I've only ever had a couple of dead graphics cards; a GeForce 2 that went out in service back in the day, and a FX5500 that I got for free and had long since fried itself, and had quite a lot of artifacting (a shame - it was a low-profile card and would've been great for my Dell Optiplex GX270). Those cards did need some TLC, but some of them are so rare that I think people would be happy to even have a dead one.

Here is a video of the FX5500.

vetz wrote:

VooDooMan wrote:

F*CK!!!! Now you are telling me? I have already recycled them yesterday... How much did I lost? I thought that only Voodoo ca […]
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F*CK!!!! Now you are telling me?
I have already recycled them yesterday...
How much did I lost? I thought that only Voodoo cards have some value nowadays...
I feel so ashamed 🙁 At least I have managed to make some better pictures...

How much could it be worth?

Now we're telling you? You got responses 20 minutes after posting that you had very valuable cards. You probably threw away atleast 300 dollars in total.

Exactly, I feel like this guy is trolling. He rescued the cards out of a dumpster, asked about their value here and without even waiting for replies he went ahead and recycled them. 😕 Not to mention most (if not all) of the cards turned out to be valuable.

Guillemot MaxiSound 64 Home Studio Pro:

Turtle Beach Multisound Monterey:

Logitech SoundMan Wave:

@ bristlehog: Wow 😲 that is some rare sound hardware you picked up especially in the original box. Very nice finds!

Is the soundman wave essentially a SB16 equivalent with General MIDI? I could have sworn that I've seen some games actually support the soundman directly...I cannot remember though.

obobskivich wrote:

nVidia actually produced a video to poke some fun at it too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOVjZqC1AE4

Wow never seen that video, or don't remember it, but probably the later, haha.
And really. they actually attached a 5800 ultra to a leafblower and a blow dryer in that video, just awesome 🤣.

retrofanatic wrote:

Is the soundman wave essentially a SB16 equivalent with General MIDI? I could have sworn that I've seen some games actually support the soundman directly...I cannot remember though.

Not exactly. The 'direct soundman support' you have seen most probably relates to Logitech SoundMan 16, which is basically a MediaVision Pro AudioSpectrum 16 with Logitech logo. Now, SoundMan Wave is based upon later MediaVision Jazz16 chipset and is incompatible with SoundMan 16, but SB Pro compatible. Also, it carries an OPL4 GM synthesizer onboard. Not sure if it works in DOS, didn't test the card yet.

bristlehog wrote:

retrofanatic wrote:

Is the soundman wave essentially a SB16 equivalent with General MIDI? I could have sworn that I've seen some games actually support the soundman directly...I cannot remember though.

Not exactly. The 'direct soundman support' you have seen most probably relates to Logitech SoundMan 16, which is basically a MediaVision Pro AudioSpectrum 16 with Logitech logo. Now, SoundMan Wave is based upon later MediaVision Jazz16 chipset and is incompatible with SoundMan 16, but SB Pro compatible. Also, it carries an OPL4 GM synthesizer onboard. Not sure if it works in DOS, didn't test the card yet.

You're right...The Logitech SoundMan 16 is what I was thinking about in terms of 'direct soundman support'.

thanks for the info...I was always interested in the Logitech sound cards, but they always are a bit too pricey for me, but I do have a couple Jazz16 cards and I think a Pro AudioSpectrum as well, so I guess I kind of do own a couple logitech cards 🤣 .

As you know I'm sure...if the card has a yamaha OPL4 chip and of course if it has yamaha OPL3 chip, it probably will most likely work in DOS with no drivers.

My SW-20PC that has OPL4 onboard needs a driver loaded in DOS in order to work... not sure if it's a driver specific to the card, when loaded it just says Yamaha OPL-4 driver blah blah without mentioning the sw-20pc

retrofanatic wrote:

As you know I'm sure...if the card has a yamaha OPL4 chip and of course if it has yamaha OPL3 chip, it probably will most likely work in DOS with no drivers.

