDmaPlay=1 WssDmaCapture=0 SbIO=220 OplIO=388 OplInt=Disabled […]
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[PNP]
WssIO=534
WssInt=5
WssDmaPlay=1
WssDmaCapture=0
SbIO=220
OplIO=388
OplInt=Disabled

GameIO=200

4232IO=538
4232Int=Disabled

MPU401IO=330
MPU401Int=9

CDIO=Disabled
CDInt=Disabled
CDDma=Disabled

I changed 220 to 240 and it worked. It seems that whatever is in this file, gets written into the PnP rom when you launch CWDINIT.

Being a ini file, I guess the SETUP.EXE that's on this disk is meant to be run from W95 and maybe there you can disable the gameport / midiport.

Reply 2 of 9, by tikbalang

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CWD* looks like a crystal-based sound card to me. have a look at my ESS ISA drivers.

Attachments

  • Filename
    ESSISA.zip
    File size
    105.28 KiB
    Downloads
    1604 downloads
    File comment
    esstech DOS drivers for isa soundcards
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

ESS PCI DOS Drivers
_________________

Reply 3 of 9, by Mau1wurf1977

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Thanks! I will try them right away...

Yes it's Crystal which was part of Cirrus Logic I believe.

My website with reviews, demos, drivers, tutorials and more...
My YouTube channel

Reply 4 of 9, by Mau1wurf1977

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Well that utility didn't work, but I managed to just move the MPU401 port to another address, so it won't conflict with my Roland MPU401 compatible card. All good!

My website with reviews, demos, drivers, tutorials and more...
My YouTube channel

Reply 5 of 9, by tikbalang

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i am surprised esstech made crystal based soundcards. there is no mention of it in their old esstech.com website (use wayback).

attached is a limited but handy crystal driver. i hope this helps.

Attachments

  • Filename
    CRYSTAL.ZIP
    File size
    100.87 KiB
    Downloads
    676 downloads
    File comment
    crystal cs423x DOS drivers.
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

ESS PCI DOS Drivers
_________________

Reply 6 of 9, by Mau1wurf1977

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Here is the drivers that came with my card!

And a pic of the card (I have 2, one is green, one is yellowish but otherwise they are identical).

bytw6twbmkkgrhquokisewr.jpg

The cards are good, but make a really loud pop noise when you reboot or at the start of some games. I head headphones on and it made my ears ring...

But for testing they are great as they don't need any drivers or initialization to get going.

Attachments

  • Filename
    ESS.zip
    File size
    464.8 KiB
    Downloads
    1200 downloads
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 7 of 9, by Jo22

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Did you try "MPU401IO=disabled" or "MPU401IO=" (no statement) ?
No idea if this works, but maybe it's worth a try. You could also to try to remove both lines.

"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

//My video channel//

Reply 9 of 9, by Stiletto

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badmojo wrote:

Hmm about 6 years too late there Jo22

Some guy in the recent ES1898 thread linked to it...

"I see a little silhouette-o of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you
do the Fandango!" - Queen

Stiletto