Laptop ESS Maestro 3i - DOS drivers \ VOGONS

Laptop ESS Maestro 3i - DOS drivers

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First post, by xjas

Posted on 2016-11-04, 20:06

xjas Offline

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Joined: 2015-09-07, 02:29

There's a Dell Latitude C600 for sale on a local site. The specs look useful - P3/750, ATI Rage Mobility, PC100 RAM, nice big display. It has the ESS Maestro 3i PCI audio chipset.

Supposedly this chipset has SB/SB Pro compatibility & DOS drivers. Does anyone have one? How well do they work?

I'm assuming it's not easy, native driver-free compatibility like the old ISA ESS chipsets, but if it works well enough to run Impulse Tracker & some games I'd happily pick this thing up.

twitch.tv/oldskooljay - playing the obscure, forgotten & weird - most Tuesdays & Thursdays @ 6:30 PM PDT. Bonus streams elsewhen!

Reply 1 of 1, by NJRoadfan

Posted on 2016-11-05, 05:30

NJRoadfan Offline

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I have a Inspiron 4000 that uses the same motherboard. The Maestro 3 is pretty pathetic in the MIDI department in DOS. There is no FM emulation, it simulates it using the wavetable synth which sounds horrible. There is no MPU-401 emulation to use the wavetable directly either. On a positive note, the emulation does work with the Sound Blaster Pro drivers under Windows 3.1x. Impulse Tracker will likely work. Protected mode games like TFX and Sim City 2000 appear to work OK as well in terms of digital audio.

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