Similar to Creative's EMU8000, the OPL4 has no native MPU interface, hence additional translation is needed to make the card compatible with General MIDI supporting software. Some cards handle this at the hardware level (AudioTrix Pro), while others do it in software, requiring either a manufacturer-provided DOS driver, or native software support. I don't own one, but I suspect the Soundman Wave falls under the hardware category.

It's too bad the issue of FM whine, common to the PAS-16 and variants, was carried over into its design... 😵

@keropi and Cloudschatze: That's too bad, I hate TSR's...I have this chip on a small daughterboard thingy, connected to my 440LX motherboard for onboard sound (I have posted elsewhere previously) and I do not require DOS drivers....this is the only experience I've had with OPL-4 (as far as I can remember), so that's why I thought no one would need drivers if you have a yamaha OPL4 chip...but now I know that's not always true.

Bought a Toshiba 4X CD-ROM for $5 (excluding shipping) on Amazon today. I hope it arrives in good shape and I will then test it in my 80286.

Cloudschatze wrote:

It's too bad the issue of FM whine, common to the PAS-16 and variants, was carried over into its design... 😵

FM whine? I heard no whine from my two PAS cards and two Pro Audio Studio cards, while I have listened to quite a number of MIDI files over them while testing PX player. What does that whine sound like?

bristlehog wrote:

Cloudschatze wrote:

It's too bad the issue of FM whine, common to the PAS-16 and variants, was carried over into its design... 😵

FM whine? I heard no whine from my two PAS cards and two Pro Audio Studio cards, while I have listened to quite a number of MIDI files over them while testing PX player. What does that whine sound like?

My 8-bit PAS cards don't exhibit the problem. It's definitely noticeable in the PAS-16 cards that I've used though, but is (mostly) mitigated through volume management, and by getting the FM output off of the recording bus.

Keyboard Magazine described the whine as follows, in their 10/1994 review of Logitech Soundman Wave:

"This card could serve as a pretty good pitch pipe - it constantly whines a sharp G4....We were able to get the whine to go away under specific conditions, but it always came back during the course of normal use....We're told, naturally, that Logitech is aware of the problem, and that it's being fixed."

Bought this boxed Yamaha MU80:

I paid 55 dollars for it. I know the Hello Music! software is for Mac, but the MU80 should work nomatter what.

I hope this sounds better than the NEC XR385?

vetz wrote:

Bought this boxed Yamaha MU80:
I hope this sounds better than the NEC XR385?

Ha-ha, no.
"In 1994, Yamaha released the first XG-based product: Yamaha MU80 Tone Generator. In 1995, Yamaha released the first XG-based product for PC users, the DB50XG daughterboard." (q) wiki.
So, basically, i'ts the same module in different package.

easy_john wrote:

Ha-ha, no. "In 1994, Yamaha released the first XG-based product: Yamaha MU80 Tone Generator. In 1995, Yamaha released the first […]
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vetz wrote:

Bought this boxed Yamaha MU80:
I hope this sounds better than the NEC XR385?

Ha-ha, no.
"In 1994, Yamaha released the first XG-based product: Yamaha MU80 Tone Generator. In 1995, Yamaha released the first XG-based product for PC users, the DB50XG daughterboard." (q) wiki.
So, basically, i'ts the same module in different package.

I always thought the DB50XG was the same as the MU10 module, which has less Parts, Polyphony and Tones than the MU80.

In 1996, Yamaha released MU10 external module, basically a DB50XG in a case and later the SW60XG ISA PC card.

Ok, may be i'm wrong. I'm still don't have own mu80, but all samples from dos games sound identical as db50xg.

I thought the same.. I just lost on an MU80 auction last week.. 😜

DB50-XG is the same as MU-10 (actually the DB-60XG AFAIK since it has the extra analogue inputs like the MU-10)
The MU-80 is more advanced, has double the parts/polyphony and 53 more samples... in terms of GM gaming it doesn't matter.
Nice boxed unit vetz and with a great price! kudos!

Got the floppy drive for my Atari STFm, but it doesn't seem to want to go; I can't see anything other than a white screen still, and the floppy drive isn't being accessed. Now, I'm yet to test the floppy drive myself, but I'm wondering if this capacitor (indicated by the red ring) on the power supply could be causing the problem, as it appears to be domed: